PUPPENHAUS

An album that was recorded in 1973, but not released until 2009; we have here a group of very skilled musicians from Germany who will each go on to other notable bands.

1. "Anfang" (10:41) whoever thought this aggressive FOCUS-like music was Jazz-Rock Fusion? I guess the people who listen past the introduction! But those alternating motifs are definitely far more rock/prog rock than J-R F. Then the third motif, in the third minute, feels way more rooted in 1960s blues rock despite its jazzy sax and flute contributions and Frank Fischer's impressively fluid bass play. The new alternating aggressive motif seems to come straight out of KING CRIMSON's playbook. Then there is an impressive drum display with only Frank's three note machine gun bass play to support Bea Maier's nuanced drum play before guitarist Herbert Binder joins in with some long-held notes screaming and bending their way into the front line. Interesting how close Herb's guitar sound imitates a Canterbury organ. In the ninth minute there is a return to the FOCUS-like aggression before a sudden electric piano chord arpeggiates us into a dreamy passage over which Büdi Siebert lulls us into his spell with his beautiful flute play. The final 35 seconds sees a return to the aggressive rock chord play of the opening. Pretty great song! (17.875/20)

2. "Jazz Macht Spazz" (7:54) a nice mid-tempo song that cruises along while Büdi cajoles us with his soprano saxophone. Around the three minute mark the band switches into closed top, windows up mode while negotiating a slightly rougher part of town through Thomas Rabenschlag's electric piano. Then the rhythm section drops out for the sixth minute as Büdi picks up his ethereal flute with Thomas' vibrating electric piano chords supporting beneath. The band returns to a slightly-slowed down variation of the opening motif for the final two minutes--which enables both Bea Maier and Büdi to ejaculate their solo flourishes between and over e. piano and rock guitar power chords. (13.25/15)

3. "Swingende Elefantenkompanie" (10:47) starting out slowly--like an orchestra tuning--but then the rhythm section comes bursting forth with a blistering pace over which Herbert rock guitar shreds followed by Büdi's tenor sax. Yes, there are jazz elements to this music, but so much more belong to the domains of either rock or prog rock. The performances are impressive, yes, but nothing here really grabs me enough to want me to come back--this despite the music's similarities to that of Canadian band LIGHTHOUSE. Then, almost exactly at the four-minute mark, quite suddenly and unexpectedly (as if the start of an entirely new and different song), the music stops with the band immediately returning with a very smooth WILL BOULWARE-like "Feel Like Makin' Love"-like song, sound, and style: dominated by Thomas Rabenshlag's gentle electric piano play and Büdi Siebert's winsome flute. Then, around the seven-minute mark the rhythm section takes a few measures to ramp back up into a kind of frenzied-Disco hysteria which crash-ends after about a minute, leaving a New Orleans-style military marching motif in its wake. this motif slowly begins to unravel, soon becoming full-on chaos, before then shifting into a high speed though delicate motif in which horns and guitar play accents on Thomas' dirty electric piano frenzy, off and on, over and over, during the course of the next minute with drummer Bea Maier pounding away with great vim and fervor underneath until the sudden end. Whew! What a weird ride that was! I'm not sure how to rate it though I have to give them credit for being unique in their vision of that which can constitute a jazz-and-rock fusion. (17.5/20)

4. "Let The Pig Out" (5:58) opening with 90 seconds of breathy, voicy flute play which culminates in some of Büdi's human-made pig noises supplanting his flute. Then the band kicks in with a five chord KING CRIMSON progression that turns frenetic in an almost avant-garde, but more comic way. This is a motif that displays some very skilled and disciplined team work as well as creative adaptation of the heavier KCrimsonian sound (reminding me of the humorous aspect of 21st Century's SEVEN IMPALE). I'm rating this up for its skill level and humor, not for its effectiveness at making me want more. (9/10)

5. "Improvisationen" (17:04) Though the music here is rather straightforward cruisin' speed jazz-rock fusion--with extended solo time for Büdi Siebert's tenor sax and, later, Thomas' Herbie Hancock-like treated electric piano--there is some rather extraordinary bass guitar playing here from Frank Fischer (the part I enjoy the most). Büdi picks up his flute for an extended solo in the mid-section--expanding upon the woodwind's sound with his own voice (though never as amazingly as Thijs van Leer). Frank gets a turn to display his bass creativity in the beginning of the song's final third, then Herbert Binder finally gets some front time (though rather hidden and often muted) before Thomas and Bea move the song more into the comedic/novelty range with some Disney/Mother Goose- and nationalistic/military- like themes flourished for their audience (and, I suppose, for themselves). (31/35)

Total Time 42:24

B/four stars; a fun and skilled expression of jazz-rock fusion creative interpretation. Recommended for the experience of seeing once more one of the many ways the new idiom can be envisioned.

4.5 stars. PUPPENHAUS from Germany were formed back in 1969 and sadly they never released a studio album. This is a live archival release from December of 1973 recorded at SWF studios but it wasn't released until 2009. Early on the band rehearsed in a small factory storeroom on weekends before deciding to do the communal living in an old farmhouse much like KRAAN did. They were busy with work, school and jobs around the farm during the day and they would rehearse during the evenings. Their heroes were ET CETERA, Frank Zappa, KING CRIMSON, John McLaughlin, TRAFFIC, YES amongst others. As they rehearsed they found themselves moving in a Jazz direction and listening to bands like WEATHER REPORT, SOFT MACHINE, PASSPORT and Miles Davis. I gotta say that these guys can play, I'm so impressed with all five of these band members but especially the bass player Frank Fischer who would join RELEASE MUSIC ORCHESTRA in 1975 and the drummer Berthold Maier who would later join ZOMBY WOOF. I love the album cover that the Long Hair label came up with as well.

"Anfang" has this catchy melody to start out and it will be repeated. Love the bass just before a minute with the drums and electric piano. Flute joins in as they seem to jam here. Some sax around 3 1/2 minutes and it does get dissonant around 5 minutes. The bass is upfront again before 5 1/2 minutes as the drums support. There's a psychedelic vibe here then it changes after 8 1/2 minutes as we get a calm with flute. Beautiful section, then it ends as it began. "Jazz Macht Spazz" has this smoky atmosphere with some lazy sax over top as sounds come and go. It then kicks into a jazzy groove as the sax continues. So good! Check out the bass before 3 1/2 minutes as we get a calm. Soon we get walking bass, drums and electric piano leading the way. Flute arrives at 5 minutes then it kicks into gear again tastefully. This might be my favourite track.

"Swingende Elefantenkompanie" opens with drums as flute and more join in. Some crazy vocals follow as it turns humerous both vocally and instrumentally. The bass suddenly takes off at a high speed as the rest try to keep up. Love the guitar here and electric piano, and of course the bass and drumming. The sax replaces the guitar before 2 1/2 minutes. A change after 4 minutes as it settles right down with keys, bass and a beat. Flute over top after 5 1/2 minutes. It's picking up a minute later with keys leading as the flute stops. The band is ripping it up late with distorted keys along with bass, drums and sax but check out the drum work here!

"Let The Pig Out" opens with some solo flute that lasts until after 2 minutes. The guy can play. Then bass and drums kick in followed by sax. The tempo picks up around 3 1/2 minutes and there's some silliness here. Dissonant sax follows then the previous soundscape returns. "Improvisationen" is simply that, an over 17 minute improv. We get a somewhat ominous start surprisingly with plenty of atmosphere as sounds come and go. Sax, drums, keys and bass in particular. Then it starts to slowly pick up. This reminds me of Miles Davis, mostly the atmosphere and distorted keys. Flute replaces the sax after 9 minutes then we get some scat vocals 11 1/2 minutes in. Bass and drums only 13 minutes in although the keys join in as well. A calm 16 1/2 minutes in with sparse sax and electric piano to end it. Improvs can be hit or miss but they nailed this one

Yeah this is my kind of music man. The bass and drum work kills but then I'm also a sucker for electric piano. I still can't believe these guys had to wait until 2009 to have any of their music officially released. A must for Jazz/ Rock fans out there. Almost 5 stars.

Jazz Rock from hell

Puppenhaus recorded this purely instrumental album in 1973 at a german radio station, and for some reason never managed to record anything else. This is one of the most essentials releases of resurrected material I know, this band really cooks!! I don't know what took them so long to join the archives but I'm glad they are finally here. This is yet another case where a sub genre title doesn't reflect the overall style and sound, so any of you who doesn't like the classic JRF style this might grab you after all. Their line up might be familiar to anyone who's interested in the german scene, Bea Maier and Thomas Rabenschlag (drums and keys) were later in Zomby Woof (which is another brilliant band), Frank Fischer, Büdi Siebert, Herbert Binder were all part of Release Music Orchestra right after this recording. The sound quality is not perfect but satisfying enough considering the circumstances. This album contains 77 minutes of exciting music divided into 7 tracks, when most of them are over 10 minutes long.

Puppenhaus brings the more insane and freaky side of the jazz rock scene, their music is a blend of heavy King Crimson ideas (without the dark and sinister motif) swiming in a jazzy olympic pool. They very much remind me of japanese band Il Berlione or the german Brainstorm, but also are closer to the more freaky side of italian bands like Rocky's Filj and Officina Meccanica, rather to the krautrock experimentations. The music is often intense, upbeat with a wild jammy vibe, including raging sax and flute playing and wild biting guitars on top of some cool and jazzy keys, and of course they are backed by a furious rhythm section who keeps the show going on strong. The band is showing some serious chops every now and then and it's evident that those dudes are a well oiled machine. Although the main course is their energetic and schizophrenic playing, Puppenhaus still brings a lot of ideas to the table, and are not focusing on just jamming on D minor, the music contains all kinds of twists and turns which proves this group were into some top notch prog rock. Just check out "Let The Pig Out " which demonstrates their pure progressive influences ,this one doesn't hold any jammy features at all, but is quite constructed and complex. After an Ian Anderson flute noodling it jumps into a King Crimson like riff which evolves further more and brings some delicious tight breaks, I mean what the hell were these guys on?? On top of that there are two or three places where they are not afraid to show they are influenced by a few bands, and either plays a homage to KC and Ian Anderson or this is just a broad daylight lending, but either way this is all good and I really don't care. Although my least favorite track is the long "Improvisationen" which is clear what it's all about, I don't find any weak moments here, the playing is so lively and energetic it's just so damn fun listening to it, the improvisations are full of ideas but still stays inside their little niche box.

So imagine any of your favorite uplifting freak out gems you know, and just remember there's another one exactly like it waiting for you. Puppenhaus proves that good music is all about the fun of playing together, and it really shows. I can't recommend this highly enough! easy 4 stars.