Here Micky comes to one of the most interesting groups in all of prog. The history of the group is well noted in the groups bio here so I invite you to read it if you are not familiar with them. ADII released what must honestly be considered if not THE prog trilogy of all time (Gong I guess may get that nod) then surely among the greatest of trilogies in prog none the less. The debates among prog fans are endless as to which of those 3 albums is best; Phallus Dei, Yeti, or Tanz der Lemminge. Most will agree the the last two are the most fully realized. With this review.. I cast my lot ...as I have in the forums... with the mighty Yeti.

'Tanz is like walking through a haunted house; Yeti is like being chased through one'

Read those words one time in regard to this album.. and man alive is it so true. ADII is a bit of an aberration from the typical Krautrock you may or may not know about. Much of the music from that movement was cold, dark, and depressing. ADII and Yeti is no exception. Where ADII differed was, at least for these 3 albums, was a different mode of Krautrock eschewing the minimalist principals that many Krautrockers latched onto. The sounds is a catatonias explosion of guitars and all kinds of instruments under the sun. A multi-layered, doom laden , sci-fi sound that was more futuristic than anything around at the time even more than Floyd. Though put into Krautrock here.. and correctly so. Fans of psychedelic prog and space rock will adore this album.. and those of the trilogy.

The album kicks off with a bang and the multi-sectioned 14 minute long suite: Soap Shop Rock. The first section Burning Sister is a riff laden explosion of bass and guitar with the trade mark SR cascading drums. The operatic Halluziantion Guillotine is a real mind f**k haha. With the always terminally underused Renate *heart*. Gulp A Sonata has some sweet violin and crunching guitar in it and nice 2 part vocals in it. The aptly titled Flesh-Coloured Anti-Aircraft Alarm sounds like a soundtrack from a horror movie. The piece is brought to a conclusion by a reprise of the main riff from Burning Sister. A Fabulous if not exactly a coherent flowing piece of music.

After that sonic assault on the ears She Came Through the Chimney come next bring a more sedate guitar, violin and bongo drum driven piece of music that is a bit of respite from the opening track. Not exactly my favorite moment on the album.. but nice contrasting piece that leads into one of AD II's signature songs and one my personal favorites.. the driving Archangels Thunderbird with a driving guitar riff but featuring my favorite female prog vocalist of all the incomparable Renate Knaup-Krotenschwantz. Such a dynamic.. powerful.. expressive voice. God I love that song. Cerberus is up next beginning with a strong driving folkie acoustic picking with congos accompanying then explodes into an electric orgy with harsh guitars.. driving bass. Excellent stuff. The instrumental Return of Ruebezahl is next, a short piece that is basicly a multi-layered guitar riff carried on for a minute and a half. Eye-Shaking King follows and would have done any horror proud as a soundtrack hahah. Distorted voices.. shrill guitars. Creepy as hell. Top notch stuff full of dark atmosphere. Pale Gallery follows next a short track LONG again on creepy dark atmosphere. With Organ... disjointed guitars.. a plodding drum pattern. Feels like a trip into the cosmos without hope of a return ticket. Great stuff.

The rest of the original album is taken up of 3 improvisational pieces. For some this is where the album begins to tail off.. for others though.. this is the meat of the album. Full of the atmospherics that made up the first half of the album but as the nature of improvisational pieces.. lacking in structure.. or great melodies or largely the vocals which I always saw as a strong suit of the group. Great stuff if you love the dark gloom and doom of the atmosphere of the first half of the album. Yeti Talks to Yogi being the best of these in my opinion. The recent reissue has two bonus tracks and these are actually two of my favorites on here surprisingly. Rattlesnakeplumcake is a punchy number with a a great bass and Renate vocal section that just grabbed from the first listen. Between the Eyes is a track that would surface on Tanz der Lemminge under another title (Stumbling Over Melted Moonlight). This version here on Yeti smokes that with pure manic energy. Renate's Geddy Lee like shrieking is simply priceless and the monstrous guitar riff which leads into a extended atmospheric exit make for a definite headphone experience.

Ranking the album. Easy... a Krautrock.. a Space Rock.. and a Psychedelic Prog masterpiece. This album should be in your prog collection. 5 stars. For me.. preference. 5 stars. Next to Wolf City my favorite AD II album and has a fire, and passion that Tanz lacks.. but that is for a future Tanz der Lemminge review to elaborate upon.

Michael (aka Micky)

Beautiful and melodic!

It is always a pleasure to review this kind of albums that make me have a great time while listening to it, there are some albums that i could describe with one word, being sometimes "marvelous", "awesome", "fantastic" etc, this time i have thought about one word which really suits to describe this album, and it is "beautiful".

Never tired of Italian music, probably a couple of years ago, or more, i discover "Principe di un Giorno" but only the song, not the complete album, and loved it since the very first listen, it caught my attention and filled my ears with pure beauty, this is what led me to get interested on the album itself, and then, actually not that soon as i wanted, i got the album and was delighted with the music here, which seems to be probably one the softest and mellowest albums that RPI has offered to us, i am sure that anyone could like or enjoy this album due to its pastoral and traditional sound.

Another thing that i would like to remark, is that this album was released in the second half of the 70´s, i mean before it was released, several Italian monsters had previously have success with their different masterpieces, PFM; Le Orme and BMS being the obvious bands, but also a lot of other bands had disbanded for a period or even dissappeared, so Celeste appeared in a time when some people might have thought about the decrease of Italian prog rock, and prog rock in general.

So this album features 7 songs and a 37-minute lenght, and kicks off with the title track "Principe di un Giorno" which believe me its a beautiful song, very warm and delicate music, full of mellotron, flute and nice acoustic guitars, it makes you feel better when you listen to it, simply beautiful. "Favole Antiche" is one out of two mini epics of this album, over 8 minutes of again a very warm and soft sound, nice vocals accompanied with the beautiful sound of flute, again the mellotron plays an important role on the song but also we can hear the xylophone, great song. "Eftus", when i first see the name i though it was Fetus mispelled, well anyway, this song continues ith the soft and warm sound of the previous ones, a pastoral and short song, made to fill our ears with joy and tranquility. "Giocchi Nella Notte" follows the same way as the previous ones, but this time what makes this song different is the later sound of sax and a louder moment, i mean not as soft as other songs this is the second longest song of the album. "La Grande Isola" is one of my favorite songs here, i love the mellotron and the delicated bass playing, it has some magnific passages, mellotron - flute - acoustic guitar predominates here as in the album in general and this song has an stronger end. "La Danza del Fato" is a short piece with sound of bells but in general it has the same structure as the other ones. "L´Imbroglio" is the shortest and last song of this beautiful album, just a minute of pastoral music to finish this album, very nice.

Well as you can notice this album has no weak moments (at least for me), i like all the songs here, i feel very please everytime i listen to this gem, but i feel somewhat unconvinced about my final grade,i feel, as an RPI lover that i should give it 5 stars without hesitation, but something inside me says that 4 is the correct grade, because despite loving all the music here,i think i prefer another kind of RPI, hope you understand what i mean.

However, this album is essential to any prog lover, but not a masterpiece, anyway please check it you will be really pleased with this beauty!