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micky
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Topic: 2nd Round Classics: Yeti v. Principe di un Giorno Posted: July 25 2015 at 08:09 |
Next up... ooohhh.. 2 absolute favorites of mine. First up.. the mighty Amon Duul II and to review it.. the mighty Mick himself
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Krautrock
4.05 | 361 ratings
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From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website
micky
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator
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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) |
and in the opposing side. One of the most beautiful albums I've ever heard. Celeste!! and to review it... one of my favorites from the old school genre teams we had. Guillermo!!!
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Rock Progressivo Italiano
4.17 | 211 ratings
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From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website
memowakeman
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator
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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! |
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The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
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Guldbamsen
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Joined: January 22 2009
Location: Magic Theatre
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 08:30 |
The Yeti knight for me!
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams
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Mellotron Storm
Prog Reviewer
Joined: August 27 2006
Location: The Beach
Status: Offline
Points: 12907
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 09:44 |
Two five star albums in my books. I hate to see Celeste getting killed here but I do prefer Yeti and that's what I voted for.
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"The wind is slowly tearing her apart"
"Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN
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zravkapt
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Joined: October 12 2010
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 6446
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 09:50 |
Yeti by (insert distance here)
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Magma America Great Make Again
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GKR
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 22 2013
Location: Brazil
Status: Offline
Points: 1376
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 10:25 |
Yeti. Poor Celeste...
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- From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
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The Bearded Bard
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Joined: January 24 2012
Location: Behind the Sun
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 10:33 |
OK, I'll be the lone voter (so far) for Principe di un Giorno then. Not a big fan of ADII.
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micky
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Joined: October 02 2005
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 10:47 |
^ thanks! It is a great album and there is no such thing as an Italian bagel... thus I can freely and in good conscious vote for Yeti
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The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
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Andrea Cortese
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Joined: September 05 2005
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Points: 4411
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 16:23 |
Since Yeti is not Wolf City ( for me Amon Duul's best and on my top 10 ever) I can esile vote for Celeste. Their first is outstanding and so original
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tszirmay
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Joined: August 17 2006
Location: Canada
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Points: 6673
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 16:45 |
Celeste is celestial, Yeti is a big abominable snow man from Deutschland . Had to go with Principe !
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I never post anything anywhere without doing more than basic research, often in depth.
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Tom Ozric
Prog Reviewer
Joined: September 03 2005
Location: Olympus Mons
Status: Offline
Points: 15916
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Posted: July 25 2015 at 20:16 |
Celeste for the sheer tear-jerking beauty.
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Barbu
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 09 2005
Location: infinity
Status: Offline
Points: 30845
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Posted: July 27 2015 at 05:09 |
*flip coin*
Yeti
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Sagichim
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Joined: November 29 2006
Location: Israel
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Points: 6632
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Posted: July 27 2015 at 05:53 |
I usually go with the Italians but I never fallen for Celeste's magic, Yeti on the other hand is the album who got me into Krautrock, so...
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Guldbamsen
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Joined: January 22 2009
Location: Magic Theatre
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Points: 23098
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Posted: July 27 2015 at 05:58 |
I used to dig the hell out of that Celeste album. I span it here the other day due to this poll and found myself dosing off. Maybe it was just a momentary lapse of enjoyment though.
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams
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Prog Sothoth
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Joined: May 03 2011
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Points: 1940
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Posted: July 27 2015 at 13:08 |
Celeste is cool, but ADII were on fire with this album.
Yeti.
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t d wombat
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Joined: August 14 2007
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 504
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 21:51 |
Oh what the hell. AD are going run away with this so I'm voting for the pretty underdog.
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Andrew B
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” ― Julius Henry Marx
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kenethlevine
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Joined: December 06 2006
Location: New England
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Points: 8849
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Posted: July 28 2015 at 21:54 |
Celeste
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Olape
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Joined: July 28 2013
Location: Chile
Status: Offline
Points: 2033
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Posted: July 29 2015 at 08:45 |
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proggman
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Joined: October 14 2013
Location: Sweden
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Posted: July 29 2015 at 21:19 |
Celeste, Principe di un Giorno.
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When he rides, my fears subside. For darkness turns once more to light. Through the skies, his white horse flies. To find a land beyond the night.
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Nogbad_The_Bad
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Posted: July 29 2015 at 21:46 |
Yeti
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Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/
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Atkingani
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Joined: October 21 2005
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Posted: July 29 2015 at 22:36 |
Celeste reacted well but I think it's not enough to defeat the mighty AD II.
Edited by Atkingani - July 29 2015 at 22:37
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Guigo
~~~~~~
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