MOTHER UNIVERSE

With leader Jurgen Dollase's grandmother occupying both the front and back cover of this gatefold album, you'll probably look to see if this is a rock album or not. Again produced by the unavoidable Dieter Dierks and released the same year (72), as their debut album Blitzkrieg, on the legendary Pilz label, containing shorter tracks (max 9-mins), Wallenstein's Mother Universe is a somewhat not-that-worthy successor, as it lacks the constant brilliance of its predecessor, but seems often uninspired as well. Unchanged line-up, but Dollasse added an organ to his keyboard battery, and he (with bassist Berkers) sings much much much more than previously and on every track, which is certainly not helping MU's cause.

If the opening 9-mins title track offers pretty much what was available on Blitzkrieg (but not quite as well executed or well-written), the following Braintrain opens on a organ-driven hard rock, but halfway through the track, it suddenly changes with Dollasse singing (not well) over his piano, the track becoming quickly tiresome, partly because of the weak arrangement of a poor songwriting and uninspired melody line. The track slowly rebuilds to its original hard groove and even finishes heroically, but the damage was done and irreparable. Shakespearesque starts much like the title track, but stays for most of its duration in the quiet acoustic mode with Berkers singing (not really better than Dollasse, imho) and once it speeds up, it just goes awfully wrong with an atrocious synth sound aggravating this bad outro.

Opening the flipside, the 8-mins Dedicated to Mistery (SIC) Land is an organ-driven hard rocking with an interesting riff, but the track goes awry as soon as Dollase starts singing. Berkers sings (and mispronounces) Relics Of The Past, a folky tune that overstays its welcome by a few minutes. The closing Golden Antenna is a guitar-dominated messily written track, but it has the merit to entice some enthusiasm, something not often found on this sophomore effort.

Not long after the release of MU, Berkers will quit the group, Dollasse and Grosskopf participating in a few musical projects, including the then-famous Cosmic jokers, then back together with Barone will release their third Wallenstein album Cosmic Century with a very different sound, which was just about as well, given the dead end they were stuck in.

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