STARRING ROSI

We were introduced to Manuel Gottsching's girlfriend Rosi on the previous record "Join Inn" released earlier the same year as this one in 1973. She did some spoken word stuff on that second side long track and I felt she really added to the recording. So yes I had high hopes for "Starring Rosi" thinking this might be in the same ball park as to what Gilli and her space whispers were doing with GONG during this time frame. No it's not in the same ball park, but to be fair the compositions here are weak compared to what GONG was writing.

So while Rossi may not be the best um... singer, she didn't get a lot of help with the material that was written for this. This just seems like a lazy recording that lacked inspiration, and perhaps that artificial joy as well. This is not ASH RA TEMPEL. Klaus Schulze isn't here and neither is Hatmut Enke, so Manuel has to expand his role by playing bass, synths, electric piano and mellotron. The one good thing he did was bring in drummer Harald Grosskopf despite his minimal role. I feel like Gottsching just wanted to do everything to help Rossi succeed by putting this under the ASH RA TEMPEL name and calling it "Starring Rosi", but in the end it failed. At least it failed as an ASH RA TEMPEL album.

This was recorded at Dieter Dierks studio and he would add bass to the final track. Some variety here and that 8 minute opener "Laughter Loving" might be my favourite despite sounding a lot like the ALLMAN BROTHERS. Trippy, and I like Rossi's vocals that echo at times. I also like the short instrumental "Schizo" for the atmosphere and guitar. "The Fairy Dance" is the only track with mellotron on it, and we get electric piano on "Bring Me up".

A hit and miss affair that Krautrock fans would do well to take a pass on in my opinion.