WAKE UP!

What do you get if you cross Jethro Tull with Pink Floyd and take away the Blues influence : Out Of Focus! Wake Up is the first 1969 record of this lesser known German band. It starts of nicely with good riffing and guitar, bass, flute, drum interplay, but steps down when sax & flute player Moran Neumüller starts to sing. Apart from singing out of (focus) tune, pardon the pun, his voice is an aquired taste. The second track is quite similar to the first and after a while I miss some interesting melodic material instead of endless riffing, while Moran's vocals tends more to be theatrical and acclamatory then real singing. The vocals are ment to be provocative against Church, War, Capitalism...late 60's protest style, but sound a little dated. Most of the tracks are quite long and I got really bored towards the end of the record, mainly by the absence of melodies and the on-going neither rock nor jazz rhythmic that tends to get monotonous. It's nevertheless an original record for this time, but doesn't stand the comparaison with outstanding 1970 records from the jazz-rock and psychedelic field.