Customer Reviews

Phallus Dei

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This remaster of the first Amon Duul II outing is well worth re-buying. I already had the previous CD reissue, but this version is eye-opening. The aural muddiness and sometimes excessive reverb on the first reissue have been stripped away and the volume has been brought up. It's like looking at a painting that's been restored.

Perhaps the best thing I can say is that I found new things that I hadn't heard before, and I've listened to this album many, many times. There were times I found myself saying, "Wait, was this on my other CD?"

It's not often that you can take something that was cool to begin with and make it even cooler. My previous review of this CD still stands, but with this remastering I'm even more enthusiastic about it. This is an essential document for anybody who loves psychedelic music. If only more of the great German psych bands' albums were remastered this well! A big "danke" to Amon Duul II for their remastering and reissue of this terrific music.

This is Amon Duul II's first album, and it's everything that the American psych/freakout bands promised but could not deliver. These guys are so lysergic that they make the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane, their american contemporaries at the time (1969) sound like coffee drinking office secretaries by comparison. Furiously surging, ebbing and flowing, the music combines elements of garage rock, avant-garde, psychedelia, and just plain all-out weirdness. The end effect is like being submerged in the ocean of an alien planet. All the lyrics are in German but it doesn't matter; what matters is that you will be swept away. This band should be ranked far above most of their American psych contemporaries. Truly psychedelic music, not for the faint of heart, but spiral into the Duulian atmosphere and you may never return.

This remastered edition of "Phallus Dei" is outstanding!! The terrific cover itself is now with fine colours, with the ladies getting more expression in the back of the naked tree full of birds... At the first seconds of "Kanaan", the first track, we can delight with a full-bodied sound, as listening the panic male voice at the entrance, telling us that something really creepy is gone happen...the "four" tribal minutes of "Kanaan" are a dazzling musical experience and the summoning of all powers of this innovative german group...this is really the new music of a new era, still fresh today!!! Almost forty years ago, how bold this was!!!
Second and third tracks, "Dem Guten, Schönen, Wahren" and "Luzifers Ghilom" are that kind of Amon Düül II status, something between humor and terror, a kind of new ethnic chanting with hypnotic rhythms...there's a gloomy waltz at the end of "Dem Guten..." introducing the next track, and here Current 93 had plenty of sounds to sampler for their frightening records...a cry in despair (Luzifer?), menacing drums and almost-hindu chants, again a lot of nasty chorus, a desperate violin...
"Henriette Krötenschwanz", the fourth track, is a little lighter tune, in fact is a disturbing and pointless march, here Renate Knaup trying to emulate some kind of witch...
"Phallus dei", the last track of this psychedelic masterpiece, is a extended magnific jam-session, divided into various movements, always getting the trance way...it's quite extraordinary the middle-section, a madness of bongos and turkish drums side-by-side with savage screams...
Anyway, a must-buy for any psychedelic/krautrock/progressive lover...and with this superb remastered edition, a must-must!!
(The bonus tracks are unreleased versions of later recordings of the band, a nice addition!!)

Phallus Dei is a psychedelic mind-trip that is light-years ahead of most other releases of the era, e.g., Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, King Crimson (not to say that those were bad albums, just not as freaked out). One big sloppy stew of a musical melange that lacks only a light show and some love beads to complete the sixties experience. And perhaps a ticket for your trip back to Earth.

Amon Dull II made better albums than Phallus Del, such as Yeti and the classic Tanz der Lemminge.

But Phallus Dei introduced the dark, layered space psychadelia that made Amon Dull II one of the most inventive bands of their era. They were more complex than Pink Floyd, more compositionally able than Hawkwind.

Some of this seems hokey now--the ghoast noises on the second track, for example. But for innovation and a blueprint to truely dark underground music, this album has few peers.

A dominating attempt to break ground with psychedelic and progressive rock. Amon duul2 fuse so many influences even occasionaly reminding this reviewer of an arabic or indian feel.

Bouncy, playful and not lacking at all in talent or music writing skill Amon Duul2 supercede thier counterpart Amon Duul1 in the ability to pop immulate the feel from the hippie commune they both inhabited. Appointing the gesture of world saving unity wailings in Jibberish, German, and English, Amon duul were known to have desired peace with all.

Much credit due to this completely unique and original album. Unique entirely to its genre, it is truely hard to get better then this.

Updated review- July 8, 2010

WOW! I totally didn't get Phallus Dei when I first heard it a couple years ago. Apparently I somehow completely missed all the amazing psychedelic instrumental sections cleverly (and secretly) put in all the spots. Okay, maybe not ALL the right spots, but most of them.

The title song is amazing for a variety of reasons. The 4-minutes atmospheric build-up in the beginning not only reminds me of late 60's Pink Floyd, but it actually really works. It does a splendid job leading into the guitar jam.

When the guitar jam arrives, it's most fantastic for being incredibly pleasing to the ears. Maybe a comparison to Jerry Garcia's guitar style is appropriate, or maybe not. It's up to you to decide on that one.

Hey, I love the Grateful Dead, but most of the guitar playing goes by completely unnoticed to my ears. Most of the guitar work taking place throughout the jam isn't necessarily melodic, but it *works*. I can't exactly explain how it works and how I can enjoy it despite not being terribly melodic- it just does.

Then the song takes a serious 180 degree turn and reminds me of some small town festival somewhere in the midwest (such as in Kansas or Nebraska) with the brilliant violin jam that dominates a majority of the second half (about 10 minutes worth of playtime, I totally kid you not!)

The violin alone (or is it a fiddle? Who knows!) shifts through all kinds of tempo changes and just takes flat out bizarre directions, but since I love that darn instrument so much, I can't help but believe the entire jam is just mind-boggling terrific.

I can actually see why I didn't get this album at first- this is like extremely challenging psychedelic music (if such a thing is possible!)

Some people may think the psychedelic movement is all about the sounds and weirdness factor, and that you're not really supposed to care about the majority of actual notes taking place, but an album like Phallus Dei proves such a theory wrong. There *is* quality and memorable instrumental chops scattered all over the 20-minute title song. It just takes time and patience to begin to hear some of them.

I'm not quite sure what to think about a song like "Luzifers Ghilom". The distinct German vocals are somewhat of a distraction and take away from the music taking place in the background, but hey! This could very well be another example of a song that has yet to really dazzle me. One day I might totally fall in love with it, who knows? Anyway, the guitar playing is quite heavy. That's about all I can really hear besides the occasional slabs of bass and heavy emphasis on those German vocals.

I really underestimated this album. It's fantastic. Just expect a challenging album.

Anyway, here's my old review-

The first Amon Duul II album sounds like the early stages of heavy punk rock combined with ghostly howls, lengthy melodic bass lines, and the occasional sound effects to give the album an overall dark and twisted vibe. I dig what the band is trying to do here, however, Amon Duul II would soon move on to bigger and more creative musical ideas.

This is just the beginning stages of a band featuring an extremely raw and heavy style without much in the way of direction. I would give this album a higher rating if it wasn't for the fact that albums like Yeti and Wolf City are totally sweet.

Be warned: sonically speaking this new upgrade is no different that the version of this that was available many years ago. And the bonus tracks are of very recent vintage NOT from when this album was recorded. So if you like drum machines and samplers etc (which is what the bonus tracks use to a very noticable degree) go ahead and buy it. But otherwise you might feel royally screwed like I did after getting rid of the old versions and spending quite a bit of cash to upgrade all the albums only to find that they sound EXACTLY the same!

As the author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent" and a former radio disc-jockey, I am often asked to write and or discuss various recordings from the 60's and 70's.

When those fortunate enough to have experienced the works of Amon Düül and Amon Düül II are asked to articulate their thoughts, emotions almost explode waiting to tell you about the experimental records from 1970 and 1971 "Yeti" and "Tanz der Lemminge." "Phallus Dei" from 1969 can play in the same yard anytime.

Taking pages from progressive rock, psychedelic, avant-garde, improvisational, and the German underground scene, Amon Düül and Amon Düül II releases offer an attack on your senses with intense musical compositions. Their works aren't thought of as individuals songs but a total package of sounds and landscapes that take your to other spectrums.

This particular release depending on the pressing has the title track (Over 20 minutes) either as the first song or the last. Either way the continuity isn't broken. The structure of the songs allow for interchangeable parts. This ride is a marathon and not a sprint.

On track three you can hear a bit of the Jefferson Airplane (Think "Volunteers"). With the plethora of styles that influence the sound the band is strong enough on every account to not emanate a borrowed or tired vibe but a unique one that has stood the test of time.

Amon Düül and Amon Düül II didn't concern themselves with toping the charts but they did have a terrific philosophy of being proud of the end result. If you get the pressing that contains the two bonus tracks "TouchMaPhal" and "I Want The Sun To Shine" the definitive version will be yours. Excellent quality and twenty minutes more of their musical odyssey.

Enjoy the music and be well,
Craig Fenton
Author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent"

This 1969 debut by German "Krautrock" outfit Amon Duul II is a fine example of late 1960s psychedelic rock as it developed in continental Europe. Although there is a lot in the way of 1968-1969 Pink Floyd influences, this is definitely a unique sounding album. In fact, I love pulling these old albums out - it reminds me of why I got into progressive/psychedelic rock in the first place.

The five tracks range in length from 2:03 to the mammoth title track (20:47). The music blends acid rock/garage rock, melodic psychedelic rock, a high level of studio experimentation, and some European avant-garde influences together. Throw in the occasional sitar and tabla part and you have a good idea of what Phallus Dei sounds like. Overall, I am reminded somewhat of Pink Floyd albums such as A Saucerful of Secrets (1968) and Ummagumma (1969); particularly the live set.

In spite of the release date and the use of the sitar/tables here and there, this album does not sound dated at all - it still sounds really cool in an "arty" sort of way. What contributes to the "artiness" are the unusual vocal styles of Renate Knaup and Chris Karrer, which include fairly "straight" vocals (in German) but also some chants, and moans amongst other atypical uses of the human voice. There is also instrumentation unusual for a rock group including the occasional use of violins, vibraphone, and pieces of percussion such as Turkish drums. Furthermore, although some of the tracks include some pretty wild jamming, the music is fairly sophisticated (for psychedelic rock) and there is evidence that the longer pieces were thought out in advance - there is some structure. The large title track is a good example. Indeed, these qualities set the album (and group) apart from their contemporaries (Jefferson Airplane for example).

This remastered version by Repertoire is very nice and features restored cover artwork and a very informative booklet. The sound quality is pretty good. The bonus tracks include the previously unreleased four part mini-epic "Freak Out Requiem" (about 16-17 minutes long) and "Cymbals in the end (0:31).

All in all this is a fine example of the "Krautrock" style by an influential group. Recommended along with Tanz der Lemminge (1971) and Wolf City (1972).