AT THE CLIFFS OF RIVER RHINE

This live record features Agitation Free in a thrilling concert at the river Rhine in 1974. A long ways from their Arabian flavoured debut, this record takes their laid back psychedelic guitar driven Krautrock to another level all together.

Apart from the first previously unreleased track, this release concerns itself with their second pinkish album. Enveloped in a delicious Grateful Dead vibe, the music on here takes it's cue from the players and not necessarily the given piece. Sure you're able to spot the different tunes, although they seem to appear in a slightly different dressing.

Boasting a twin guitar attack, meaty drumming, walking bluesy bass lines, and the nervous twitches of electronic gear head Michael Hoenig - this venture drives along like a beautiful black tarmac road. Ever since I first heard it, I pictured myself on an infinitely long and windswept highway doing a 100 miles an hour with chicks, beer and weed in the car. My guess is that it's down to the fluid feel of this baby. The band members seem like they're out of their bodies while performing and some strange alien takeover is in play. Ever get the feeling that your fingers are doing things your mind isn't aware of? Well such is the case here - it certainly feels that way...

With lead guitarist Lutz Ulbrich taking on the role of sonic pathfinder, you effectively get lured into these soaring melodic sections that reek of 1969, San Francisco and acts like the aforementioned Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the more free natured Airplane excursions. If you're an old fart who loves these bands like the very sweater you knitted while experiencing them first-hand, then you could do much worse than picking up this thing.

Backing Lutz up in the guitar department you get the swaying soothing eccentricities of GustI Lütjens. I swear, had this guy been born a couple of decades later, he would surely have been part of the initial crescendo chasing post rock wave. He has a unique way with riffs, and in a live setting he goes from 7 to 32 in a heartbeat(no, I'm not entirely sure what that means either...). Paired up with the remarkable rhythm section of bass man Michael 'Fame' Günther and beats provider Burghard Rausch, the collective forces of this band feel inseparable. If you'd pulled the plug to one of these lads during the concert, my guess is that they'd all fall down in an instant - death by lack of electricity and jam. That's how much they're into one another on a musical level.

I've always pondered how on earth Michael Hoenig went from the quirky style on offer here to his later full on electronic album Departure From The Northern Wasteland. Something drastic must've happened, and while he did make a short cameo in Tangerine Dream in the midst of their velvety Stratosfear era, it still puzzles me a great deal how he managed to go from the avantguarde robotics of Agitation Free to the docile dolphin lotion of his solo album. On this record he wields an entirely original form of synths that more than often has me dreaming up mad images of an electrified coot being stomped on in somewhat rhythmic patterns. Whatever he does, it sure does complement the otherwise suave texture of his surroundings.

This is music for a never-ending road trip in the best Hunter S. Thompson style. Lease the biggest cabriolet you can find, get floral shirts, sunglasses to protect yourself from investigating eyes, and you'll be right as rain and stoked for infinity and beyond. With this release, Agitation Free managed to cook up the musical equivalent to a warm cosy motorway bj. 4.5 stars.

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