MOTHER UNIVERSE

According to Jürgen Dollase, there was still a tendency towards Hippie-Rock styles in early-70's in Germany and the crowd was not prepared to accept the more symphonic side of Wallenstein.As a result ''Blitzkrieg'' received mixed reviews, while Dollase had also to face the preference of producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser towards a more folky style, influenced by the talents of Jerry Berkers.However Berkers, having served as a young man in the Vietnam war, was mentally ill, resulting often to day-long disappearances.Through these storms Wallenstein managed to record their second album ''Mother universe'' again at Dierks Studios in Cologne, a work released in 1972 on Pilz, featuring Dollase's grandmother on the front cover.

Of course Wallenstein's crew was way too talented to offer a miserable album despite the huge problems around the band and now the frenetic styles of their debut was combined with some softer British-influenced early Prog Rock, similar to KING CRIMSON and CRESSIDA.So, the tracks are somewhat split between powerful Kraut-Rock pieces with heavy organ and punchy guitar parts and more elaborated Symphonic Rock with monster Mellotron themes and smooth piano lines.Lush orchestrations and atmospheric vocals are the basic components of the later tracks, which also feature some smooth interplays with piano, keyboards and guitars.The more energetic tracks are definitely more original with a nice dose of Classical influences mixed with melodic guitars and bombastic Kraut Rock grooves, led by piano, bass and drums.Some of the furious and messy breaks of the debut are completely gone, instead there is place for tracks like ''Relics of the past'', which was rather a step backwards for the group, offering hippy-styled Psychedelic/Folk Rock among more demanding and rich arrangements.Anyway, the album remains quite charming all the way with a high level of musicianship and mostly interesting material.

Needless to say this was the last album of Wallenstein with this line-up, a good work of Symphonic/Heavy/Kraut Rock with a flexible sound, that mostly works well but not always succesful.The top tracks though are pretty great and ''Mother universe'' deserves a warm recommendation.