...UND ÜBERHAUPT...

The oddly named PLAMP emerged from the Swiss town of Chur which is much more famous as the hometown of the macabre artist H.R. Giger of Alien and Necronomicon fame. The name of this band makes a bit more sense when you realize it's an anagram of the band's members, thus Peter, Louis, Andrea, Mario and Peter who took a cue from ABBA and decided the strange unflattering name PLAMP would do. You know, i think they should've chosen Chur instead!

One of many lost and forgotten examples of a prog rock band that released one album and called it a day, PLAMP formed in 1975 and stuck around until 1981 but only managed to release this one album ?UND ÜBERHAUPT? which translates into English as the rather ho hum "?And Anyway?" This album featured seven tracks totaling a playing time of over 40 minutes with seven musicians providing some stellar prog performances.

The lineup included Mario Giovanoli (flute, saxophone, vocals), Peter Tönz (electric guitar, vocals), Peter Streiff (Hammond organ, piano, vocals), Louis Streiff (drums, vocals), Andrea Thöny (bass, vocals), Fortunat Frölich (cello, piano, vocals) and Marc Keller (acoustic guitar, vocals) and the album was released like many from the era as a vinyl private pressing but has found a CD reissue on the Germn label Paisley in 2018. One of the many late to the game prog artist from the 70s, this 1978 release attracted few followers but was actually a decent slice of unique prog from that era.

Sung in the Swiss dialect of German with only a few moments of English, the vocals are probably the weakest link on ?UND ÜBERHAUPT? but luckily the album is primarily an interesting mix of instrumental symphonic prog, local folk flavors with lots of flute and a nice mix of melodies teased out into more progressive performances that include many interludes and deviations as well as time signature deviations. Although the band itself considered PLAMP to be a jazz-rock band, the addition of the saxophone is rather sparse and the influences from classical organ prog meets Canterbury compositional flare is much more accurate. Funk guitar and jams are also common.

The album flows quite nicely with no throwaway tracks and the band constructed a nice atmospheric mix of slower and faster segments with touches of jazz-rock, symphonic prog and folk flavors. This eclectic mix was more on the cheerier side as opposed to other Swiss prog artists like Island and Circus. While PLAMP crafted an excellent album of late 70s prog, unfortunately the album seems like a patchwork of different styles from the vast world of influences that preceded without any particular sort of goal in mind. The music sort of meanders but saved by the pleasant melodic flow and funk / jazz moments decorated with stellar organ performances. Overall not a bad album at all but fails to impress enough to ascend to greatness. Oh, and what a horrible band name!

3.5 rounded down