Label: Revisited Records (Germany), SPV 304182 CD
Style: Krautrock, Progressive Rock
Country: Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Time: 62:34
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 366 Mb
For Amon Duul II's debut album, Phallus Dei (Liberty, 1969 - Revisited, 2006), the line-up increased to seven or eight units, absorbing bassist Dave Anderson and drummer Dieter Serfas. The album, mostly instrumental, set a new standard for "black" music, and remains one of the most infernal bacchanals in the annals of rock music.
Phallus Dei, a 20-minute suite, begins with muffled electronic sounds and Stockhausen-like dissonances, while the vocalist rattles in an overdose trip. Slowly but steadily the rhythm picks up and the band launches in a frenzied Cream-like blues jam. The voice screams in the distance, as if riding in the apocalyptic crescendo of the music. Suddenly, the music stops. A killer violin riff, that seems to come out of a square dance, resumes the bacchanal that soon delves into an orgy of African percussions. Finally the wild, chaotic sabbah coalesces in a solemn march, and the voice screams terrible formulas that echo in the caverns of hell. The violin plays the role of a call from hell, that leads the crowd of the damned towards the eternal fire.
The album's "black" mass is rounded up on the other side by the witches dance of Kanaan (which relies on a dervish-like rhythm) and the incontrollable pow-wow urge of Luzifer's Ghilom (featuring tempo changes a` la Jethro Tull and the convoluted dynamics of Van Der Graaf Generator). On the other hand, the driving gypsy rhythm and the satanic screams of Dem Guten Schoenen Wahren (opened by a mellotron) hide the first hints of spirituality (i.e., the epic melody that levitates over the brawl).
The whole album is played in a naive and casual tone that pales compared with the austere and calculated approach of British progressive-rock. But therein lies its appeal: this is a commune of hippies offering a more spontaneous take on rock jamming.
(scaruffi.com/vol3/amonduul.html)
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