EROC 4

The fourth solo album by the irrepressible drummer-comedian from GROBSCHNITT is the perfect candidate for a lukewarm two-star tribute. It would likely be a welcome (if not really essential) addition to the library of any diehard collector, but newcomers are better off elsewhere.

It's certainly not the most representative Eroc album, at least among the three I'm familiar with. His trademark zany humor was drastically curtailed here in favor of several tepid, (mostly) mild-mannered instrumentals, home-produced and played on various keyboards, gently strummed guitars, and the usual percussive allsorts. Maybe he was acquiescing to a new decade of musical conservatism (1982 was not exactly the high water mark of freewheeling Prog creativity), or maybe the once-manic drummer simply fell victim to the rocker's bane of advancing age and maturity. But the end results, while pleasant enough in a toothless sort of way, are too often reminiscent of the sort of tranquil New Age musak you might hear in a (non-alcoholic) Bavarian beer hall.

Only on the closing number "Hagener Wellenreiter" do Eroc's natural madcap idiosyncrasies finally kick in, and better late than never. The song is a cartoon march through a series of nonsense alliterations growled and shouted in silly German voices, recalling the sometimes irresistibly juvenile humor of his earlier "Eroc Zwei" LP. In three short minutes it totally squashes the rest of the album flatter than it already is, and offers a fun but frustrating glimpse of what the entire package could (and should) have been.