VINEGAR

Vinegar is a very unknown German psych/krautrock band that only released one album and then disappeared into obscurity because of personal differences and interests between the members. Personally it's a sad thing to see this happening since I would've liked to hear how they would've progressed from their debut, but it didn't happened and I'm hear reviewing this album which I found to be a pretty nice surprise.

The name Vinegar came from the members who wanted to make music hard to digest like vinegar itself and although they succeeded at making it, they don't sound as weird or strange as other German bands form the era. The album is pretty typical 70's psych rock with some little krautrock influences (they are after all a German band) and also a bit of humor thrown in for good measure like in the song "Der Kaiser Auf Der Erbse" which sound like zombies trying to sing . The vocals are sung in English. They have a bit of an jam/experimental sound like in the middle of "Samwill Teil" which has a nice drum solo in the second part of the song and an experimental dabbling in the first part of the song. The guitar player adds a heavy sound to the songs and does some nice solos; although the violin isn't very present in the album it adds a good touch to the songs. The album suffers a big blow in the first song, "Missi Solis". It isn't really interesting and drags too much for it's own good taking 12 minutes of space of an 37 minute album so at the end you're left with 25 minutes of decent material. At the end what could've been a decent 3 star album, thanks to "Missi Solis" the album is drawn back to a 2.5 or even a 2 star album.

If you can ignore the first song and curiosity is biting you in the arse then go ahead and check this album out, there are four great songs to listen to, but for those who can't get over it (like me) then don't bother.

A nice but not the best trip to Germany!

One of the countries that i consider pioneers of prog music is Germany, despite i am not a real lover of krautrock, i admit that several 70`s bands that came out from Germany were/are motif of inspirations between the bands themselves, they have developed an own style and that is why Germany is so big in this wide world of progressive rock.

Out of the ashes of that 70`s era, actually very early 70`s a band called Vinegar decided to make their own effort inspired mainly by the late 60`s psychedelic era and believing that they could contribute to the constant development of german rock, prog rock i mean, released a self-titled album and again, as several bands, disbanished after their first and only record This happened with several bands and the most of them remain being very obscure nowadays, Vinegar is not the exception, this album is very unknown and strange to get, even it is difficult to find some information about this band and relateds.

The music is very psychedelic as i said above, nonetheless sometimes i feel that they tried to experiment more that they should have to, the first song is not that powerful opener song that i expect in every album, actually it is the longest one of this album, but that doesnt mean that is the best, psychedelic guitar,some good riffs but it would have been better if the song lasted 7 minutes and not 12, sometimes repetitiveness is excelent, this time is pointless.

The next two songs could be considered as a one piece divided in two, "Sawmill" begins rockier than the first song and actually it sounds better, here we can find again some kind of experimentation but this time with the addition of both the flute and violin which sounds good but not superb, nice try and nice song.

The fourth song , is probably the one that fits perfectly in that German early 70`s psychedelic style, the organ ,drums and guitar will give you an idea, the horrible thing here are the vocals, i dont understand if they tried to be funny, but i dont like them at all, they sound ridicolous and terrible. "Fleisch" is the last song, and probably the one that i like the most, here the organ takes everything very calm and soft, sometimes sounds a bit dark, and then the songs turn heavier with some good guitar riffs.

I dont like to give so low ratings to unknown bands, but this time i have two things, in one hand the fact that i am not the most devoted follower of Krautrock (though i do love some kraut albums), and in the other hand being a prog lover as a genre, i find this album with no direction, i mean it doesnt show anything new, nor inspire me to listen to it frequently, so this time i will give to it only 2 stars, recommendable, yes, but only for fans of German kraut/psych music.

Vinegar belongs to the dark chapter of krautrock, next to esoteric stoned rock bands as Paternoster, Sand, Ainigma, Temple...This self title album sounds amteurish but we can find something incredible in the way the musicians want to project rock 'n roll into a heavy- psych-spaced out trip...and it works perfectly despite a certain dose of indulgence in the performance.The general atmosphere is seriously melancholic, desperate, moody and I love it when it's mixed with and intense acid bluesy rock. Missi Solis is a fantastic, beatific rockin' ballad with sad harmonies, lugubrious heavy guitars sequences, intimate organs and acoustic-folk mystery. A very seductive acid / semi improvisational piece. Saw Mills is a strange druggy excentricity with horrible female vocals,fuzzy guitar tones...The second part of the composition is much better with its freaky-energic-kraut-rocking dementia, punctuated by various excellent / crazy instrumental solos. Der Kaiser starts with a calmer acoustic introduction for a violin / guitar duet then it goes on an efficiant, groovy / heavy rock trip (with the silly addition of absolutely painful, misplaced vocals). Fleisch represents the most amazing part of the album with the introduction theme. This composition delivers a haunted / ritual / creepy atmosphere directed by fuzz rockin guitar, pre-gothic keyboards , spectral melancholic voices. A funereal krautrock hymn with a wonderfully spacey vibe. Recommended for krautrock lovers and those who want to take risks.

I must admit i'm surprised at the lack of respect towards this album. The mood of this record is probably what I love the most, but honestly from beginning to end I enjoy this album a lot. It's innovative, atmospheric and melancholic Krautrock at it's best. In fact there's nothing about it I don't like, although there certainly are some average sounding passages like with pretty much every recording out there. They came up with the name VINEGAR because they wanted to play music that was hard to digest as opposed to the "sweet stuff" others were playing. Now that's the Krautrock spirit right there.The album here was recorded live in studio for the most part.

"Missi Solis" has this dark sounding guitar intro then it settles as drums come in followed by reserved vocals.This sounds so good. The organ floats in the background. Violin 3 1/2 minutes in as the vocals stop.The guitar after 5 minutes really reminds me of OPETH's "Damnation" album. Just fantastic ! The melancholia and atmosphere is great. The organ is back around 7 1/2 minutes then the tempo picks up a minute later with raw sounding guitar out in front.

"Sawmill-Tiel I" is catchy and late 60's sounding early on with vocals, guitar, organ and drums standing out. I like the vocals here a lot. A calm 1 1/2 minutes in as the melody stops and it turns psychedelic and experimental. The tempo picks up after 4 1/2 minutes with drums and guitar leading. "Sawmill-Tiel II" is AMON DUUL II-like with pounding drums along with organ. The violin starts to rip it up then the guitar takes over 2 1/2 minutes in. It settles a minute later. "Der Kaiser Auf Der Erbse" opens with violin. Guitar, drums and organ kick in before 2 minutes. Nice. Check out the bizarre vocals before 2 1/2 minutes (haha). The violin is back before 4 minutes. Love the sound when the vocals take over for the violin. It's the guitars' turn. Violin is back after 6 minutes sounding like someone's scratching the blackboard. "Fleisch" opens with floating organ as bass and drums follow. Guitar too. Organ only then these female vocal melodies with guitar join in. The guitar 5 minutes in starts to solo as the vocals stop. Great track !

4.5 stars for this Krautrock classic.

Funny how sometimes on websites where you can give rates to music pretty much everything that comes from Germany from early 1970's and that plays Prog Rock, Heavy Psych or Space Rock is considered Krautrock.... This isn't a Genre....

Vinegar and their only album is just a lame excuse for a band play Progressive Rock in the worst way possible. Not a single moment on the album is remembered after the 40 minutes of audition, like the majority of the so called Krautrock bands and albums.

Absurdly amateurish and only for silly collectors that pay tons of money for 'rare' records. If that's not your case, run away.