CAN'T GET THROUGH / EYES

HAIRY CHAPTER were a hard rocking four piece band from Germany, releasing two studio albums in the early seventies. On the site here they've chosen to post the 2 on 1 compilation, instead of the two studio albums on their own. Both albums were under 35 minutes so they released this in 1994 on cd. I only have the second album "Can't Get Through" which I'm reviewing now and it's from 1971. Their debut "Eyes" from 1970 is apparently more straight forward blues rock, and is even tagged with garage rock on RYM. Not the second one though.

This is adventerous and they've brought in some guests this time around. A second drummer who is on the opener only, a harmonica/bongo player, a double bass man besides their own bass player, and a trumpet player. The trumpet man was over 50 years old and looks so out of place with these hippies. Not big on his contribution either on that one track sounding like he's playing on the TV series Zorro. Dieter Dierks engineered and produced this album and composed the closer. He knew these guys were special but the singer is probably the wild card for most. I love the character of his voice and how theatrical he gets. No keyboards here.

"There's A Kind Of Nothing" opens with a lot of fire power. This guitarist is a light show but to start we get a lot of distortion before he changes to a cleaner sound. The vocals and guitar trade off which sounds so cool. We get pretty much silence half way through then double bass before it builds kicking back in late. "Can't Get Enough" has a lot of energy as the vocals and guitar cry out. Harmonica after 1 1/2 minutes as the vocals step aside. The vocals and guitar are amazing on this almost 11 minute track.

"It Must be An Officer's Daughter" is something. An 8 minute tour de force where lust rears it's ugly head and the band go into that dark mode with creepy vocals. They slow it down but it remains powerful and check out that pure emotion starting around 3 1/2 minutes. The bass is incredible here as the guitar lays waste all else. "As We Crossed Over" is almost folky with strummed guitar and more relaxed singing. My least favourite. The closer opens with them sounding like they warming up for a minute before suddenly the metal is flying. Vocals follow as it picks up.

A very solid 4 stars in my world.