IHRE KINDER

I understand there wasn't a panel of Krautrock experts guiding the bands on what not to play, and what to play. But the English singing for most of these bands was part of the protest against the lame Beat music of the 60's in Germany. The popular music of the day consisted of German vocals with short and catchy tunes. So to counter this, many Krautrock bands would sing in English, and have these long and experimental songs. This makes me think of the RIO movement and how those five original bands from five different countries actually had a meeting in Switzerland to discuss what the RIO movement was all about. There was little agreement, even on why they were playing this stuff. So yeah, Krautrock was in a sense the wild west back then. Add the electronic bands too who drifted into Krautrock.

So this 1970 album originally was under 40 minutes and eleven tracks. All German singing and quite catchy. Surprising and disappointing. This would be re-issued with each track doubled with the English and German versions, doubling the length of the recording in our cd age of course. I kind of like a lot of this but there's no way I'm going more than 3 stars.

The early lineup included Sonny Hennig (vocals, piano), Muck Groh (guitar), Karl Mack (bass), Georg Meyer (flutes, vocals) and Peter Schmidt (drums) but by the time the band changed its name to IHRE KINDER (Your Children) and released its debut self-titled album in 1969, Mack was replaced by bassist Walti Schneider and Schmidt by drummer Roland 'Olders' Frenzel who also doubled as an extra guitarist. Providing background vocals was Claudia N'ke, who appeared under the stage name "Judith Brigger.' While it sound utterly ludicrous by today's standards, IHRE KINDER was one of the pioneers of German language rock and was met with great skepticism for having done so.

Rock was an English language genre after all but along with other pioneering artists like The Blizzards and Ton Steine Scherben, IHRE KINDER quickly bridged those gaps and found a greater acceptance in the up and coming 70s music scene. Nevertheless when IHRE KINDER was proposed to any potential record labels, none were interested in this strange style of rock sung in German and Jonas Porst was forced to release the album independently. Despite all efforts this debut album was met with little interest and the newly gestated Deutschrock had to wait a few more years for cultural acceptance. IHRE KINDER's eponymous debut album contained 12 rather unremarkable folk pop songs that took the beat sounds of the 60s and added some psychedelic organ and flute but despite the rather ho hum performances has gone down as a classic as one of the very first records to use the German language in the context of rock music, a form of popular music that would become known as Deutschrock.

IHRE KINDER's debut is certainly a product of the time. Even if you don't understand the German language the album reeks of hippie idealism and the sounds to match. Fortified with catchy pop hooks and a mix of male and female vocals, these easy going tracks are fairly uniform in how they follow the same formula as they capture the zeitgeist of the beat era of the mid-60s while adding only small doses of the more contemporary sounds that were developing in the world of Krautrock. Honestly if it weren't for the album's status as first Deutschrock album then this debut by IHRE KINDER would be considered by most as utterly forgettable as the production is horrendously amateur, the pop hooks are bland and the singers sound like they got very drunk at a beer hall and jumped up on stage for the first time.

While this debut is unspectacularly boring, the band would improve beginning with its sophomore album '2375004' and would stick around on the scene until 1974 as it adopted more of the progressive sounds that were taking over the German music scene. While this album is really not all that interesting, it is of interest from a historical perspective if you're interested in how German rock was evolving in the 60s and if you are a student of the German language, this one is filled with easy to understand lyrics that use simple vocabulary. In short, this debut by IHRE KINDER is nothing more than a bunch of rather bland folk pop songs and the only interesting sounds are the experimental weirdness that graces the last minute of the album's playing time.

2.5 rounded down

The music here is competent. They haven't walked the easiest way and there are places where you can enjoy the guitar, the drums and the best ingredient the saxophone. Unfortunately this saxophone isn't used so much on the album, it could have been used much more advantageously. The musicians were Sonny Hennig on vocals and keyboards, Tommi Röder on bass, saxophone and guitar and vocals, Walti Schneider on bass and vocals, Günter Storch on drums and Wolf Stumm och guitar.

The best song is where the saxophone could glisten, in "Für dich und mich", a pleasant an recommended song. Also "Stunden" and "Die graue stadt" has a lot of fine parts and fine melodies I like. They have more intentions than the rest. Over all though these compositions are boring in my ears. The has write some music just after the book and aren't progressive in a musical way here. I guess much of the glory in the music lies in the lyrics, but I haven't studied them. Indeed the music feels old, but in this case it isn't a benefit. On some of the songs the vocals also are rather unpleasant. I like the tracks: 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12 even if they aren't fantastic. The rest don't intrigues me. This will only get two stars from me. You'd rather listen to "Leere Hände" a wonderful disc by Ihre Kinder.

This album contains music from a well playing quite dark and groovy band which aren't progressive in matter of creativity or strange melodies, they are sprung from another tradition. Some tracks are light but the majority are quite dark. "Toter soldat" is one of the best tracks on the album and it is also the most experimental(7/10). The best track though is "Mutter bekommt ein Kind"(8/10) which is very embracing and I love the saxes here played, a little bit like those in Van der Graaf Generator's music(8/10). "Strassenkind" is also worth naming as a wonderful and interesting prog ballad(8/10). I would also recommend you to hear "Mantel im wind"(7/10). Otherwise the songs are rather ordinar and I guess you need to know German to perfect get the music, when a lot of its interest lies in the lyrics.

This band know how to play rock music and you'd hear some of the songs with satisfiction. But when you hear much, the variation would be too small. It's not a challenging type of music really. Three stars!

Werdohl's cover is a red knobbly one with an unsharp photography of the band and its sign is written in old germanic style. The musicians on the record are Sonny Hennig(vocals and keyboards), Muck Groh(guitar, trombone), Tommi Röder (bass, saxophone, guitar, vocals), Georgie Meyer(flute, bells, vocals), Olders Frenzel(drums, guitar) and Ernst Schultz(guitars, bass and vocals). It was released fourty-three years ago and now to the music.

I enjoyed this listening very much. I love music in German over all, it's a poetic language and Sonny Hennig's voice is smooth and nice to listen to. I would recommend some of these songs particularly such as "Schlaf-Lied", amongst the best, with a clanging sweet melody(8/10) and the starter "Babylon" which is both catchy and has its own feeling(7/10). "Worte" was darker also I think one of the best(8/10) such as the longest "Werdohl" where the different instruments do their job often lonely. The track is partially very dramatic and poetic(7/10).

Even if I enjoyed my two listenings very much I find this music a little bit too much unchallenging. Almost every song gave me the same feeling and I would have wanted something more fanatic or experimental. The record also lacks favourite tracks which I want to hear again and again. Therefore a rating of three stars would be enough.

Done in the early seventies the music is full of the clear sound of rock, mixed with emotion and som progressive touches. Those toaches is for example the flute and the keyboards which are palpable over the full album. Ihre Kinder made up by Olders Frenzel(drummer), Sonny Hennig (vocalist, keyboard player), Muck Groh(guitarist), Georgie Meyer(flutist, bells, vocals), Walti Schneider(bassist, vocals) and Ernst Schultz(guitarist, bassist, percussionist, vocals).

The best song is the title track "Leere Hände" which is a little proggy but very nice pop song with clever keys and great singing. That is a track you want to play again and again. The second best track is "Strasse ohne Ziel" which perhaps has a deeper and more proggy feeling, also a beautiful song. "Ich kann dir nichts geben", "Hilf mir" and "Nimm deine liebe" would I also consider very good tracks. The others are also worth listening.

This is a quite easy achieved record from the Germans "Ihre Kinder". I love the sweet voice and the great compositions. It's music with skillful song writing, not especially progressive but attractive. To me it works very well and they're getting my four stars. 3,77 becomes 4 when I round it up. You can also listen to the songs in English, "Empty hands" for example is very good.