WINTRUP

Second album from this very interesting jazz-kraut-rock group having a major blow with their artistic freedom, but wanting to stay sufficiently accessible and therefore reasonably wise. This will not mean that these guys will sign you lullabies, either! Their second and still self-produced record is slightly more restrained and definitely more succinct "propos musical", and should get our review moderators up on their feet and awake, just as the tone of the album hints at after that oh-so-very-little slightly self-indulgent debut.

However nicely succinct the album maybe, it sometimes lacks the space to expand the themes or ideas. Maybe not that many ideas also a tad uninspired at times. This should of course saddenb the average proghead, but he should know that the raw sound has been preserved and the energy is intact. The mid-song and mid-tempoed section of the opening Silver Wings is still there to prove everything is still intact, but all too short. But they probably had some artistic directives, as the obvious cost of making such a record holds obvious guidelines for a proper administration of a small label such as Spiegelei. Kraan did manage to get this and the following released in the States.

Overall a not-as exhilarating album, but nevertheless very worthy record. I am just checking to see if this review will get read by the review masters so have to keep talking about an album whose highlights are Backs and Gut & Richting. Not quite as enthralling as their debut, hence the three star rating. But I must be fair to the group and to me, please be aware that I hate conniving snitches, always ready to cheat me of a trick of the tail, so this remains to the prospective progheads investigating into this interesting group. The least we can say though is that they had disputable choices for artwork, but this seemed to be common for a lot of German bands, which seemed to choose rebellion and voluntary poor taste as opposed to their UK counterparts out for stunningly beautiful artworks. But with this album, I thing they go far into kitsch territory, but a constant in their artwork is a large open sky preferably at sunset.