AT THE CLIFFS OF RIVER RHINE

Krautrockers Agitation Free play a care-free, laid-back style of instrumental Prog, where comparisons to THE GRATEFUL DEAD may be valid (in terms of certain sonic elements anyway) ; the superb playing of bassist Michael Gunther can be easily mistaken for the Dead's bassist, Phil Lesh, both in tonal colour and execution, and lead-guitarist Lutz Ulbrich can sound similar to dear ol' Jerry Garcia. One can also detect vibes of early 70's PINK FLOYD. Mellow jams are the order of the day on this fantastic sounding Live recording, mainly tunes which were featured on their '2nd' album, and a lengthy, hitherto unreleased piece entitled 'Through the Moods'. To be honest, the songs which appeared on '2nd' sound a lot tighter and crisper here. Keyboardist Michael Hoenig provides plenty of spacey textures with his organ and experimental sounds from his synthi, drummer Burghard Rausch compliments the melodic excursions of Gunther perfectly as well as driving the tunes along in smooth fashion, and Gustl Lutjens offers up tasteful rhythm guitaring. They didn't call themselves Agitation Free for nothing !! The short-lived vinyl specialists Amber Soundroom released this with a very fitting 70's Psychedelic artwork by Helmut Wenske (who provided Nektar with their trippy album covers) but it's not as attractive as the cover depicted here.... 4 solid stars.