NATURE

An interesting band from Germany who released this lone album back in 1971.To me they come off as a "jam" band with a strong Jazz flavour. I must admit this didn't grab me right away, and really it's still growing on me. What appeals to me is the way they mostly just jam as this is almost all instrumental except for the title track sung in English.

"Fugue" is the 16 minute opener. Some nice guitar and organ come and go until the organ and drums start to lead the way. Some nice bass 4 minutes in. A bass solo 7 minutes in as the organ and drums stop. A drum solo 8 1/2 minutes in.The guitar comes in as it settles around 10 minutes. It picks back up a minute later as the guitar leads the way. Organ is back after 14 minutes. "Jokus" is 19 seconds of sounds that echo. "Irgendwas" opens with piano as guitar and affects follow. Organ and guitar lead after 1 1/2 minutes as the tempo picks up. Piano 3 1/2 minutes in as it settles then picks up again.

"A Short Story" opens with organ as drums and guitar join in. This is raw. It's jazzy after 2 1/2 minutes. It calms right down 4 minutes in then builds. The organ is back before 7 minutes as they jam. Great sound the rest of the way. "Nature" is laid back with vocals. I like it. Vocals stop as it kicks in with bass, organ and drums around 2 minutes.The guitar sounds great after 3 minutes as it joins in. Sounds like fuzzed out Farfisa before 4 1/2 minutes. I should mention that in the liner notes it says that "Hendrik acquired a Farfisa organ which he cusomized in order to produce distorted effects like those used by Mike Ratledge of SOFT MACHINE". The vocals and earlier melody are back 7 minutes in to end it. The bonus track "Doors In Between" was recorded live in 1972 and is much like these other tracks. It's over 14 minutes with lots of jamming.

4 stars for me.