FRUMPY

Sounding like a psychedelic reincarnation of blues legend Bessie Smith, the blazing vocal power of Inga Rumpf sets the stage for this 1971 blues / rock blowout. Grooving through 4 intense and rather lengthy compositions that meld the fire and passion of the blues with traits of the UK progressive rock movement, Frumpy' s second LP, simply titled 2, is arguably their finest.

Somewhat detatched from the freaky sounds that were materializing in the communes and basement bars that were associated with the underground Krautrock scene in their homeland of West Germany in the early seventies there is a marked American R&B tendancy here. This can be largely attributed to vocalist Rumpf's affections for early female blues artists as well as the music of Elvis Presley but what really makes Frumpy 2 jive is the unremitting chemistry that flows between the individual players. Unlike some of the abstract studio jams of contemporaries such as Amon Duul II there is more consonance here and one doesn't have to be tripped out on LSD to appreciate these exuberant compositions that can be melodic, ferocious and sublime while sustaining a meaningful flow.

Solid Hammond Organ power chordings from Jean-Jacques Kravetz lay the foundation for the 4 pieces which have often been compared to UK contemporaries such as Uriah Heep and Deep Purple but have more parallells to the uniquitous organ work of Peter Hecht on Lucifer's Friend's eponymous debut . Fiery Hendrixy electric guitar flourishes from Rainer Baumann colour the four intense pieces and bond well with the Hammond substructures and are the only suggestions of Krautrock predelictions. A noticeable common pattern becomes evident on the record by the beginning of side two that gives the band a two dimensional quality with Rumpf's vocals bookending the adventurous instrumental sections often joining and accenting them with effectual wordless vocalizations.

In spite of the rather straightforward playing and musicianship on two cosmic blues rave ups Take care Of Illusion and How The Gypsy Was Born ( no John McLaughlins or Rick Wakemans here ), the band's energy and execution are impeccable and atone for any lack of musical profoundness. The latter, How The Gypsy Was Born attainied moderate success as a cut down single version on the German charts during the spring of '71. More musical and compositional exploration takes place on the other two pieces Good Winds and Duty which appropriately open and close the album respectively. Even more depth is created by interpolating some classical organ themes, the most notable being the Bach fugue at the conclusion of Duty which also features some groovy Hammond / guitar interplay and a blistering guitar freakout by Baumann. The album opener, Good Winds ( which should have been placed at the conclusion ) has the potential for a side long epic with it's dreamy lyrics that unite the Earth & universe with Rumpf stepping out of character with the rest of the album providing some spectral vocals on this ethereal piece that rivals anything from Annie Halsam or Sonja Kristina of British bands Renaissance and Curved Air.

A long lost classic confined to the vaults and dusty old vinyl collections prior to being resurrected by the age of the compact disc, perhaps the only qualm I have with Frumpy 2 is the track sequence and this is easily solved with the CD format. After listening to this blast from the past one can only wonder why Frumpy did not attain more international acclaim. So put the cat out, strap yourself into the ejection seat and crank this jewel from the glorious seventies to eleven.

4.5 stars.This review goes out to my friend Tom Ozric who took the news of Hugh Hopper's death pretty hard.Tom's a bass player himself and has conversed with Hugh in the past and is obviously a big fan.Keep your chin up buddy! Most hail this album as FRUMPY's best,the guitar and organ along with Inga's vocals make this one amazing album.This record consists of only four songs.Inga has such a charismatic voice and apparently she had an unbelieveable stage presence.She says herself that she was the first woman to wear leather pants and play electric guitar on stage.I should note that according to the "Gepr" site she won the award for Germany's biggest talent from this newspaper called "FAZ".And FRUMPY was voted rock band of the year by "Music Express". "Good Winds" sounds so good early on with those great sounding guitar leads and organ runs as the drums beat away.Vocals and a dreamy FLOYD-like soundscape take over quickly.When the vocals stop the guitar becomes the focus before 3 1/2 minutes, then it calms right down to almost silence.It's building slowly with some nice bass and organ.Vocal melodies join in.Incredible sound! The guitar starts to light it up 8 minutes in then that dreamy section from earlier returns.Nice. "How The Gypsy Was Born" was apparently their signature song.Organ dominates early.Vocals a minute in.This riff comes and goes.Love the guitar before 3 1/2 minutes.Outstanding! The tempo picks up after 5 minutes as the guitar and organ lead the way.Vocals return too.Another killer track. "Take Care Of Illusion" has this intense intro with vocals.It settles before a minute then kicks back in.The vocals are passionate.She's amazing. It settles again as contrasts continue.I like the way it builds with vocals 4 minutes in ,then the guitar rips it up.Check out the guitar/vocal interplay around 6 1/2 minutes. "Duty" opens with what sounds like mellotron as reserved vocals join in.A full sound arrives before a minute.The guitar is lighting it up.Some ripping organ follows as drums pound away.The tempo picks up after 3 minutes and then they simply jam until the vocals return before 11 minutes. This is very close to a 5 star album for me and i highly recommended it.

This is classic rock with subtle progressive touches for friendly & catchy compositions. This second album is perfectly achieved technically speaking, with kick ass guitars, propulsive Hammond Organs and astonishing, powerfully emotional vocals. "Good Winds" starts as a crazy freak'n roll song and continues on a brilliant melodic "trip" with a mesmerizing keyboard demonstration. "Take care of Illusion" is a dense, furious heavy rocking song with solid guitar riffs and a great bluesy soul; It's kinda heavy in a sense ever developped by bands as Uriah Heep, Atomic Rooster..."Duty" is a fragile emotional ballad with high class vocals, gorgeous guitar solos. "How the gipsy was born" reaches the whole album with an absolutely punchy, sensitive heavy rock song. This album is quite charming but I regret the classic rock "radio station" feeling on a few titles. However it remains highly recommended for progressive rock collectors.

Just try and imagine a meeting point between symphonic prog, krautrock and hard rock and there you'll find "Frumpy 2". This album is amazing and weren't it for some discussable instrumental passage, it would deserve five stars (so consider this as a 4 and a half star review). In this second album, Frumpy manage to match brilliantly the two dominating personalities in the band: Inga Rumpf provides good lyrics and passionate songs, while Kravetz stretches them in quite enjoyable instrumental variations. The real shift from the first album by the band is the new epic feeling. "Good Winds" is a very good example: Rumpf conveys a very intense performance, with a meditative verse and a strong, almost desperate refrain; then Kravitz and the new came Baumann perform some whirly instrumental variations on the main theme which lead directly again to Rumpf's last verse and the end of the song. This structure can be found also in other two of the three remaining tracks. "How the Gypsy was born" is an excellent hard rocker, while the last track of the album, "Duty", features one of the best vocals ever in German rock, epic and passionate, with Rumpf's androgine tone in the forefront; by the way, Kravetz risks to spoil it all with a trashy rendering of Bach's famous fugue which is totally out of place. The best track of the bunch, IMO, is however "Take care of Illusion", dynamic, heavy, "krautish" and yet very well balanced, with an impressive interplay between the members of the band (if I can remember properly, you can find an astounding live performance of this number on YouTube: go and look for it immediately!!!!). Finally, remember: you cannot say you like German rock without devouring this album!

I remember I've ever asked my father about his decision to buy this album. Personally, I didn't know much about this band. My father just asked me to listen to it and he said that my mother also loved the band. I tried to spin it over and over and as the result, I loved the song called "Singing Songs".

Until now, I still can't understand why people haven't any interest yet to review this album (so far, I just found one review from this album, and ironically, the review just came from a man from my country!!! For me, this album is still collectable for Prog-fans all over the world.

For those of you who were there when this album was released, FRUMPY was one of the classic rock bands with its distinctive vocalist Inga Rumpf. I was just 10 years old at that time and by the time I knew the band it was 5 years late already through their legendary hit "Singing Song". From this song it was quite obvious that the unique quality of the band was basically at its lead singer, especially with her unique timbre. The story started when four musicians were all members of Irishman O' Brian-Docker's folkband The City Preachers, which was founded in Hamburg in 1965.

The band's debut album "All Will Be Changed" was released in 1970. For me personally, this is an excellent album regardless it's prog or not. It doesn't matter, I think. One thing so peculiar about this album is its sound that really represents the sound of the seventies. Well, talking about 70's music you must have known how the sonic quality of rock music recorded during that time sounds like. This kind of sound is so distinctive that sometimes I compare with the modern sound technology with state of the art digital equipment through the music of Porcupine Tree, for example. I can feel the difference and in a way people might say that modern technology record is much better than the old days but no one now can produce the seventies sounds, do you find one? That's what I really enjoy about this debut album by FRUMPY.

Musically, I also consider that this is an excellent one in terms of songwriting, composition, cohesiveness and musicianship. Jean-Jacques Kravetz plays important role in producing various keyboards sounds especially the use of Hammond organ. Karl-Heinz Schott provides dynamic bass for especially tracks with jazzy touch. Carsten Bohn Bandstand does a good job with his drums. The opening track "Life Without Pain" (3:50) is basically a classic pop music. The band starts its full potential with second track "Rosalie, Part 1" (6:00) - "Otium" (4:22) - "Rosalie, Part 2" (4:14). Hammond organ makes its wonderful solo accompanied with bass guitar work in "Otium". It's really stunning and it's so seventies!

"Indian Rope Man" (3:19) brings the music into different style but still maintaining the singing style of Inga Rumpf. Bass plays dynamic fills accompanying piano as well as organ. It's another good track to enjoy. In "Morning" (3:24) again Karl-Heinz Schott provides dynamic bass in upbeat tempo. It continues seamlessly to "Floating, Part 1" (7:39) followed with Hammond organ solo in "Baroque" (7:36) and it ends excellently with "Floating, Part 2" (1:25).

Overall, I highly recommend those of you who love vintage rock music to purchase this cd. It's an excellent addition to any music collection. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Frumpy's second album is fine example of early 70's German progressive and hard rock mixture and excellent addition to prog collections. Four long tracks, with sound dominated by Jean-Jacques Kravetz's keyboard chords and soloing, good bass playing and energetic and divers drumming, long jamming and obligatory changes of tempo and volume. Guitar is presented right on time to remember that there is a guitar player, while Inga Rumpf's cracked hoarse loud and shouting voice is in perfect tune with keyboards and guitar sound and almost looks like keyboards or guitar originated. After two very good songs, there comes a third, "Take Care of Illusion", the best to my criteria, while fourth is mostly wah- wah guitar based jam, with Bach-like part near the end. Recommended!

All my life . I have many Friends!

I have owned this CD for couple of years now and I rarely played the CD because I thought it was too poppy and put it back at my CD shelf. When this site features this band, I start to look at the CD again. After I spun something about three times there was one song that strike me back my memory the days when I was in school in the 70s. I was not quite sure about it but when I tried to refresh my memory roughly 30 years back - uugh . such a long time ago, time flies, really! - oh yeah . BOOM! Track number nine "Friends" was once my favorite one. It was one of the tracks under compilation of R&B music compiled by Prambors, the local radio for young people. The reason I liked the song was because it's the only track different from the others especially on the way organ and guitar are played. It reminded me to the classic rock music as it contained organ and electric guitar solo in relatively long duration. One thing that did not alarm me at all was the fact that as far I know at the time the cassette compiler did put "Friends" as a song by ATLANTIS. Nothing wrong, because Rumpf and Kravetz were in Frumpy as well as Atlantis. Oh .. thanks to ProgArchives for helping me to recall back songs that colored my schooldays very long time ago.

Let's talk about Frumpy which was originated back to Hamburg, Germany in the sixties when they started out of a folk outfit called "The City Preachers". Inga Rumpf on vocals/guitar/percussion, French Jean-Jacques Kravetz on keyboard, Karl-Heinz Schott on bass and Carsten Bohn on drums. "All Will be Changed" was their debut on Philips label, released in August 1970. Some people reckoned that it It was a folky/progressive rock album influenced by classical undertones. The follow-up album, "Frumpy 2", came out in 1971, featured guitarist Rainer Baumann. This can be said as Frumpy's best album and comprised just two tracks per side. Music critics considered this album as one of the best German progressive albums of its time. The follow-up album (third) "By the Way"', was an excellent one, released in 1972 on the Vertigo label. The music direction had moved into a more radio friendly style while maintaining their progressive and folk styles. The title track of this album is awesome and it has become one of rock music's all-time favorite ever written. Frumpy was then disbanded and "Frumpy Live", a double album, was released after the band had split. Rumpf and Kravetz continued their music journey into poppier music outfit by forming the band called Atlantis.

"Live Ninety-Five" was recorded at their famous hunting ground, Hamburg's "Fabrik" in 1995. It's basically a reunion concert with a classic and best line-up. All the eleven tracks performed and recorded here are basically accessible tracks for most people. So please do not imagine that this is a truly prog music live performance. I really enjoy spinning this CD because the live vibes are good and also the sonic quality is excellent. Inga Rumpf still performs her best singing with a blues-tinged voice. She is really a great singer and I never find any singer similar to her voice. The music offered right here with this live album is basically R&B but with rocking keyboard / organ and guitar work that represent the classic rock style. That's basically the beauty of all songs performed here.

Take the opening track "Loverman" (4:33) which starts off through a funky / groove style rhythm section but it's nicely overlaid with pulsating keyboard / organ work by Kravetz. The organ solo is really excellent. The following tracks "Get Together", "Amazone Dreams" (4:47) and "In And Out Of Studios" (3:55) continue the same style as the opening track. All of them are good songs and very enjoyable. In addition to Kravetz, Rainer Baumann delivers his stunning classic rock guitar style.

"How The Gipsy Was Born" (9:14) is an excellent song with soaring organ sound at the opening part which later bring the music into a bluesy style with powerful Inga Rumpf 's voice. The song is pretty rewarding to enjoy as it flows naturally from start to end with organ and guitar sounds in intertwined style. The guitar solo in the middle of the track is really stunning and it reminds us to the classic rock style. The other track which also stands out is "Come On" (5:46) followed with my all-time favorite which I have almost forgotten: "Friends" (9:02). "Friends" starts off with simple drum work followed with nice music that brings into R&B style. The organ provides great solo and continued with guitar solo. As usual, Inga Rumpf voice is really excellent and has made the song truly attractive. I always repeat this song many times. The concluding track "Backwater Blues" (7:52) is also excellent.

Overall, this live CD is very good and I never regret owning the CD. It gives me a good combination of R&B and classic rock music. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

With this second album, Frumpy strikes big and even bigger. Already, the debut album having sold in respectable amounts (partly due to their superb gimmix cover, this fully unfoldable round plastic artwork was even more impressive, but here the music on the wax slice was altogether more satisfying than on their previous effort. One must say that now Frumpy is a quintet , and Key-man JJ Kravetz gets a very helpful hand from newcoming guitarist Rainer Baumann. The sound is much more even and fuller, allows more less repetition and the solos are thankfully shorter.

Only four tracks on here ranging from 7:30 to 12 min+ and a more dramatic feel with Rumpf's impressive (but not always very feminine - in a positive way) vocals, a still dominating organ (Kravetz was not give room that easy) and a lyrical guitar, the whole thing underlined by Carsten Bohn' excellent drumming. In early 70's Germany, Frumpy were close to the top in every musician polls with Kraan. With a relative basic (compared to what's coming up) riff, Good Winds is an annunciation of things to come, but clearly a poor (but relative, giving the quality of the whole album) start to an otherwise excellent album. Sometimes sounding like Uriah Heep (Kravetz's play is similar to Hensley in many ways, but he gets more freedom than Ken), this track is interrupted by a quiet church organ-like atmosphere before building slow crescendo returning to the energetic riffing from the start, but it is damn well taking a lot of meanders. The sometimes Spanish-sounding Gypsy Was Born is a full-blown track, that could be considered an epic if it was slightly longer. With passages sometimes reminding of Beatles's Walrus track, Rumpf's vocals sounding like a primal-screaming Lennon.

Opening the second side, is the shorter Illusions, here Rumpf and the band sounds more like Affinity's only album, meaning that the track has also a bluesier and psychier feel. The c entral section is simply a pure joy. The album closes on a real killer-track, the lenghty Duty, where all five shine on a cloudless day, burning holes through your eardrums and frying your mind with their delightfully energetic prog rock.

Kravetz will then leave the group for obscure reasons, but will be back in time halfway in the recording of their third album which is called BTW and has a double KB attack - Erwin Kania, the leader of now defunct but superb Murphy Blend) and somehow destroying the balance of this album. This was to be their last studio album (a posthumous live release will be released), but part of the group will form the more mainstream Atlantis. As far as this album is concerned, this is Frumpy's peak and in this album, they are not to be outdone by any other powerful band.

Another band that colored my childhood, Frumpy, is now included here. Well, I never considered that this would be featured here even though I really enjoyed this album. The key driving force was Inga Rumpf with the powerful vocal and stunning guitar work. Inga also the driving force that characterized the music of Atlantis. "Singing Song" was once a big hit in my country with some radios broadcasted the song on regular basis. The song has a very nice combination of blues and rock music and a touch of pop as well. The opening part which comprises acoustic guitar rhythm with vocal moves in crescendo into heavier part with stunning guitar work and Kravetz pulsating keyboards. Bass guitar plays important role as well. The title track "By The Way" is a rocker with blues touch, performede energetically by the band, with high energy. Again, Inga's unique vocal has added key musical characteristic of this album. I always treat that this is a classic rock outfit that was successful at its period. You might find this album nothing intensive about prog elements, but for sure this CD is one of my favorite classic rock albums, including Bloodrock 1,2,3 and Typstich. It's pity if Frumpy is included here while Bloodrock and Atlantis are not. Keep on proggin' ..!