ESSEN 1970

3.5 stars. Interesting album cover with the four band members and some of their kids all sitting on the floor. There's a waft of smoke which I'm guessing is coming from that fat joint the bass player is smoking. So seventies though. For me as a kid in the seventies it was my dad's constant smoking of cigarettes, in the house, in the car, in the restaurant, everywhere but church. Second hand smoke I guess hadn't been invented yet. This is an archival release from 1970 released in 2009. A four piece playing at the Essen Pop & Blues Festival. It was October 24th 1970 to be exact. EMBRYO had played the night before at this event. I mention that because Hansi Fischer was in XHOL CARAVAN early on before leaving for EMBRYO. This was released on Garden of Delights so the liner notes are great. We get four tracks worth about 50 minutes of music. The sound quality is okay, it's not bad by any means just not the best. Funny that the first track opens with Tim ranting to the audience about the security, the movie people walking around saying this should be all about the fans. Of course the crowd is roaring their approval. The flute, sax or organ are the lead instruments here as the bass and drums support. I found that I was using the words plod and trippy a lot when describing the music here. Some experimental stuff too but mostly this is a psychedelic/ jazz blend where they just jam. Great for background music more than giving it your full attention in my opinion.