MY SOLID GROUND

Formed in 1968, MY SOLID GROUND was pretty much the solo work of Rendel who provided guitars and vocals and the band went through meany lineup changes before the team of bassist Karl-Heinrich Dörfler, drummer Andreas Würsching and Ingo Werner on organ and piano would record the band's sole eponymously titled album which was released in the autumn of 1971. Although popular in Germany for a short time due to the band appearing on live radio broadcasts as well as winning second place in an amateur competition hosted by Sudwestfunk (SWF) Radio, MY SOLID GROUND has remained one of the more obscure Krautrock bands over the decades at least until the modern era when such bands have found a revived popularity thanks to the wide ranging influence of the internet.

The MY SOLID GROUND album is for all intents and purposes two completely different albums with the first lengthy 13 minute track "Dirty Yellow Mist" providing one of the coolest tripped out psychedelic rock tracks of the whole Krautrock era and the rest of the album featuring shorter guitar driven hard rock songs that sound more out of the English or American scenes than what was going on in Germany's psychedelic scene but nevertheless they are performed so well and capture the essence of the heavy rock verging on proto-metal of the early 70s that despite the recipe for disaster somehow works quite well as the band still incorporated tidbits of psychedelia within the standard rock compositions such as on the heavy psych "The Executioner" which adds plenty of tripped out Krautiness to the mix.

One of the most misleading aspects of this album is the ridiculous album cover which features a cast of cartoon pigs holding up the band on its boldly scripted moniker but despite the rather uninspiring cover art, the music contained within is anything but. More than anything Rendel had a keen ear for tight rhythmic drives, catchy melodic ear worms and a sense of production values that allowed the individual instruments to play well together. While the opening sprawler is right out of the "Saucerful Of Secrets" playbook, the second track "Flash Part IV" jumps into something more akin to Sir Lord Baltimore while "Handful Of Grass" is more of a folk tune with mid-tempo acoustic guitars and piano runs but for the most part MY SOLID GROUND delivered a run of solid guitar heavy rockers.

While the band was supposed to continue on, Rendel had a difficult time keeping members and they dropped out one by one until he returned with a new lineup after moving to Frankfurt and lasted until 1974 but never managed to release a second album. Rendel scrapped the whole rock star dream and went the academic route where he became a music lecturer at Mainz University as well as a producer and composer. With a renewed interest in all things prog in the 21st century, this MY SOLID GROUND album found a second coming with a remastered reissue emerging in 2001 on the Alcinious label which featured the original album as well as an album's worth of extra material that Rendel had produced over the years and in the process almost doubling the album's length. Despite the silly cover art and the stylistic consistency, this one surprised me that i liked it so much.

The strength of this one is clearly the strong melodic hooks that work whether the band is in full-on psychedelic mode or rocking the house with heavy guitar laden heft. The album may be inconsistent in stylistic approach but more than makes up for it in strong material. Don't let the stupid looking album cover detour you from exploring MY SOLID GROUND because it's much more than the ground that's solid here. While the remastered bonus tracks are mostly different mixes and alternate vocal tracks, the original full length version of "Flash" at 25 minutes is a highlight and well worth the time. It mixes the space groove of "Dirty Yellow Mist" with jazzy drumming, classical piano rolls and a faster tempo and in a way summarizes all the disparate styles on board. One straight outa the underground and into timeless classic mode. Perhaps not the absolute highlight of the Krautrock scene of the 70s but one of the better melodic rock ones.

If you ask me, the ground was already solid in Germany for experimental releases with bands like AMON DUUL and XHOL CARAVAN having already spread the seeds.In the vein of the masters goes the long opening ''Dirty yellow mist'', a superb psychedelic experience with frightening, distorted vocals, marching bass and drums over a hypnotic guitar rhythm and the Hammond organ of Werner producing cosmic soundscapes.Some discreet piano lines and the haunting female choirs complete an excellent piece of Kraut Rock music.The rest of the album follows a quite unsimilar path.Another seven very short but frenetic tracks with dual guitars and screaming vocals show My Solid Ground move on a Hard Rock, almost Proto-Metal path, full of scratching riffs and influences from a more sharp JIMI HENDRIX.Of course there are a couple of exceptions, like the smooth and more romantic ''Melancholie'' with the narcotic piano of Werner in evidence and the mellow acoustic guitars of Rendel or the grandiose ''The executioner'', another very dark piece of music with bizarre narrations, bombastic organs and powerful bass and guitars.

The album has seen a handful of reissues over the years with those of Second Battle being absolutely fantastic, containing the original recordings intended to be send to Bacillus, offering the listener a different point of view from the original tracks.Special mention needs to be refered to the long ''Flash'' opus, over 24 minutes long, featuring some impressive jams combined with very deep structured themes and sensitive, psychedelic vocals.

Definitely an almost classic album of the early Kraut Rock scene.Maybe a bit too simplistic on the Hard Rockin' cuts, but the more atmospheric pieces or moments are certainly rewarding.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

Tracks from 5 to 11 were made only by Rendel in 2001. They are a bit of a mixed bunch that remind a bit of King Crimson's ProjeKct albums, at the moments jaming good and then going into ambient waters with weird sounds. Lots of electronic experimentation as well, with Rendel using distorted vocals that would make some industrial bands jealous. Robert Fripp's solo albums also might give you a bit of an idea of what this sounds like as would maybe under a bit of stretch late 80's Crimson, in terms of sound that is, I don't think they are as good. Also, don't expect the long "Mystery Metal Thing" to be the new "Dirty Yellow Mist".

Overall, Rendell's solo part of the album isn't my cup of tea and It's not something I will get back to any time soon but the SWF sessions are good though, nothing mind blowing great, but if you liked the first album then you will like these as well as they are more of the same and they won't disappoint. And you will probably want to hear what Rendell can do solo, just out of curiosity.

One of the main problems with this release is that they lean too heavily on their influences, with riffs and grooves that are not just inspired but actually stolen from other bands (easy to spot Deep Purple in 'Dirty Yellow Mist' and Sabbath in 'That's You'). Where the borrowing isn't too obvious the band struggles to come up with good licks of their own. An exception would be 'The Executioner' which has a cool experimental vocal and nice epic mellotrons. The 25 minute long 'Flash' could have saved this album but everything is sloppy about it, the composition is poor, the jamming parts are cliche, the playing is flat and uninspired, the vocals are sub-standard and hardly in tune at times, the melodies are boring, and so on.

At its best moments this album sounds similar to what Eloy would deliver with their albums 'Inside' and 'Floating'. Only, Eloy did it 10 times better then this weak and forgettable heavy rock album. And the best bits are borrowed from other bands. Close to being a 1 star.

"Dirty Yellow Mist" is a dark psychedelic Krautrock monster. It opens ominously before organ comes in with a steady but slow drum beat.Some brief spoken words 2 minutes in. The sound is dreamy. Guitar a minute later as a heavy guitar sound comes and goes. Spacey sounds 6 1/2 minutes in are joined by more spoken words, then a female vocal melody 8 minutes in. The heavy riff stops 9 minutes in as piano and bass take over. It's still spacey. More female vocal melodies. The heavy guitar sounds are back before 11 minutes as haunting female vocal melodies continue. A classic Krautrock trip. "Flash Part IV" has a HAWKWIND flavour to it. The vocal style and guitar riffs bring that band to mind. The guitar is great.

"That's You" is more uptempo as vocals shout out the words. Nice guitar solo early. "The Executioner" features mumbled vocals that are contrasted with the outburts of guitar and organ. The low end guitar after a minute reminds me of Iommi. "Melancholie" is an instrumental that opens with piano and light drums. Strummed guitar joins in as sound builds. I like it. "Handful Of Grass" is led by vocals and guitar throughout. It's ok. "Devonshire Street W 1" is pretty good. I like the vocals better on this one. The tempo changes back and forth. Guitar before 2 minutes is raw. "X" is uptempo to open with a guitar solo before a minute. It calms down and this contrast continues. Nothing special.

If not for the first track this would be a 3 star record for me.There is enough here though to recommend it to both Krautrock and Heavy-Prog fans alike.

Now, the other strong track that highlight's that's only on the CD version of this - a 24 minute hard rock/space rock structure that is just like Yellow Dirt in it's authenticity and wonderful Kraut Rock feel.

If this is the kind of thing you long for, get this CD!!!