VIOLENCE FOG

Violence Fog were Wolfgang Hoefer on vocals/flute, Karl-Heinz Hoefer on guitar/flute/vocals, Enno Dernov on guitar, Hilmar Beine on bass and Herbert Brandmeier on drums.They had a decent cult fan base, playing in numerous shows and film premiers around the area.In April 1971 they approached the SWF Radio and recorded five tracks at Studio U1, which are presented here.They played a furious Psychedelic Rock with Kraut references, but also lots of British- and American-styled moments, featuring bluesy solos and lead runs, containing also a good dose of raw, fuzz guitar plays.Energetic and strongly psychedelic music with occasional harder moments, highlighted by the powerful dual guitar moves of Hoefer and Derno, while all vocals are written in English.Most of these pieces contain some loose flute soloing and endless guitar twists, while the Kraut inspirations are apparent during the jamming grooves with the dynamic drumming and the frenetic guitar rhythms.

Jerusalem on the other hand added some fair amount of Soft Rock in their nonetheless Kraut-influenced Psychedelic Rock.The formation included Matthias Stein on guitar/vocals, Richard Ress on bass (both played in an act called Intoxication), Guenther Rueffel on guitar, Wolfgang Hilgert also on bass and Bernd Lewandowski on drums.Their impressive double-guitar/double bass line-up draw the interest of local fans and more well-known German groups, they even toured with Frumpy at some point, reaching the grounds of Austria and Switzerland, before recording three tracks for SWF in June 1971.As with Violence Fog, they had a deep psychedelic content in their music, which was fairly more dramatic and atmospheric, featuring a good balance between electric fanfares, acoustic crescendos and intense, lyrical textures.They played in a more downtempo style with clean vocals and more structured ideas, but they had a good bunch of electric, Kraut-styled explosions with the dual guitars in evidence and some very schizophenic drumming by Bernd Lewandowski.They sounded much like any other Teutonic Heavy/Psych band of the time, but their dramatic turns were definitely of great interest, creating unique and extremely deep electric music.

They seemed that recording for SWF was something like a curse for both groups.Violence Fog disbanded a few weeks later for professional reasons with Karl-Heinz and Wolfgang Hoefer switching to Folk Music and Enno Dernov/Brandmeier joining Jud's Gallery.However Dernov would soon quit and join Brainstorm.Jerusalem's end was even more sad, it came just a few months after the SWF recordings, when Matthias Stein died in a motor cycle accident.His childhood friend Richard Ress never recovered from his loss and decided to dissolve the band.Only Bernd Lewandowski appears to have worked later as a (free-lance) musician.

Nice early Kraut-Psych document.Not very original, not extremely inspiring, but very energetic, rough and passionate material with moments of guitar majesty.Recommended.