BLITZ

Another great effort by this little known and under rated KRAUTROCK PROG BAND! This release finds the THIRSTY MOON boys hard at work again on another prog/space/fusion masterpiece. Almost the whole album is instrumental, featuring cuts of high energy fluid guitar work.A bit more rock than jazz and a hader sound than appeared on earlier releases. Very cutting edge,even by today's standards,and don't forget this was recorded in 1975! This is my second favorite THIRSTY MOON lp:A REAL GOOD TIME being my favorite.This band may not be to everyone's taste,but I never get tired of listening to them! If you have never heard THIRSY MOON,this would be a good choice to start with.

Blitz is a totally instrumental production, realized by two left over members of the original line-up after the band split in 1974.

Norbert Drogies- drums, bass Jürgen Drogies - guitar,keyboards

All instruments on the recordings where played by the two alone and that is what you hear. There is no fresh live-feeling as on the "Thirsty Moon" and "You'll never come back" productions. Now it is a quite calm and sometimes lengthy adventure. No Crowdrock anymore! No polyrythms just straight 4-bar feeling. Instead of jazzy and sometimes unmetric grooves just simple rock-beats. No sophisticated vocal-arrangements or instrument tunes, just simple rock and bare folk melodies. Sometimes you get the feeling: this might be music composed for children?!

On later albums the brothers Drogies&Drogies hired studio musicians for the rest of the part, maybe as they noticed, there is a lack of human touch and Crowd (Kraut).

Among collectors the first two releases are the most sought after, the second "You'll never come back" as the most wanted. It is listed under the "The Krautrock top 100" in Steve and Allan Freeman's book "the crack in the cosmic egg" ISBN 0-9529506-0-X Gr-Britain 1999 The first two albums received the highest critical acclaim and are considered classics in the Krautrock genre. On Ebay auctions the second "You'll never come back" reaches up with prices over $130 (2004) as it seems the most complex representation of the band , as the line up still consist of the original core members.

2.5 stars really, almost three!!!

A rather different album than their previous two, Blitz is a much rockier effort and was not released on the legendary Metronome section of the Brain label and it is again graced with a doubtful taste cartoon artwork by Gil Funccius. By this time, the group had been annexed by the Drogies brothers (have you checked to see I was not joking? ;-), and it sure sounds like it.

Indeed this is almost hard rock with the lead guitar and drums splattered all over it, and the whole thing is not far from a disco beat, having lost all of its previous subtleties. Even if there are still some spacey effects, they sound quite kitsch on this simple instrumental funk rock. As four out of five tracks of the opening side fit this description, only the slower It Was Love differs, but that does not make this slow ballad any more interesting. A real downer after their previous two albums.

After an equally forgetful Sûdwind, the flipside does raise this album's level to a more acceptable overall level with the charming Rainbow (filled with keyboards) and the lengthy upbeat Jungle Of Your Mind (but "marred" with a very lengthy Hawkwind-esque drum/percussion duo. in 76) and the excellent Crickets Don't Cry with finally some decent interplay, inspired tempo changes and brilliant execution.

Quite different than its two predecessor, Blitz is really not that worth the proghead's investigations (let alone the investment), but aside from three pleasant tracks, you'll not find much to quench your thirst.

Wow, what a change in direction! Thirsty Moon's first two studio albums are top notch hard rocking kraut affairs. This one is not. It's difficult to categorize, very uneven, and, for me, unprecedented. Difficult to categorize in that the musical styles jump all over the map. It's uneven in that one minute Thirsty Moon seems to want to sound like early '70's Harvey Mandel - sometimes rough, sometimes funky, all instrumental. The next song tries to emulate the Meters with its looping funky beats and slick percussion. Then Thirsty Moon will do there best 3 minute Kraut rumble like the opening "Lord of Light" that goes into a pre disco tune "Riding in the Rain" that could as easily have been recorded by Mandrill.

This is unprecedented to my ears in that a progressive group taking such a drastic change in sound exploration takes my breath away. It's obvious this record is influenced heavily by american R and B.

It's taken me five years to develop a taste for it's kitsch factor. I love short instrumental albums, funky beats, and truly "experimental" sound. This wasn't experimental music, it was an experimental approach that failed miserably and led to the dismantling of a true Kraut powerhouse. To me, it's an interesting album, an endearing anomoly.

In my collection it gets four stars. For the average prog listener, I'd say it merits two maybe. Therefore, three it is