STRANGE GUYS

German ( strange ) guys...supposedly krautrock.....havent heard their first ones...but this one is..ahem sort of...ordinairy stuff.....starting with an instrumental..."Aeronaut" which is quite ok.....then leading to songs ( and i do mean songs) this is where krautmusik won its title!! In all, this is not a record to write home about!! Sure there are some memorable moments.....but hey...if you´re into krautrock...go for Birth control !! Which is far better than these guys....sorry...Mythos !! Still "Aeronaut " is a fine track !!! 2 stars for that!!!

It's no wonder Mythos was never able to gain any career traction. Guitarist / front man Stephan Kaske was always struggling to keep up with changing times, and when he reassembled the band yet again in 1977 it was the third entirely new line-up in three consecutive albums.

Received opinion says the band, like so many others, lost a step when they simplified their style at the end of the decade. I would argue the opposite, at least for this effort: that once he was out from under the influence of Kosmische Rock guru R.U. Kaiser (on the lam in 1977 after the COSMIC JOKERS scandal), Kaske delivered his strongest album to date.

The sound was far more commercial, to be sure, but at the same time more focused, showing more muscle and punch in a single song than in both their previous albums combined. And because the band (in whatever formation) never had a firm grasp on the underlying ethos of Krautrock to begin with, the shift to a more transparent style didn't seem like such a retrograde sell-out.

That newfound energy is immediately apparent in the opening "Aeronaut", a relentless guitar-and-synth rifferama that I wish had continued for more than its five driving minutes. But the sudden ending makes for an effective transition to the much calmer title track, where you'll find a lingering echo of the band's Krautrock past, in the haunting combination of delicate flute and acoustic 12-string guitar. Here and elsewhere the power chords give way to brief moments of almost pastoral beauty, reminiscent of early GENESIS but in a more Germanic minor key.

Stephan Kaske wisely delegated lead-guitar duties to newcomer Sven Dohrow, who does his macho Arena-Rock thing all over songs like "Aeronaut" and "Powerslide", the latter sounding not unlike HAWKWIND demolishing a discotheque. Kaske's insecure vocals were still a weak link, but with the much stronger instrumental backdrop his singing wasn't such a conspicuous liability as before.

The end of the 1970s were in sight, but for the time being there was more than enough touches of ersatz-Prog Rock creativity to hold a fan's interest: in the pinpoint tempo changes of "Mysterious Scene"; the quasi-Celtic vibe of "Terra Incognita"; and the JETHRO TULL-like jamming of "Backstage Fumble" (gotta love that unexpected, Teutonic doo-wop vocal interlude too...) The album artwork is crummy, and the title itself is a little misleading: these guys weren't strange at all, although I suppose it sounded more attractive than "Derivative Guys". But at the end of the day this will probably be the one Mythos album I return to most.

Who actually knows the truth behind Mythos' constant line-up changes?Sure thing is Kaske moved to the second half of the 70's without the help of Robby Luizaga or Hans-Juergen Puetz (he went on to join Touch).He didn't spend much time in finding their replacements, he actually added three new members, Sven Dohrow on guitar/Mellotron, Ronny Schreinzer on drums and Eberhard Seidler on bass.This Mythos quartet recorded the album ''Strange guys'' in two different, weekly sessions in November 77' at Dierks Studio and the album was released at the fall of the year on Dieter Dierks' own, short-lived Venus label.

Three different cores, three different distribiuting labels and three stylistical changes is the story of Mythos until 1977.These were some ''Strange guys'' indeed, or better said Kaske was the strange guy, as he refused to settle in a particular style and this third album finds his band attempting a blend of a classic Kraut Rock sound with more synth-drenched soundscapes and experiments, propably far from the true cosmic flavor of German acts of the style and more into a HAWKWIND meet ELOY style.The edgy and neurotic synth splashing of ''Aeronaut'' might give the listener the idea of Mythos becoming a late-70's progressive joke, but soon things will get better.There are too many styles in here to classify the album, the basic principle is still a Teutonic-inclined insistence on rhythmic textures with changing tempos and breaks into acoustic territories, propelled by the narcotic drumming and the mascular bass plays.But among the mass of these principles Kaske would introduce the epic atmospheres of ELOY from the ''Ocean''-era along with some sharper Hard Prog links, characterized by the fiery electric guitars and the odd synth lines.Occasional Folk and symphonic underlines are added via the flute and keyboard parts and the long tracks present a tight mixture of stylistical variations, performed with consistency and coherence and swirling around spacious and rockin' interventions.

This one belongs definitely among the most original late-70's prog outputs.It's spacious, energetic and even poetic music, but above all it's solid Kraut-Prog Rock with some fascinating instrumental work.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars