a prae-kraut pandaemonium volume 16. german 60s garage underground.

(please note: some download-accelerators and some unzip-programmes seemed to experience some difficulties handling the 150-mb-file way down below at the bottom of this post. so i decided to split the file hoping to avoid further inconvenience. please save both files into one folder before unzipping and please let me know if this approach could help. thank you.)

the prae-kraut pandaemonium as you might know is an ongoing and everlasting series of compilations exploring german 60s underground music edited and released on the most common sound storage media of the past: the first 15 volumes hit your record player as 12-inch vinyl and some of this/that music (plus additional sounds) was released using compact discs. as disposition became awkward we decided to release the latest results of our researches for free and will be continuing to do so. volume 16 of a prae-kraut pandaemonium is some 76 minutes of german 60s beat garage punk underground mayhem you can and will find only HERE.

listen, learn, read on: 30 bands / projects / artists / tracks were unearthed and compiled for your pleasure: the tracklist will bare a first sight and the following linernotes will display and manifest some more. you can download all and everything as a .rar-file towards the bottom of this post. here we go:

a prae-kraut pandaemonium vol. 16

01 - SHE JUST SATISFIES - CHARLY & HIS EXPLORERS
02 - GONNA MAKE YOU - THE MEMPHIS THREE
03 - DANCING LITTLE WOMAN - THE SNAPPERS
04 - BABE - TIME OUT
05 - DEFINITION LOVE - THE LIPSTICKS
06 - COOL GIRL - GENTS INC.
07 - SOMEBODY - ANDY NEVISON & HIS RHYTHM MASTERS
08 - PRISONERS OF THE BEAT - THE GISHA BROTHERS
09 - END OF LOVE - THE LIGHTNINGS
10 - SHAME, SHAME, SHAME - THE TREMORS
11 - YOU KNOW ME - THE PONTIACS
12 - I CAN FLY - HIDE & SEEK
13 - YOU ARE MY NEW LOVE - THE EXCHECKERS
14 - YES PRETTY BABY - THE VENTURE 5
15 - I REALLY KNOW IT - THE REVIVAL
16 - PRETTY GIRL - THE STRANGERS
17 - SHAKE AGAIN TIME - THE DUKE OF SOHO
18 - SHE`S GONE WITH THE WIND - THE TONY HENDRIK 5
19 - A LIVE WITH YOU - FLASH
20 - N.S.U. - WAGES OF SIN
21 - EIN GAMMLER NUR - THE COUNTRY'S
22 - CAN'T BELIEVE THE FEELING - THE BATS
23 - PROLOGUE TO A MAGIC WORLD - THE REGINES
24 - YIELD NOT TO TEMPTATION - COLIN ANTHONY & HIS BEAT COMBO
25 - THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT - THE BOOMERANGS
26 - SLOOP SLOOP LOOBEY - UWE SPIER
27 - CHICKEN SONG - RASPUTIN
28 - DREAMS 2ND HAND - THE BOX
29 - IT WASN'T RIGHT - THE EXPIRATION

Bad news first - we´re losing our religion. Yes, alas, and sorry to say - while releasing such small editions always was a non-profit project, doing it on vinyl led to repeated financial collapses and a 4-year gap between vols. 14 and 15. (I even had to sell my Rolls Royce) Take it or leave it, the digital way seems to be the only one to go on without living on cat food. Good news is - like we traditionally do, we´ll stuff each volume to the limit, but this time you´ll get about 74minutes instead of 50. But my heart is bleeding, I confess...And another thing - we´ve been screwed and have to apologize for including THE STRANGERS on vol. 15. There´s a sick brain going round in Germany pressing faked, ancient-looking 45s and sells them for a fortune. To pick out the pearls of old "Prae-Krauts" and to release these as "Lost Illusions" may be a weird idea, but who cares. To take the piss and hard earned cash out of harmless collectors is something else... (What annoys me most is that such a clumsy rip-off escaped my attention on first hearing. Mea culpa.) The so-called Strangers on "I´m A Man" are the US-High Numbers, and on "Thumb" they are The Village Outcasts. (Check the respective contributions to Garage Punk Unknowns Vols. 3 and 8.) How low can you go...straight to hell, I hope!....On with the show...

For a German band with an LP (no 45´s though) on a major label remarkably little (actually nothing) is known about CHARLY & HIS EXPLORERS. Presumably from Hessia, they recorded an LP for Vogue´s sublabel Pop in ´65. All the titles on "Beat Time" are covers, but some of these were stunnning choices like The Nashville Teens´ underrated R&B-punker "TNT" and "She Just Satisfies", Jimmy Page´s first and last solo-single on vinyl. But even on old nags like "Good Golly Miss Molly" they blow tops, minds and eardrums with their primitive, out of tune-strumming and Charly´s horrible accent...

THE MEMPHIS THREE weren´t German at all. This studioband, brainchild of Larry Page, recorded a lot of rockabilly standards and some covers of songs by Larry´s best horse in the stable with that revamped ´68 sound of the first British Rock n´Roll Revival. But after the (predictable) flop of their corny version of "Wild Thing" on UK-Page One (and some harsh words from Mr. Presley, Reginald) the whole thing was shelved for good. But the tapes already were on the way and in the hands of Hansa Records in Berlin. As we know by now, nothing could stop a German company from committing commercial suicide in the 60´s as long as they could stamp "Original from England" all over it (they even swindled now and then), and this strange "album" saw the light of day here in 68. And while Mr.Presley, Elvis, and gentlemen like Carl Perkins and Eddie Cochran are still rotating in their graves over the bloody execution of their signature songs, Reg and his fans should be happy with this amazing treatment of one of the Troggs´ heaviest classics...

THE SNAPPERS were British too, but except for a German Decca single - surprisingly licensed to CBS in the UK - they left no traces back home. Like many others, they spent their whole career (65-69) in Germany, where life was much easier for second division bands who couldn´t keep up with weekly changing new trends, styles and images as demanded in Swinging London. The Snappers´ first 7" coupled unspectacular and inferior versions of DDDBM&T´s "Hold Tight" and "Hideaway", the second was a pleasant soft-psych-pop-or-whateveryouliketolabelit-song called "Upside Down, Inside Out", a track that showed up later on "Syde Trips 6" in a quite similar demo version as by Tropical Fish. (Isn't a snapper exactly that?) Their magnum opus was a meanwhile terribly rare and expensive LP for Elite Special in 68 which is a rather disappointing affair, but still offers 3 good tracks. "Dancing Little Woman" is one of them...

TIME OUT´s claim to fame was a 7" for Hansa and the company advertised them as "Gemany´s youngest beatband". Judging by the picture-cover they were about 2 years older than Percy & The Gaolbirds had been in ´66, but this was 69 and a bit too late to cause sensations with an old fashioned term like beat anyway. And the bungled, out of tune-guitar solo, as much as we like such trash today, was the commercial kiss of death. Time over for Time Out...

THE LIPSTICKS´ mastermind was a guy named Klumann, who wrote all the songs on their `68 LP for Europa Rec.(Except for the title track of "Let´s Have A Bonnie & Clyde Party".) It´s a rather light-weight affair with some catchy tunes and slight soft-psych undertones now and then....

THE GENTS INC. came from Gießen and released a rather tame, but pleasant 45 in ´67 there. A year later they were back in the studio to record a split-LP with the irrelevant Capras for the cheapo-label Falcon. The best of those cuts was "Gettin´The Blues" (>PKP Vol.3), but "Cool Girl" is a close runner-up...

The story of ANDY NEVISON's RHYTHM MASTERS should be familiar by now and his two singles for Columbia are well documented in this series. After a very rare 45 on a private label, (which showed up last week and may be included in a future volume),the first major release of this ex-GI stuck in the Bundesrepublik was "Somebody"/ "Humpty Dumpty" for Ariola in early `65, and while all his records are hard to find, this one - although on a major - seems to be as rare as a Rabbi in Mecca nowadays...

Hans and Klaus Gischa formed THE GISHA BROTHERS in the late 50´s in Hanau and they were veterans of the "Tanztee"-, Night Club- and Ball of Lonely Hearts-scene when they started recording for CBS in ´64. They´ve been through all kinds of styles in pop music and found it easy to absorbe the new "Liverpool Sound" of the day. (Remember that The Beatles still played "Taste Of Honey" and "Besame Mucho" in their early days?) The Gishas were as skilled and professional as the Indo-bands that ruled the club circuit in the early 60´s outside of Hamburg, but they hardly ever went over the top like The Tielman Brothers or The Crazy Rockers used to do at the end of their shows. 7 singles and 3 LPs of the Gisha Brothers offer well executed, but harmless covers and originals for dancing with your mother. Strange enough, among all that unspectacular stuff there´s a killer double-sider from ´65 - great version of "Poison Ivy" backed with "Prisoner Of The Beat", a garage hymn if ever I heard one. It flopped badly and they went back to playing "Tea For Two"...

The Heidelberg LIGHTNINGS´only 45 on Scherer is of legendary status among collectors due to its unfindability. The a-side has been featured on PKP Vol. 15, here comes the flip. Musically a bit on the moody side,but the "lyrics" are absolutely transcendent. "Suddenly a baby was in the world..." That´s the way the cookie crumbles with the birds and the bees, dear mate!...

THE TREMORS came from Scotland to Hamburg and stayed in Germany from `64 to `72. They were great on stage, but their records - an LP for Elite Special and two singles for Metronome and Fontana - are best forgotten. The Tremors´ best documented work has been spread over three LP- compilations released by Polydor in´64 and ´65. On "Beat City" we´ve found an arrangement of Jimmy Reed´s "Shame, Shame, Shame" that´s remarkably different from the better known, tough R&B-versions by The Rattles and The Shamrocks. Bandleader Mike Reoch managed to keep the group together and changed the name to Light Of Darkness in `70. The group´s eponymous album for Philips (1970) nowadays is regarded as a Krautrock classic, although only the drummer was of teutonic origin...

A damn rare record from the northern part of the country is THE PONTIACS´ 7" on Mash (65), seemingly the only release on this very private label. Typical mid-60´s beat by a group of neat looking young gentlemen who hadn´t yet finished discussions about what kind of style they´d like to follow. Great mishmash of influences, and it´s nice to hear how a caveman on drums and a mean stringbender can spoil the ambitions of a crooner...

HIDE & SEEK from Graz, Austria got together at the tail-end of the 60´s and released 4 singles between ´69 and ´72. Their fabulous debut has been a highlight on PKP Vol.9 (flipside on Exploiting Plastic Inevitable Vol.2), but the next Amadeo 45 is worth your attention too. No signs of progressivism on "I Can Fly", a fine slice of naive psychpop that sounds much rather like summer ´68 than autumn ´70...

THE EXCHECKERS from Chester belonged to the endless trek of economic refugees from the British Isles. When their `64 debut for UK-Decca "All The World Is Mine" failed to set the charts alight, they decided to conquer Germany at least, where Vogue had released a 45 and an LP of their live recordings from the Iron Door Club under the highly inventive name The Liverpool Beats. ( But watch out - not all German records under that name are by The Excheckers. Even among the Elite Special material some probably are, some definitely ain´t.) In 1965 they recorded some sides for Ariola under their original name and of the resulting two singles the ultra moody "You Are My New Love" is the best track by far. They reportedly gave up after 12 months on the sauerkraut curcuit and went back home...

Altough they also recorded a couple of Top Ten-covers for Tempo,THE VENTURE 5´s only collectable opus is this 7" from ´65 on Munich´s Juke Box Records. The plug side certainly was "What´s Your Name" (see PKP Vol. 11), but the flip "Yes Pretty Baby" is a winner too. Exact city of origin couldn´t be detected yet, but it wasn´t Munich. They were active between Augsburg, Regensburg , Landshut and Nürnberg, a lower Bavarian or Franconian provincial beatband obviously...

The next one is a strange discovery. At the end of a cheapo-LP for Silverton credited to Rockband - REVIVAL we´ve found this fuzz driven powerpop epic that reminds of the most adventurous moments of The Equals with a song that shares big parts of the melody with Herbie´s Peoples´ "Residential Area". The other 90% of the record are by a different, apparrently American group fronted by a Joey Dee-impersonator, doing live versions of dance craze-hits like the Twist, Watusi and Whodunit. We don´t know who actually is this misplaced, very British-sounding band playing "I Really Know It" , but they certainly are worth your attention...

Ah, THE STRANGERS again, but this time they´re for real. "Pretty Girl" is the b-side of their garage punker "Hurt It" on Kerston (dig up your copy of PKP Vol.11) and, although a dreamy ballad, its another extremly weird song with ghoulish lines like "Girl your nose looks pretty, and your fingers... and mouth looks sweet. You´re all I need..." Honey Ball Lector on vocals, but we still don´t know from which asylum The Strangers escaped...

THE DUKE OF SOHO obviously is the pseudonym for a gifted organgrinder who delivered the hottest contribution to one of the earliest Beat-related LPs on the German cheapo-label Europa. "London Beat" (´65) was dominated by tracks from The Spots (Tonics in disguise) and The Peers, but the extra dry Hammond-groove of The Duke is the only thing on this record that makes my feet move...

THE TONY HENDRIK 5 from Cologne was one of these bands that desperately had a try at all kinds of styles in order to get a hit, but only managed to disturb the audience with the resulting schizoid hotch-potch. They had 8 singles between ´67 and ´71 and all are rubbish, except the absolutely positively brilliant B-side "I´ve Said My Say" (see PKP Vol.8) Equally strange, but with at least a handful of fine tracks was their only LP "Nightflight" (67). "She´s Gone With The Wind", written by keyboarder Frieder Reynard, is the best original here. Tony Hendrik (real name - Dieter Lünstedt) also worked as a talent scout and producer for Vogue, and his biggest achievements were early Krautrock classics by Andromeda and Nosferatu in 1970... Not much known about FLASH from Bremen. They recorded their only 7" in ´69 or ´70 for Soundstar Ton and vanished again soon after. While the A-side is an ill-fated attempt to get progressive, "A Life Without You" sounds much better. (If you´ve got a soft spot for cryptic ballads)... Even less is known about WAGES OF SIN, except that they were a pretty trendy quartet in '67, when they decided to cover both of last year's most influential singles for their own debut on the commendable Paletten-label.("N.S.U." has "Hey Joe" on the back ).Trouble is - they didn't exist long enough to record a follow-up...

COLIN ANTHONY was yet another of the countless young Brit-beaters to invade Germany in the early 60´s, but unlike most of his colleagues he didn´t stay long and left only a few traces on the club scene. Which is a pity, cause his ´64 Fontana LP "Colin Is Fab" is an unknown Merseysound gem. "Yield Not To Temptation" was a hit for Bobby Bland, and Anthony and his band do a great job here with their uptempo gospelbeat-arrangement. When the equally fine single "Crazy Beatle Boots" flopped, Colin dived down into oblivion or, more likely, went home and changed his stage name. Great talent anyway ...

THE COUNTRY´S (sic) were an obscure folk/protest-trio from Switzerland and the ´66 single on Electra seems to be their only one. The deeply philosophic lyrics sung with heavy Emmental accent will only be discloseable for native speakers, but the song is all about tune in, drop out and live as a gammler, some sort of every mother-in-law's longhaired, workshy nightmare, a mixture of hobo, beatnik and provo...

According to the label, the only 45 of THE BOX was recorded in London, and in this case it probably is true. The German Admiral label actually had an A&R-man running round there, buying elsewise rejected or shelved productions for the inexhaustible inland market. (A lot were crap and most came from independent producers normally connected with President Rec. Another fine, but more "progressive" example are the German-only singles of J.C. Heavy.) Admiral was a Bellaphon subsidiary and most 45s are not hard to find, but "Dreams Second Hand" is the one that never shows up. It´s a superior, heavier version of a `69 non-hit 7" by The Blinkers on UK-Pye....

THE BATS from Hamburg were one of this city's best 2nd division bands. (They had a lot there. Lot of divisions...) Formed in '61, they went down well in the Starclub in 63 and 64, but were dropped from the list of proteges after a quarrel with Mr. Weißleder. They recorded for Polydor instead, but after 2 unsuccessful 45s changed to the small WAM-label, where they released the immortal trashpunk classic "Got A Girl". (> PKP 2) Going through the motions from R&B via Hardrock to Country and back, they survived as a live act until the mid-70s and had a couple of reunions later on. "Can't Believe The Feeling" was one of the highlights of their self distributed retrospective-LP "Music of the 60s" (which actually covers the span from 69 to 73.) ...

THE REGINES from Offenbach were a rather tame group with tendencies to tralala-pop and even schlagers, not so far away from the style that the notorious Flippers used to develop at about the same time. (They covered "Kaiser Bill's Batman", if you know what I mean.) But in '67, on the flip of their first 7" for Metronome, they had their moment of a lifetime. How they'd got hold of a copy of Rupert's People's second single "Prologue To A Magic World" is unknown, but their cover beats the originial, if you ask me...

Wiesbaden's UWE SPIER recorded a couple of singles for CBS in the mid-60s, which had a lot more punch, but a lot less success than the schlagers of his brother Bernd. "Sloop Sloop Loobey" was the best of the bunch, and while the words are about as intelligent as "Balla Balla" (or "Hanky Panky" or some hundred others of our favourites...), the music is a pretty good Sam the Sham-rip-off...

RASPUTIN (Jon Symon) was a British one man-band, who had settled down in North Germany, where he made a living by gigging in small clubs and busking in the streets of (mostly) Hannover in the late 60s. He recorded 2 self-financed 45s, and while his versions of "Sympathy For The Devil" and "Spoonful" are quite funny too, we chose his weird "Chicken Song". Silly, but irresistible...

THE BOOMERANGS are another mystery of Germany's Beat history. Like The Candidates, The Beatmixers and The Sound Riders, they recorded one of these cheapo-LPs - all called "Beat Beat Beat" - in boring standard covers for the Baccarola label in '65. The singer sounds a bit to experienced to be a German, while the variety of their repertoire is reminiscent of the so-called Indo Bands (Dutch-Indonesian immigrants), which really ruled in the early 60s. A British group called Boomerangs recorded 2 singles for UK-Fontana in '64 and may well have toured here, but with Baccarola you can't even be sure that they didn't use a fantasy name to disguise the identity of a band with contractual obligations elsewhere. (The Beatmixers actually were Mike Rat & The Runaways.) On third listening, The Boomerangs' live recordings sound a lot like those of The Sound Riders. Guess we'll never know, but their version of Little Richard's "Girl Can't Help It" is a winner...

On the back of the sleeve of their sole 7" (VRC, 68); THE EXPIRATION claimed to be Austria's answer to The Cream. Or at least their label VCR did. They didn't quite live up to that image. Nice try anyway...

and yes yes yes: only a few lines away from the download: TWILIGHTZONE thankfully offers almost all volumes of a prae-kraut pandaemonium (search for kraut or german) de-klicked and de-noized; additional infomation might be found on prae-kraut.de; the rest is up to you:

(please note: some download-accelerators and some unzip-programmes seemed to experience some difficulties handling the 150-mb-file way down below at the bottom of this post. so i decided to split the file hoping to avoid further inconvenience. please save both files into one folder before unzipping and please let me know if this approach could help. thank you.)

direct download:

a prae-kraut pandaemonium volume 16
(direct download / 150 mb)