AUF DER BAHN ZUM URANUS

Album opener "Uranus" has a mysterious intro with a spoken overture that explodes into a psychedelic wah guitar section. It then softens down to droning organ lines and a horror film soundtrack passage of quiet and foreboding. Acoustic guitar textures, organ, and wailing psych guitar create an astral psychedelic dream. This first song is the most experimental on the LP, for as it continues, it settles into a mostly guitar-driven groove-oriented acid rock that features quieter interludes interspersed.

While the recording isn't high-quality, it is certainly not lo-fi. It does, however, have a certain haziness to it. It often feels as if it was excavated from a long-hidden time capsule and hasn't had all the dust cleaned off quite yet. It is rough around the edges, much like good garage rock from America, so go in expecting this rather than intricate and spacious prog rock with demonstrations of virtuosity.

The band name derives from Gaia--goddess of Earth and fertility. The lyrics were written in German despite great difficulty in doing so as the band members are from Saarland and a different dialect is spoken there, as well as French (this German state borders France and Luxembourg).

The Stratocaster guitar tone of Werner Frey has a nice dirtiness to it and feels quite inspired by Hendrix. The bass and drums (Peter Bell and Stefan Door) keep things simple, yet rock steady and establish a solid "groove". There are many moments when you will hear what we might refer to now as a very American "jam band" style in their music.

"Mutter Erde" (Mother Earth) is an up-tempo West Coast acid rock revival--swirling organ, fuzzy guitar & harmonized chorus of vocals. It would've made a good set opener and is the more conventional/least experimental of the tunes on this record. This is not what you might think--a tribute to the Earth and nature--in fact quite the opposite as they sing "Mother Earth eats her children" and "you want peace and she dreams of war."

"Welt Im Dunkel" and "GÄA" continue in this direction--ending the LP with a long jam. Fans of hard rock & acid rock will be quite pleased. Had the LP dared to stretch out in a similar vein to the experimentation of the first track, one feels it may have been, in the long run, more satisfying.

The Garden of Delights LP reissue includes extensive band and label history and is recommended.

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