ALL WILL BE CHANGED

3.5 starss really

This group started in the 60's as The City Preachers (a German-Irish folk band that included future Slapp Happy's Dagmar Krause), but by the turn of the decade, the remaining quartet had formed Frumpy, started playing their first gig in France (the KB Jean Jacques Kravetz is French) and in August recorded their debut album, which sold quite well (Frumpy is one of the better selling full-blown German prog bands of those years), partly due to their transparent chameleon artwork gatefold plastic cover. This artwork and the more stupendous one from their second album were worthy of the Vertigo label, but by the time of their third album and Phillips (the owner of Vertigo) switching them there , Frumpy's best moments were gone.

This guitar-less quartet is an example that it is possible to have a keyboard sound without sounding like ELP, and this is not only due to Inga Rumpf's instantly recognizable voice, but Kravetz long (but never boring) keyboard (mainly organs) workouts and Carsten Bohn's inventive drumming.

After the short opener Life Without Pain, the single, Rosalie (14 min+) is a very dramatic track full of great soloing and Rumpf's bluesy vocals. With Indian Rope Man, the album reaches a peak in tension, while Morning (the opener on the other side of the slice of wax) is more of a hard driving machine (the single's B-side). The Floating/Baroque track is plagued by lenghty and experimental solos (which have not really aged well, but are not completely devoid of charms, even the drum solo is good (IF you can consider one good ;-). The Cd releases holds two bonus tracks, which from memory sound fairly different and with a guitar, making you think that they date from the second album, once guitarist Rainer Bauman had joined them.

Certainly a product of its time, with that typical raw sound that only German bands elevated to a form of art, Frumpy's debut album is a full blown-prog album that deserves to be heard, but progheads be aware that it is not flawless.

For those of you who were there when this album was released, FRUMPY was one of the classic rock bands with its distinctive vocalist Inga Rumpf. I was just 10 years old at that time and by the time I knew the band it was 5 years late already through their legendary hit "Singing Song". From this song it was quite obvious that the unique quality of the band was basically at its lead singer, especially with her unique timbre. The story started when four musicians were all members of Irishman O' Brian-Docker's folkband The City Preachers, which was founded in Hamburg in 1965.

The band's debut album "All Will Be Changed" was released in 1970. For me personally, this is an excellent album regardless it's prog or not. It doesn't matter, I think. One thing so peculiar about this album is its sound that really represents the sound of the seventies. Well, talking about 70's music you must have known how the sonic quality of rock music recorded during that time sounds like. This kind of sound is so distinctive that sometimes I compare with the modern sound technology with state of the art digital equipment through the music of Porcupine Tree, for example. I can feel the difference and in a way people might say that modern technology record is much better than the old days but no one now can produce the seventies sounds, do you find one? That's what I really enjoy about this debut album by FRUMPY.

Musically, I also consider that this is an excellent one in terms of songwriting, composition, cohesiveness and musicianship. Jean-Jacques Kravetz plays important role in producing various keyboards sounds especially the use of Hammond organ. Karl-Heinz Schott provides dynamic bass for especially tracks with jazzy touch. Carsten Bohn Bandstand does a good job with his drums. The opening track "Life Without Pain" (3:50) is basically a classic pop music. The band starts its full potential with second track "Rosalie, Part 1" (6:00) - "Otium" (4:22) - "Rosalie, Part 2" (4:14). Hammond organ makes its wonderful solo accompanied with bass guitar work in "Otium". It's really stunning and it's so seventies!

"Indian Rope Man" (3:19) brings the music into different style but still maintaining the singing style of Inga Rumpf. Bass plays dynamic fills accompanying piano as well as organ. It's another good track to enjoy. In "Morning" (3:24) again Karl-Heinz Schott provides dynamic bass in upbeat tempo. It continues seamlessly to "Floating, Part 1" (7:39) followed with Hammond organ solo in "Baroque" (7:36) and it ends excellently with "Floating, Part 2" (1:25).

Overall, I highly recommend those of you who love vintage rock music to purchase this cd. It's an excellent addition to any music collection. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Let's just say better now than never when it comes for Frumpy. I've been aware of them for years, and around the same time I was aware of Frumpy, I was also aware of Atlantis, and I did buy a copy of Atlantis' 1973 debut in 1997 (a German swirl Vertigo copy no less), but at the time I didn't make the Frumpy connection (even though my copy did have a sticker on the front cover mentioning Frumpy). Of course, Atlantis was basically a new Frumpy, a more mainstream band. Both featuring Inga Rumpf (as well as Jean Jacques Kravetz). Atlantis did not exactly blow me away, it seemed more tame, the music wasn't great, it wasn't bad either, but wasn't something that I would visit my turntable on a regular basis, on the other hand, I won't part with it. Maybe it was my experience with Atlantis that made me swear off Frumpy. I was lucky to get an original copy of All Will Be Changed, compete with that gimmick plastic chameleon cover, and let me tell you, it's tons better! "Life Without Pain" sounds like hit potential to me. It has a rather gospel-like feel. It's rather straightforward, but they really get adventurous after this, with the wonderful "Rosalie". "Rosalie" is really disguised as three songs, the first part has a blues influence, with a psychedelic feel to it, I really love that organ. The second part is basically a great, extended organ solo from Kravetz before the third part, which is basically more or less how it began. Next two songs are shorter and more straightforward with their cover of Richie Havens' "Indian Rope Man" (at that time already covered by Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger & the Trinity as well as Warm Dust, an early band with Paul Carrack) and "Morning". I really dig that organ work on the latter. "Floating" is another extended piece disguised as three songs, like "Rosalie" bookended by Inga Rumpf's singing, while the middle part is Jean-Jacques Kravetz's spotlight, this time he takes a much more experimental approach, but there is also an extended drum solo. There's even some Mellotron, an M300. This was recorded in Holland at Phonogram Studios, where Earth & Fire and Ekseption had recorded (and they too used the M300, which apparently that Mellotron belonged to the studio). This is not Krautrock like Can, Amon Duul II, Faust, and the likes. Inga Rumpf's influence is in soul and blues, and obvious she wanted to be a white soul singer, but at the same time didn't want to be confined to soul music and instead exploring progressive rock. While the drum solo and experimental passages might be a bit difficult for some to take, this album still has a lot of great material that I can highly recommend.

I had never heard of this German band until recently, when a friend borrowed me their interesting debut album. I was expecting some kraurock ou space rock stuff and instead what I got was a very blues-rock instrumental trio without guitar (only keyboards, bass and drums) backing a unique vocalist. I was quite surprised by their singer Inga Rumpf: her strong, low registered, bluesy vocals could easily pass by as a man´s voice sometimes. The results are quite stunning, although hardly groundbreaking: in fact, if they were american or english they would be just another band in the same vein of Atomic Rooster, Paladin or Chicken Shack. There are some experimentalism thrown in here and there, but quite what was expected from the time, including the infamous drum solo (a short one, fortunately). For most of the time french keyboardist Jean-Jacques Kravetz runs the show with his above average skills on the Hammond organ, but the rhythm section is equally very good and versatile.

The songs are ok, I guess. Not really my cup of tea, but good for the style and sometimes Kravetz adds some classical influenced themes for good measure, which I liked. They were surely different from most that was being produced in Germany. And certainly they had both the skills and knack for writing decent songs to develop their sound much further.

If you like the style, go for it. Frumpy could be on par with the best organ based blues rock bands of the time. Although All Will Be Changed was not a CD that shook my world, it did spur my curiosity enough to try to get its follow up. And the music here is quite enjoyable too. A nice discovery.

Rating: 3,5 stars.

3.5 stars. The debut of FRUMPY in 1970 certainly put them on the map in Germany. Maybe as much as this album caught the public's attention it was the live shows. And what young guy wouldn't want to see Inga in her leather pants belting it out on stage. As talented as she was, keyboardist Jean-Jacques Kravitz might trump her. I feel like the followup has spoiled me for this one. "2" is a 4.5 star album in my books. They slowed it down with better compositions and adding a guitarist was huge. A lot of the music on the debut here is uptempo to a fault. I just get tired of the relentless organ and vocals after a while. A little samey in that regard but there are some experimental bits on "Floating Part 1" and "Baroque". The band by the way was previously known as THE CITY PREACHERS before becoming FRUMPY. So a really good start by this band and they hit it out of the park with the next one.