01	Soap Shop Rock			a) Burning Sister b) Halluzination Guillotine c) Gulp A Sonata d) Flesh-Coloured Anti-Aircraft Alarm			13:47
	02	She Came Through The Chimney						03:01
	03	Archangels Thunderbird						03:33
	04	Cerberus						04:21
	05	The Return Of Ruebezahl						01:41
	06	Eye-Shaking King						05:40
	07	Pale Gallery						02:16
	08	Yeti (Improvisation)						18:12
	09	Yeti Talks To Yogi (Improvisation)						06:18
	10	Sandoz In The Rain (Improvisation)						09:00

Mantra (Mantra 010)
Germany 1970

Renate Knaup, vocals, tambourine;
Chris Karrer, violin, guitars, vocals;
John Weinzierl, guitars, vocals;
Falk Rogner, organ;
Peter Leopold, drums;
Dave Anderson, bass;
Shrat, bongos, vocals

Joe McGlinchey:
The second faction of the legendary Krautrock commune was the more musical (in the traditional sense) of the two. Nevertheless, ADII was still pretty out there, especially at this early phase of their existence. Yeti is pretty basic stuff fresh from the garage, with a good three-quarters of the material on the first two sides in the same exact key! But the double-album still has lots to recommend it and is very much prog in terms of the three Es: experimentation, expanded lengths, and eccentricity. The opening four-part suite "Soap Shop Rock" has the same disorienting effect as riding a quickly-spinning amusement park ride for a couple of hours, while the vocals of "Eye-Shaking King" erupt with an electric, demonic hiss designed specifically to make you feel like Dennis Hopper circa Apocalypse Now. There is a moody acoustic 12-string number named "Cerberus" and the commanding, doom-laden vocals of Renate Knaup on "Archangels Thunderbird," one of the album's finest tracks. The third and fourth sides of the album are all improvisations, asi-asi. Note "Sandoz in the Rain" is probably a reference to the Legend of the "Garden of Sandosa" theme that forms the basis of Amon Duul I's album Psychedelic Underground. Yeti's take on the drugged-out, hazy psychedelic albums of the heady late 60s-early 70s is definitely worth hearing, though won't be for those into prog-as-melody-and-virtuosity. Also, allow yourself several plays to substantially absorb this stuff.


Amon Duul II - "Yeti" (1970) With no doubt one of the most progressive and innovative bands from Germany in the late 60's and early to mid-70's. Their experimental, psychedelic, spacey and freaked-out progressive rock was played with a rather unpolished and rough attitude, something that made them quite different from other progressive rock bands who always wanted to make anything sound as clean and perfected as possible. Bands like Ashra Tempel and Hawkwind has with no doubt a lot to thank Amon Dььl II for. This double-album was their second album and one of their best efforts, and in my opinion the best place to start for anyone unfamiliar with them. The first LP is made up of fairly structured stuff and features some of their best known material, such as "Archangel Thunderbird", "Eye - Shaking King" and the 14-minute "Soap Shop Rock". This is raw, energetic, psychedelic and spacy progressive at it's best. Lots of excellent guitar work here, and the violin often gives the music an eastern touch to it. Both male and female vocals here, none of them are actually great singers, but that's a part of the charm of this band. The rest of the first LP is instrumental and all of the tracks are good. "Cerberus" builds up from an acoustic and hippie-ish track to a spacey and electric ending. The improvised "Pale Gallery" gives a clue about what goes on on the second LP: long and inspired free-form space-trips. The 18-minute title-track and "Yeti Talks to Yogi" are both excellent examples of this, stuffed with guitar-duels over evolving bass-riffs and a spacey organ always present somewhere in the background. Some people say this is music to get stoned to, but I disagree. The music itself should get you stoned enough! The album ends with "Sandoz in the Rain". This acoustic and flute-driven track is a kind of a nice and pleasant "wake-up" and change after 65 monumental minutes of intense and energetic space-progressive-psychedelic attack! Classic and essential stuff from the krautrock scene.





Amon Duul II [Germany]
Updated 3/7/01
Discography
Phallus Dei (69)
Yeti (70)
Dance of the Lemmings (71, a.k.a. Tanz der Lemminge)
Angel Dust (72, Illegal Bootleg CD, poor sound quality)
Carnival in Babylon (72)
Wolf City (73)
Utopia (73, as Utopia, re-released as ADII w/ extra tracks)
Live In London (73)
Vive La Trance (74)
The Classic German Rock Scene: Amon Duul 2 (74, 2LP)
Hijack (75)
Lemmingmania (75)
Made In Germany (75, 2LP or 1LP versions)
Pyragony X (76)
Almost Alive (77)
Only Human (78)
Vortex (81)
Rock in Deutschland Vol. 1 (81, Compilation from Phallus Dei through Vive la Trance)
Milestones (89, 2CD, Compilation from Phallus Dei through Vive la Trance)
BBC Live In Concert (92, recorded '73)
Surrounded by the Bars (93, mostly Remix/Compilation)
The Greatest Hits (94, Compilation from Hijack through Vortex)
Nada Moonshine # (95)
Kobe (Reconstructions) (96, recorded '69-'71)
Eternal Flashback (96, recorded '69-'71)
Live in Tokyo (96)
The Best Of 1969-1974 (97, Compilation)
Flawless (97)
Drei Jahrzehnte (1968-1998) (97, 4CD Remix/Compilation)


Reviews
One of the most influential German bands in the history of progressive music and maybe one of the most unclassifiable bands of all time. Mystifying, primal, shredding, groaning, cosmic, unearthly, complex - all at the same time. Try Yeti or Dance Of The Lemmings.
Well, Amon Duul II started off in the early seventies with some noisy German-electro-industrial kind of music, but later graduated to prog rock. Hi Jack, and Made In Germany are two LP's more representative of their prog rock phase.
This classic german band began in the late 60's as a commune, then split into two bands Amon Duul and Amon Duul II. They have a long history and went through many changes along the way. Their style in the early years was very spacy and free-form psychedelic, gradually becoming more progressive, then more accessible, then another split occurred and there was Amon Duul UK. Their best output is from the early to mid 70's period, and includes the albums Yeti, Dance of the Lemmings, Wolf City, Vive La Trance, Hijack and Made In Germany. After that they sort of went downhill. The albums before 1970 are more like free-form psychedelic nonsense, Carnival in Babylon is a real stinker. Wolf City is a good place to start, it's probably their most progressive album yet still has a lot of the good psychedelic spirit carried over from Yeti and Lemmings. There's also a great live album in there somewhere.
Amon Duul II is one of the classic German bands. I have four albums, which tend to fall into two groups. The first two represent a very free-form, experimental/drug-influenced era for the band. They are Yeti and Tanz der Lemmings and they are fantastic. There is a great deal of variety across each of these double albums, particularly the latter. There is acid-drenched guitar ala Ash Ra Tempel, heavy guitar riffs ala Hawkwind, loads of ethnic percussion, and dreamy experimentalism. It all sifts together to make a psychedelic exploration that carries you to far away places. You don't even realize you've been drifting along until you're set back on the ground. It's similar in vein to Popol Vuh, which is no wonder as they have shared members. A must hear for space fans. The other two albums come a few more years down the road. They are Vive le Trance and Made in Germany. The band takes a more song-oriented approach, though they aren't commercial in any way. With these albums there is definite rhythmic structure in the songs instead of the 18+ minute free-form excursions found on the earlier albums. There is still plenty of heavy guitar soloing typical of the German underground as well several dreamy or breezy sections to wrap your brain around. Both male and female vocals (with fairly thick German accents on the English vocals) are more prevalent, as well. Made in Germany is an attempt at a rock opera. The early part of the album doesn't work for me but after a couple of songs the texture and trademark guitar enters and the album improves. Overall, it's similar to Vive Le Trance though I'd rate it a notch below simply because of the few duff tracks. There are some rockin' tracks as well. Both are very good albums and worth an audition to see if they are suitable for your tastes. If you like lysergic experimentalism, start with Yeti and work your way forward. (Phallus Dei may also be worth your while though reportedly not as good.) If you prefer a little bit of structure to your music, start at Made in Germany or Vive Le Trance and work your way backward. Wolf City and Carnival in Babylon were released between the above four albums are said to be a cross between the two styles, as you might expect. They are generally highly regarded among Amon Duul II fans. -- Mike Taylor
Surrounded by the Bars contains remixed versions of the band's better songs from their classic early seventies period but have never appeared together on a compilation before. Furthermore, the original band members have reformed - temporarily at least - to record two brand new tracks (not three, like the insert says) for the occasion. Let's hope the reunion lasts, because the new tracks are quite good, although very unlike what the band had done before: "Surrounded By The Bars" is a modern take-off on one of their early tunes from Wolf City, sounding very techno-influenced and hard edged, with Renate's voice sounding better than ever. "Dance on Fire" is a harder rocking tune, a bit noisy, with unusual vocal interplay - yet it has all the earmarks of strangeness that made their early work so good. The remixed tunes include "Kanaan," "Archangel Thunderbird," "Wolf City" and "A Short Stop at the Transylvanian Brain Surgery" from the second side of Dance of the Lemmings. The remixes sound considerably cleaner than the original versions, with some real stereo separation and depth. Since this is the only CD compilation of early material available by AD2, this would be a very good place for the novice to get their feet wet - their unique and unusual music has to be experienced to be understiood - and this contains some of the best examples from the 69-74 period.
I could write novels about them, but I'll try to restrain myself. Led by singer/guitarist/violinist/sax player Chris Karrer, whose totally bizarre vocal style is quite indescribable, full of manic yodels and wild animal sounds. Other longtime members: lead guitarist John Weinzierl whose fiery playing is unequalled, female vocalist Renate Knaup whose vocal range is quite incredible, and keyboardist Falk Rogner who posesses a very original organ/synth style. The first album is quite strange, imagine Pink Floyd at their weirdest and it still isn't even remotely like this. The 20-minute title suite on Phallus Dei is one of the most incredible pieces of improvised music I've ever heard. Yeti is still weird, though they obviously are trying to be more accessible. The improvised side long title track isn't as good as "Phallus Dei," yet is much more cohesive than most such space-rock. Dance Of The Lemmings is an incredible double album. "Syntelman's March Of The Roaring 70's" is a four-part, 15-minute suite, which is the closest thing to "conventional" prog they've done so far, with lots of mellotron. The B-side, collectively entitled "Restless-skylinght-transistor-child", is some of the most varied and eccentric music they did so far. "A Short Stop At The Transsylvanian Brain-Surgery" is the best track. Side C is "The Marilyn-Monroe-Memorial- Church," one of the most diffuse and incoherent side-long improvs I've ever heard. The rest of the album consists of spacy instrumetnals with prominent hard-rock guitar. With this album begins their "classic" period, Carnival In Babylon, Wolf City and Vive La Trance. You can't go wrong with any of these. Vive La Trance becomes slightly more song-orientated, a tendency which was to continue for subsequent albums. The live album which followed drew exclusively from Yeti and Dance of the Lemmings. Many of the tracks are ruthlessly edited, which makes it a big disappointment, a double live LP would have served them better. Hijack was the first turning point for the band. They were trying to gain a wider audience without compromising their sound. It's more conventionally progressive overall than previous albums, but the dark, murky tone that pervades the whole album immediately sets it apart. High point is the weird, percussive instrumental "Da Guadeloop," which most closely resembles Can. Made In Germany was originally released as a double LP, but was trimmed to a single for British and US release. I haven't heard the full-length version, nor do I know anyone who has. Made in Germany is the closest they've got to mainstream commercial yet, but is still very listenable and progressive; the bottom hasn't yet fallen out.
Pyragony X followed a drastic lineup shift, thus the sound changed, and not for the better. There are traces of the great band they once used to be, but the LP is dominated by new members Stefan Zauner and Klaus Ebert, whose styles are too commercial and poppy to fit in to the style well. It wasn't really a bad album, but is very difficult to enthuse oneself over. Almost Alive is supposed to be slightly better, but Only Human is the inevitable commercial sell-out fans have been dreading. Pop, straight rock, and even disco are exploited here, with no success at all. Not surprisingly, the band broke up afterwards.
Vortex is a reunion of Karrer, Knaup and drummer Danny Fichelscher, and one in which all parties involved can actually be proud of what they accomplished. Carrying on in the style of Vive La Trance, it's as though the band had never broke up. A must for fans. -- Mike Ohman