Amon Düül
One of the first active Krautrock units, Amon Düül grew out of a multimedia artist commune in Munich that mixed radical political criticism with a unique vision of free-form improvisation tied to American psychedelic rock, especially compared to the avant-garde inclinations of other space rock units like Tangerine Dream and Cluster. Such open-ended and non-musical origins made the later activity of the group quite confusing, as a quartet of (slightly) more musically inclined members branched out in 1969 as Amon Düül II. Meanwhile, the original {$Amon Dü...[more]
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VINYL FORMAT. Yeti is the second album by Amon Duul II and is quite a musical achievement. This is a double LP set and contains some of Amon Duul's most impressive work - delivering their thick, full-fledged, multi-layered sound with dense instrumentation and a certain epic vastness. This is Krautrock in the full depth of its power: huge, towering, dark and completely devoid of any happy optimism, but still bound full of energy. Instrumentally this album is pure magic with some great psychy sitar-ish [ read more ]
2xLP $24.98
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VINYL FORMAT. Phallus Dei is the incredible debut by these Krautrock pioneers. This album was the result of the Amon Duul commune breaking up. The first half was more in the politics and community, but they did record a series of albums all under one jam. The other half of the Amon Duul was of course far more musically inclined, and of course that was Amon Duul II. It's also pretty safe to say that Phallus Dei is to Amon Duul II what Monster Movie is to CAN: both being their most '60s s [ read more ]
LP $24.98
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There aren't many double art rock albums from the early '70s that have stood the test of time, but then again, there aren't many albums like Tanz Der Lemminge, and there certainly aren't many groups like Amon Dnnl II. While exact agreement over which of their classic albums is the absolute standout may never be reached, in terms of ambition combined with good musicianship and good humor, the group's third album is still probably the best candidate. The musical emphasis is more on expansive arrangem [ read more ]
CD $17.08
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Amon Dnn II's follow-up to their landmark double-LP set Tanz der Lemminge features a musical approach less experimental than previous recordings, but nonetheless distinctive and broad-reaching in its sphere of influences. The almost epic tack of the earlier works has been pared down here, but full-forward, guitar-heavy tracks like "C.I.D. in Uruk," "Ballad of the Shimmering Sands," and "Kronwinkl 12" use disparate folk and hard rock elements cannily. The band moves the music with a maje [ read more ]
CD $17.08
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"Kanaan" starts Phallus Dei wonderfully, a melange of rumbling rock power, strings and sitars, Lothar Meid's almost Bowie-ish vocals with Renate Knaup-Kroetenschwanz's wordless chanting in the background, that's just as intoxicating many years after its first appearance as it was upon release. The slightly jazzy concluding minute avoids sounding forced, blending in beautifully with the song's general flow. "Dem Guten, Sch÷nen, Wahren" takes a truly wacked-out turn, with Meid's bizarr [ read more ]
CD $17.08
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Even with only five tracks, Airs on a Shoestring is one of the best avenues to investigate Amon Duul's sometimes irritable, sometimes unlistenable brand of fragmented rock and jazz fusion. Before the band split into two, with many of the members becoming the more fruitful and rhythmically inclined Amon Duul II, the four albums that Amon Duul made were instrumentally austere to say the least, but still bred some interesting and appealingly splintered progressive music. Two of the tracks, {& [ read more ]
CD $12.33
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Amon Dnnl II's fifth studio album is a more conventional recording than most, though there's still a lot of the involved experimenting and dark undercurrent which sets the band apart from the mainstream, along with the off-kilter hooks and odd humor which saved them from being lumped alongside more serious (and less easy to take seriously) prog rock outfits. After the lengthy explorations of Tanz der Lemminge, Wolf City seems targeted to an extent at a commercial English-speaking audience, perha [ read more ]
CD $17.08