THE INTERGALACTIC TRAVEL AGENCY

Don't miss the next lift-off ...

PSYCHEDELIC MONSTERJAM is a relatively unknown project of three prolific musicians from the german psych and kraut scene. Somewhat astonishing if you consider that two of them had a very successful time with GURU GURU and joined each other after 30 years to play together once again! And incomprehensible because their live gigs had always been a joyful experience. Now this second PSYCHEDELIC MONSTERJAM album, limited to 600 copies, contains some live recordings from the year 2005 with extraordinary space kraut jams in the vein of GURU GURU and ASHRA. Unfortunately the agency is closed now but there is a little hope this isn't the final word.

The listeners are invited to the intergalactic travel with spaced out soundscapes and Mani Neumeier's percussion add-ons. You feel like gliding through the outer space from one planet to the other. But after some minutes of weighlessness the travellers are getting tempo bringing the rhythm branch into action. A very trippy tune developes whilst Ax Genrich gets in with fantastic guitar delay effects. Beyond Acapulco has an outstanding trance groove whereas Dave Schmidt (SULA BASSANA) is using his spacebass as the second solo guitar. The twin guitars are coming near to Manuel Göttsching's typical repetitive guitar style and spiked with Neumeier's american native vocals the song is haunting and grows to a dynamic finale.

Gofinger is really surprising because nobody might expect they are ever playing a jazzy rocking piece. And even this is successful with a very good drive. The band members and first of all Ax Genrich are demonstrating their qualities again. Urug comes in a very experimental krautrock atmosphere - ambient and spacy elements which are lacking of any rhythm first but then gliding into a three minute part with a repetitive bass work.

LSD & Uschi Nerke seems to be a reminscence of the old wild times. Uschi Nerke has been a presenter of Radio Bremen from 1965 to 1972 and she deserved to announce a lot of new experimental prog bands on television. The movies always had been provided with a special psychedelic trippy visualisation. So the begin of this song is a confusing one wheras no-one knows in which direction the trip is going to - very gripping. The track is meandering through vague dimensions for a long time but the three musicians are free from giddiness with their excellent interplay and deliver a furious end once more. The audience is enthusiastic.

PSYCHEDELIC MONSTERJAM have arranged a diversified album of live recordings - far more than 'simple' psychedelic jams. The band is confirming its name by all means - difficult to describe so I absolutely recommend to listen to it. Don't miss the train - sorry - the intergalactic travel agency of course.

As I mentioned in my review of their debut, the band's name is Neumeier Genrich Schmidt not Psychedelic Monsterjam as shown on the site here. Psychedelic Monsterjam was the name of a series of live events put on in Wurzburg, Germany in the early 00's that this trio participated in. They also named their first album "Psychedelic Monsterjam" but it's not the name of the band. In fact, you won't see that name anywhere on this second disc. What a great album title for this kind of music "The Intergalactic Travel Agency".

The appeal of these two live releases is first of all the re-uniting of GURU GURU legends Mani Neumeier and Ax Genrich after decades apart. Then throw in the young guy, Dave Schmidt(Sula Bassana) from ZONE SIX, ELECTRIC MOON and more. Then add the desire of these three musicians to perform improvised music in the style of GURU GURU's first two albums "Ufo" and "Hinten' and people in the know would be going crazy over these live shows. Listening to these two discs is the next best thing I suppose.

And I have to say that last track "LSD & Uschi Nerke" is such an awesome title. Look at the cover art. Yeah, they look wired. And the name in that final tune Uschi Nerke was a well known actress in Germany who hosted a popular weekly Beat Club music show. So connecting this good looking lady to Krautrock is pretty cool. Krautrock being the polar opposite to Beat music.

The music from the two live discs they released in '04 and '05 were taken from the same two shows they did in Zurburg, a couple of months apart. For the first disc they went for the gusto with most of the high energy music they performed, plus the three covers of GURU GURU songs. So you'd think that would be my favourite, but I prefer the tracks they chose for this second one. There's more space to breathe. There's even some haunting passages on the final two tracks with dark atmosphere. Come on! "Gofinger" has a lot of picking from Ax, hence the title. "Beyond Acapulco" even has some vocal expressions on it and Ax lights it up big time at one point.

This may not rock as hard here as on the first one, but the trip is more interesting on this one, more psychedelic, and I like the contrasts.