DANCE OF THE FLAMES

After first four trippy, noisy, acid-heavy rock GURU GURU began change in style on this album. Here we can hear some hints of future latin-fusion-jazz style. However, "Dance of the Flames" is perhaps the strongest and best-produced effort up to that point. Musicianship is perfect, new members Nejadepour and Hartmann are capable of delivering strong jazz solos, while Mani keeps coming with interesting and freaky humour stuff. "Dagobert Duck" belongs to the latter category and is a furious opener, while closing "God's Endless Love for Man" sounds not too different from KING CRIMSON of 1973-74 line-up, which is excellent! This album is absolutely recommended, especially to fusion fans and those who find their early stuff to hard to appreciate should definitely check on this one.

GURU GURU were one the pioneers of the Krautrock genre playing a trippy, hypnotic brand of music with outbreaks of heaviness.Their guitarist reminded me a lot of Hendrix. "Dance Of The Flames" was released in 1974 and the band had just changed guitarists, and at the same time they have changed their sound to more of a Fusion flavour. By the way the new guitarist is Houschang Nejadepour from EILIFF. This isn't what i'd call a power trio, more of a cosmic trio. Mani the drummer who has a Free-Jazz style is still amazing, and the new guitarist is excellent. This was remastered by EROC.

"Dagobert Duck's 100th Birthday" opens with silly duck vocals before the cool drum patterns come in. A guitar solo a minute in that comes and goes. Some ripping guitar 4 minutes in and the vocals return a minute after that. What a fun, catchy song this is. The duck sounds are back to end the song. "The Girl From Hirschhorn" is my favourite song by far. It opens with birds chirping. Drums keep a steady beat with some tasteful guitar soloing along for the ride. The guitar gains strength 3 minutes in just cutting a swath through the soundscape. This is so good ! It settles back down and we get vocals 7 minutes in for the first time. "The Day Of Timestop" has a bombastic intro and then the guitarist just runs with it. It's all about the drums and guitar on this one. He sure can play that guitar fast as he offers up another solo. This is followed by a bass solo and then a drum solo. Birds are singing to end it.

"Dance Of The Flames" opens with bass but the highlight is the blazing guitar solo as the bass throbs relentlessly. "Samba Das Rosas" is a lighter song with percussion, guitar and vocals. "Rallulli" opens with percussion and strummed guitar. The guitar stops leaving the cool percussion sounds. The toilet flushes to end it. Where did the birds and ducks go ? "The Juncture Of Light And Dark" features intricate guitar melodies throughout. "God's Endless Love For Mankind" is my second favourite. What a title ! This is just a great jam that twists and turns as the guitar and drums lead the way. The bonus live track "Doing" features some outstanding guitar and drum work 5 minutes in.

This is a really good record but I still prefer their first album "UFO".

The only Guru Guru album with ex-Eiliff guitarist Houschang Nejadepour on board is quite different from their previous heavy-acid works. In fact, you can hear excellent jazz/world fusion with doze of psychedelic prog there. Plenty of Indian, Arabic and Spanish music elements are included.

Long instrumental pieces, sometimes with wah-wah guitar, extremely complex drumming (often with African and Indian rhythms), acoustic guitar melodic inserts, even some wordless female vocals. Their music on this album is much more jazz-rock, than any other styles, and it is the great one! Unhappily, such radical change from their earlier sound wasn't accepted by fans , so this line-up existed for one album only.

Still with important psychedelic element, their music on this album is quite similar to McLaughlin works of the same period. And, if you like jazz-rock, this album is best Guru Guru work for you.

Very recommended - not less than 4,5!

After two unsuccessful attempts to broaden their sound, Guru Guru finally succumbed to the prevailing jazz-rock tastes of the day and went all American with guitar-virtuoso based jazz-rock jams that abandoned all the excitement, innovation and personality of their 3 first album.

The main part of the blame falls on new guitar-recruit Houschang Nejadepour who fills the album with pointless shredding a gogo. He rarely manages to surprise or capture the imagination; all he plays are jazz-rock clichés, devoid of creativity and feeling. Well, he plays fast, and that has its admirers too. Hans Hartman on bass is solid but also uninspired. In fact only Guru Guru's stronghold Mani Neumeier continues to deliver fascinating drum work throughout.

Some of the songs feature vocals and are only recommended for listeners with a sense of humor. A song title like Dagobert Duck's 100th Birthday should be more then enough warning. The band also tries their hand on some world music influences, for instance by means of Indian tuned percussion as on Rallulli. Other tracks worth checking out are Dance of The Flames and the Mahavishnu-clone highlight God's Endless Love for Men.

Guru Guru were a band in search for a new identity but instead of finding one of their own they chose to be a German copy of Mahavishnu Orchestra. There are flashes of success but on the whole this is an non-creative and unremarkable album. 2.5 stars

The flames mount the inner dance.

My knowledge of this outfit is limited to this album and HINTEN, an earlier release by them that is more psychedelic and Krautrock. There are a couple of Krautrock sounding tunes here, but the album mainly caters to either world music or Mahavishnu Orchestra-isms. Each individual member has skill, particularly the guitarist that sounds like MacLaughlin's shadow, and for the most part, DANCE OF THE FLAMES comes together well compositionally.

The only worded vocal tracks are the first two, and they are the ones that are the most Krautrock sounding. ''Dagobert Duck'' (Scrooge McDuck?) has a nice jam at the end in case you lost focus earlier. Other acoustic tracks like ''Rallulli'' add that quiet dimension to the album with, at times, eastern music soundscapes. The depth of style coverage is a nice skill to have, and Guru Guru here thankfully don't go overboard with style jumping; it isn't always the smoothest, but there is evidence of some ironing.

I would say the more memorable tracks are the title track, ''Day of Timestop'' and ''God's Endless Love for Man'' not only because of the fusion flavour, but because guitarist Houschang Nejadepour becomes the Guitar Hero here. I like all of these particular tracks, but I can't shake the idea of calling some of them ''God's Endless Meeting of the Spirits'' or ''Day of Vital Transformation''; the love of that INNER MOUNTING FLAME album is rather obvious on those two tracks.

Given the skill the members have and the variety of styles covered here without going overboard, I could easily see this as a masterpiece of progressive rock. The obvious love for Mahavishnu Orchestra hurts the overall quality of the record, and I will admit the acoustic sections are slightly dry. Ideal for jazz fusion nuts that want to try Krautrock. Try to find the version with the bonus track ''Doing'', one of the best guitar jams out there.

This is a curious beast where good and bad coexist in almost equal measure.

On the plus side there are the serrated guitar licks and clunky cogwheel drum beats of 'Dagobert Duck's 100th Birthday' but the good work on this song is ruined by the musicians using these features as a launch pad for their crass clowning around. This really could have done with being an instrumental - let's just say they should maybe have practised their impersonations of Huey, Dewey and Louie some more.

Then there's 'The Day of Timestop', a track that's full of dynamic energy and technical skill but short on guile and substance. The anarchic jamming on this seems little more than a frenzied ramshackle with the guitarist playing like an acephalous chicken.

The whole aggressively masculine electric guitar thing finally gives way to some acoustic ramblings midway through the album although the first of these, 'Samba das Rosas', really seems out of place. It sounds as if it belongs to a Morecambe and Wise musical sketch although I reckon even the great Eric and Ern would've been cheesed off with this amount of the curdled stuff.

But just when it looks as if the album is heading for the rocks it comes good with the impressive 'Rallulli' providing some wonderful Eastern-influenced percussion. Mind you, even this track finishes in bizarre fashion with what sounds like a toilet being flushed. Strange sense of humour these guys had.

The only track that doesn't suffer from any of these kinds of shortcomings is 'God's Endless Love for Men'. I don't know what spiritual path these guys followed but this track is dark and oppressive, like sinister shadows, and the fell-sounding jangle of its guitar conjures images of Stoker's bug-eating maniac stalking flies in his asylum cell.

There's certainly some good work on this album but it's also a struggle at times and given its current standing I was expecting much more from it.

Guru Guru's first three albums are known as krautrock classics (of the acid rock caliber). The legacy of this great group led by drummer Mani Neumeier is that it actually never found (or even looked for) its definitive sound. The band would experiment with comedy funk jazz prog after 1972 and onward. On 'Dance of the Flames' the band however plays a sort of comedy rock meets Mahavishna Orchestra on steroids. The instrumentation is of the highest quality and especially the electric guitars of Housch'ng Nejadepour are mind-blowing. The recording sound of the album is great as well. All this doesn't take away from the fact that I don't really want to listen to great a fusion jam with imitations of Scrooge McDuck (from Donald Duck) on the background - which is precisely what the opening track delivers. The instrumentals are all highly technical with those typical doubled fusion shreds, but to me it sound rather unimaginative. An out of place acoustic fusion piece like 'Samba das Rosas' reminds me of what you'll hear on Al Di Meola's in-cohesive albums. This album fails to leave any trace of melodic or atmospheric artistry or creative energy and is therefor not recommended to listeners of progressive rock, only to fans of fusion. For Mahavishnu influences I'd rather recommend listening to early SBB, Leb I Sol and the Finnforest debut.