Amon Düül II--Classic or Dud?

(although there is a posthomous comp called "Manana" which has various live and peel sessions between Tanz Der Lemminge and Wolf City eras.. which is alright, but not worth killing to get)

I saw them playing at the Astoria a few years ago though and it was horrendous, they sounded like Starship without the choruses. Apparently they played some older (i.e. good) stuff in the second half but I was long gone by then, as were Steven Stapleton and David Tibet who were standing in front of me but left after about 15 minutes.

It still drives me nuts to this day that I don't know what that song was!

And peepee, it's conceivable to me that someone could love Phallus Dei but think every other AD II album crap, so maybe investigate that one.

Yeti is beyond fucking awesome. It kills. Then 70% through, it abruptly loses focus for me, so overall, it slips just below Tanz. But as for single most amazing moments and songs, Yeti wins.

I really should listen to Phallus Dei more often, though.

get Yeti as intro, and then with the others, it'll just get better and better

one single lp then two 2lps !! in 2 years ! well prepared for the studio, well-gigged into shape, using the then quite quite new 2lp format properly ..

and then more a few years later
Viva .. it's quite different -- there are amazing tracks and awful filler. The point though, they still had very good ideas for one of their pop albums that still lived up to the early use of that word in its title

am still having trouble getting into Carnival in Babylon myself, but the one track i've heard off Wolf City was maybe the right track to hear, so i'm hoping for more from that

Hijack was one of the most dissapointing mail-unwrap-listen experiences in my life though -- nothing to redeem it, but i'm still wondering about the possibilities of their being one or two classic tracks amoungst the later supposed dross

the i-duuno?/ frame-up /false alarm/ whatever re: Baader-Meinhof intrigues me -- i presume both Amon Düüls completely peacefully innocent obv., but i like the subversion of the blues and american culture there throughout the group's work, even whilst they were a big-selling american "head" band

instead, try this : play one side of dance of the lemmings then play, say, plague of lighthouse keepers. ie go back to favourite songs and especially playing the lps the way they were designed to be played, one side at an instance.

there's a lot of material there, so sifting through gradually, getting to know the band mixing "chill/ drone/ trance" with "rock" quite cruisely is my advice. They're almost chris&cosey "subliminal", they creep up

but if i hadn't heard yeti first (thanks to duane playing them to me while we were arguing the virtues of "rock"), they would have seemed both too "rock" and too "trance" (even "trance" or "drone" as those words meant in 1973), and i wouldn't have bothered follow-up

(oh, i found the original viva vinyl in a well-maintained thrift shop some time later. The inter-layered drones on "mozambique", once the truncated b-side of that weird "pigman" single then splayed out to full length on the lp (with secret message at end), that may be my favourite "trance" song, and i like the way that that lp itself from 1973 was possibly the first to use that word "trance" with justification and admission, and "mozambique" one of few pieces to justify that label, imo)

Generally, I would recommend avoiding Amon Düül, unless you are one of those saddoes who think the more unlistenable something is the higher the hipness quotient. The exception is "Paradieswarts Düül", which is good and even better with the addition of the Eternal Flow/Paramechanical World single.

NB that the recent round of repertoire remasters of ad2 albums have all been sonic maximised, somewhat to the detriment of the music.

if they're in little cardboard fold-out sleeves, that's probably them. "Yeti" has the paramechanical world 7" as a bonus which would have been neat, if they hadn't maximised the whole fucking thing. It really pisses me off.

listening to albums one, two and three will be a chore -- maybe i think of a golden period for that band -- Dadamais, Can had a golden period and are forgiven for their mid '70s burn out crap -- i think both bands are the same in lot of ways -- maybe communal bands have a cell structure that means some cells are self defeating, lots of little marching cans from nonwarholia, but that's as good at or better than the marching music of some Kraftwerk and some Can (who sometimes sound too uptight or too mellow)

oh, hush.

so, avoid the first three jam lps (well the ten jam sides, like the greatful dead, no synths, a waste of time)
(and avoid all jam lps obv.)

The only crap Can album is "Out Of Reach", certainly Can never plumbed similar depths to ADII. ADII were always really just a rock band, Can weren't.

Mr Gossett, I like Wolf City shitloads, esp the last track (title eludes me) & I'll have to get it again soon I suppose. IIRC as well as the synth, they had an optigan, or its high-end spinoff (I forget the name, I'm very tired) as well. "Vive la Trance" I've never got around to buying, b/c a lot of the later stuff is so lame, and I always lumped it in w/that for some reason. Poss I shd pick a copy of that up as well.

Once again I agree with Pashmina, a worrying development for both of us I feel - title of the last track: "Sleepwalkers Timeless Bridge", written, sung and mostly played by everyone's favourite drummer/guitarist, Daniel Secundus Fichelscher. As for the objections to "Lemmings" being based on a "knee-jerk reaction to the more superficially "prog-rock" sound" - well, if we leave the knees out of it, the fact that it's more prog rocky than the earlier albums is indeed one of the main problems with it except that "Wolf City" is much more proggy and is much better.

Is that the full double-lp "Germany" or the single version?

The one I like front to back? American single LP. I've never heard the double.

WHY DIDN'T I GET INTO THESE DUDES EARLIER???

i had heard stuff at friend's houses and shit and liked it but only today bought this The UA Years 69-74 comp cuz it was in the CD cutout bin at electric fetus...

so good!

The thread should have been titled Classic or Düüd, though.

I still haven't checked out the original AD, nor acquired Yeti. I did pick up a Krautrock DVD at the Tower closing sale but haven't played it yet (ADII are on it).

Only Human!

After Kraftwerk, the best Krautrock band by far. Yes better than Can!

Wau I dunno if I feel ya on that, though they are absolutely fantastic. Top 5 kraut for sure.
I am actually more of an AD I guy. Longer jams. More hippie vibing.

Not saying they're more important/influential. Just more consistently rewarding.

The wonders of personal preference.

I'd put Can ahead of Kraftwerk, and both ahead of ADII.

Can is fucking awesome, but you have to admit they are pretty damn awkward more often than not. Tago Mago is not exactly fun to listen to... and I love difficult/extreme music.

But I am definitely talking personal opinion here.

This is kind of new - http://www.furious.com/perfect/amonduulII.html

I was listening to Wolf City, Vive La Trance, and Made In Germany last night as my vinyl was being sold off. Wolf City is just so so good. Vive La Trance isn't perfect, but it's highlights.. holy shit. "Mozambique" and "Mimikry" are two of AD2's best songs. I'm not so much on the Made In Germany wagon, although there definitely are moments.

By Pyrogany 10th, they pretty much changed into a prog/pop rock band, but there are always good moments on all these albums all the way to and including Vortex. Only Human is definitely slept on.

BTW, this has to be the FULL version of "Mozambique". Huge difference.. the second half of "Mozambique" = :-O

For some reason I've never liked these guys... and I'm a sucker for most any krautrock out there. They are probably the only "important" krautrock band that I just don't get.

whoah that is some major dissing of the Amon Duul records in that Weinzerl interview.

"Very important: we are NOT a Krautrock band."

Oops!

"Eye-shaking king" is still one of the heaviest/ more fucked-up/ plainly weird songs ever.
Yeti = the real soundtrack to Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain (unintentionally funny bits included).

"Very important: we are NOT a Krautrock band."

Oops!

Has any 'Krautrock' band ever said, "We're a Krautrock band"?

Just Faust.

I put on Carnival in Babylon in hopes of liking it, and I'll admit I liked it more than I did last time I tried it, but it was still eh to me. What do I need to hear instead?

I like everything up to and including Wolf City.
― hstencil, domingo 16 de noviembre de 2003 03:39 PM (5 years ago)

i.e. YETI

i <3 yeti...i need to give tanz der lemminge more time...

still, someone go nominate AD2 in Sven's best band ever thread RIGHT NOW!!!

I like a lot of Yeti, but I don't like all of Yeti. The last two tracks (one of which is 18 minutes long) sort of lose the plot. At least, the plot I was following.

I put on Carnival in Babylon in hopes of liking it, and I'll admit I liked it more than I did last time I tried it, but it was still eh to me.

yeti yeti yeti

CiB is pretty eh to everyone, i think, it's got a couple of good songs but it just feels flabby and unmemorable.

OTM. Whereas "Wolf City" is sheer entertainment from start to finish.

Wolf City is a masterpiece. Even if the band doesn't agree.

since when has a band's opinion mattered

Yeti >> Wolf City >> Carnival In Babylon > Phallus Dei

And Dance of the Lemmings?

Haven't heard it

get on that, colonel.

also it's

YETI>>>>WOLF CITY>>>TANZ DER>>>>PHALLUS>>>>>VIVE LE TRANCE>>>>CARNIVAL

not to imply that any of them are terrible, though, they're all worth listening to.

I think Carnival is certainly better than Viva Le Trance. The first few songs on Viva are really good, but then it falls off...

Anybody want to buy my Hi-Jack LP?

i was actually going to put them as tied

but you're probably right, now that i think about it.

I can't really argue with the rest of your hierarchy. Yeti is spectacular and Wolf City purrs along like a dream.

I find this band perplexing. I like various chunks of their catalog but sometimes I am baffled that the term krautrock is used to encompass acts as disparate as Amon Duul II, Cluster, and Neu!, all of which seem wildly different for the most part. have had Wolf City and Yeti (never heard any of the Amon Duul stuff) and they're okay - not as goofy/fun/random as Faust. Kinda of a piece with Hawkwind but not as conceptually together.

AD2 had more range than Hawkwind. Tanz der Lemminge, one of my favorite albums of all time, zigzags thru a panoply of psychedelic flavours. Restless Skylight Transistor Child goes from awkward Teutonic boogie to sitar-addled psychedelic folk idyll to distorted overdriven acid rawk to impending doom. The next track, Marilyn Monroe Memorial Church is a stagnating pool of echoey Goth bleakness.

I love Hawkwind and can see the comparison but I think it sells the Duuls short and ignores just how much they could do well.

Amon Duul II is def more all over the place than Hawkwind (who pretty much just cycled between one or two modes for the bulk of their early career). whether or not that's a virtue... eh, I'm undecided. I find the sprawl of Amon Duul II's stuff a bit off-putting.

Yeah well that sprawl is the essence of the band. No other band combining Jefferson Airplane, Incredible String Band, Velvet Underground and Night on Bald Mountain

So I guessing Stefan Zauner, singer of Freiheit, is the only former member of Amon Duul II to have appeared on Top of the Pops? (This could have gone on The Rolling "Top of the Pops" BBC4 Revival thread, er thread).

Amon Düül II--C, because

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqxH2aU9z-Q

"Hijack" is rubbish.

Me otm. I listened to this today, along with a lot of other shitty so-called Krautrock, and... well, put it this way, Renate sings two songs on this album and Lothar Meid sings THREE, I mean, wtaf?!?!? He's the worst singer in a band that contains Chris Karrer and John Weinzierl, need I say more? And what's with that song where he just lifts entire lines of lyrics, unchanged, from Mott the Hoople?

HISI (had it, sold it) - long gone from my collection, never to be heard again

Chris Karrer sings three songs too! But then Renate did say the guys in the band were a bunch of sexist hippie assholes.

Touring next year… could be exciting or maybe not?

I hear they're pretty good! I mean it's an oldies act, but most of the original lineup iirc

Okay thanks! Going to buy the tickets. Will give me a nice run up to spend the time with their music.

please report back! very cool.