PSY VALLEY HILL

GURUMANIAX is a new cooperation of Ax Genrich and Mani Neumeier. Both were Guru Guru founding members in the late 1960s. Genrich left in 1974 to take other steps and, when nobody ever expected something like a reunion anymore, after 30 years they came together again in 2004 to form the new improv trio Psychedelic Monsterjam featuring Dave Schmidt aka Sula Bassana - with the result of exciting gigs and two live albums. Probably it was the death of the other early Guru Guru member Uli Trepte last year which involuntarily forced this new collaboration. And yes, indeed one album track is dedicated to him. Bassist Guy Segers, founding member of Univers Zero, is aboard this time in order to produce some new studio output.

They came together due to some successful jamming with Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple) and David Allen (Gong) at the Zappanale Festival.in Germany one year before. 'Psy Valley Hill' consists of excellent space jams, in some way reaching for the old spirit with a reasonable krautrock/avantgarde touch. Mani Neumeier opens the first dynamic track Drumoroto with his typical tribal drive where Genrich later comes in with a blend of heavy riffing, cosmic and soloing guitars - Guy Segers finally adds a furious signature too. This fades into the long track Spaceship Memory - quasi in memorial of the last song taken from the second Guru Guru album 'Hinten'. And indeed, including hallucinatory meandering parts, this sounds very reminiscent, however even better, provided with more trickiness and improved recording quality - in any case a masterful prototype of space rock.

Obviously coming as an excerpt of a longer jam the grooving Telefonladies is underlaid with multilingual telephone call announcements where Ghost Of Odin opens the door for more unique krautrocked impressions, for example a mysterious halting rhythm coupled with an ethno world component. Voodoo Touch on the other hand shows a bluesy resp. jazzy beat provided with multiple tricky guitar layers. And then Electrosaurus is made of some industrial avantgarde elements, significant for Neumeier's collaboration with 'Space Explosion' featuring Faust and Cluster members. Without describing every song this hopefully makes it clear that 'Psy Valley Hill' is an entertaining production really.

Maybe GURUMANIAX can be treated as an oldie band if you will, consisting of members high in the 60s. But you can feel a fresh and innovative atmosphere when listening. The reason is the synopsis of experience and never ending joy of playing music which is listenable, but also off the beaten track in some way. I am excited to have the possibility to see them live soon. This stuff is highly recommended to krautrock fans, so much the more to space rock lovers. You won't regret.

Debut album of let say krautrock supergroup - two founder members of Guru Guru plus founding member of Universe Zero on bass in new band released their debut 35+ years after their peak time!

Music is modernized spacey and slightly psychedelic jamming. Guys for sure know how to play kraut, and you will hardly find technical mistakes there. Even more - compositions there sound as bridge between krautrock of early 70-s and modern spacey prog. I believe heavy fans of early Guru Guru's works will enjoy this music a lot!

For me ( I really love some Guru Guru albums, but more from their jazz fusion period) this music sound as pleasant memorabilia. Being really nice spacey psychedelic, compositions there even don't pretend they are something new, experimental or at least strongly refreshed. Pleasant listening for old fans ? nothing else.

It's not so bad to have such album for listening and even more - to see kraut legends playing live. But I am sure this album is far from being an event in modern krautrock, and it will hardly attract new listeners to that genre.

As a fan of both Guru Guru and Univers Zero, I knew when I heard about this one that I wanted to check it out. The album turned out to be quite a lot of fun, and on terms of how much of each band is felt here...it's definitely a Krautrock album, as opposed to a RIO/Avant. I don't have any problem with that though (actually I like Krautrock stuff at least as much as most RIO/Avant).

These guys, though all getting up there in age, are still all highly energetic players. Neumeier especially is impressive. Listening to his drumming is always great, as I've found he's one of the more expressive and playful drummers on the scene. He doesn't disappoint here. Ax is a great guitarist, and the crazy stuff he does on Spaceship Memory especially is a ton of fun. I am a sucker for guitar with delay and/or echo, and he uses them here. Last, but certainly not least, is Guy and his bass. He and Mani seem to play very well together, as they make a pretty monstrous rhythm section. Some of the time he's got some fuzz going on with his playing, which again is something I always enjoy. Even when he's not playing fuzzy, he's usually playing a fun bass line.

This album doesn't really bring anything "new" to the table, but I can't say I was expecting that to begin with. I was only expecting a good album with three musicians enjoying themselves and playing some fun music, and that's exactly what I got. If you're a fan of Guru Guru or some of the similar Krautrock/space rock groups, I'm sure you'll enjoy this album. Fans of Univers Zero, don't expect anything similar here because of Guy. This is another good 2010 album, though not one of the absolute best I've heard.

This is a great new project from Mani and Ax both GURU GURU members along with Guy Segers from UNIVERS ZERO who adds some killer bass as well as some loops on one track. I really dig this spacey and dark style of music and if you know each of the three members you know the instrumental work is as good as it gets.

"Drumoroto" opens with some amazing sounding drum work then the guitar eventually joins in making some noise. Love the bass too. How good is this ! Incredible stuff that reminds me of early GURU GURU. "Spaceship Memory" opens with spacey sounds then this beat comes in and builds. It all settles back with spacey winds then the bass and guitar take over as they meander about in the background when the winds stop. "Telefonladies" as the title suggests concerns phone operators who we hear in the background as the band jams. "Ghost Of Odin" has this fairly slow paced beat as guitar expressions help out.Deep bass lines too. It turns intense late then fades away.Very cool tune.

"Voodoo Touch" has a good beat with guitar and bass throughout. "Electrosaurus" opens with experimental sounds. A slow but heavy rhythm comes in and it's dark. "Psy Valley" has these intricate drums, prominant bass and spacey sounds that echo. A change late as it lightens to end it. "For Uli T." is laid back with fat bass lines.The guitar starts to echo.I like this one a lot.

Easily 4 stars and one of the highlights of 2010 for me. For me it's such a bonus to get new Krautrock or Zeuhl these days.Thanks guys ! Attention Tom Ozric ! They have this available on vinyl, just thought you'd like to know.