UFO

While a lot of the really early psychedelic bands were very strange, the band that currently holds the position of weirdest sounding band from that era either goes to Amon Duul II, or Guru Guru. While Amon Duul II went for more of a madcap, insane, atmospheric route, Guru Guru instead opted for a more noisy, garage rock tinged style, heavy in distortion and general noise. I haven't listened far into their discography yet, but from this album, I can say that I don't enjoy them quite as much as Amon Duul II or Can, but it's definitely a high quality album with enough variety and inspiration to remain interesting throughout its entirety, and definitely an incredibly interesting one.

The album is split quite cleanly into 2 halves, each with their own sort of style, with side 1 being made up of energetic, off the wall bass grooves and jamming, distorted sounding guitar. The occasional appearance of vocals in Stone In further adds to the weirdness of this song, being sparse and drowned out by everything else, sounding lonly vaguely like an attempt to actually sing, more sounding along the lines of general vocal noises. I love the last minute of this song, where the constant bassline escalates slowly while a layer of fuzz over the sound becomes increasingly prominent while the guitar becomes more random and all over the place, and it's definitely a track that makes an immediate impression on you. Girl Call starts off in a slower manner, with a more gradual buildup into the wall of noise that is to come, with a scratchy, all around nasty guitar tone that I really love for its gritty nature. The second half of the song is really where things shine however, the song speeds up an ends up sounding heavily garage rock, similar to if the 13th Floor Elevators decided to go in an even weirder direction than what they did. Next Time See You At The Dalai Lhama is easily my favourite song here however, being somwhat more structured, but also even further carrying the 13th Floor Elevators sound in certain respects, reminding me of the song Roller Coaster, with a messy, yet relentless pace that seems to be in a constant state of tripping over itself, but always picking itself back up and running with it. This is also the one song that has something vaguely resembling something catchy in the form of that constant, off kilter beat and riff that just never seems to end, which adds another layer of greatness to it, making it incredibly trippy all around.

The secon half of the album is less eventful, instead focusing on ambience and soundscapes, obviously none of them sounding even close to normal. There are a lot more instances of sonic experimentation here, and its an interesting listen, the issue is that in the case of the title track, I really don't feel like it warrants being over 10 minutes long, and that a couple of minutes from the start could have been removed to make the rising guitar chords and sound similat to that of a rocket blasting off come that much quicker. I like aspects of this song for sure, but on the whole, I feel like it could have used some trimming. Der Lsd-Marsch is a better take on this ambient approach, having an ominous feel to it, with a creeping bassline and a constantly increasing volume on the distorted guitar chords. There's a slightly stronger semblace of traditional krautrock here, with the repetitive nature of the beats, which I appreciate, as it's then contrasted by the heavy psyche sound that the band puts forward. Definitely a great song that closes off the album in an excellent manner.

I'm definitely looking forward to checking more of this band out, as this album was amazing to me, combining ekements of heavy psyche and garage rock into their sound to make a noisy, unconventional record that ticks many boxes for me. The groovier songs are where this album shines the most, but those slower, more subtle ones definitely have a lot of merit as well. This is definitely not an accessible album, with the entire 36 minute journey being drenched in layers upon layers of noise and distortion, but at the same time, this album is great for those into that sort of psychedelic rock. Definitely a great, albeit slightly flawed krautrock album that is almost one gigantic high, if not for some sections of its title track.

Best songs: Stone In, Next Time See You At The Dalai Lhama, Der Lsd-Marsch

Weakest songs: Ufo

Verdict: While not an easy album to get into, due to the highly experimental, freeform nature of these songs combined with an almost constant heavy, distorted nature, those who are into heavy psyche and the more strange side of krautrock will find this to at the very least be an interesting album, and at most find it to be absolutely great.