Customer Reviews

Psychedelic Underground

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

 

 

They couldn't play worth beans and they knew it and they didn't care at all. But they cared a lot about noise and wanted to make some. So they did. Lots of it, and very loudly. To that extent this (and the subsequent COLLAPSING and DISASTER; if you've heard PSYCHEDELIC UNDERGROUND you've heard those two) is a riotous success. Tribal, primitive and primal, with lots of more-or-less steadily pounding rhythms (not necessarily drums, mind you) and unintelligible, lysergic ululations galore. There seems to be an acoustic guitar or two as well, but as they're thrown in pretty much for texture and rhythm (or something) they might as well be even more percussion instruments. Amazing that an entirely acoustic and lo-fi recording could be so loud- -Einsturzende Neubauten and the like still haven't outdone these guys in the sheer noise-for-fun-and-antiprofit department, and they've had lots more time and evidently way lots more practice. You might think you want to annoy your neighbors with this. Be careful, though. You might end up annoying yourself.

PSYCHEDELIC UNDERGROUND is a must-own! I didn't QUITE expect the masterpiece I got! Amon Duul made a debut album of such fury, such beauty, such.... um... originality, I was left speechless! The length of the tracks doesn't even matter; they're that listenable! My personal favorite is track four, with its spacey sitar/guitar playing and manic percussives. With Duul, percussion is the focus. YOU MUST GET THIS!

There's nothing like this in the annals of recorded rock. Amon Duul I (not to be confused with Amon Duul II) held an extended jam session and this is the results (along with a couple other recordings). Sure the later Amon Duul II was a better/tighter band but this recording is unmatched in it's originality. Mostly an extended noisey/tribal percussion workout it sounds fresh even today. Those seeking Amon Duul II look elsewear because Amon Duul I bears no resemblence to the latter...

One of the best Krautrock bands and albums of all time. Amon Duul 1 released three absolutely brilliant albums in a row - Psychedelic Underground, Collapsing and Disaster - and should be investigated by all those searching for the truly weird and wonderful. Imagine the VU ca. "White Light/White Heat" trying to play with tin guitars and about ten extra drummers. Full of rumbling, tribal noise and cheap tape effects, this is an oddball classic more should know about.

Wo kann ich die meisten Reviews über eine fast vergessene deutsche Kultgruppe lesen. In den USA. Danke für das Interesse an solcher Musik. Ich komme aus Süddeutschland und habe Amon Düül in den Siebzigern kennengelernt. Die Band war um 1970 bekannt wie ein bunter Hund. Sie bekam sehr viel Publicity viele Konzerte und Festivals, wenn auch die LPs nur in Insiderkreisen verkauft wurden. Platten wie "Phallus Dei" und "Yeti" sind sehr an den Zeitgeist um 1969 gebunden, heute schwer zu verstehen.

Noch schwerer Zugang zu finden ist es zu Amon Düül I. Diese Fraktion, die nach Berlin zog, distanzierte sich von der erfolgreicheren II Gruppe und hatte kurze Zeit das hübsche Model Uschi Obermeier und die Kommunarden Fritz Teufel und Rainer Langhans im Gefolge. Die Zeit war reif für experimentelles, war noch jung und unschuldig. In Deutschland gab es bis dato keine eigenständige Pop Musik, die nicht einfach PopAdaptionen aus England oder Amerika transportierte. Amon Düül war so exotisch und "progressiv", more far out als damals jede Gruppe aus den anderen Ländern. Das machte die Gruppe interessant für englische, amerikanische oder englische Hörer. So ein ausgeflippter Sound, so weit gehen unsere Gruppen wie "Pink Floyd" nicht. Deutschland hatte die Bühne des Pop-Business geschichtlich mit Erscheinen der ersten Platte von Amon Düül 1 (diese) und Phallus Dei (empfehlenswerter, auch sehr seltsam, exotisch) der AMon Düül II.

Diese Gruppe bekam ihren Plattenvertrag auf dem Essener Popfestival in der Gruga Halle, die Welt war aufgeschlossen für neues, junges und war experimentierfreudig. Von der Platte gefällt mir am besten die Cover Art: Wie um 1900 zu Zeiten des Symbolismus und Jugendstils (in München mit Franz Stuck sehr populär). Die Platte war sicher kein Erfolg, sie ist schwer zu konsumieren, allenfalls als Hintergrund für spezielle Undergroundkneipen (nicht zu laut stellen) oder als Scherz für Leute, denen man schon einmal "Metal Machine Music" von Lou Reed geschenkt hatte.

Als historisches Dokument interessant, besser aber die erste LP von Amon Düül II "Phallus Dei" vom gleichen Jahr 1969 kaufen.

Amon Duul grew out of a commune scene in Germany, but frictions among bandleaders led to schism into two different bands, Amon Duul I and Amon Duul II -- apparently all the drugs stifled any new ideas on what to call the bands. Amon Duul II was certainly the more technically accomplished of the bunch, and their first 3 records are classics of the "Krautrock" sound (with Yeti having special significance to Amazon's music editor). By 1972 they were firmly ensconced in a more progressive rock direction and their output became more uneven.

Amon Duul I were the more drug-addled and trance influenced result of the split. Imagine a bunch of 1969 hippies listening to raga records, dropping LSD then just going at it loudly on electric rock instruments, bongos and maracas. The percussion is loud, tribal and loose; the guitar riffs distorted, minimal tabs that play off the rhythms. There aren't any lyrics to speak of, its chanting, or perhaps moaning. The record is imperfect, but full of ecstatic moments that come through to those of us not living a chemical lifestyle. This isn't a set of studio musicians reading from sheet music and it makes no pretense as "art", but a bona fide demonstration of what the real underground really sounded like circa 1969. This is what you pull out when people start reminiscing about the Fifth Dimension, Sgt. Pepper and Hair, but haven't heard of the Fugs, ESP records or the Back From The Grave series.

There will always be those who decry this sort of thing because technical ability isn't the point; perhaps they ought be listening to jazz and classical music (which I am not putting down) instead of Steve Vai and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The "sessions" which produced this material were mined again and again for other Amon Duul I records: Collapsing, Disaster, and Experimente. The final record, Para Dieswarts Duul (1970), was something else entirely. Aside from more professional recording, that version of Duul went for a more laid back folk psych sound, standing well-above the usual cliches and downright beautiful at times.

Amon Duul and Amon Duul 2 are different bands. They both got their start in an anarcistic, multi media commune that formed in the late sixties in germany, under the name Amon Duul. They all agreed that they wanted to form a band. Those in the commune that had some musical training wanted the band to be truly "musical", while others felt that they should be more free form, and not worry about structure ETC. They decided to form two bands, Amon Duul ( which a friend of mine refers to as psychedelic punk ), and Amon Duul 2. Amon Duul 2 is considered to be one of the most influential German bands in the history of Prog.

Originally released in 1969, as it's somewhat similar to the 'Para Dieswarts Duul' CD(see my review). As most of you might know, many Amon Duul releases are simply more primitive sounding than the Amon Duul II reissues out there. Best tracks here are the seventeen-minute "Ein Wunderhubsches", the acoustically and electrically played "Kaskados Minnelied" and "Der Garten Sandosa". Plenty of good heavy drum playing and guitar riffs featured on 'Psychedelic Underground'. Overall, a decent vintage krautrock release.

I bought this album expecting something along the lines of Wolf City or Phallus Dei, but was somewhat dismayed by the seeming lack of direction in the music. In fact if this album has any direction it is circular. I wish I could say a song that stood out, but they are almost quite the same. This is the kind of tape loop variation that was originated by the Velvet Underground in the sixties with the White Light/White Heat, and later perfected in the seventies by Eno with such albums as Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy and Another Green World, and finally mainstreamed in the eighties up to the present.
This is not an easy album to listen to. It is raw, repetative and very unmelodic. Being unmelodic of course isn't a crime in and of itself, but it is usually wise to replace a lack of melody with well constructed songs. The songs here are loose, trying to tie themselves in with a psychedelic trip. Pychedlia's goal was to expand all the senses, to hear through music what being on a trip would be like. Of all the people I've known to be on acid, I've never heard one of them liken their trip to being in a hamster wheel. Then again, to each his own.

The quality of the recording is awful, which is not necessarily the weakest point of the album, as a matter of fact it lends aa appealing dusted, kitch effect to the music. The music seems to have been performed by ... semi-amateurs indulging in a recording session - it might be interesting for psychology students to gage the effects of... induced creativity. I do not dislike the album, I just think its merits are less musical than not. Amaon II albums are considerably better.