ALPHA COLLECTION 1.

I first heard of Attempt to Restore in 1995 from some mail-order catalog that specialized in prog imports. I thought the Attempt to Restore CD sounded interesting, but I never bought it then seeing it seemed a bit difficult to make an order, and no one knew who they were. Years later I never forgotten then name and now I finally own the CD and glad I did.

The 1990s weren't exactly a golden age of Krautrock and certainly not in Germany, as many of these bands pretty seen their best and most innovative albums by the mid '70s and by 1974 many of them were either steering towards prog rock or electronic music. In the early '70s there was Tiger B. Smith that had more to do with hard rock had released two albums, one on Vertigo, the other on Bacillus. Long after Tiger B. Smith was a forgotten footnote, members reappeared in the 1990s as Attempt to Restore doing what they never did in the early '70s and create that type of Krautrock the likes of Guru Guru, Amon Duul II and Ash Ra Tempel did so well, and trying to bring it into the 1990s. And they do it pretty well. Like the Cosmic Jokers, this consists of totally improvised jams, with guitar and drums dominate, some sound effects like the sounds of cars being used, and keyboards, mostly non-intrusive digital synths, including a digital synth simulating the sound of an organ, rather than a real one. Whatever the case, had the Ohr label existed in 1993 they'd be right at home on that label. I seriously doubt ATR will give you anything new under the sun but worth it for those who fancy the idea of a 1990s recording hearkening to the glory days of Krautrock.