Next up... another battle of two greats!
In previous rounds we did song samples, great PA's reviews, with this
round I wanted to do something a different. So I went outside PA's..
what do people outside of this site say about these albums.
First up.. oh yeah baby..
Yeti by Amon Duul 2Review Summary: The high-water mark of progressive psychedelic music.
Born
out of the ashes of an artistic and political community called Amon
Duul, who undertook some free improvisation sessions in the late '60s,
Amon Duul II hit the German scene in 1969 with their debut release
'Phallus Dei'. This stunning debut is often heralded as the high point
of their long and varied musical career but this follow up certainly
scales the dizzy heights of that seminal release and even manages to
surpass it in some respects. I hesitate to use the term 'Krautrock' to
describe this record as it was used as a somewhat derogatory term to
describe a host of experimental bands that were spawned in Germany
around that time so let's just describe this as progressive psychedelic
rock.
The approach on here is similair to their debut both in its delivery and
musical character but the ideas are rather more distilled. While
'Phallus Dei' relied on building atmosphere and groove in a rather
sedate manner, most notably on the extended title track, Amon Duul II
opted here for shorter song formats and more panache in their
song-writing. Even the multi-part suite 'Soap Shop Rock' is merely a
loosely connected set of distinct songs with musical bridges linking the
whole. But this seemingly patchwork approach doesn't actually detract
from the flow and integrity of the music. There are such a plethora of
bold ideas thrown onto this album, yet with such attention to
maintaining the darkly unsettling vibe, that it never fails to
titillate. One moment you will be swaying along to buzzing psychedelic
riffs and languid leads, then a few bars of unhinged madness will
devolve into a glorious mess of shrieking atonality before a caterwaul
of screeching violins carry you on a mystical Eastern tinged magic
carpet ride. And that's just the first 10 minutes or so of this
psychedelic masterpiece.
'Archangel Thunderbird' is possibly the coolest song title of all time
and it lives up to its promise. Renate Knaup's vocals soar above the
irresistible freak-beat style riffs, flappy bass lines and scraggy
rhythms. The ponderous 'Eye Shaking King' introduces itself with a
grinding Zeppelin-esque groove before evolving into a head-swaying
morass of swirling psychedelic Daleks, jarring keyboards and bluesy
guitar licks. But this album isn't only about fuzzy riffs and strident
rhythms. 'Cerberus' is a meandering instrumental piece full of
undulating lines, South Asian style percussion and grunting angular
licks and 'Sandoz In The Rain' is a lysergic trip full of hypnotic
cadences, haunting violin and lavish flute.
There is a 'loose jam' feel across the whole record, even during the
more succinct pieces, but on the title track (explicitly referred to as
an improvisation) Amon Duul II really let go and space out in style. The
ideas are spread rather thinner over this 18 minute jam than elsewhere
on the record but it is eminently suitable as a musical inspiration to
chill out and spliff-up, as is the shorter improv 'Yeti Talks To Yogi'.
However, it is within the tighter compositions that the true magic of
'Yeti' lies and finds Amon Duul II at the peak of their prismatic
powers. This record is a truly mesmerising experience from start to
finish and, along with 'Phallus Dei', an essential listen for anyone
remotely interested in psychedelic music.
and against the mighty Yeti we have
| Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt |
|
Rare and wonderful occasions they are when the hidden hands guide you
into contact with music that you never knew you couldn't live without;
when you know you've never heard a note of this stuff before but there's
a tiny yet proud flame of recognition just sparked off in your
innermost; when the way you look at life changes ever so slightly but
irrevocably. And of course I cannae guarantee it, but I'll wager
there's just a chance that your first experience of Rock bottom might
prove to be one such occasion.
The dark backdrop to the creation of Rock Bottom's probably far better
known than the record itself: Robert Wyatt finds himself lying in a
recovery ward after a drunken fall from a bathroom window at some party
or other, faced with a couple of four-pipers that Holmes himself would
struggle with, namely; how do i get through this? and pertinently, what
does a newly-paraplegic drummer do now?
Not that I'm trying to be at all flippant about such a personal
catastrophe, but Wyatt's own recollections of the period are, with his
charcteristic tendency to underplay the hand, far from anguished. At
this remove, he's more of the opinion that the tragedy opened doors for
him, freed him in many ways from certain hidebound views and behaviours.
His notes to the 98 Ryko reissue of Rock Bottom make it clear that the
key to his convalescence was a deliberate drift into reverie - allowing
the dreamlife to sculpt the music and lead towards new ways of things.
Via the ether, sea-change.
There's real hurt and anguish in Rock Bottom, the hurt of frayed
relationships, the ache of dependency. In a fascinating detail in his
notes, Wyatt recalls the initial writing period (pre-fall) in Venice,
whilst accompanying his partner Alfie as she worked on Nic Roeg's Don't
Look Now, Roeg repeatedly recanting the film's message -"We are not
prepared". And that's in Rock Bottom too; the terror of your known
world simply washing away.
But ultimately, the album glows of rebirth, illustrates the
sometime-necessity of surrender if we're to truly overcome - the sea of
possibilities behind this first-level world we troll. It's about the
pull of the tides, the waters we come from (the geographical and the
female), the changeling nature of things under the influence of the full
moon (in a recent mag interview, John Balance called Rock Bottom "the
most lunar album ever made" and he may well be right).
It's also about the relinquishing of the strictly masculine, the
schematic, and instead embracing the feminine and the other;
Alifie/Alifib (the album's astonishing centrepiece, a babel of babytalk)
is one of the bravest, most open-hearted lovesongs you'll ever
encounter, honest injun.
Perhaps most of all, the album's an open channel, a balm - healing
music. Not some new age bubblebath, but a tough succour; no easy
answers or convenient resolutions, but still a clear message from
somewhere that, yeah, you're not crazy, there is more to it all than
just this.
In a parallel world, everybody flooded down the shops and bought this
instead of Tubular Bells. Not that I've any axes to grind as regards
Mike Oldfield - I couldn't name anything he's done in a pepsi challenge,
and he crops up with some marvellously spidery and enervated guitar on
Rock Bottom's finale Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road - but rather
I've distinct reservations about Saint Richard Branson, and I'd have
been far happier if the heft of his coffers had arisen because he helped
this magical invocation of an album into millions of homes. But how
sad can you be when Rock Bottom's still out there waiting for you to
discover and cherish? One full moon, treat yourself to a copy and take a
little refreshing nightswim back in your mind. Come home for a bit.
Drift and revive.
/PAlogo_v2.gif "Progarchives.com Homepage")
4th Round Classics: Yeti v. Rock Bottom
Topic Options
Meltdowner wrote:
The band was quite distant too, it seemed like they were all playing individually, it was really boring 
I think I won't regret it, I saw a much better Italian band on another stage, probably the best concert that day 