Label: Garden Of Delights (Germany), CD 005
Style: Krautrock, Hard Rock, Progressive Rock
Country: Germany
Time: 44:55
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 292 Mb
The
German psych/prog label called Garden of Delights recently made a
campaign to reissue a bunch of lost krautrock classics, Arktis is at the
top of these 70s obscurities. Formed in 1973, the band released their
first album the same year. This self title album revisits a conventional
heavy rock style mixed with freak out improvisations largely made of
fuzzy guitars. In 1974 has been published an album with many demos.
Konrad Plank was the producer. After a rather poor commercial support
the band split. In 1975 will be released an other effort including many
Arktis demos tape sessions. The music always features colourful heavy
fuzz jams.
(progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2615)
This is a
pretty cool sounding band from Germany listed under Krautrock here.This
is very much a guitar driven, heavy Psyche album with a female vocalist.
Not the proggiest album out there although we do a get a side long
suite which is the highlight of this 1974 recording. I'm just a sucker
for this style of music, especially the upfront guitar.This is a
self-released album by the band as they were trying to get signed by a
label. In fact the next two albums would also be self-released and they
never could get signed oddly enough even with the help of Conny Plank.
"Student's
Idyll" hits the ground running with a rumbling heavy sound and the
guitar leading the way.The vocals join in quickly.They are in English
throughout. I'm just not a fan of this straight-forward tune though.The
guitar starts to solo before 2 1/2 minutes and continues until after 3
minutes when the vocals return. "Outcasted" has more of a focus on the
vocals although there is still this good raw sound. It settles after 3
minutes as the vocals stop and the guitar leads. She's back after 4 1/2
minutes. It's okay.
"Jeff The Fool" has these lyrics that describe
how bad he (Jeff) is and she ends the line each time with "...people say
i'm crazy hey !". Oh boy. Another uptempo, guitar led tune. Love the
guitar solo from after a minute until after 2 1/2 minutes.
"Rare
Girl" is the over 20 minute closer. This is the one that saves this
album from being very average. This has a darker sound to it as the
guitar opens then bass, drums and vocals join in. She's even singing in a
more serious manner and with some attitude. A change 2 minutes in to a
brighter sound and no vocals until 3 1/2 minutes in. It kicks into a
fuller sound at 5 minutes with the guitar leading and no vocals. It
settles 6 1/2 minutes in with the guitar still leading and sounding
great. A calm 9 1/2 minutes in then it kicks in heavily until 18 minutes
in. Nice.Then the opening soundscape with vocals is reprised. Amazing
tune!
3.5 stars from me, but it could have been so much better.
(progarchives.com/album.asp?id=12859)
01. Student's Idyll (04:03)
02. Outcasted (05:35)
03. Jeff The Fool (03:27)
04. Rare Girl (20:10)
05. Is It Real (02:47)
06. Sky Drive (04:30)
07. Don't Hang Around (04:21)
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