The Guru Guru appreciation thread

I Love guru guru, they ar so cool!

The band that got me into freaky  music. After Kanguru I never looked back. Didn't listen to the mainstream at all. Then came Grobschnitt, Amon Duul II, Jane, Kin Ping Meh, Pell Mell, Jane, Ash Ra Tempel,Geronimo, Birth Control, Frumpy etc. etc. I would buy anything from Germany that looked weird. But Guru Guru blew me away completely with UFO. I remember calling my friend over to listen to it with after it arrived from a second hand dealer who had conections in Europe. No internet back then! All my friend said was " That's f**ked up sh*t man!". Nothing will ever come close to UFO. Completely "out there".

nice thread   here two pics I took some weeks ago

Super hit or miss for me, Kanguru and UFO are pretty much flawless, but a lot of the other stuff is a mixed bag. Frankly I thought "Moshi Moshi" was embarrassing, and recent footage of Guru Guru live was less than impressive, IMO. That's why I was so shocked when I heard Acid Mothers Guru, it's just like the old days with sort of a noise rock twist. Mani's still got it, that's for sure, that's why I'm shocked that recent output from Guru Guru is weak.

I just read that Guru Guru will play in Cologne on March 25th, at the Blue Shell. a very small venue; actually it is just a pub, though they have a small stage. of course Friede and I will be there

Edited by BaldJean - January 23 2010 at 21:17

SaltyJon wrote: I'm going to have to find somewhere that sells that live album, it's not available on my usual shops.

Order it from their homepage: http://mani-neumeier.de/guruguru/index_lurch.htm

definitely get their live album from 1978 too. mostly previously unreleased tracks, and you can hear that playing live is where Guru Guru really scores

SaltyJon wrote: I've been wanting to get some Guru Guru for a while.  What would you consider to be the best starting point?  Also, I've watched a couple videos on Youtube of the sort of material on Manitatsu (Mani and Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins/Koenjihyakkei) and they were pretty interesting.

it is pretty difficult with Guru Guru because almost every album is in a differnt style. "Känguru" is an excellent starting point into them though

Syzygy wrote: Are you familiar with his Terra Amphibia albums? I've recently heard a few samples and they sound interesting, but more like world music than I was expecting. I realise that this is meant to be the Guru Guru thread, but it's more or less on topic...

we don't have them ourselves, but I heard one of them once. from what I recall it was a mix of world music and experimental sounds. some weird stuff, even for Mani. he played dozens of percussion instruments from all around the world on it

Syzygy wrote: Mani has also worked with Acid Mothers Temple as Acid Mothers Guru, including some performances with Ruins powerhouse Yoshida Tatsuya. I find he works best in the classic power trio format of the early Guru Guru albums, but I would recommend Zero Set, an interesting album with Moebius and Conny Plank from the 80s; Neumaier leads from the front and the other two wrap strands of electronica around his mighty percussion, with some guest African vocals on one track. If techno had used live drums instead of machines, it would have sounded like this.

yes, we have that "Zero Set" album with the African vocals. "a-hup dala" or whatever she sings