2

Here is an absolutely killer 70's German underground recording you must hear...wow how come this album is so darn hard to hunt down? Eulenspygel were a wild bunch of music freaks who recorded a fantastic couple of albums with their second in review here. Eulenspygel carried that certain underground German 70's vibe with homemade organ grinds, heavy bass and guitar overlays with heavier vocals, but wow is this album superb. With careful mix of jazz, fusion, prog and rock this album were pretty cleverly arranged and mixed with great imagination, color and tempo shifts. All vocals are sung in German and are done so with great conviction and I understand they are singing about anti-war themes. Fans of Krautrock will need to have this album in their collection..

I definitely agree with James about this being a killer 70's underground recording. Released in 1971 and called "2" because the same band had already released an album unfer the name ROYAL SERVANTS. When they decided to write the lyrics in German instead of English they thought they better change their band name to a German one as well. By the way the "y" in EULENSPYGEL should be an "I" but they were following THE BYRDS lead just to be a little different. And yes the album cover is one of the most tasteless ones i've come across.They actually pulled it off of the market after selling about 7,000 copies and put it back out minus the dead chick. It was still tasteless but better I suppose. The singer has an interesting voice. If your familiar with the German band NOEKK he sounds a lot like him. Gnosis describes his voice as "deep, almost mockingly operatic." I like it. Yes they were one of the first Krautrock band to sing in German. Most kept to English so as not to be associated with pop music in Germany that was always sung in their native tongue. A seven piece band with two guitarists one who also played violin, along with organ, drums, bass, flute and vocals (harmonica too).

"Till" is catchy with a fairly heavy rhythm as vocals join in.The organ also floats in. Nice instrumental section before 2 minutes as the guitar comes in and lights it up. "Son My" is an incredible track. I like the instrumental intro then this dark sounding organ comes in followed by vocals.This is great ! A change after 3 minutes as the guitar comes to the fore after the vocals have stopped. Drums and bass are in the spotlight after 4 1/2 minutes as the synths join in.The guitar is back a minute later. Fantastic sound here.The organ then leads, then guitar as they trade off.The vocals do not return until after 10 minutes.It's haunting to end it.

"Konsumgewasche" is led by drums, organ and vocals early. A jazzy interlude 1 1/2 minutes in and harmonica follows. Organ and marching styled drums before 3 1/2 minutes to end it. "Strub Auf Deinem Haar" has this pulsating organ with drums and vocals also standing out.Violin and guitar come and go.This is a jazzy flavoured track. Nice guitar 2 1/2 minutes in. Flute after 5 minutes as they continue to jam. Drums are the focus 6 minutes in then the vocals return before 7 minutes. Excellent tune. "Die Wunde Bleibt" is a short piece with intricate guitar and cold filtered vocals.

"Das Lied Vom Ende" opens with flute, violin and acoustic guitar. It changes quickly though as it picks up and becomes heavier with vocals.Violin and drums lead before 2 minutes then the organ and other sounds join in.This is great ! Vocals are back after 3 minutes as it settles.The violin is slicing and dicing before 5 minutes.The guitar joins in after 6 minutes.Very cool. Some insane organ runs before 9 minutes.

The lyrics apparently are very left wing and anti-war but also very "out there" at times. An excellent addition to your Krautrock collection.

EULENSPYGEL was a bit different than most of the early German Krautrock bands that emerged in the beginning of the 1970s. While most European bands with the exception of the Italian ones were opting to ditch their mother tongue in lieu of English lyrics, a few steadfast bands chose to stick to what they knew best and sang in their own national lingo. This particular band was one of the few who stuck it out in German and paid the price of marketability in the process. Apparently a variation of the spelling that came from Till Eulenspiegel, a protagonist of a German chapbook that was published in 1515 however the 20th century band EULENSPYGEL was actually the next step of The Royal Servants who released a single album and then changed their name, hence this debut album being titled with the number 2.

Considered one of the politi-rock bands of the era, EULENSPYGEL's lyrics dealt with criticism of Western society, capitalism, environmental degradation and not surprisingly the Vietnam War. Unlike many Kraut bands of the 70s, EULENSPYGEL stuck it though the entire decade and disbanded in 1984 although it only released four albums in the timeframe. Initially, the line-up consisted of Detlev Nottrodt (electric guitar, vocals), Matthias James Thurow (electric guitar, violin, mellotron, sitar), Ronald Libal (electric bass), Mulo Maulbetsch (vocals), Günter Klinger (drums), Cornelius Hauptmann (flute, saxophone) and Karl-Heinz Großhans (keyboard). That's right, seven members but it was Haptmann and Großhans with their classical training that were the primary songwriters of the band.

Despite the disturbing album cover art of a baby chick sitting in a frying pan with another dead chick and frying egg which caused an uproar, EULENSPYGEL's musical style was somewhat of a mix between the keyboard driven hard rock of bands like Birth Control and Frumpy only with moments of jazz and folk added for flavoring. Despite the classical training, EULENSPYGEL 2 sounds more like a jamming process with some improv thrown in for good measure. The general melodic constructs are closer to Deutschrock than progressive Krautrock but there were enough twists and turns, time signature deviations and psychedelic organ runs to let them into the prog club. The band Lied des Teufels comes to mind as the closest musical relative due to the German lyrics, melodic hard rock motifs and prog accoutrements however Rufus Zupall also may be warranted as a comparison.

The album featured six tracks of varying length with the two tracks "Son My (My Lay)" and the multi-suite "Das Lied vom Ende" with playing times of over ten minutes. The album is fairly uniform in its approach with incessant organ driven hard rock not unlike the Deep Purple or Atomic Rooster sound only with occasional flutes, violins and harmonica which at times sound out of place. The musicianship is generally top notch but the band never really reached the level of virtuosity of similar styled bands of the era. At times tracks like "Staub auf deinem Haar" are a bit funky with receptive bass grooves so the album offers a tightrope act between super accessible and marginally experimental. Overall EULENSPYGEL was not one of those cosmic trippers but rather played it safe with a style of psychedelic hard rock that happened to adopt a few jazz and folk elements.

Perhaps my least favorite aspect of EULENSPYGEL are the lead vocals. They are neither horrible nor pleasing. They are just average and although they get the job done i'm not too keen on this guy's German pronunciation. German doesn't have to sound so harsh and this singer exaggerates the harshness. All is pleasant but really EULENSPYGEL 2 doesn't really excel in any particular way either. This is a play it safe sort of album where the band applies a prog by the numbers approach and i'm talking the most accessible prog of the early 70s. This has never been a band that offers a lot of appeal but yet when i listen to this album it's not offensive or misconstrued in any way. It's just not as good as countless other albums from the same era. Oh and that album cover really is awful! WTF, chuck? LOL