MAMMUT

This was the only album MAMMUT released back in 1971. It was really the coming together of two bands who were part of the Jazz scene in Southwestern Germany. Klaus Schnur from THE ROPE SECT along with his brother Peter both play guitar and sing. And we get the keyboardist and bass player from THOSE. The bass player also adds flute and vocals plus we get a drummer making this a five piece. They were active for less than a month apparently basically recording this album then going their own ways. They did release a single though and the band kept going in name with many musicians coming and going as they played live. The song titles make me laugh, they're like in the third person with the band's name in every one.

Clearly a talented band but this one failed to do much for me. I like that they use samples from nature and so on in their music. Samples of a party, of someone walking then running and other cool additions too. Vocals are in German and are from being okay to not so good. The latter may be on purpose though for example on "Shizoyd Mammut" or "Mammut Opera". The latter is the epic at 13 1/2 minutes. There's this strange section on "Nahgern Mammut" from 1:12 to 1:30 that reminds me so much of TWELFTH NIGHT it's uncanny. Of course these guys were on the scene way before that British band. I don't know but I give this band credit for what they created here and the effort to add some interesting samples and so on. It's still a 3 star album in my book but well worth checking out as this has been re-issued many times.