VIOLENCE FOG / JERUSALEM

3.5 stars. SWF was a German regional radio station from Baden-Baden who from 1970 to 1975 invited young and upcoming bands to play and be recorded in their studio, then broadcast the results to their audience. A great opportunity for young unsigned bands to play in a real studio, and to have their music recorded. These tapes were for a long time considered lost, but they have been recovered and remastered. There were six volumes that were released starting in 2000, and all on the Long Hair label. I have four of the first six volumes. JUD'S GALLERY being my favourite of those, but I also have the KOLLEKTIV and COUPLA PROG's sessions.

So it's kind of odd to have a cd with two different bands on it. Both add about a half hour of music. After the fact I see why they did this with JERUSALEM and VIOLENCE FOG being from the same area, and forming the same year, 1969. Both five piece bands but different setups, playing in that heavy Krautrock style. Neither band uses keyboards, but VIOLENCE FOG has two flautists, while JERUSALEM has two bass players. Both are guitar driven and have english vocals. JERUSALEM by the way opened for both FRUMPY and IHRE KINDER previous to these sessions.

VIOLENCE FOG were big ROLLING STONES fans, I don't mind the singer, but I'm not a fan. A raw sounding band and one of their songs here is a cover of a Tony Ashton song. Tony being from FAMILY. I do prefer JERUSALEM, they are the more mellow of the two, and have longer tracks. Plus the vocalist and guitarist both appeal to me more. "Volume 6" turned out to be better than I thought it would be. Neither band would last with JERUSALEM's lead guitarist being killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after these recordings, causing the band to fold. VIOLENCE FOG lasted only a month or so after the recordings because of musical differences within the group.Their main guitarist would then join BRAINSTORM playing on their "Second Smile" release.

This was actually pretty good, hence the half star added, but not a four star record in my world. The title of this album is "SWF-Sessions Volume 6" by VIOLENCE FOG/ JERUSALEM just to avoid any confusion. The other clarification is that while there were six albums released as "volumes" from SWF, there have been many more SWF Session albums usually named "SWF Session 1973" for example, the year the session took place is always part of the title. SWF did a lot of recording over those five years, thankfully.

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