Guru Guru – Dance of the Flames. 1974. 11+13. Rediscovery of the year for me so far. An album I’ve owned in one form or another since about 1990, this is the odd album out in the Guru Guru canon. Former Eiliff guitarist Houshang Nejadepour took over the reins from Ax Genrich and it’s obvious he took over the musical direction of Guru Guru at this point too. And they needed it, after releasing the halfway stupid self-titled 4th and the ridiculous “Don’t Call Us We Call You†albums. Heavily influenced by the McLaughlin/Santana opus “Love Devotion and Surrenderâ€, Nejadepour gives us an intense guitar centric blast of emotional instrumental rock. Neumeier gets a rare chance to shows his formative jazz chops while special mention should go to jazz bassist Hans Hartmann who turns in a monster performance. Still, you can just hear Mani in the studio “oh please, please let me do one thing goofy – pleeeasssssssâ€. And so he gets his fun at the very beginning with a Donald Duck impersonation. “Very nice Mani.. now go back to your drum kit…â€. After one album of spiritual enlightenment, Mani obviously wanted no part of that, and the group went back to being the goofball vehicle it had become, and never again was Guru Guru to release anything of interest. Houshang was gone. Neumeier himself, however, did immerse in interesting projects, even today with the “UFO†styled Neumeier - Genrich – Schmidt project. But Guru Guru the band never reached the heights of “Dance of the Flames†again. This album is SCREAMING for a legit reissue. And now that InsideOut has released at least one mid-period Guru album, perhaps this one will be along shortly! Whatever happened to Nejadepour? What a talent!
Amon Duul II - Tanz Der Lemminge. 1971. 13-12. This album, which I first purchased in 1985, has always been a borderline 12/13, and this listen pushed it back one. Probably depends on what I’m listening to at the time. Am I hearing exceptional material and thus this one takes a slight back seat, or am I getting a steady diet of mediocre albums, where Tanz rises above? Parts of this are 15 brilliant, most notably the side long improvisation ‘The Marilyn Monroe Memorial Church’. But segments of the first and last side of this double LP opus, are fairly ordinary rock numbers and probably what keeps this from the holy 13+ area on a consistent basis.
Ash Ra Tempel – Inventions For Electric Guitar. 1974. Japanese mini-LP. 13=13. Another album that goes back to my initial discovery of experimental rock in the mid 1980s. Manuel’s one and only attempt at sound on sound guitar music, creating an electronic soundscape without the use of keyboards. What separates this album from others of its ilk, is the blazing solos, that little extra which adds excitement to an otherwise tranquil setting. Even Schickert and Reichel didn’t attain these heights. Perhaps that’s why Gottsching stopped, he perfected it on one try!