BEST OF KRAUTROCK VOL. 1

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE EXCITING EXPERIENCE THIS DVD IS!! Since the second half of the Seventies I am a Krautrock fan, in that period I started to collect albums from Novalis, Jane, Grobschnitt, Eloy, Hoelderlin and Ramses. I remember that I witnessed concerts by some of these bands on the German television (our neighbours) like Grobschnitt and Jane. And now this DVD contains live footage from that era (1970-1978), WHAT A THRILL!!

The featured bands on this DVD are Amon Düül II, Can, Frumpy, Lucifer's Friend, Epitaph, Birth Control, Passport, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh, Kraftwerk, Embryo, Novalis, Lothar Meid, Eloy and Jane. These bands deliver a lot of variety, from psychedelic (Amon Duul II), experimental (Popol Vuh) and jazzy (Passport) to symphonic rock (Novalis and Eloy), bluesrock (Frumpy) and hardrock (Lucifer's Friend). I was very delighted about the tracks by Frumpy (great Hammond organ sound), Amon Duul II (captivating psychedelic rock with raw guitar, a powerful violin solo and lots of weird synthesizer sounds), Eloy (wonderful and lush sound with Hammond, Minimoog and fiery electric guitar along the warm and distinctive vocals by Frank Bornemann), Jane (simple but very compelling symphonic bluesrock with great interplay between fiery guitar and powerful Hammond waves) and the absolute highlight Novalis delivering their epic Sonnenwende (17 minutes): wonderful keyboards by Lutz Rahn (beautiful flute-Mellotron intro, then tasteful work on Hammond, Minimoog, string-ensemble and clavinet), inspired vocals and sensitive, very flowing electric guitar, GREAT! The 42 minutes docu is very interesting but also a bit sad because it confronts you with the difficult situation in which the many promising Krautrock groups had to survive, only a few managed because most of the bands got no support from record companies and government! The docu contains very exciting live footage from bands like Udo Lindenberg & Panikorchester, Amon Duul II in 1968, Pell Mell, Kraan, Hoelderlin, Atlantis (with Inga Rumpf), Conny Plank Studio with Grobschnitt, Can and really great live scenes from mid- Seventies Tangerine Dream, including Edgar Froese on the Mighty M400 Tron!!

NOT TO BE MISSED!!

What a thrill! Seeing live those legends of German rock! On the menu, Can, Amon Düül II, Kraftwerk, Popol Vuh for the most popular bands. But paradoxically, the prog head will rather enjoy tracks by Birth Control ('The Work is Done' from the famous "Operation" album), Novalis (the whole 'Sonnenwende' epic live, 32' of pure bliss!), Eloy (a tremendous 11' version of 'Decay of Logos' from one of their best albums, "Ocean" (1977)), Jane (a splendid version of 'Expectation' from "Live at Home" (1977)) and the bonus, a 1975 documentary including Grobschnitt, Hölderlin, Tangerine Dream and many more (in German only, what a pity!). The total duration is 171 minutes, the audio format is Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 and the general quality is excellent since most documents come from famous TV shows such as Rockpop and Beat Club (we even can see the speakers of that time with their typical seventies look!). A volume 2 is scheduled. I just can't wait! What a thrill!

(review first published in Acid Dragon #50)