Amon Düül II - "Utopia" 1973

A little sumpin sumpin for AD2 fans. This was actually the second album of theirs that I heard and served to further my fascination with the band and krautrock in general. It´s really not as bad as many of the reviews I´ve read on the internet suggest. Silly "serious prog" reviewers I suppose. Don´t expect Yeti or anything like that, really it fits quite snugly and appropriately between Wolf City and Vive la Trance. As you´ll read below this album began as an Amon Düül II spin-off and ended up being the same band with a different name. Later on they added the AD2 label just to avoid confusion and sell more I suppose. I admit it does feel a bit more like a compilation than a coherent album and you can tell that there is more of one particular member´s vision guiding the recording, but there is plenty to love here!

Amon Düül II - Utopia
United Artists, 1973






"Line-up / Musicians

- Lothar Meid / bass, vocals
- Olaf Kübler / saxophone
- Kristian Schultze / keyboards
- Jimmy Jackson / organ
- Joe Nay / guitar

guest musicians:
- Chris Karrer / guitar
- John Weinzierl / guitar
- Renate Knaup-Krötenschwanz / vocals

"Utopia" is a studio project by Olaf Kübler and Lothar Meid. Because it featured several regular members of AMON DÜÜL II (including Chris Karrer and John Weinzierl), it has usually been regarded as part of the DÜÜL discography, and, indeed, the CD reissue credits the album to AMON DÜÜL II. " - from progarchives.


"So, the myth says that during the "Wolf City" sessions (or after that) the band split into two sections due to quarrels, leaving Olaf Kübler and Lothar Meid alone to record a separate project under the name "UTOPIA". But in the meantime, they all made peace again so the remaining members of AMON DUUL II tribe participated in the making of this album. Original LP bears the title "Utopia" only, while the re-issued CD format added the name of AMON DUUL II, probably for commercial reasons because this one and only album of UTOPIA project would be otherwise doomed for oblivion.
It is sort of a by-product of the "transition phase" of AMON DUUL II towards more guitar-oriented conventional rock structures of "Vive la Trance", but it still retains (not only in the cover art) certain "Gothic" and dark elements of "Wolf City"- notable is the reprise of the Teutonic satire "Deutsch Nepal" from that album (with slightly different and weaker German vocal). "What You Gonna Do" is a nice folksy-rock attempt sung by Renate, while "Alice" with "romantic" piano and drunken male vocal sounds like taken from some bluesy Tom Waits record. "Las Vegas" is a quite catchy with repetitive acoustic guitars and sax-driven hypnotic instrumental jam, while the title track is a perfect example of Kraut-rock; processed voices, Mellotrons, electronic effects, jazzy guitar jams, strong and diverse percussion, groovy bass and overall psycho/space feeling."
- Seyo from progarchives.

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