Artist: My Solid Ground
Album: My Solid Ground (Remastered With 7 Bonus Tracks)
Released: 1971/1997
Second Battle - SB035
Genre: Krautrock, Heavy Progressive Rock, Heavy Psych
The Line-up:
BERNHARD RENDEL - Guitars & Vocals
INGO WERNER - Keyboards
KARL-HEINRICH DORFLER - Bass
ANDREAS WURSCHING - Drums
Reviews:
PandorasBox Krautrock-list Description: Legendary progrock masterpiece, sometimes aggressive, sometimes melancholic. Superb guitars, distorted voices and great organ works that recall PINK FLOYD or GROUP 1850. This longplay CD also contains 7 bonus tracks, among them a former 25-minute-version of "Flash". Digipak CD that lasts altogether 79 !! minutes.
Allmusic Album Review: This obscure Krautrock record from 1971 has long been considered a classic of the genre, and the first track, the 13-minute "Dirty Yellow Mist," certainly lives up to its reputation, as the group goes into dark space rock that sounds like something between Pink Floyd and Thirsty Moon, with lots of long keyboard drones, a crunchy guitar riff, some acid guitar licks, and some distorted spoken vocals, as well as some higher-pitched wordless chanting. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the record does not live up to the promise of that first track, coming off like a typical early-'70s hard rock band, with belted vocals and maybe some occasionally interesting guitar work. "That's You" has enough energy to be proto-punk, and certainly its chorus of "do you wanna die" doesn't weaken that impression. Far more notable is the track "The Executioner," a sinister piece that alternates between echoed-spoken vocals and intense guitar solos. The rest of the original album is too mainstream, but thankfully the CD adds another album's worth of bonus tracks, and some of these are really good, especially the original full-length version of "Flash," a 24-minute tour de force of guitar solo blitzkrieg between a variety of segued pieces, some of which are far better than the two-minute cut that ended up on the LP. Other bonus tracks include some instrumental versions of songs and a stripped-down version of "Dirty Yellow Mist."
Allmusic Biography: This group has long been one of the more obscure Krautrock bands, even though their single eponymous album from 1971 has become legendary, even though much of the record is fairly conventional hard-rock. Bernhard Rendel, only 14 years old at the time, started My Solid Ground in 1968 in Russelsheim, near Frankfurt, Germany. Prior to this, his mother encouraged his interest in music and guitar, and she continued to support him even as his music became louder and harder. The group began to practice at the home of Rendel?s parents, and his family also helped arranged live performances. With their musical talent and an elaborate lightshow, the band soon became a popular in the region around Frankfurt. By 1970 after a few lineup changes, the group gelled with Kalrheinz Dorfler on bass, Andreas Wurching on drums, and Ingo Werner on organ. In late October of that year they recorded the track ?Flash? the Morfelden Studio in Frankfurt, and used it to win second place in an amateur competition hosted by Sudwestfunk (SWF) Radio.
In February and April of 1971, they recorded their self-titled album, which was released by the Bacillus label later that year. In June of 1971 My Solid Ground entered the studios of SWF in Baden-Baden for a live radio broadcast. Because of legal issues they could not play any of the pieces from the LP, so they debuted entirely new material. Though the group now had nationwide success, they were frequently losing members. By 1972 the band consisted of Rendel with a totally new lineup. That year they moved to Frankfurt where they lasted until 1974, when Rendel dropped My Solid Ground to pursue academics. He has since become a lecturer on music at Muinz University, as well as producer and composer. When Long Hair Records decided to release the SWF session on CD in 2001, Rendel was encouraged to go back into the studio to record some solo an LPs-worth of additional tracks, a 2001 version of My Solid Ground, and these were added to the CD. - By Rolf Semprebon
Biography in Progarchives.com: In 1968, at age 14, he had learned how to play guitar, formed his own band and three years later released an album whom many still consider a psychedelic Krautrock classic. Not bad for a small-town German boy who is now producer, composer and music lecturer at Maintz University. He is Bernhard Rendel, founder of MY SOLID GROUND; the other band members were keyboard player Ingo Werner, bassist Karl-Heinrich Dorfler and drummer Andreas Wursching. In 1970, at the Morfelden Studio in Frankfurt, they recorded a short track (“Flash”) that won second place in an amateur competition hosted by Sudwestfunk (SWF) Radio. A year later, they released their album with nationwide success. Despite this, some of the band members started to quit and Rendel suddenly found himself with a totally new line-up. Their plans for a second album unfortunately never never materialized and in 1974, Rendel himself quit to pursue university studies.
The opening track on their self-titled LP certainly lives up to the album’s reputation: a 13-minute epic of dark, heavy space rock with crunching guitars and acid riffs, distorted vocals, lots of long droning keyboards – imagine a mix of early FLOYD (“One of These Days”) and THIRSTY MOON. However, the rest of the album (or most of it) is fairly mainstream, being made up of rather conventional hard rock. A recent re-release CD version includes some excellent bonus tracks, among which is a 24-minute psychedelic Krautrock tour de force featuring incredible guitar soloing. Recommended to fans of early PINK FLOYD.
Cosmic Dreams At Play: This album is a genuine treasure! Through the years, it has become immensely rare, and is now considered one of the monsters of German rock, fetching DEM 500 for mint copies. My Solid Ground was the one-off project. The recordings were done in February and April 1971 in Dieter Dierks' studio with Peter Hauke producing. The marvellous opening track "Dirty Yellow Mist" was as close as any group has reached into the atmosphere of Pink Floyd's Meddle album. The thirteen-minute track was driven by a monotonous, but very effective guitar riff. The organ passages really remind one of Richard Wright and there are pink pigs on the fold-out cover! "The Executioner" was a highly original and effective combination of mumbling vocal and heavy guitar and keyboard statements. There were three aggressive, punky rock songs: "Flash Part IV", "That's You", and "Handful of Grass". "Melanchonie" again recalls Pink Floyd, this time the mellow, peaceful romanticism of "Allan's psychedelic Breakfast". "Devonshire Street WI" was another highly original song, while the instrumental "X" ended the album. Definitely one of the ten best German albums of all time! It's a tragedy there were no further My Solid Ground albums. After this recording, all members seemed to drift back into obscurity and Hauke & Dierks were left to work with artists like Nektar and Omega.
Track List:
1. Dirty Yellow Mist
2. Flash Part Iv
3. That's You
4. Executioner
5. Melancholie
6. Handful Of Grass
7. Devonshire Street W1
8. "X"
9. "Y"
10. "Z"
11. Flash (Original Full Length Version)
12. Executioner (Different Mix)
13. Handful Of Grass (Different Mix)
14. That's You (Different Mix)
15. Dirty Yellow Mix (Different Vocals)
Wildstrings Comments: As I said earliear, This is very obscure at the sametime very talented heavy prog band from Germany. This particular album was recorded back in 1971 with the help of Legendary producer Dieter Dierks and Peter Haurke. The music they played ranging from Heavy Prog/Psych to melancholic. But Overall the music is very heavy indeed. The album kicksoff with 13 minutes long Dirty Yellow Mist with bone crushing guitars and very disturbed vocals and spacey keyboards. the other great song is Melancholie with it's haunting keyboard solos. The Original album conisits of only 8 songs. But this particular second battle edition comes with 7 bonus tracks which should be the real holy grail for the longtime fans. Of them, 24 minutes long Flash is really a fantatic song. Highly Recommended for all the heavy freaks of Krautrock. Enjoy.
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