KRAAN

KRAAN is led by mastermind Helmut Hattler who is one of the best bass players on the planet. In the early days they were fortunate enough to be able to live on an estate free of charge and with no conditions by one Lord Mettermich, a patron to the arts. It was formerly a stud farm and was located in the country. It was at this place that the band lived with up to 13 people, rehearsing for up to seven hours every day. There are some great pictures of the band and of this place in the liner notes. They were very much influenced by world music before they came to live in this place,having previously lived above an oriental folk club that subjected them to arabic music almost 24 hours a day on the weekends. They also listened to a lot of foriegn radio stations which is how they came to get their name when an announcer said a word that sounded like "kraan". They liked it and named themselves KRAAN. My first taste of KRAAN came when I bought their "Kraan Live" cd which is one of the best live records i've ever heard .Encouraged by Tom Ozric I started to dig deeper into this bands discography and it has been so rewarding for me. A perfect blend of Krautrock and jazz.

"Sarah's Ritt Durch Den Schwarzwald" has this spacey intro that is replaced a minute in by this fantastic melody that is led by these rumbling bass lines. Nice. Love this song. The vocals come in but they're brief. You have to hear the bass in this one ! A tasteful guitar solo 3 minutes in. A cool section a minute later as it gets dark and experimental with some sax. Then back to the previous melody with vocals 5 minutes in. Great tune. "M.C. Escher" has an incredible rhythm to it with some organ and lots of sax. Vocals after 1 1/2 minutes as the drums become prominant. The bass is huge ! Some killer organ and sax 3 minutes in. Back to original melody 4 1/2 minutes in. Sax solo to follow. Excellent tune. "Kraan Arabia" is a great title. Percussion to open with congas joining in. Sax follows as the arabic mood has been set. Bass comes in throbbing. Guitar and drums arrive as they just seem to jam after 5 minutes. Some laughing and carrying on after 7 minutes as bass continues. Percussion 8 1/2 minutes in brings back that arabic flavour. "Head" is an 18 1/2 minute track that took up most of the second side of the original album. This sounds so good as vocals join in around a minute as the sound becomes fuller. Cool guitar after 1 1/2 minutes. Some fantastic drumming in this one, especially 4 1/2 minutes in. A calm 8 minutes in is one of my favourite parts. Check out the guitar solo before 11 1/2 minutes that goes on and on as organ and sax come and go. Nice. The bass continues to be ground shaking by the way. Sax takes over 13 1/2 minutes in. Drums and bass start to build after 15 1/2 minutes as sax continues. The tempo picks up to a big climax to end it. "Sarah Auf Der Gansewies" is the 2 minute closing track. Gentle guitar and sax create beauty. Some deep bass lines and sax conclude this song and album.

As a bonus they add 4 tracks that were the actual demos that they had sent to the record label that signed them. It's all the songs that would end up on this studio album except for "Kraan Arabia". They sound excellent by the way and differ little from what ended up on this record. This is highly recommended to Krautrock fans.

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