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BAIER-WESTRUPPA folk duo comprising Walter Westrupp (known for his albums with Bernd Witthuser) and Frank Baier (previously of the folk group Kattong). Their albums contained standard acoustic folk in the German language.
BAUMSTAMA little known band which made one single and a tremendous album. Their album consisted of nine standard length, blues based hard rock songs, similar to rural sounding loud rockin' bands like Reaction and Incredible Hog. Part of the album was recorded live. The great treasure of this album is the mean and growling guitar sound, with the fuzz effects exaggerated to the extreme! The original private issue is a real "monster" at auctions and sells for crazy prices (600 DEM). In 1990 a re-release at last appeared on CD (released by TRC), which could be acquired a bit more cheaply!
BEDA FOLKThis group made a folk-rock album of Irish folk songs, named I Will Go (1975). The album contained 12 such tracks all arranged by the band. It was recorded In October 1973, produced by Fred Christmann and released on the short-lived Highdelberg-based label Happy Bird.
BETWEENBetween has to be one of the most international bands of all times! The six members that recorded the debut album Einstieg (1971) came from four different nations. The group were formed in 1970 on the initiative of Peter-Michael Hamel as Between The Chairs, but as this expression has different meanings in German and English, the name was soon shortened to Between. Hamel had studied composition since 1967 and wanted to create a new musical genre (an ambitious man!), between (pun!) all the existing ones. The other German of the band, Ulrich Stranz, had a similar academic background. The American Robert Eliscu came to Germany in the late sixties to play with the Munich and Berlin philharmonic orchestras. Another American citizen, Cotch Black, played tablas and percussion. Roberto Detree was an Argentinean and had played Spanish guitar in classical folk music ensembles in his homeland. He also built musical instruments.
James Galway joined briefly as sixth member before the recording of Einstieg, (released October 1971 on the Wergo label) he was a critically acclaimed musician well known for his classical music recordings. The album included several short tracks, recorded at the Staatliche Musik-hochschule in Munich, plus a 9 1/2 minute avant-garde piece, "Space Ship", recorded in Berlin. Between demonstrated their ability to play different styles (jazz, folk and avant-garde), but did not manage to merge these styles. Most successful was Eliscu's "Katakomben" and Hamel's "Triumphzug Kaiser Maximillian". Those tracks had a dramatic atmosphere with wordless vocals, bongo rhythms, oboe, flute and organ. Also interesting were the tracks grounded on Detree's roots in South-American folk music. The more free-form numbers "Memories" and "Flight Of Ideas" were uninspired improvisations with an ethnic touch, a direction already explored to full effect by Limbus 3 and 4.
Galway and Stranz, both of whom had kept a very low profile on the album, left to concentrate on classical music in 1972. This left more room for Hamel and Eliscu to develop longer tracks and more meditative music. Hamel released his first solo album in 1972 and guested on the first Agitation Free album. Eliscu guested on several Popol Vuh albums.
The second Between album And The Waters Opened (1973) included six tracks. This only had acoustic instruments and included a new member: Charles Campbell. On the whole, it was a better and more homogeneous merging of styles than their first album. It was Between's only release on the legendary "swirl" Vertigo label (the next one had the "spaceship" artwork!). The front cover artwork was quite remarkable: a drawing of a gigantic splash of colours - illustrating the event when the waters opened. Dharana from 1974 was a kind of world music symphony recorded with the aid of the SWF orchestra. This work was based more on improvisation than composition, particularly the 20 minute long title track. Also worth mentioning is Eliscu's beautiful 11 minute piece "Joy... Sadness... Joy". The same year Between also made music to poems by the actor Gerd Westphal Hesse. This resulted in Hesse Between Music, released January 1975. Besides Hesse, who recited his own poems, several guests also appeared on the album, like Al Gromer (sitar, who also recorded with Popol Vuh and Amon Duul II) and Tom van der Geld (vibraphone). Hamel has recorded several solo albums, some containing music reminiscent of Between, but generally more experimental and minimalistic. Eliscu has mostly concentrated on classical music. Between are best remembered for their albums in the period 1973-1975. Their strength was in their more extended tracks, which gave these talented musicians time to express their ideas through the improvisations.
BIRTH CONTROLWhen it comes to German progressive hard rock based on the Deep Purple formula, none were better than Birth Control! They were formed in 1968. The band name was a reaction against the Pope's declaration that contraceptives were sinful. They played mainly instrumental jazz rock cover versions of Brian Auger, Graham Bond, etc, in those early days. For some live engagements they were expanded with a guitarist, a vocalist and a trumpeter. Their first single "October" coupled with "Freedom" was released on Amadeo in 1969.
Line-up (B) recorded an album for Metronome, released in a round cover, imitating a box of contraceptive pills. This came in the first in a series of, what were for many people, thought-provoking covers. The music was still grounded in jazz-rock (particularly the material composed by Sobotta), but the new members brought with them rock influences (particularly evident on the material composed by Bruno Frenzel). The album also had a cover version of Doors' "Light My Fire". It was a work of average quality, lacking a bit in experience and musical craftsmanship. It also suffered from a thin production.
Their next album Operation was indeed a great improvement. The cover had a drawing of a baby eating ant monster, watched by an excited Pope. Inside the fold-out cover another drawing revealed the group members being part of a baby eating machine. An outrageous cover for sure! Musically, they had now found their own, heavy guitar and organ based sound, in many ways similar to British hands like Spooky Tooth and Deep Purple. The best cut was the opening track "Stop Little Lady". All tracks were this time composed by Frenzel. This must have been one of the best selling Ohr albums!
Ohr also released Believe In The Pill in 1972, a sampler featuring six tracks from their first two albums and three rarer tracks, previously only available on Ohr singles: "Hope" (1970 A-side OS 57.003), "What's Your Name" (1972 A-side OS 57.007) and "Believe In The Pill" (1972 B-side OS 57.007). The cover showed a foetus lying in a dustbin, again causing much controversy!
The steady sales resulted in a contract with the major company CBS. Hoodoo Man was released in January 1973 and contained 6 tracks that refined their sound even more. This was a brilliant album with very confident guitar and organ riffs and interplay. Noske's voice had improved (he was one of the best German male vocalists) and he also drummed better than ever. The key tracks this time were the classic 10 minute "Gamma Ray" (a live favourite), "Buy!" (7:10) and "Get Down To Your Fate" (7:56). The cover art wasn't as outrageous as the usual Birth Control standard: just a drawing of a very big, fat woman repressing a little wind-up man!
At this time the band had the ambition to break through internationally. They therefore felt a re-organisation of the band was necessary. Founder member Koschmidder left before a long German tour and was replaced by Peter Foller. The quintet of Noske, Frenzel, Steffens, Held and Foller recorded Rebirth (1974), failed to keep pace with the ambition. Steffens left again to form his own hard rock trio. The other four undertook another German tour that resulted in a double live album, comprising five tracks in all with much instrumental work. This was appealing for the convinced fans, but not for the masses. On the rover the group was pictured sitting in car armed with machine guns, shooting at a baby carriage. Plastic People (1975) was a concept album attempting to create a more varied sound beyond the standard heavy progressive formula. The guests Jochen von Grumbkow (cello), Christoph Noppeney (viola) and Friedemann Leinert (flute), all from Holderlin, appeared on the track "My Mind". Plastic People was their best album since Hoodoo Man. Regrettably the group were not able to develop this style in any proper way. Backdoor Possibilities (1976) was a partly failed attempt to include more jazz and classical elements into their hard rock. Birth Control were now recording for Brain, since CBS had lost faith in them.
In 1983 founder member Bruno Frenzel died after a long illness.
BLACKBIRDSThe story of Blackbirds is the story of two different groups, both led by Werner Breinig. His first incarnation of Blackbirds was a beat group formed in Saarland 1965. Their album No Destination (1968) was only released in the UK on the Saga label. It consisted of psychedelic beat music comparable to the first Petards album. It is worth noting that German 'underground' albums were real rarities way back in 1968, the new underground scene had just began flowering with fresh bands like Amon Duul, Guru Guru and Tangerine Dream. The songs (ten in all) were short, but included some interesting organ work. Presumably the Blackbirds didn't quite match the musical revolution of the late sixties (as the above mentioned groups did!) and disbanded.
When Blackbirds resurfaced in 1971 with Touch Of Music (1971). They had adopted a nice, poetic and classical influenced progressive style. There was also room for some more powerful passages in-between, characteristic for the early seventies progressive music we all have learned to love. The album included six tracks in all and was released on the hideous Opp label where a Hairy Chapter album also found an outlet.
Both the Blackbirds albums are now very rare, it's hard to pinpoint the current asking price as it very much depends on what YOU are willing to pay. A very rough estimate would be 125 DEM for No Destination and 175 DEM for Touch Of Music.
BLACKWATER PARKAnother one of those German bands with a British vocalist (Andreas Scholz came from the recently disbanded Murphy Blend!). Dirt Box had a promisingly weird cover, but the music was quite common for the period: guitar-based hard blues-rock in the Anglo-American style. The material written by Fechner and Scholz ("Mental Block", "Rock Song" and "Indian Summer") was the best, recalling the brilliance of Armaggedon. Routledge's material tended towards boogie blues and sounded more like Free. He also wrote all the lyrics. The album also included a good cover version of the Beatles' "For No One". This is one of many albums of which the original copies sell for small fortunes today. To meet the increasing demand, Second Battle re-released the album in 1990 in its original sleeve. If you go for originals though, expect to part with 250 DEM.
BLUES & ELECTRONICI have no available information about this obscure name. This might be a project of Okko Bekker, who released a project album named Sitar & Electronics on GASP about the same time.
BOKAJ RETSIEMMr. Rainer Degner, previously the guitarist of the sixties beat group German Bonds, had a passion for the old German children's song "Meister Jakob". In fact, this is also the real name of this studio project (with session musicians), but due to the arrival of psychedelia, strange things were happening, and the letters 'bokaj retsiem' must be reversed to make any sense! Degner's album included some absolutely perverse arrangements of "Meister Jakob", but also some great acid guitar parts in the typical late sixties style. One of the few German psychedelic albums in existence, and for this reason a quite interesting and uncommon item! Members of The Rattles also contributed to this album. It is also worth mentioning that his old fellows in German Bonds, Peter Hecht and Dieter Horns, also made several strange albums under pseudonym beside their normal career in Lucifer's Friend.
BRAINSTORMThis was a jazz rock group led by Roland Schaeffer, a future member of Guru Guru. Their albums contained quite average quality jazz rock, probably influenced by the British so-called Canterbury scene. On Second Smile (1974), a fifth member was added: Enno Dernov.
CHRIS BRAUN BANDA straight rock band. Line-up (A) recorded the first album Both Sides (1972), which received a bad press. The band went through many changes in 1973, at one time even Jimmy Jackson (well-known as the organist of Embryo, Passport, etc.) was a member. Horst Schreiber departed to form Sperrmull. At the end of the year a quintet settled to record a new album. Foreign Lady (1974) was another rather ordinary rock album with influences from blues and soul. Braun's musical activities were few for some years, but in 1980 he formed a new band.
BRAVE NEW WORLDBrave New World was a studio project expressing the ideas of the Irishman John O'Brien-Docker, previously leader of City Preachers. Above are the musicians that appeared on Impressions On Reading Aldous Huxley (1972) plus Thomas Kuckuck (imaginative engineer). The overall sound was quite original: mainly instrumental music with lots of flutes, strange percussion, studio manipulations and sound effects. This was no ordinary instrumental fusion, rather a druggy kind of excursion through folk, rock and jazz in a dramatic and/or melancholic mood. Since 1972, little has been heard from O'Brien-Docker, although he wrote the lyrics for the Randy Pie albums Highway Driver (Sophisticated) (1974) and Kitsch (1975).
BREAKFASTA quite unknown group that released just one album for Sky. It's Time For Breakfast (1976). This album was stylistically similar to other late seventies 'light progressive' bands like Octopus, Shaa Khan, Straight Shooter and Ramses. Breakfast's music had a slight folky touch and good multi-voice arrangements. All their material was quite song-oriented, and therefore there are no interesting, extended tracks to be explored here' The album was recorded at Konrad Plank's studio. Horst Schreiber (guitar, vocals), previously played in Chris Braun Band (with Bill Bakine) & Spermull.
BRIDGEAn unknown group performing standard jazz-rock of an average quality.
BROSELMASCHINEThis was the project of Peter Bursch, a master of acoustic guitar. Besides the Broselmaschine albums, he has issued several hand books on how to play acoustic guitar. He formed the first Broselmaschine line-up way back in 1968, inspired by the American folk music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Joni Mitchell. Some of these people brought with them experiences from Irish and British folklore. During the early seventies the band lived as a commune in Duisburg. Their first album was recorded in August 1971 and released on Pilz. It included six tracks in all, most outstanding was their Steeleye Span-ish version of the Scottish traditional song "Lassie", which came with perfect multi-voice harmonies electric guitar and mandolin. Other tracks like "Schmetterling" had a more eastern flavour with sitar. It is one of the best German folk rock albums ever recorded!
Regretfully Broselmaschine disbanded about a year after this release. Some of the members travelled to India. In 1975 Peter Bursch formed a new Broselmaschine, now dubbing themselves 'Peter Bursch & Die Broselmaschine' They were helped by Mani Neumeier and Roland Schaeffer from Guru Guru and Jan Fride from Kraan on a new LP project. In spite of these guest appearances, the resulting album was still in a clearly defined folk style, although quite different from the 1972 album.
BROTHER T & FAMILYNo further information available about this one, perhaps it was another exploitation album featuring Lucifer's Friend members?
BULLDOGA very obscure group.
BULLFROGThe group was formed as Bulldogg, but this name was already used by another group so they changed to Bullfrog just before the recording of their first LP. The sleeve pictured some very long haired and freaky musicians with a mean look. Their music was typical mid-seventies hard rock with a pompous touch. It failed to make any lasting impression as it lacked originality. Their instrumentation was guitar-based, perhaps comparable to the style of Jane.
FRANZ De BYLFranz de Byl was and is a relatively unknown folk artist. His albums are filled up with relaxing and silent short acoustic folk songs (or sometimes folk-blues). The first one was recorded with the violin player Heiner Hohnhaus. Most noteworthy was the front cover, where the two guys were pictured completely naked! Und (1972) was released on the Thorofon label, that also released the first Emtidi album. Recommended only for folk fanatics!