Amon Düül II: Bee As Such

AMON DÜÜL II: BEE AS SUCH (2009)

1) Mambo La Libertad; 2) Du Kommst Ins Heim; 3) Still Standing; 4) Psychedelic Suite.

As it turns out, the Amon Düül II story is not quite over with the passing of the millennium thre­sh­old. On the heels of various new compilations and CD re-masters, the original band made one more effort to reconvene — this time, featuring four of the founding fathers and mothers (Renate, Karrer, Meid, and Weinzierl). Sessions were held in April 2009, but the results, so far, have not been issued in CD form: the «album» was made officially available only on the band's site, and, as far as I can tell, Bee As Such does not even have its own album art.

It is, however, accompanied by a short and slightly ungrammatical press release, reading as fol­lows: «... a highly sensitive performance, of finding back to the roots – not in the past, but es­sen­ti­ally – seeking the new sounds and contents at the same time. No ‘kraut’, no ’70s’, but the music of the new millenium. This sound painting is one more of our unique works, containing the spirit of our time.» Meaning that, just as it was with Nada Moonshine #, the band is still more worried about being perceived as an «irrelevant oldies act» than about... uh, making good music?

Besides which, they are simply lying. Even on a fully formal and objective basis, how is it that there are «no '70s'» here, when 'Still Standing' essentially merges 'Hawknose Harlequin' from Car­nival In Babylon and 'The Wolfman Jack Show' from Utopia? And on a non-formal basis, the very fact that Bee As Such is, essentially, a set of lengthy studio jams, will automatically re­mind one of the days of Phallus Dei and Yeti. If anything, Nada Moonshine # was far more re­flective of the «spirit of our time» than this recording (although even that is not saying much). If the press release genuinely reflects the way they feel, this is fairly pathetic — an open acknowled­gement of the fact that they have no idea what the «spirit of our time» really is (not that I serious­ly blame them, but it's one thing not to know the truth and another thing to assert a lie). If, how­ever, this is just a dumb «marketing ploy», it's even more pathetic. How many incoming custo­mers has it managed to offend?

Still, let us forget about silly words. It certainly must be praised that, almost fourty years since the band was last involved in brave, unpredictable jamming, they came together to give this approach one more try. It is at least brave — and it endorses the idea that 1969-72 were, in fact, the years of Amon Düül II; that dark experimental jamming has been and will always be at the heart of the­ir legacy. Compare the idea with that of a Genesis reunion to record another Foxtrot, or an Aero­smith attempt to blacklist their outside songwriters and record another Rocks — things that never came to pass, even though they were expected so hard.

But, once again turning to the negative side, Bee As Such is not at all impressive. Frankly spea­king, most of its fifty minutes sound like kitchen rehearsals, fit for inclusion as bonus tracks on special editions of «proper» albums rather than having any serious autonomous value. They are authentic «jams», almost completely improvised (or, at least, seemingly so) around simple themes and usually appearing out of nowhere and disappearing in the same direction after a while (do not be alarmed by the 26 minute running time of 'Psychedelic Suite': it is really three separate jam parts that do not have any coherent links in between themselves). But the jamming has nowhere near the power, the concentration, and the density of, say, a 'Yeti Talks To Yogi'.

It may have to do with the fact that there is no keyboardist in the band: only Weinzierl is credited for «synthesizers», but most of the time he just plays guitar, with Karrer accompanying on violin. But even those guitar parts are perfunctory — rhythm chords, mostly, with the instrument never really leaving the ground. The band members still remember how to keep a groove together, but they seem to have forgotten how to develop that groove, or how to make their individual persona­lities impressive within the groove.

And, finally, as much as I respect Renate Knaup-Kroten­sch­wanz for her immeasurable services to Amon Düül II in the past, I have to admit that on this re­cord she is simply the biggest pain in the ass. I could have stomached the music more easily, were it not infested with her tuneless croaking. Whatever thin nuages of atmosphere the players might have been able to conjure with their jam­ming, they are immediately blown apart by Renate's thoroughly anti-atmospheric vocalizations. It's okay by me if she simply cannot sing any more, but whatever made them think that the inabi­lity to sing should be compensated with unlimited freedom of quacking and croaking?

In brief, I tip my imaginary hat to the band's decision to succumb to nostalgia (and Bee As Such, no matter what the press release tells us, is first and foremost a hardcore exercise in nostalgia), but if the album never makes it to CD format, this will not be a reason to shed serious tears. I could be mistaken, but I think the album clearly shows it's high time to pack it in — or, at least, high time to stop deluding themselves into thinking that they can still reflect «the spirit of our times» by producing watered-down imitations of their glory days. Granted, they may still have another Nada Moonshine # in them, but only if they stop being so serious about it. As it is, the sheer inadequacy of this product requires a thumbs down.

Amon Düül II: Live In Tokyo

AMON DÜÜL II: LIVE IN TOKYO (1996)

1) Nada Moonshine Union; 2) Black Pearls Of Wisdom; 3) Dry Your Ears; 4) Castaneda Dream (In Another World); 5) Deutsch Nepal; 6) Kiss Ma Eee; 7) Speed Inside My Shoes; 8) Lilac Lillies; 9) Wolf City; 10) La Paloma; 11) Flowers Of The Orient; 12) Surrounded By The Stars; 13) Archangel Thunderbird; 14) Jam Hai.

The main point of this release, as I attempt to reconstruct it, was to assert that Nada Moonshine # was, God forbid, by no means merely a pretext to get together, go on tour, and play some oldies. Believe it or not, the briefly resuscitated Amon Düül II actually insisted on the album's relevance — and, climbing up on the stage, concentrated almost exclusively on new material. Evil conspira­tors might drop poisonous hints that, perchance, the band had simply forgotten how to play the old stuff (and their not being able to get Weinzierl back in the fold guaranteed that the proper old sound was hardly recuperable). But it is more polite to presume innocence and believe that the band's worst fear was to come out before their audiences as an «oldies act».

With 6 out of 14 songs faithfully recreating the latest studio album, Live In Tokyo seems to go for overkill. However, despite occasionally unfocused bits and spoiled vocal notes, many of these songs work better in a live setting. The most obvious improvement is 'Lilac Lillies', done here without the annoying techno beats — still not a very good song, but, at least, shed of its unna­tural and ridicu­lous packaging. Others simply replace the excessive use of echos and electronics by a more «natural» approach, and that's a big plus.

Most of the old material is from Wolf City — three big numbers that are performed quite close to the original versions, and honestly reproduce their «Babylonian Gothic» atmosphere (particularly 'Deutsch Nepal'); guitarist Felice Occhionero is at least capable to reproduce the «regular» guitar parts of old, so that the band can play its old «song-like» successes. Eventually, they even go into 'Archangels Thunderbird', done a bit too noisily for my taste (the old live version from Live In London, with its violin parts, is much more impressive), but still decent.

There isn't really much more to say about the record, except to stress that the assessment of Mr. Stephen Thomas Erlewine at the All-Music Guide («...the group is no longer experimenting — they are simply recreating their sound, and that slavishness prevents the music from being any­thing other than a nostalgia trip») is completely off the mark, given the setlist. Most likely, Mr. Erlewine just threw on one track whose title he happened to remember ('Deutsch Nepal'), com­pared it with the studio version, and then hastened away to review Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love before dinnertime.

Fact of the matter, subtle changes are introduced almost every­where: if there is one thing the band is determined to prove here, it's that anyone wanting to talk about «nostalgia trips» should be dragged out into the street and shot. It's an entirely different matter if Amon Düül's attempt to re­form in a progressive way was a success or a failure. It seems that they themselves were hardly satisfied — the band's official site omits both Nada Moonshine # and Live In Tokyo from its discography section. But credit must be given for trying, and trying in a way that was not simply copying current trends, but actually «upgraded» the old sound with a mixed bag of various tricks, some modernistic, some retro. Live In Tokyo is, therefore, quite a respectable companion to its studio counterpart, and demands the same modest thumbs up reaction.

Amon Düül II: Nada Moonshine #

AMON DÜÜL II: NADA MOONSHINE # (1995)

1) Castaneda Da Dream; 2) Nada Moonshine Union; 3) Speed Inside My Shoes; 4) Sirens In Germanistan; 5) Lilac Lil­lies; 6) Kiss Ma Eee; 7) Carpetride In Velvet Night; 8) Black Pearl Of Wisdom; 9) Ça Va; 10) Guadalquivir.

The next reunion of Amon Düül II took place fourteen years after Vortex — and not a moment too soon, allowing the band to skip falling under cheesy Eighties' influences. The line-up here in­cludes Karrer, Leopold, Meid, and Renate, that is, most of the founding fathers and mothers, with the unfortunate exclusion of Weinzierl (who had spent most of the previous decade with his own UK-based version of «Amon Düül»), replaced by new guitarist Felice Occhionero (Italian? In a Bavarian band? Confound this age of globalization!) Nobody either expected the reunion or, in fact, noticed it, apart from a few prog veterans. The band had not given the world anything truly worth its while since Made In Germany; what would be the sense of reuniting?

The answer is — to prove to themselves, at least, that they still had it in them to release an album that would be unpredictable, interesting, and inspiring. This is, after all, the only reason for a re­union that is not overtly cash-targeted (never a chief concern for these guys). And how do they fare? Well, I think that they hit it right on the «unpredictable» and «interesting» notches — as for «inspiring», you'd probably have to jump through a couple hoops to reach that mark.

In terms of atmosphere, the band certainly tries to recapture the mystical jungle-like spirit of old. However, this is not achieved by bluesy jamming or thick instrumental density. Instead of that, they go for the mixing panel. The whole thing is echoey and wobbly, the synthesizers employ the latest in cool and uncool tones, the guitars are «treated», and there are lots of «special effects» overdubs: Nada Moonshine # is a hundred percent «studio creation».

This may sound like bad news. Sure, Amon Düül II had abandoned most of their jamming power as early as 1972, but, since then, the only thing that kept them alive for three more years was the ability to concentrate on melodic art-rock instead. Nada Moonshine #, in contrast, consists most­ly of rather large (five to eight or nine minutes) atmospheric pieces that are neither sweaty jams nor catchy pop songs. Worse, they do not really understand properly how to borrow stuff from the young ones without causing grounds for embarrassment (the techno beats that accompany the second half of 'Lilac Lillies' are one of the stupidest moments on an otherwise non-stupid record by a major artist I have ever heard). Still worse, the name «Castaneda» appears in the title of the first track — the way I see it, this is more or less the equivalent of admitting that the words of the songs not only do not matter, but absolutely have to be ignored. (The band was never all that hot in the lyrics department, but some of their nonsense at least used to be used to comic effect).

But none of this really matters, because the reunited band has resolved the major problem of Vor­tex — they finally learned to make these dense, brooding, mystical, (sometimes) Eastern-tinged landscapes sound meaningful and involving, by simply pushing the boundaries. Essentially, they just try out All Sorts Of Things to see what can happen — boldly and crudely. Sometimes it's a catastrophe ('Lilac Lillies'; the repetitive, silly-sounding "LOUIE LOUIE KISS MA EEE" mantra voiced by Renate on the appropriately titled 'Kiss Ma Eee'). More often, it's a decent hook.

The way the «ethereal» chorus of the title track eventually surges out of the surrounding pseudo-hip-hop chaos, or out of the blazing guitar solo. The grimly acid sax riff of 'Speed Inside My Shoes'. The «ominous» side effects of the «child chorus» on 'Sirens In Germanistan'. The unex­pected operatic coda to 'Kiss Ma Eee', verging on sheer beauty if not for the ever-weakening po­wers of Renate's voice (which never had the proper operatic stamina in the first place). And a per­sonal favorite of mine — the terrific idea to speed up 'Ça Va', which begins as something of an «old wise man ballad», all moody soothing vocals strewn over an adult contemporary type of ar­rangement — then, midway through, picks up tempo and becomes one of the fastest and most ferocious ro­ckers these guys ever tackled.

As much as Nada Moonshine # is plagued with «wrong moves», for me, it is unquestionably the band's finest moment in twenty years — a comeback one would never expect after all the pathe­tic blunders of the Klaus Ebert period. It is actually a little bit worriesome how «crazy» it sounds: I feel the same nervous reaction as I do when listening to late-period Gong reunions (a 70-year old Gilli Smyth impersonating sexy psychedelic witches, etc.). But this may really have something to do with the overall deterioration of Renate's vocals — she always had a strange tone, and now that strange tone borders on «decrepit». One can get used to it eventually, though; and then it's a respectable thumbs up all the way.

Check "Nada Moonshine #" (CD) on Amazon

Amon Düül II: Vortex

AMON DÜÜL II: VORTEX (1981)

1) Vortex; 2) Holy West; 3) Die 7 Fetten Jahre; 4) Wings Of The Wind; 5) Mona; 6) We Are Machine; 7) Das Ges­tern Ist Das Heute Von Morgen; 8) Vibes In The Air.

This could have worked. A last-minute desperate attempt to get their act together — and a re­uni­on of sorts, with Renate back in the band, along with organist Falk Rogner; original members John Weinzierl and Lothar Meid also make guest appearances. This way, some conditions are met to try and give the old rusty engine another kick, and see if the good old Amon Düül II still have it in them to survive the Eighties.

It is undisputable that the album is a major change in direction after the last three records. The band has dropped all attempts to suck up to disco (none too soon, given the date), and the sound gets denser and darker, in strict accordance with the classic «jungle» philosophy of the band. At the same time, they rely rather heavily on up-to-date synthesizers and electronic drums — an in­evitable evil at the time, perhaps, but one that heavily affects the response to Vortex today. Too stiff. Too mechanical. Too Eighties!

Ah, but the main problem isn't even the decade. The main problem is — will the atmosphere be back? If, stylistically, this is supposed to be an Eighties' update of Wolf City and Vive La Trance, will these new songs be as evocative and penetrating as their elder brethren? My simple answer — no, they won't. For one thing, the playing throughout is fairly crappy. Jörg Evers, who is handling most of the guitar work, is, at best, just a passable player, and Rogner's synthesizers do not begin to compare with the moody organ work on early Amon Düül II records. For another thing, most of the compositions on Vortex are «songs», not «jams», and, as «songs», they mostly suck. Where are the cool electric riffs? The catchy choruses?

Your inner Amazon.com should tell you that, if you like the album opener (the instrumental title track), you will probably like the rest as well. It shows that the band has finally opened its eyes to New Wave and its electronic brethren; 'Vortex' sounds not unlike stuff from Peter Gabriel III, with the same potentially eerie contrast between crashing electronic drums and «The-Inquisition-is-after-you» syn­thesizers. But neither the drums nor the synths form particularly interesting or unpredictable pat­terns. The sound is dense and murky without being genuinely scary or depres­sing — and that is a pretty bad scenario.

Already the first vocal number, 'Holy West', is really a very simple pop-rocker, hanging upon a very simple and very senseless melody; just because Renate's voice is separated from the melody with an echo effect, and just because someone has bothered to add some chimes and extra guitar over­dubs, the song is not going to fare much better. At least it is nowhere near as embarrassing, though, as the band's misguided stab at anthemic arena-rock à la Queen ('Wings Of The Wind'), wasting a perfectly healthy slab of bombast for nothing. And nowhere near as disappointing as the grim electro-rocker 'We Are Machine', which formally justifies its title — and does nothing else. Who needs it when we have Kraftwerk?

In the end, paradoxically, it is not until they get to the lightest, softest, and most optimistic of the tracks — 'Vibes In The Air' — that I am able to feel at least a small bit of involvement. Essential­ly a «power ballad», this one, but a well-arranged one, with acoustic and slide guitars, harps, the works. A suitably fine conclusion, but coming in way too late to save the album from ultimate failure. Yes, it is an attempt to gain back some credit, but a half-hearted one; a far cry from a cer­tified «comeback», as some have dubbed Vortex just because Renate and Rogner's return has prompted them into self-deception. No wonder, then, that the follow-up to Vortex never came, and that Amon Düül II was finally put on hold soon afterwards.

Check "Vortex" (CD) on Amazon