PARADIESWÄRTS DÜÜL

This album is a series of lengthy monotonous jams that have less focus than the best Amon Düül II material (which shouldn't be much of a shock considering that the other four albums released by the original Amon Düül were recorded at a single epic improvised session!). This is moderately enjoyable in its own right, although I find it to be insufficiently creative (no doubt the minimalist compositions have to do with the fact that everything is improvised). Those with low levels of tolerance for the more rambling hippieish moments that Quintessence, Hawkwind and indeed Amon Düül II have given us, should certainly steer well clear of this.

Take the 17 minute long opener Love Is Peace. It starts off with some cool flighty flute over repetitive backing before eventually moving on (after 10 whole minutes!) to some dexterous acoustic guitar playing. It's cool ... but should have been condensed to something that lasted less than 5 minutes. The same goes for Snow Your Thrist And Sun Your Open Mouth, which is the best piece here, but which is also guilty of finding a nice groove and basically just staying there. By the time the third piece Paramechanische Welt spent its first few minutes on the same two chords, I had lost interest. Of the CD bonus tracks, Eternal Flow, a bass dominated piece, is virtualy a New Age mood piece (albeit a good one), while the last song Paramechanical World is really just a tease.

Amon Düül II fans (and I am one) will find this an album they must find and listen to, but really I didn't find it anywhere near as interesting as its sister group (amazing to think that the multi-talented Chris Karrer only plays the bongos here!). It's a real shame, because some of the elements are present, but there is no spark to provide any sort of interesting reaction. ... 40% on the MPV scale