TANZ DER LEMMINGE [AKA: DANCE OF THE LEMMINGS]

This is the point where it all came together for Amon Duul II - where the songwriting finally caught up with the band's always-impressive improvisational capabilities. Like the previous album, this consists of one disc of composed tracks and another of improvisations, but it doesn't feel like a double album - far from sprawling out, it's over all too soon! Standout suites include the dizzying, zeitgeist-capturing March of the Roaring Seventies opens the album in fine form, with lyrics as sinister as they are surreal and music which is packed with psychedelic foreboding, and the improvisational Marilyn Monroe Memorial Church, on which the spirit of Pink Floyd's A Saucerful of Secrets - an album which seems to have had an absolutely massive influence on the early Krautrock scene - can be discerned once again. But then, there's a swathe of other influences at work as well as the band's own unique character on display. More densely-packed with musical ideas and talented musicianship than any previous Amon Duul album, this may just be their finest work.