AMON DUUL II
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Albums reviewed:
1972 - Wolf City (10)

I have a few more Amon Duul II albums but I'll start with this one. Also, forgive me for not using the umlauts, it kindda screws depending on your encoding in your browser and all... Anyway... Amon Duul II are a kraut rock band (a collective from Germany, really), and HOLY CRAP do I like them. Warning, this music is highly experimental and crazy, but it does have melody. This album is full of doom and coldness but NOT REALLY at the same time, so weird to explain. 'Wolf City' is sort of my favourite ADII album although it's hard to tell sometimes. The mood of it is very clear. It's like slowly entering a dark scary forest, jungle maybe but not quite... And eventually finding old ruins of a lost civilization, all gothic, lost amidst the roots and branches, and while it was scary and doomy, it suddenly turns hopeful at the end. it's a 35 minutes journey, so you can take it often too (as opposed to the longer classics by Amon Duul II). The music can be so chaotic in a way, like in the fast sections of the opening track, it just bashes your brain out with fast strumming and aggressive violins, then that singer screeches with his voice from the depth of doom (again) and the chords descend and bury you deep in the earth. Sometimes though it momentarily sends you flying in the air with uplifting moments out of nowhere, often coinciding with words like "the sunrise!". Genius! And that's only the opening track, although it says a lot about the rest of the album. The pop sensibilities are not forgotten, even though I make it sound like it's awfully dark. The voice harmonies on soft guitars and bass lines of the beginning of Green-Bubble-Raincoated-Man make you realise that (still has bashing chaos out of the blue in the middle). The tradition continues with the odd watery minimalist jam of Jail-House-Frog, turning at the end in the most wonderful prog-rock explosion I could imagine, it's exactly what you want! Wow! Great bass lines and drum fills and synths and weird alto sax (?!) rocking your guts! A similar cool perfect synth ending fuelled by the singer's awesome weird voice closes the previous track (Green-Bubble...). The title track uses simplicity and crushing guitar interplay to make you feel like the end of the world has befallen on you. DOOM, DOOM IS ON YOU, the bass guitar is so heavy, on your shoulder... Taking you down... Because you found WOLF CITY! Basically, the only thing I could do without is the weird coughing and German speech on Deutsch Nepal. But that one and the previous instrumental carry the despair mood very well and just take you further in the crypts. That's until you hit the classic ADII closing tune Sleepwalker's Timeless Bridge. Easily one of the most rousing and uplifting Amon Duul II songs I've heard; it's rather simple in structure, still using the acoustic strumming and an ethereal background of synths, it features hand percussions giving it a half "campfire" feel, except when the electric guitar solos come in, but even those are eventually dissipated by lightweight instrumentation and rhythms. Basically, it feels as if you're deep in the crypt, and suddenly there's a rainbow that appears and you use it as a bridge to walk away, wheeeee, sliding on a rainbow, and the song ends on a very uplifting "rising" synth chord sequence. Who would have believed? Get 'Wolf City', go on a trip.

Simon Lac, February 28th 2006