DISASTER / LÜÜD NOMA

I bought this (the Rocktopus reissue version with the "bird people" cover) before I really knew much of the history of Amon Düül. I just saw the Amon Düül name and was delighted that it was a double album, hoping that I'd found the Holy Grail, two discs more of DANCE OF THE LEMMINGS-style avant/space ecstasy.

Well, you can forget about all that. Peter Leopold's involvement notwithstanding, Amon Düül and Amon Düül II are NOT the same band. You see, in the late 60's, the Amon Düül commune split into two, with the more musicianly faction carrying the "II" moniker. The other faction, who got to record an album first, had a more "anyone can play music!" attitude. As a result, the music was crap.

I take back every bad thing I ever said about Disc Two of YETI. What we're presented with here is a few amateur-level stoned hippies jamming with their girlfriends banging on a bunch of percussion instruments. For hours on end. With some of the most pi$$-poor sound quality imaginable. When a band on the level of Can jams for hours and edits the pieces down to just the best stuff, the results can be magical. Here it's just a big, formless blob of tuneless, jangling guitar and thudding percussion.

Glib, arty types like to describe this as "brilliant primitivism", when they really mean, "I can tolerate more annoying music than you. In a word: unlistenable. Avoid.