IHRE KINDER

IHRE KINDER has gone down in history as one of the most famous bands from Nuremberg, Germany to emerge in the 60s which introduced the then radical notion of crafting rock songs in its own German language. The band was a continuation from the earlier pop band Jonah & The Whales consisting of Roland Multhaupt (drums), Sonny Hennig (vocals), Thommy Roder (bass), Ernst Schultz (guitar) and Georgie Meyer (violin). After releasing an all but ignored single 'It Ain't Me Babe,' a cover of the American pop band The Turtles, the band called it quits however after assembling a new team of noise makers vocalist / keyboardist Sonny Hennig and financier Jonas Porst who was son of an entrepreneur and seeking a good investment, created a new band from scratch. While first starting out as Empire State Band which found some local success, was name was quickly changed to IHRE KINDER (Your Kids).

The early lineup included Sonny Hennig (vocals, piano), Muck Groh (guitar), Karl Mack (bass), Georg Meyer (flutes, vocals) and Peter Schmidt (drums) but by the time the band changed its name to IHRE KINDER (Your Children) and released its debut self-titled album in 1969, Mack was replaced by bassist Walti Schneider and Schmidt by drummer Roland 'Olders' Frenzel who also doubled as an extra guitarist. Providing background vocals was Claudia N'ke, who appeared under the stage name "Judith Brigger.' While it sound utterly ludicrous by today's standards, IHRE KINDER was one of the pioneers of German language rock and was met with great skepticism for having done so.

Rock was an English language genre after all but along with other pioneering artists like The Blizzards and Ton Steine Scherben, IHRE KINDER quickly bridged those gaps and found a greater acceptance in the up and coming 70s music scene. Nevertheless when IHRE KINDER was proposed to any potential record labels, none were interested in this strange style of rock sung in German and Jonas Porst was forced to release the album independently. Despite all efforts this debut album was met with little interest and the newly gestated Deutschrock had to wait a few more years for cultural acceptance. IHRE KINDER's eponymous debut album contained 12 rather unremarkable folk pop songs that took the beat sounds of the 60s and added some psychedelic organ and flute but despite the rather ho hum performances has gone down as a classic as one of the very first records to use the German language in the context of rock music, a form of popular music that would become known as Deutschrock.

IHRE KINDER's debut is certainly a product of the time. Even if you don't understand the German language the album reeks of hippie idealism and the sounds to match. Fortified with catchy pop hooks and a mix of male and female vocals, these easy going tracks are fairly uniform in how they follow the same formula as they capture the zeitgeist of the beat era of the mid-60s while adding only small doses of the more contemporary sounds that were developing in the world of Krautrock. Honestly if it weren't for the album's status as first Deutschrock album then this debut by IHRE KINDER would be considered by most as utterly forgettable as the production is horrendously amateur, the pop hooks are bland and the singers sound like they got very drunk at a beer hall and jumped up on stage for the first time.

While this debut is unspectacularly boring, the band would improve beginning with its sophomore album '2375004' and would stick around on the scene until 1974 as it adopted more of the progressive sounds that were taking over the German music scene. While this album is really not all that interesting, it is of interest from a historical perspective if you're interested in how German rock was evolving in the 60s and if you are a student of the German language, this one is filled with easy to understand lyrics that use simple vocabulary. In short, this debut by IHRE KINDER is nothing more than a bunch of rather bland folk pop songs and the only interesting sounds are the experimental weirdness that graces the last minute of the album's playing time.

2.5 rounded down