Amon Düül II - "Wolf City" 1972

Before I lose my momentum, I'll go ahead and post another special album....

Amon Düül II - Wolf City

United Artists, 1972


















This is quality krautrock here. As wikipedia says below, despite being more commercial and accessible, this album is excellent psych prog rock. There are more "conventional songs", but also plenty of crazy effects, violin, tabla, and keyboards that push it over the edge and into the territory that makes me very happy:-) I'll let some others tell you a bit more about it:

'Wolf City is the fifth studio album released by the German Krautrock band Amon Düül II.

Like its predecessor, Carnival in Babylon, Wolf City is a more conventional recording than the band's earlier albums, with shorter track times and more straightforward song structures.^[1] This was likely due to the band's increasing commercial popularity, both at home and in the UK.^[2] Despite this change, the album is far from anything that could be termed "mainstream". Amon Düül II's love for experimentation still shines through, especially on such tracks as "Jail-House Frog" and "Deutsch Nepal".^{[3] ' *from WIKIPEDIA*}

Line-up/Musicians

- D. Secundus Fichelscher / drums, vocals (4-7), guitars (7)
- Chris Karrer / acoustic & electric guitars, violin, Soprano sax, vocals
- Renate Knaup-Krötenschwanz / vocals
- Lothar Meid / bass, synthesizers, vocals
- Falk U. Rogner / organ, Clavioline, synthesizers
- John Weinzierl / electric guitar, vocals

+ Al Sri Al Gromer / sitar (5)
- Paul Heyda / violin (5)
- Jimmy Jackson / piano, choir organ
- Olaf Kübler / vocals (2), sax (5)
- Pandit Shankar Lal / tablas (5)
- Peter Leopold / vocals (2), synthesizers (3), kettle drums (5)
- Liz van Nienhoff / tambura (5)
- Rolf Zacher / vocals (2-6)

"The thing that sets this album up differently from say an album like “Yeti” is clearly the more accessible progressive leanings, yet still remains highly imaginative. This album mixes psychedelic and progressive rock in a way no one else could. On top of the usual guitar, bass, keyboards, AMON DUUL employ a nice dose of sitar (Pandit Shankar), tabla kettle drum and tambura which really all clicks on this album. Without a question Renate Knaup’s vocals do take some slight adjustment to get into but for this music lover fits perfectly. This is a lively, fun and exciting album to listen to and I love their use of the distorted wah wah guitar and phasing effects and of course vintage keyboards. Musically this is actually fairly aggressive sounding without being noticeably loud or over the top." --loserboy

"This album was recorded at a critical point in the history of the band. There had been some quarreling within the band, and some band members left to form Utopia and record a self- titled album themselves. Yet in typical Amon Düül 2 fashion the band members made peace again while these albums were in the process of recording, which resulted in all band members playing on both albums, and one track ("Deutsch Nepal") appearing on both, albeit in slightly different versions (most notably in the vocals). The opener "Surrounded by the Stars" has the typical snapping guitar chords of John Weinzierl, over which the aetheric voice of Renate "Krötenschawnz" Knaup sings. "Green- Bubble-Rain-Coated-Man" starts more slowly. almost like a ballad, but it changes tempo in the middle and has a furious finale with weird synthies. "Jail House Frog" is an instrumental, in which the synths indeed sound like a croaking frog. "Wolf City" has Lothar Meid on lead vocals, but other band members sing "Wolf City" in chorus all throughout this rack; the guitar indeed snaps like the fangs of a wolf on this track. "Wie der Wind am Ende einer Straße" is an almost oriental instrumental, in which the band seems to improvise a lot. "Deutsch Nepal" has lots of mellotron, over which actor Rolf Zacher tells a story of a freaked-out general (lyrics in German). "Sleepwalkers Timeless Bridge" finally resembles Popol Vuh a little, which is no wonder, because one of the drummers (Amon Düül have 2 drummers on this album, Peter Leopold and Daniel Fischelscher) plays guitar on it, and he is also the guitar player of Popol Vuh on many of their albums. One of the bands best efforts. 4 stars." --baldjean

So without further ado,

^{FILL YOUR EARS}