Amon Düül: Collapsing / Singvögel Rückwärts & Co.

AMON DÜÜL: COLLAPSING / SINGVÖGEL RÜCKWÄRTS & CO. (1969)

1) Booster (Kolkraben); 2) Bass, Gestrichen (Pot Plantage, Kollaps); 3) Tusch, FF; 4) Singvögel Rückwärts (Sing­vögel Vorwärts); 5) Lua-Lua-He (Chor Der Wiesenpieper); 6) Shattering & Fading (Flattermänner); 7) Nachrichten Aus Cannabistan; 8) Big Sound (Die Show Der Blaumeisen); 9) Krawall (Repressiver Mon­tag); 10) Blech & Aufbau (Bau, Steine & Erden); 11) Natur (Auf Dem Lande).

This almost immediate follow-up to Psychedelic Underground was, frankly speaking, not a very good move. For the most part, it consists of leftovers from the same jam session — think careful­ly: leftovers from a psychedelic jam session. That's sort of like replacing fresh cocaine with fresh vomit from a cocaine inhaler, isn't it?

The only big formal difference is that most of the tracks are short. This makes the album more di­verse; but how possibly diverse can an album get if all you hear is a set of ritualistic percussion grooves? How many different ways are there to bang a drum — okay, a lot of drums — unless you are Max Roach and you approach the drumbanging task the way a mathematician approaches a Millennium Prize Problem, which is clearly not the kind of situation that the members of Amon Düül were in when they released this sequel under the slogan of «anything goes».

Psychedelic Underground at least made a statement and provided you with a good soundtrack if you wanted to engage in a zeitgeist-ish religious ritual. These brief bits, however, fall under the Woody Allen principle of "really awful food, and in such small portions": as boring as these per­cussion fests are, they do not even give you plenty of time to settle into the groove. The whole venture loses its purpose, becoming a very silly album released with no particular purpose. It is fairly amazing they were able to release it at all. Not to bother — thumbs down here with not a shred of remorse. The best thing about it are the song titles, including such wasted wonders as 'News From Cannabistan' and 'Songbird Forwards (Songbird Backwards)'. But then again, it still sells for $25 at Amazon, so perhaps it is me, after all, who is missing something here — like an ability to appreciate strong young German hands on a set of bongos.