PSYCHEDELIC UNDERGROUND [AKA: MINNELIED]

"Psychedelic Underground" is the debut full-length studio album by psychadelic/krautrock act Amon Düül. The album was released through Metronome Records in 1969. Amon Düül was one of the early pioneers in the krautrock style and "Psychedelic Underground" is widely considered one of the earliest examples of the style. or at least a taste of it.

The 41:10 minutes long album features 6 tracks. All repetitive, rather noisy, and badly produced psychadelic rock songs and odd sound experiments. It´s jam packed and psychadelic and generally features very little that resembles structure of any kind. So at times it almost sounds like a bunch of kindergarden kids on acid hammering on anything they can get their hands on. The playing is sloppy and combined with the murky sound production this is a bit of a trying listening experience unless your poison is unstructured psychadelic jams. If you ask me it´s a stretch to call this adventurous even though it´s certainly unconventional. Art for arts sake, or noise for the sake of it, sounds more valid to my ears.

This is the kind of album that serves best as a historical document capturing the free spirit and experimentation with sounds and music of the late 60s, and not really for listening pleasure. At least I have a very hard time getting any kind of enjoyment out of listening to the album. If you´re interested in the earliest origins of krautrock this might suit your tastes though. Personally I refuse to give "Psychedelic Underground" more than a 1 star (20%) rating. Subjectively because I simply can´t stand listening to it and more objectively because of the sub par musicianship, the non-existent songwriting, and the poor sounding, murky, and noisy production. Enter at your own risk.