JOIN INN / STARRING ROSI

Songs / Tracks Listing 1. Freak'n'Roll (19:15) 2. Jenseits (24:18) 3. Laughter Loving (8:00) 4. Day Dream (5:21) 5. Schizo (2:47) 6. Cosmic Tango (2:06) 7. Interplay Of Forces (8:58) 8. The Fairy Dance (3:07) 9. Bring Me Up (4:33)

Total Time: 78:25

This is a re-release of the previous two albums that had appeared in 1973. The CD is cleaned up a little, but it does not offer anything new or better than the original LP's when they first came out. The first two cuts are the Side 1 and 2 of the "join Inn" LP. The rest is all the material from the "Starring Rosi" LP.

There is a massive difference between the two albums, however these maybe a touch that most fans of this material will not worry about. The music is still nice, even if different. Whereas the material from "Join Inn" is likely to be all an improvisation, very little of the material in the "Starring Rosi" album seems to be improvised, as it appears to be just a few songs, that have a start and an end, unlike the 2 longer pieces in the other album that took us on a very long trip. That's not to say that the "Starring Rosi" material is not nice, because it is, either with or without the sexy voice running through it.

"Freak'n'roll" is just that ... and it is a very long piece that explores the instruments and the music as it goes along. It is dominated by Manuel Gottsching, the guitar player, and although Klaus Schulze is credited here, I am not sure that his input was not secondary or just after the fact, as it is not as important or valuable as the explosions and awesome excursions that he brings us in some of the other albums in the Cosmic Groupings later, and specially the electronic interpretations that helped define Walter Wegmuller's Tarot album, which is considered very tough to listen to because of Walter's voice ... which sometimes sounds a bit pretentious, and not as enjoyable ... but no less with a nice aura and feeling of mysticism, at all!

It's a nice trip, is what you can say about that piece of music, but I am not sure that it was designed for anything else. Side 2 of this album is ... another story ... and it is NOT a rock trip ... but it is a sensual trip with a woman's voice speaking in German and saying some things that come off as nice, and trippy, and one could even say ... sexy, if not sensual. This part of the meandering music with the organ/synths playing in the background create a really nice and meditative piece of music that goes on for a long period of time, and is, really, one of the great highlights of all the Ash Ra Tempel's pieces of music, although it is not the piece that Manuel would otherwise play in concert, and in those days, it might get more attention if the women were involved? ... which the Cosmic Couriers and the early Ash Ra Tempel, obviously had no compunctions about using. It is also the one piece, that to my ear is closest to the feelings that Popol Vuh had in its own music, another grouping that did have women involved, but not always using expressions and feelings as had been done here.

The rest of these pieces are all from the "Starring Rosi" album, a transitional album for this group and the work they do, and did. It opens up with "Laughter Laughing", and it is a nice and trippy song, that has Rosi simply laughing or enjoying herself with the music ... we hope anyway. But it could be considered a nice jingle with a really nice voice in it, creating an interesting atmostphere, which was a lot lighter and more fun than the previous en masse stoned feeling that the previous work had all shown, specially in the long improvisations and experimentations. The material, later, might still have its moments for improvisation, but the total let go and play feeling is different, and the controls are much more evident in the music now than they were before.

"Interplay of Forces" is also a very nice piece, but again, like the rest of this album, it seems to suggest that things are a bit more composed than otherwise, or at least thought out a bit more than they were before. "Fairy Dance" and "Bring Me Up" close the album and are both really nice and up tempo and positive material, that makes you wonder about the hippie days a bit ... or at least me ... San Francisco and Los Angeles and New York and London had the drugs and the experimentations ... but no one did something for the feeling? and the letting go of the feelings? and simply to find out what was on the other side of those feelings, stoned or not? And this is the strange part.

The addition of the women, probably was accidental, but added something that Western Music had not been doing with it ... so much pop music and movie music was about the "star" and the experience was secondary ... that all of a sudden feeling like these people are actually experiencing this ... is not something that we are ready to admit or accept very well, and of course, in places like America with a vicious media, stuff like this would suggest free sex and drugs and would get trashed senseless, and it just flew under the radar, and was almost ignored.

The German scene "Krautrock" did not always feature women, or had them as a part of the major artistries __ but it had them involved in the work, enough to be noticed and appreciated. And at least for this reviewer, they were appreciated, for what they gave the music was a breath of fresh air that had been missing in music, and is, without a doubt, one of the most honest, open, and expressive of all the work that women did, and had done, up to that time within the context of progressive music or the arts. Women's work was much more important and valid in literature, but basically ignored elsewhere, unless you were talking about the divas in Ballett or Opera, and those are not original artists, as they were interpreters of an art.

The differences in these two albums were that these were like night and day ... "Shwingungen" and "Join Inn", go together a lot better, than having "Join Inn" paired up with "Starring Rosi". Later, like the early days, Ash Ra (with the Tempel dropped) became a nice, trippy band going off Manuel Gottsching's guitar work and loops, and he created one of the first EVER guitar loop albums which was the 5th Ash Ra Tempel album called "Inventions for the Electric Guitar". By that time, the women were gone, and Ash Ra Tempel is no more than an excursion of Manuel's ability with a guitar, effects, loops and much more ... and yes ... they were still very good, although I might suggest that I miss the open freedom and expression that "Join Inn" gives us and the lyrical feeling of poetic music that "Starring Rosi" gives us.

It was an interesting time and place, that allowed the women to be themselves, instead of it being just songs with a lyric here or there that supposedly meant something or other, and in that sense, there is no material that is so honest, open, and neat, as this material is in regards to the feelings and ways that women have ... that you will never find in a rock album!

And Ash Ra Tempel, probably wrote the book on that subject, along with the Cosmic Couriers.

All in all, very enjoyable music, and a really good show of what "Krautrock" was in the first album, and "became" in that second album. It is important to remember that or the sequencing and differences in the music will not make sense at all.