HABOOB

I'm pretty sure the nice man at the store around the corner from us is named Haboob, but I digress. This band from Germany is made up of 3 Americans (U.S. expatriots) living in Munich. Jimmy Jackson is the only one i'm familiar with as he's played organ with early TANGERINE DREAM, EMBRYO, PASSPORT, AMON DUUL II and others. This album came out in 1971 and is pretty much made up of improvs. Lots of organ and mellotron and some vocals. My biggest complaint is the poor sound quality. I don't think i'd give this anything more than a 3 star rating anyway, but man even the remastered version I have is a difficult listen.

"Israfil" is the longest track, an almost 10 minute opener. A beat comes in right away as vocals and Farfisa follow. This is hard on the ears (sound quality). The beat stops 3 1/2 minutes in as it turns spacey. Vocals come in. "Blues For Willi Pee" is a straightup Blues number with vocals. "Sooloo" opens with a drum solo, spacey sounds join in as the drums continue throughout.

"Morning Prayer" features mellotron before a minute, organ 2 minutes in. "Keep On Pushing" is uptempo and drum led as the organ and barely audible vocals join in. "Soldier Boy" is laid back with spoken vocals. Mellotron before 3 minutes. Very muddy sound. "Time To Be" has a party vibe to it as "time to be" is repeated over and over throughout.

Poor sound quality and production definitely have a big part on how I rate an album. Especially if it sounds so bad that I can't enjoy it.