NEUMEIER - GENRICH - SCHMIDT

The appeal of these two live releases is first of all the re-uniting of GURU GURU legends Mani Neumeier and Ax Genrich after decades apart. Then throw in the young guy, Dave Schmidt(Sula Bassana) from ZONE SIX, ELECTRIC MOON and more. Then add the desire of these three musicians to perform improvised music in the style of GURU GURU's first two albums "Ufo" and "Hinten' and people in the know would be going crazy over these live shows. Listening to these two discs is the next best thing I suppose.

And I have to say that last track "LSD & Uschi Nerke" is such an awesome title. Look at the cover art. Yeah, they look wired. And the name in that final tune Uschi Nerke was a well known actress in Germany who hosted a popular weekly Beat Club music show. So connecting this good looking lady to Krautrock is pretty cool. Krautrock being the polar opposite to Beat music.

The music from the two live discs they released in '04 and '05 were taken from the same two shows they did in Zurburg, a couple of months apart. For the first disc they went for the gusto with most of the high energy music they performed, plus the three covers of GURU GURU songs. So you'd think that would be my favourite, but I prefer the tracks they chose for this second one. There's more space to breathe. There's even some haunting passages on the final two tracks with dark atmosphere. Come on! "Gofinger" has a lot of picking from Ax, hence the title. "Beyond Acapulco" even has some vocal expressions on it and Ax lights it up big time at one point.

This may not rock as hard here as on the first one, but the trip is more interesting on this one, more psychedelic, and I like the contrasts.

So we have the drummer and lead guitarist from early GURU GURU, then enter the young guy Dave Schmidt from ZONE SIX, ELECTRIC MOON and many other projects, infusing some passionate energy with his spacebass. Love the picture of the guys in the Bio here. We get nine tracks worth almost 80 minutes. All but the three GURU GURU tracks they cover are spontaneous and furious improvs. These guys were on fire! They went into this with the idea of playing in the style that GURU GURU did on their "UFO" and "Hinten" albums. Yeah they did.

Man this is a lot to take in, but I had such a blast with this one. How about covering GURU GURU's "Stone In" and then following that up with their own "Stone Out" in the same style! Those two make my top three as Ax absolutely shreds on "Stone In" while "Stone Out" has a lot of distortion and builds before kicking in hard and ending with laughter."Moonlight Flight" right in the middle here is my other top three at almost 12 minutes, but it's hard not to be blown away by "Electric Junk" at over 18 minutes, or the 11 1/2 minute "Next Time See You At The Dalia Lhama".

To open with a song called "Bong" and then to end with "Mushroom Moon" just seems appropriate doesn't it? 4 stars for this raging jam.

Nuemeier, Genrich & Schmitd as they are collectively known blast their way through 80 minutes of mindblowing experimental music here including 3 improvisational adaptations of early Guru Guru tracks. Although the Guru Guru tracks are easily recognizable the overall focus here is on free form spaced out improv so it shouldn't really be considered a classic Guru Guru reunion per se although it is hard to consider it otherwise because the whole thing nods back to the innovative spontaneous jazz mentality that the early Guru Guru albums were rooted in. If you are one of those vestiges of that era you might be a little bit dissapointed at times. First off , they're playing with updated instruments and not the primitive contrived electronic devices that made Guru Guru sound so weird & wonderful both live and in the studio ca. 1970-71. While the adventurous spirit is still here don't expect a version of "Stone In " or " Electric Junk " that you might have heard back on the earlier studio and live recordings. Also, those who have not bothered with Guru Guru for 30 years might be taken aback by Nuemeier's world music aspirations that started to become increasingly evident from 1973s " Don't Call Us We Call You " the final Guru Guru album on which Genrich played save for a brief appearance on "Mani und seine Fruende" from '75.

No matter, if you are fan of spaced out, drugged out psych explorations regardless of what quadrant of space and time you have emanated from Psychedelic Monsterjam is a timeless Krautrock gem. Unfortunately a physical copy of the CD might be difficult to locate. Limited to only 500 copies it is readily available for legal download on a number of sites on the web. Go nuts.

PSYCHEDELIC MONSTERJAM is a relatively unknown project of three prolific musicians from the german psych and kraut scene. Somewhat astonishing if you consider that two of them had a very successful time with GURU GURU and joined each other after 30 years to play together once again! And incomprehensible because their live gigs had always been a joyful experience. Now this second PSYCHEDELIC MONSTERJAM album, limited to 600 copies, contains some live recordings from the year 2005 with extraordinary space kraut jams in the vein of GURU GURU and ASHRA. Unfortunately the agency is closed now but there is a little hope this isn't the final word.

The listeners are invited to the intergalactic travel with spaced out soundscapes and Mani Neumeier's percussion add-ons. You feel like gliding through the outer space from one planet to the other. But after some minutes of weighlessness the travellers are getting tempo bringing the rhythm branch into action. A very trippy tune developes whilst Ax Genrich gets in with fantastic guitar delay effects. Beyond Acapulco has an outstanding trance groove whereas Dave Schmidt (SULA BASSANA) is using his spacebass as the second solo guitar. The twin guitars are coming near to Manuel Göttsching's typical repetitive guitar style and spiked with Neumeier's american native vocals the song is haunting and grows to a dynamic finale.

Gofinger is really surprising because nobody might expect they are ever playing a jazzy rocking piece. And even this is successful with a very good drive. The band members and first of all Ax Genrich are demonstrating their qualities again. Urug comes in a very experimental krautrock atmosphere - ambient and spacy elements which are lacking of any rhythm first but then gliding into a three minute part with a repetitive bass work.

LSD & Uschi Nerke seems to be a reminscence of the old wild times. Uschi Nerke has been a presenter of Radio Bremen from 1965 to 1972 and she deserved to announce a lot of new experimental prog bands on television. The movies always had been provided with a special psychedelic trippy visualisation. So the begin of this song is a confusing one wheras no-one knows in which direction the trip is going to - very gripping. The track is meandering through vague dimensions for a long time but the three musicians are free from giddiness with their excellent interplay and deliver a furious end once more. The audience is enthusiastic.

PSYCHEDELIC MONSTERJAM have arranged a diversified album of live recordings - far more than 'simple' psychedelic jams. The band is confirming its name by all means - difficult to describe so I absolutely recommend to listen to it. Don't miss the train - sorry - the intergalactic travel agency of course.