EROC 3

I've just seen that this one hasn't been reviewed yet. Let's say a few words about this third album by Eroc (drummer and original member of Grobschnitt). Contrary to his first solo effort Eroc clearly put the accentuation on solid progressive rock compositions, almost rejecting his convinced experimentations & demonstrations in electronica. "3" stays a good follow up to "Zwei". The positive aspect is the diversity of atmospheres created and the pleasure to play together. The opening track is a massive, heavy bluesy track with some aggressive drum parts. "Tontillon" is a floating rock composition featuring a nice melodic guitar line with some keyboards arrangements. "Fito linte" starts with a wonderful, dreamy acoustic guitar interlude accompanied by spacey electronic effects then carries on an other emotional dimension. "Wolkenreise" is a kind of Teutonic folk, popular music interpretation with accordion, synth and guitar. "Solar Plexus" is an original and fantasist musical piece starting with a theatrical narration in German. The track progressively goes into a dancing, animated folkish excursion. "Euer Lied" is a drum interlude by Axel Harlos. "Falke Whips It Out" is a grotesque, satiric speed rock song closed to Grobschnitt's material."About my town" is an imitation of boogie woogie. "Sunny Sunday's Sunset" is an other typical Grobschnitt's heroic and lyrical symphonic rock composition. It can be a nice surprise if you are into Grobshnitt sound.

Eroc 3 wasn't really a solo album but rather a retrospective of his works starting from 1968 and contained besides two new tracks mainly archived recordings done by him with Grobschnitt or the previous band called Crew Blues Session. Let's go roughly through the tracks presented here.

"Wutpickel" is a short bluesy piece originating from the time between disbandment of Crew Blues Session and formation of Grobschnitt when Joachim Ehrig played in a trio with the same name. "Tontillon" is an improvised instrumental track from the recording sessions for "Rockpommel's Land" and in a similar slightly melancholic vein as this album. "Fito Linte" and "Wolkenreise" are true solo works by Eroc and the latter one especially became quite well-known due to its highly memorable soaring melody. That one had been written as an introduction for Grobschnitt's 1978 live show. "Solar Plexus" is an excerpt of a live recording for "Solar Music" overdubbed with accordeon. "Euer Lied" is another one of Eroc's fun pieces, a rather simple drum solo starting with an invitation of the audience to accomplish it with their own music. "Falke Whips It Out" is a collage of recordings from 1968/69 featuring an improvisation over "Born To Be Wild", some screaming, some parodistic pompous organ solo and a phone talk of Eroc with Grobschnitt roadie Peter Falke railing about some famous Prog bands. "About My Town" is an early live recording by Grobschnitt from 1971 with second drummer Axel Harlos which never saw a release on any of their albums. "Sunny Sunday's Sunset" is a demo version of the recording session for Jumbo album sounding completely different from the final version. The final "He's Around Here" was the first recording of Crew Blues Session which never saw a release, the music is a rather simple beat and only the voice of Stefan Danielak reminds at Grobschnitt. "Crew Blues Session" is an excerpt of an improvisation of the band played during their farewell concert in October 1969. This was actually the very original version of "Solar Music", here still with scatting vocals by bass player Peter Klassen but one can hear already the typical spacey sound.

Recently all of Eroc's solo records got CD reissues finally with the addition of multiple bonus tracks. This one was actually the most interesting sounding one at least for me providing a quite nice and enjoyable historical overview. Nevertheless I don't see any reason why it should be of much interest for others than fans of this particular band. Thus to rate it higher than with 2 stars would be exaggerated!

Eroc is best known of course as the percussionist and creative genius of Germany's Grobschnitt (as well as music engineer). This was Eroc's 3rd album and is an excellent and sometimes strange eclectic mix of songs and experiments. Fans of Grobschnitt will love this solo album which contains many allusions to songs of Grobschnitt including the great "Tontillon" (which also appears on the Repertoire remastered version of Rockpommel's Land. Perhaps the best known track off the album is "Wolkenreise" which in the remastered form sounds fresh and new. My personal favourite track is the 10 mins "Sunny Sunday's Sunset" which could have been on any Grobschnitt album and shows us how much Eroc meant to this band musically! Overall Eroc 3 is a great album and one that should be in your collection