BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE

With only Conny Veit remaining from the original Gila line-up, this album is a complete departure from the previous Gila albums. With a female vocalist and with Florian Fricke from Popol Vuh this rather sounds like a Popol Vuh album then like the Floydian blues-psych jams that Gila had done before.

In the instrumental parts there are still traces of the band's psychedelic roots but due to the vocals and the more acoustic sound this is a folk album before anything else. At its strongest moments it marries Popol Vuh to Sandy Denny. But there are also some mellow pop-folk tracks here that might be better fit for folk fans then for me. Despite the good instrumental backbone, a song like Sundance Chant does little for me.

After this album, Florian Fricke would take Conny Veit and Fichelser (formerly from Amon Düül II) along with him to Popol Vuh and Gila ceased to exist. 3.5 stars