HEJ DU

Hej Du is the second album by one of the most familiar danish prog bands Alrune Rod. The album was released as early as 1970 and it is basically a continuation of their first 1969 album. While their debut was a little unfocused and featured long and jammy tracks, this album continues that line only this time the material is much more consistent and coherent. Reminds me of Amon Duul II Yeti compared to Phallus Dei which also coincidentally released simultaneously as Alrune Rod's first two albums. It seems like the band have found the right balance between improvisation and more constructed material and utilized it for the best. The album consists of three tracks, one of them is a 22 minute epic which is considered as one of the band's crowning achievements, with only three tracks the band finds a lot of time to experiment and explore that unmarked prog/psych territory. I must add that not a lot of side long tracks were released up to that point, especially not in Denmark. Their sound is not versatile due to the fact that there are no prominent additional instruments used and secondly the keys are somewhat in "low profile" ,they are always there and there is much to enjoy but just don't expect anything like Emerson, Manfred Mann or other RPI keyboardists. Sound quality is good concerning the year of recording and is warm and enjoyable.

The music is psychedelic hard rock with prominent distorted guitars, my kind of sound actually, definitely resembles Hawkwind or early Floyd, though I wouldn't call this Space Rock. Keys are usually in the back serving the purpose of the song but never comes to the front to solo, they overall strengthen the psychedelic atmosphere. Vocals are in danish and if you can't understand them and I'm sure most of you can't, they are still very good and not that strange sounding. Flemming Giese Rasmussen is the star here which handles those wild guitars, which goes from hard rock to psychedelic jamming, all very good with delicious 70's sounding. Drummer Claus From is quite good but sometimes misses the beat and stumbles for a second, but it overall doesn't ruin my enjoyment.

Du Taler Og Sir' is the album's opener, and it is more hard rock than psychedelic. It starts with some feedback noises and the sound gradually picks up building some tension, and as you think you're gonna be hit with a ton of bricks it changes to a happy beatles-like riff only with distortion, it took me some time to get used to that but it all flows very good from here with good vocals and excellent 70's hard rock guitars. A good starter to get you tuned in.

Hej Du is a 15 minute track. The first 5 minutes are dominated by vocals which I find them to be quite enjoyable, guitars are in the back filling in with all kinds of licks and then breaks out beautifuly just to end the first part and leads you to the psychedelic part, this is where you feel the band really nails it. echoing reverbed guitars, haunting vocals, soft psychedelic organ, what can you possibly need more? This part also builds the tension slowly and breaks it down with a howling scream and some wild guitar a la Hendrix. It continues with some more vocals and more guitars and then ends. Very good stuff indeed!

Perles'en is the main piece here, comprised of several different parts, it goes from one part to the other easily without giving you a feel of a patch work. The band's diving to another successful good psychedelic middle part here with an additional flute to sweeten things up, only this one is darker and more haunting which resembles early Pink Floyd, it slides into my favorite part of the album, fantastic guitar playing again by Geise which totally nails that slow paced rhythm with dazzling fuzzed guitar runs.

So this is another great album from the psychedelic camp that shouldn't be overlooked no more just because of its origins. Those four danes certainly knows their job and would appeal not only to psych fans but to a wider prog audience. Very accessible stuff and definitely worth searching for. Their next album would see the band changing their attitude and experiment much less, so basically this is the one to get. solid 4 stars!