Amon Düül II - Tanz Der Lemminge
Date of Release: 1971 (release) inprint
1997 CD: Repertoire REP 4749 (Germany)
1971 2-LP: Liberty Teldec LBS 83473/74 (Germany)
1971 2-LP: United Artists UAD 60003/4 (UK)
2-LP: United Artists UA 9954
2-LP: Teldec 6.28525 DT (Germany)
2-LP: BASF UDB 8030
2-LP: 93001 (Japan)
1989 CD: Mantra MANTRA 014 (France)
1992 CD: Repertoire REP 4276 WY (Germany)
1996 CD: Captain Trip CTCD-032 (Japan)
Tracks
LP One:
01 - Syntelman's March Of The Roaring Seventies (Karrer)
a. In The Glassgarden
b. Pull Down Your Mask (Karrer/Rogner)
c. Prayer To The Silence
d. Telephonecomplex
02 - Restless Skylight-Transistor-Child (Weinzierl)
a. Landing In A Ditch
b. Dehypnotized Toothpaste
c. A Short Stop At The Transsylvanian Brain-Surgery
(Weinzierl/Rogner/Meid)
d. Race From Here To Your Ears
i. Little Tornadoes (Weinzierl/Rogner)
ii. Overheated Tiara (Weinzierl)
iii. The Flyweighted Five
e. Riding On A Cloud (Rogner/Meid)
f. Paralized Paradise
g. H.G. Well's Take-Off
LP Two: Chamsin Soundtrack
03 - The Marilyn Monroe-Memorial-Church
(Karrer/Meid/Weinzierl/Rogner)
04 - Chewinggum Telegram (Karrer/Meid/Weinzierl/Rogner)
05 - Stumbling Over Melted Moonlight
(Karrer/Meid/Weinzierl/Rogner)
06 - Toxicological Whispering (Karrer/Meid/Weinzierl/Rogner)
Note:
- The above is the correct tracklisting, as opposed to that
given on the Repertoire CD artwork.
John Weinzierl - Guitar, Vocals, Piano (LP Two),
Chris Karrer - Guitar, Violin, Vocals
Falk U. Rogner - Organ, Electronics (LP Two)
Karl-Heinz Hausmann - Electronics
Lothar Meid - Bass, Vocals
Peter Leopold - Drums, Percussion, Piano (LP Two)
Guests (LP One):
Alois Gromer - Sitar
Jimmy Jackson - Organ, Choir-Organ, Piano
Renate Knaup-Kroetenschwanz - Vocals
Rolf Zacher - Vocals
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, and there certainly aren't many groups
like Amon Düül 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
both, Tanz, the group's third album, is probably the best
candidate still. The musical emphasis is more on expansive
arrangements and a generally gentler, acoustic or soft electric
vibe; the brain-melting guitar from Yeti isn't as prominent on
Tanz, for example, aside from the odd freakout here and there.
You will find lengthy songs divided up into various movements,
but with titles like "Dehypnotized Toothpaste" and "Overheated
Tiara", po-faced seriousness is left at the door. The music
isn't always wacky per se, but knowing that the group can laugh
at itself is a great benefit. The first three tracks each take
up a side of vinyl on the original release, and all are quite
marvelous. "Syntelman's March Of The Roaring Seventies" works
through a variety of acoustic parts, steering away from
folksiness for a more abstract, almost playfully classical sense
of space and arrangement, before concluding with a brief jam.
"Restless Skylight-Transistor-Child" is more fragmented,
switching between aggressive (and aggressively weird) and subtle
passages. One part features Meid and Knaup singing over an
arrangement of guitars, synths and mock choirs that's
particularly fine, and quite trippy to boot. "The Marilyn
Monroe-Memorial-Church" exchanges variety for a slow sense of
mystery and menace, with instruments weaving in and out of the
mix while never losing the central feel of the song. Three
briefer songs close out the record, a nice way to get in some
quick grooves at the end.
-- Ned Raggett (AMG)
---------------------------------------------
The third album from Amon Düül II, Tanz Der Lemminge (1971), is
a more sophisticated work, but no less terrible (and monumental)
than Yeti. The ever-changing line-up (Chris Karrer on guitar and
violin, John Weinzierl on guitar, Lothar Meid on bass, Falk
Rogner on electronic keyboards, Peter Leopold on drums) is
rounded out by Alois Gromer on sitar and American jazz
keyboardist Jimmy Jackson (playing the church organ that would
become a trademark of their sound). The album's key compositions
are the three multi-part suites, which expand on the concept of
Phallus Dei. They are neither as dark nor as apocalyptic,
although they maintain a degree of angst and perversion. The
production is cleaner, crisper, lighter. The playing is tight
and cohesive. The songs are not improvised at all: they are
rational constructs. Instead of obsessively pounding on a theme,
they explore a theme with the scientific diligence of
progressive-rock. The 16-minute "Syntelman's March Of The
Roaring Seventies", is an odd fusion of Stravinsky's ballets,
Bob Dylan's narratives and and Frank Zappa's tempo shifts. The
instrumental passages are more atmospheric than apocalyptic, and
they are typically sustained by the gentle strumming of the
acoustic guitar. A virulent Hendrix-ian electric riff and a deep
groove open the 20-minute "Restless Skylight-Transistor-Child"
in a more aggressive vein, but soon the the male vocals engage
the sitar in a psychedelic duet, under the threatening shade of
eerie Stockhausen-ian electronics. At 7:23 the electric guitar
resumes its funky riff, thereby sparking off a Phallus Dei-like
charge. At 11:30 the piece mutates into a frenzied boogie, the
groove getting bigger and bigger, the guitar work echoeing the
Allman Brothers or Grateful Dead. A few seconds later, suddenly,
the music stops again; only to take off again for the final
seven-minute trip. The title of the seven parts are: "Landing In
A Ditch", "Dehypnotized Toothpaste", "A Short Stop At The
Transylvanian Brain Surgery", "Race From Here To Your Ears",
"Riding On A Cloud", "Paralized Paradise" and "H. G. Wells
Take-Off". (The Repertoire CD reissue had all the titles messed
up). The all-instrumental jam "The Marilyn
Monroe-Memorial-Church" (18 minutes) is the album's masterpiece,
and has little in common with the rest of Amon Düül II's career.
For 14 minutes this is an avant garde piece that lets
disconnected tones, phrases and chords float in the sky. An
organ echoing Pink Floyd's "A Saucerful Of Secrets" prevails for
a few minutes, but then the music falls apart again, leaving the
instruments to test the limits of free improvisation. Very
little is actually dissonant, but almost everything is loose,
irrational, incoherent, amorphous. The last four minutes are
louder and frantic. The "dance" concludes with three shorter
pieces, of which the psychedelic/futuristic blues-rock
instrumental "Toxicological Whispering" is the most disturbing.
Amon Düül II had mastered the fusion between rock'n'roll,
avant garde and world-music, using such fusion to pen long and
dynamic post-psychedelic musical journeys that reinvented the
form of the classical fantasia in the age of post-modernism.
-- Piero Scaruffi
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