Amon Düül II Dark Horse Poll

Hi,

I disagree.

The biggest and one of the most important factors in this band, was that they would not do anything in the "regular" way at all, and a lot of their vocals were really varied and unbelievable while also having all kinds of emotions with it.

This is not like some band that just does vocals so you know what the song is all about ... in many ways, AD2 couldn't careless if you understood what it was all about ... in the sense that it was all about their freedom and not anything else.

There are no bands, anywhere, that have the incredible variety and strength of their vocal work within their music. You can listen to "Mazombique" and hear the venom, you can listen to some other stuff in Hijack, and you can hear it in Wolf City ... and then you get something else. 

Of all the albums I like "Nada Moonshine #", but John W has called that album "b*****d" for some reason which was not explained and their website won't even list the album ... which is sad ... my review of it only says one thing about it that I miss from the earlier days ... where were the "trips" and the "improvisations" when everything in this album was about the song ... but it is very good one! AND, it has that one song with the kids' choir ... and that is a WOW ... a big WOW! But I'm not sure that many folks in PA can handle the big FU in the song!

But it will be hard to take away what is likely the most valuable song for me, of all ... "Apocalyptic Bore", which doesn't even have vocals by Renate at all ... and Karrer's words are fantastic ... and totally far out!

Nice to have your voice here Pedro, I hoped you'd chip in. I'm actually curious what you think of Düülirium, which is far more trippy and free form. I'm somewhat ambivalent about it; some of it is really one of a kind, some sounds a bit lazy to me and could have profited from more elaboration (I think mostly they only did one take). I also wonder whether you have heard the weird and out there Kobe and Eternal Flashback, which are some kind of remix albums, don't count as regular releases, but are very trippy and Düülish (I know hardly anything about the story behind them and who was the driving force in putting them together, I can just listen and find them quite enjoyable).

Ah, and Pierre! Still hoping that at some point we get four more little gems of you, loved your series!

Hi, 

Just heard the whole album. I don't dislike it, however there is a little shine that is missing, and one thing is very clear, that it is a bunch of improvisations, and though they are not bad, I think that there is a little cleaning up that needed to get done to make it better ... like hearing it once and then doing it again, but all in all, it would not be an "improvisation" then, and might not have had the tone and touch that it ended up with.

Of all the things in that album, there is one thing that did not sit well with me, and I'm not sure why ... in many, and not just one or two, the drumming in their albums has always been tight, clean and well designed, and when you look back at Dance of the Lemmings, Yeti, and quite far into the later albums, still the drumming was tight, and well designed ... and all of a sudden, in this album, it's just a typical drum sound and it appears to be looking for a beat or a rhythm, and this time, all they could do is keep time to be able to keep up with Renate ... and this is weird, because the band never had to do that ... as far as I can tell ... however, I think that there were mix issues here, because quality of it, seems to have been over dubbed or changed, to make it look like just a simple rock song improvisation, which is not what AD2 has really been about all of their life! 

It's not a bad album, and even though one could say that Renate is the star here, I really think that in many ways, the band was not exactly with her for some of the time, and there seemed to have been a separation of the whole thing ... her words are not being colored by the drums, for example, and instead just keeps time on the basic music ... something that AD2 was NEVER known to do ... 

I like the album, but in my ears and mind, there is something missing here ... and there are times when improvisations work, and then there are times when they don't ... and it's hard to define one from the other, be it in rehearsal or in concert, but in this case I think Renate might have said something to the effect that it didn't matter, and in the end, she was better and improvising than anyone else in the 4 pieces of music!

For AD2, Renate was not always the sole focus of the band ... in most albums, the music was ... and seeing that Kris and John were relegated to the background, was a bit weird ... and likewise, not hearing Lothar Meid clearly, seems strange ... listen to him in Dance of the Lemmings, Wolf City and Vive La Trance ... his bass playing and design for the music is incredible ... and here, he is relegated to the background and not in tune with Renate at all ... as far as I can tell ... just way too strange for me ... 

Lastly, I think that this album needs more clearing up and cleaning in order that things work better ... I simply think that the mix is weird, and the rest of the band is not ready for Renate's style in front of the microphone ... but then, this may have been her assuring herself, that after being in the background for way too long, all of a sudden, she is the only one that has the massive energy to lead the way. Compare this to the song making fun of feminism in HIJACK ... where my thoughts are that many folks in the band laughed at her ideas and comments, and in the end, she's the one driving it all!

A good album, specially for the "improvisations", however, my feelings are that these are not clear enough, and end up separating Renate from the band a bit too much for my tastes. But at their age (done in 2014) she's likely the only one that can stand up and show what she's made of. Strong ... and sadly ... the rest did not exactly stand up with her ... why?