I first was exposed to this album,around it's original release date and it has been one of my favourites since.It might not have the sophistication of later AD2 albums,but this is where it all began.I don't consider the debut album by Amon duul- Psychedelic underground,as being by the same band
Side one begins with the eerie Kanaan-startuing off with a hardly audible tambourine,bass and drums kick in,shortly followed by a delightful eastern guitar line.a vibraphone (courtesy of Embryo's Christian Burchard) palys through out the song giving it even more depth.Halfway through it speeds up,accompanied by some indecipherable vocals by Chris Karrer and some haunting scat singing from Renate Knaup.then it slows back to the former tempo and culminated in some sort of controlled chaos.
Dem Guten schoenen wahren(to the good,beautiful,genuine)aka Kindermoerderlied(Childmurderer's song) starts off very calm with bass and guitar and some floating violin ..The subject matter of the song is a trifle harrowing,but it is from medieval german literatur about the last words of a child abuser before he's brought to the executioner...
Lucifer's Ghilom(what is a ghilom?)is another excercise in shifting dynamics.starting off with a tabmborine and oboe in a medieval mode and a trortured cry it soon is taken up by bongoes and drums.The song has various tempo and mood changes and first hits hard then lets go.it includes some nice violin,too
Side one finishes off with the more folkiy Henriette Kroetenschwanz,which is a very short piece but a nice closer to side one
By the way a lot of people don't seem to get that Ad 2's female singer is renate Knaup the kroetenschwanz(toad's tail)bit is just a nickname.
Side two is entirely taken up by the 21 minute titkle track,which should be really listened to in one go.
PD begins with some random noises and haunting voclas by Renate Knaup and Shrat Thile,in soprt of saucerfull of secrets way,until a pulsating bassline picks up the tempo of the next part of the song,followd by a piercing fuzz guitar solo.the next couple of minutes are wonderfully arranged shifts of dynamics,whith the voclas a and other instrumests blending in with eachother effortlessly.
after a short stoccato passage,the drums and bongoes dominate the music for a while turning the piece into a sort of witches' cauldron,until another guitar riff announces another change,to a more sedate athmosphere complete with vibraphone and wonderfully haunting vocals by renate.The vocals almost sound like recorded ina cathedral .
so there you have it.Many people probably wonder why AD 2 called their debut lp Phallus dei-god's cock.It has nothing to do with macho behaviour or cock rock,but as the members of Ad 2 came from bavaria,which is Germany's most conservative and godfearingly catholic stae,they wanted to provoke the old guard.

Reviews Index