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Biography
Amon Duul II is among
the most highly regarded of the German progressive groups of
the 1970s and was the second incarnation of the Amon Duul entity,
originally a political commune in Germany that happened to record
their extended, drugged-out jam sessions. The three Amon
Duul albums are apparently a result of the same three day jam
session in 1968. At some point, a few members of Amon
Duul decided to get serious about the whole music thing, and
thus Chris Karrer, John Weinzierl and Renate Knaup established
Amon Duul II with the intent of addressing their more ambitious
musical concerns. This core, supplemented by a number
of other musicians, released their first album, Phallus Dei
in 1969, and it must have already been clear that this was an
outfit to be reckoned with. The next album, Yeti, arguably
Duul's finest, is a shuddering beast of pyschedelic splendour,
among the finest progressive rock albums out of Germany.
Tanz der Lemmings continues the classic streak, less
pyrotechnic and more 'symphonic' perhaps, but only by Amon Duul
II standards. After Tanz... the output becomes
reportedly spottier. Wolf City is good, but more streamlined,
and it's advisble to steer clear of everything after Vive
La Trance.
After numerous
failed attempts at cracking a more commercial market with albums
like Made in Germany and Pyragony X, along with
consistent line-up juggling, the group eventually disbanded
in the early 80s. Around this same time, John Weinzierl
went on to form a third incarnation of the group, Amon Duul
UK, which saw him collaborate with a number of British rock
luminaries such as Robert Calvert and Guy Evans over the course
of that group's sporadic output. Due to the recent revival
of interest in the old Krautrock bands, Amon Duul II reformed
in the late 90s and released a couple of studio albums, the
quality of which I cannot attest to. These have come alongside
a surge of compilations, remixes and of course reissues of all
their classic 70s albums.
- Greg Northrup [September 2001]
 Phallus
Dei (1969)
By the time Phallus Dei
announced the arrival of Krautrock gods Amon Duul II from the
ashes of the original Amon Duul, it must have been eminently clear
what a formidable force this ensemble was. Indeed, the band's
debut is still one of the German progressive rock scene's more
impressive moments, early enough on the scene to deliver a swift
kick in the ass to the horde of hungry, fledging bands that would
eventually follow in the band's footsteps. Amon Duul II
picked up where other late 60s psychedelic rock was leaving off,
particularly the likes of Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd, and
turned on the afterburners. Opener "Kanaan" introduces the
band's distinctive vocals, underpinned with unrelenting tribal
beats, recurring Middle Eastern sounding, shimmering guitar motifs,
wrapped in an intense psyched out atmosphere, with crashing, colliding
guitar and bass riffs. The eccentric chants of "Luzifers
Ghilom" accent the driving, addictive Of course, the album highlight
is probably the magnificent title suite, which epitomizes the
magnificence of the group's already fine tuned vision. Rising
and falling, trading moments of relative calm and meditative beauty
for huge volcanic climaxes, "Phallus Dei", is among the band's
defining moments. Guitar and organ freakouts become coated
with choir like backing vocals courtesy of Renate Knaup, before
resuming their unrelenting fury. This album simply rules.
Sure, Renate Knaup's enchanting vocals are not nearly as prominent
as it would be on the next album, Yeti, that album being
the band's defining moment. Still, I would be hard pressed
to choose a favorite between Phallus Dei and the often
acclaimed Tanz der Lemmings. In any case, no self
respecting Krautrock collection is complete without this seminal
band's first three albums.
- Greg Northrup [March 2002]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
 Yeti
(1970)
Amon Duul
II is the defining German space-rock band, and Yeti is
generally regarded as their defining album. Basically,
the music epitomizes mind-blowing psychedelic power, with a
definite spacey sound. Very fuzzed out and overpowering
guitar, swirling, muscular bass lines and strange smoky vocals
(male and female) come flitting in and out of the mix.
This is powerful stuff when I allow myself to get into it, but
being a fan of mostly symphonic progressive, this definitely
comes out of left field for me. This requires me to put
some effort into appreciating it, and definitely not something
that I immediately had a taste for. In fact, when I first
heard it, I thought it was awful, sloppily composed and poorly
executed drug music.
Further
and more careful listening have revealed much of the intricacies,
and I really enjoy the first half of the album. The manner
in which the songs are structured tends to sink in, and applying
the compositional standards of other progressive bands is totally
futile. The music is swirling, formless, emotional and
occasionally pure magic.
The improvisations
that are tacked on to the end are, however, something of a chore
for me to sit through. After all, the first half of the
album sounded pretty improvisational to me! The last three
tracks are totally off the wall, and I can't sit through the
whole album in one sitting and hold my concentration.
This album has a lot to offer, and I think I may be in the minority
in being sort of on the fence with this. It's good, but
it's quite a mouthful, and at this point I'm satisfied with
my exploration of this genre. Maybe when I run out of
other stuff to check out I'll explore this style more.
- Greg Northrup
Review
Update:
Heh. The
above review was actually one of the first I had ever done for
the site, and looking back at these undated, older reviews sometimes
makes me chuckle. It just goes to show you how music can
gradually grow on you, and especially how great albums truly
reveal themselves over time. In a sense, I was correct
in the above review. I was probably not prepared for this
album when I first heard it. For those of you who are
squarely predisposed towards symphonic or neo-progressive, you
probably won't be either. Again, at first. Yeti
is actually a monstrous Krautrock album. One of the
best. The characteristics I described above all hold true,
but its the gradual effect, and my own ability to really absorb
the atmosphere, has really elevated my opinion of the album.
It's still a great place to start exploring the German scene,
and those initial moments of prog newbie-dom, where a certain
riff or theme from Yeti really hit me out of nowhere,
are those I credit with driving my exploration of groups like
Ash Ra Tempel, Embryo and in the incomparable Agitation Free.
I've been wanting to update this review for a while, but since
my overview of Amon Duul II, which I've been planning for quite
some time, hasn't really materialized yet, I decided to just
set the record straight now.
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
 Tanz
der Lemminge (1971)
The walls are rumbling.
The glass in the windows threatens to shatter. The
entire bedroom, no the house, quivers as if ready to implode
into a bottomless black hole, preparing to collapse the
entire universe into ultra-dense mass the size of a thimble.
Such was my experience upon blasting Amon Duul II's
classic third album Tanz der Lemminge in preparation
for this review. The album taps into a raw, primal
source of power that few records have ever been able to
achieve (the band's previous album Yeti among them),
and seems to bend time and space to unforeseen extremes.
The dense, Duul-patented, churning chaos present here
alternately betrays a more composed approach for the band,
as Tanz relinquishes the brain-frying guitar crunch
of Yeti, opting instead for a wider palette of instrumental
colors; sitars, jangling acoustic guitars, pianos, grinding
organ, electronics and all sorts of exotic percussive effects
weave fuzz-laced gobs of melody beneath the challenging
vocal styles of Weinzierl and Karrer. Unfortunately,
the distinctive pipes of Renate Knaup are absent from this
album, bringing Tanz down a notch on the accessibility
ladder, as her vocals were always easier to digest than
those of the male singers. On the other hand, the
less abrasive aesthetic lends to a more tuneful, even symphonic,
bent from a musical standpoint.
It's really
pointless to bother going over specific tracks. It
defeats the purpose to even pay attention to what specific
track of each mammoth piece you're on. This is a double
album that is meant to be taken as such; endless, indefinite
and amorphous. Vying with Yeti as the supreme
Amon Duul II effort, Tanz der Lemminge is a consciousness
bending ride that sits among the very best Krautrock efforts.
-
Greg Northrup [August 2002]
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