Amon Düül: Experimente

AMON DÜÜL: EXPERIMENTE (1983)

1) Special Track Experience No. 1; 2) Special Track Experience No. 2; 3) Special Track Experience No. 3; 4) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 4; 5) Special Track Experience No. 5; 6) Special Track Experience No. 6; 7) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 7; 8) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 8; 9) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 9; 10) Spe­cial Track Ex­pe­ri­ence No. 10; 11) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 11; 12) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 12; 13) Spe­cial Track Ex­pe­ri­ence No. 13; 14) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 14; 15) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 15; 16) Spe­cial Track Ex­pe­ri­ence No. 16; 17) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 17; 18) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 18; 19) Spe­cial Track Ex­pe­ri­ence No. 19; 20) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 20; 21) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 21; 22) Spe­cial Track Ex­pe­ri­ence No. 22; 23) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 23; 24) Spe­cial Track Experience No. 24.

Some sources list this album, released more than a decade after the musical career of Amon Düül had been wisely laid to rest, as a bootleg; others include it in officially sanctioned discographies, and, having not the temporal resources to investigate the controversy, I can only say that I do not care, on any grand scale, but that it would, perhaps, make sense to say a few words about it any­way, to scare off the irrationally brave people.

Basically, these are the «dregs off the dregs» from the proverbial jam session: sixty-five more minutes of lashing, crashing, bashing, and thrashing. The only difference from Disaster is that most of these «special experiences», for which nobody even bothered inventing specific titles this time around, are relatively short, from one to three minutes in length. Some may find it a consola­tion; I find it a travesty, since slicing these percussive blasts into thin strips pretty much loses the only remaining saving grace of the original Amon Düül — their ability to genetically engineer your brain if the drumming and strumming are left alone for a prolonged period of time. These here little pieces are blatantly stripped of that power, each one cutting off abruptly, without even being provided a chance to fade away, at what looks like completely random intervals. Even on those few (two or three) occasions where I, involuntarily, would find myself slipping into the groove, this was only to be followed by the very unpleasant feeling of having the groove suddenly jerked from under you, and that can be almost as bad as a case of coitus interruptus.

There does, however, occur a big, big laugh here if you make it all the way to Special Experience No. 20 — which basically sounds like someone trying, over the course of one minute, to master the chords for 'Louie Louie' but... failing. Pretty much tells you everything you should know ab­out the musical level of Amon Düül. Actually, a few scattered tracks here and there offer a bit of folksy jangle, as a relief from the usual choppy rhythm chords, but it's not as if throwing in a sim­ple flourish here and there had any actual meaning in this context.

I'd like to give the album a thumbs down, but I can't — not before the effect of listening to it is properly tested in a psychiatric ward; after all, similia simi­li­bus curentur, if you pardon my Latin. We can only hope that, with Experimente, the well had truly run dry. If anyone ever happens to fall upon more leftovers from this accursed session (or, God forbid, come across recordings of other similar rituals), I will just have to pretend that the unfortunate indie label that will dare rele­ase them is run by Nazi pedophiles, and the Reviewer's Code says I can't deal with such types.

Amon Düül: Disaster

AMON DÜÜL: DISASTER (1972)

1) Drum Things (Erschlagzeugtes); 2) Asynchron (Verjault Und Zugeredet); 3) Yea Yea Yea (Zerbeatelt); 4) Broken (Ofensivitäten); 5) Somnium (Trauma); 6) Frequency (Entzwei); 7) Autonomes (Entdrei); 8) Chaoticolour (Entsext); 9) Expressionidiom (Kapuntterbunt); 10) Altitude (Quäär Feld Aus); 11) Impropulsion (Noch'n Lied).

If they intentionally gave this album that kind of name to avert disaster — for instance, to have all of us blush and say, «oh come on, don't be so hard on yourselves, it's not that bad, really!»... — well, it is that bad. No need to underplay the badness. After the cute, if ultimately unsuccessful, attempt at actual music-making on the previous album, Amon Düül are back to basics: once again scraping out the barrel of the big 1969 jam session. And now, God help us, they have scra­ped out enough to fill out a double album of material.

What separates the real Disaster from a forgivable curiosity like Psychedelic Underground is that these, really truly, are dregs. Most of the tracks are, as usual, centered around drums, except that this time, there is little of anything other than drums (about one or two chords worth in gui­tar strum and some occasional howling notwithstanding), and it all sounds like a bunch of sound­checks — warming up for the real thing. Everything is taken at the same tempo, most of the pat­terns are exactly the same, and the individuality of each of the tracks basically just depends on how many drummers there are and on which particular single string the guitar or the bass player would pluck or strum in the event of a common cosmic current picking him up and carrying him along with the drummer(s).

Essentially, this is Metal Machine Music, but without the pizzazz — Lou Reed, at least, produ­ced his «anti-masterpiece» as a well-targeted fuck-you-all, whereas Disaster doesn't even have the proper sonic punch to offend anybody exactly as the doctor prescribed. Psychedelic Under­ground was the sacrificial ritual; this is rehearsal material for the sacrificial ritual. You interested in listening to the witch doctor getting it on in­side his hut, half an hour before they drag the sacrificial victims in the center of the village square? If yes, Disaster awaits you, all the sixty seven minutes of thumping and pumping. Thumbs down.

Amon Düül: Paradieswärts Düül

AMON DÜÜL: PARADIESWÄRTS DÜÜL (1970)

1) Love Is Peace; 2) Snow Your Thirst And Sun Your Open Mouth; 3) Paramechanische Welt; 4) Eternal Flow; 5) Paramechanical World.

An almost unpredictable surprise: Amon Düül's first, and only, attempt at establishing themselves as a real band — perhaps, spurred on by feelings of jealousy towards their musically more ambi­tious brethren in Amon Düül II (a couple of which still ended up guesting at the sessions, because the entire collected musical talent of Amon Düül proper would not even reach the level of the Monkees, let alone real Krautrock competition). Predictably, it did not work, but at least it's (a) GROWTH, (b) not as awful as it could easily have been. I mean, in 1970, an underground band of poorly trained «musicians» could release an entire album of running up and down any basic scale, and it would still sell — a little — as the ultimate mind-expanding experience. Fortunately, Paradieswärts is slightly better than that.

Slightly. The entire first side is occupied by one 17-minute track, consisting of two parts: first, a folk-bluesy electric part, pinned to a trivial looped riff, then a raga-style acoustic part, pinned to even more trivial acoustic strumming, with some electronic noises forming a bridge between the two. There is some overdubbing (bass, extra guitarwork, including what tries to pass for baroque acoustic flourishes, etc.), but overall, you can only think positively of this track if the atmosphere happens to be to your liking — enough to make you enter a peaceful realm of sleep.

On the second side, 'Snow Your Thirst...' is another Grateful Dead-ish experience, but expanded with a lengthy and, surprisingly, not too atrocious electric wah-wah solo; 'Paramechanische Welt' is another raga that sounds quite similar to the second part of 'Love Is Peace'. Furthermore, CD editions also include two shorter tracks that were released as a single slightly before the LP, of which 'Eternal Flow' could be moody and melancholic if it weren't so goddamn minimalistic — and with Amon Düül, the feeling never passes that their minimalism is due not so much to their intentional love for minimalism as it is to their formal inability to practice maximalism.

In short, it is all quiet, atmospheric, «pastoral», as some would claim, and utterly irrelevant in the face of so many much better albums out there. But apparently, Amon Düül themselves believed this music could get you to paradise (see the album title), and, since it is hard to scientifically fal­sify that belief, you might as well join in, to avoid frustration. Still a thumbs down, though, from a voluntarily frustrated non-believer.

Check "Paradieswarts Duul" (CD) on Amazon