GERMAN OAK [AKA: DOWN IN THE BUNKER]

This eponymous GERMAN OAK album is somewhat controversial. For some it's the ultimate krautrock effort for others an amateurish unskilled product which can be ignored. My truth lies in between somewhere. The band members are working up the horrible historical experiences of the Second World War in their own way. I'm quite sure this was only meant to provoke reactions but it might be mistakable to take such a cover art and song titles which are referring to war themes. Additionally they decided to use an original bunker resp. air-raid shelter situated in Düsseldorf for the recordings. This altogether defines a special mystery around the album.

The four songs - two longer jams prepared with a two minute intro and outro - sound like simple garage recordings with a hall-effect. The bunker atmosphere brings a special dark, depressive touch to the music. Airalert seems to be a snippet of a longer jam provided with heavy organ contributions and it would be really interesting to hear more but soon the song fades out and Down in the Bunker starts experimental with industrial sounds remembering of Faust or Space Explosion. Later the band begins to play more structured and the mood changes to a longer doom part similiar to the early Black Sabbath provided with some weird guitar solos. The bass is played absolutely unvaried and plus guitar and drums I can only hear a standard trio crew whereas the line-up is indicated with 5 members.

The same with Raid over Düsseldorf following as an acid rocking psych jam in opposite to the depressing forerunner track and finally assuring the third star. The song has a really optimistic drive - primitive but good with a remarkable team work. But organ is absent once again here in opposite to the outro 1945 - Out of the Ashes continuing the first track but with a surprising end offering a short sample with church bells, traffic sound and birds' twittering.

It's typical for krautrock productions to use simple song structures, repetitive patterns and weird contributions. But for me this album is musically and conceptionally not very challenging and therefore not essential. It might be a great find though for other fans of obscure krautrock and psych music.