ANDY NOGGER

This one gets my vote for Kraan's best studio album. Oddly, this album is as much Conny Plank's as the band's, just listen to the insane sound-effects he adds to "Yellow Bamboo", "Son of the Sun" and "Home".

But the production never hampers or restrains the band's wild energy. The lengthy instrumental "Holiday am Marterhorn" gives the individual soloists the greatest room to stretch out, but there's plenty to like on brash opener "Stars" and the funky and exciting "Nam Nam". If the album has a fault, it's that a single disc was a bit constraining. Best/worst example: the title tune, which fades out just when things start getting interesting.

It's a very minor complaint, though, when you're presented with music of such quality. A superb starting point for this singularly irrepressible act.