CANESTEN hilft gegen pilze! und herr brunke macht musik dazu... (extreme rare kraut!)

eine kleinigkeit haben wir denn doch bei unseren vertriefenforschungen im bereich der kraut-pilze übersehen: nämlich dies=hier. 1973 hat bayer ein breitwandmedikament gegen pilze entwickelt und mit einer schallplatte gefeiert: CANESTEN wird zunächst von mittelbau-manager(inne)n beschrieben (hier: hintendrangehängt) und dann von wolfram brunke mit musik umspült: krantz krossartick! (tzwaar orkestriert mit streichern und schleimern: doch aus dem matsch heraus klingend einige strahaler der neuheuen mutzick: ha!=üppsch!!) (die wissenschaftshuberei is noch=hinten=dran gehängt) (searches and destroys all fungi broadwideband orkestral kraut 1973)

listen canesten


wolfram brunke hat übrigens 1973 auch für bayer die lp "jubel trubel heiserkeit" aufgenommen; diese single allerdings wird nirgends erwähnt.

the 39 clocks live in bremen and hamburg 1982. i can hear voices.

the 39 clocks. the spearhead of the northwestgerman psychodeliatric blaireblackblurt punk movement dancing away editions of you in the early eighties of the lastlast century: fed up and fed up with punk (at least the idiot version), disco (the no-meta, straight-straight version: dance if you do not know why you are a heteroe-heroe) and rock (unless you psych-out!): bored teenagers with stars on their elbows: kevin ayers, john cale, john cage, the vollfett underground and the velvet illusions: lightlife was early in 1973: where to now??!!

one way out of moms and deads were the 39 clocks: too loud too lazy too laird too soon: an unbroken non-meta version of all thinks psych andelerium: two or three fat-skinny people: with only some vat 69 in their refrigerator: too old to lose it: the loud lawd laid layers on layers: no more nordstadt-heroes: kassettentäter zonengrenze bollwerck schnaps von ahsen unterm schwanz am tor schützenfest persiko scheessel hamburg arbeiterkampf brokdorf brötzmann wuppertal wastun christine barbara tom cathy maschinenpistolen geheimwaffen zonengrenze einstein spiekeroog bfbs nwdr kbw kraftwerk man ladenöffnungszeiten haifischflossensuppe auslandstarife thiepval decken zahnpasta graaf reich jung tesla my brain hurts und untergrund und über alles there was amon düül and ulrich roski and ingo insterburg and xhol and limpe fuchs and and rolf zacher and krischke and fly and editions of you! connection, context, continuity!

and yes: the 39 clocks: live 1982: hamburg and bremen. the centers of northwestgerman un-punk in the times of un-punk. psycheroedelindia!

alright: bremen: 1982, september the second. jürgen gleue (bass, guitar) and christian henjes (guitar, bass) out on stage with rüdiger klose on drums. to find more information please follow the appropriate tag in the right column: now listen:

1 - crime appeal
2 - quiet night expression
3 - virtuous girl
4 - DNS
5 - don't split up again
6 - loose-a-hippie
7 - fear & loathe on 42nd street
8 - 39 progress of a psychotic

the 39 clocks live in bremen 1982-09-02
(mp3, 45 minutes, 105 mb, direct download)

listen to the german version

and when in hamburg: do as the hamburgers do: live at the hamburg versuchsfeld 1982-04-23: the 39 clocks: la-dies and gentlemaniacs:

01-crime appeal
02-rainy fridays
03-DNS
04-radiosilentactivity
05-worthless-thanmyass
06-DOM
07-heading for more
08-three floors down
09-louie louie
10-floating loathe can kill
11-loose-a-hippie

the 39 clocks - hamburg 1982-04-23
(mp3, 73minutes, 170 mb, direct download)

listen to the german version

a prae-kraut pandaemonium volume 18. german 60s garage beat punk underground. blitzcreek bop huns.

german 60s garage beat punk underground: prae-kraut mayhem huns: 30 tracks to weltgeist away your pretty little minds: and you will never be the same again: ohNO! - their crazy music drives you insane: this way:

the prae-kraut pandaemonium is an ongoing and everlasting series of compilations exploring german 60s underground music. the first 15 volumes hit your record player as 12-inch vinyl while some of the music (plus additional sounds) was released using compact discs later on. as disposition became awkward we decided to release the latest results of our researches through the world wide web for free and will be continuing to do so. volume 16 and 17 of a prae-kraut pandaemonium were online-only releases and can be found in this-here blog; now we go-go for volume 18 right now. its-a happening!!

Here we go again with our continuing story of the German Beat. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. (talkin' 'bout blogs, of course). The whole damn thing was a non-profit project from the word "go" anyway, but since the market for vinyl and CDs has been crumbling to pieces meanwhile, giving it away for free via thee net seems to be the only way to keep it up without getting broke and homeless nowadays. You know, like Handsome Dick Manitoba used to say: "This is just a hobby!" Hope you'll like it...

listen, learn, read on: 30 bands / projects / artists / tracks were unearthed and compiled for your listening 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.

and now goes it lose:

a prae-kraut pandaemonium vol. 18

01 - Schade – RICKY BROWN & THE HI-LITES (2'12)

02 - Bull Moose – THE ECHO SOUNDS (1'53)

03 - Ice Woman – THE MOTIVES (2'45)

04 - O Twingy Baby – GEORGIE & THE MONARCHS (2'13)

05 - I Wanna Be Your Man – THE MORLOCKS (2'25)

06 - Look At Me – BERNIE FRANK (2'41)

07 - Talking About You – THE BEATMIXERS (2'52)

08 - Come On Pretty Baby – NICK KILLER & THE SHAKIN'S (2'10)

09 - Take Your Time – JED EDMONDS & THE STRINGS (2'26)

10 - To Me – THE TORPIDS (2'06)

11 - The Tracker – BEN CASH & THE CASH TONES (2'28)

12 - Sugar Baby – THE TOPPERS (2'48)

13 - Mistrodden – THE BEATHOVENS (2'50)

14 - He Would To Tell You (= Don't Do It No More) – THE SOUND RIDERS (2'51)

15 - Stalactite – LES AIGLONS (2'06)

16 - I Want You – THE SKINS (2'10)

17 - Nightbirds – THE NIGHTBIRDS (1'37)

18 - Long Tall Sally – DAVY JONES & THE JOHNNY CLIFF 5 (3'06)

19 - Fire Horses – LES MARQUIS (3'03)

20 - I Was Born To Love You – THE YANKEES (2'28)

21 - Einmal – THE TOXIC (2'13)

22 - I Remember The Blues – CHARLES RYDERS CORPORATION (2'40)

23 - Bye Bye Bird – SHELLEY (3'06)

24 - Yellow Shoepaste – THE RATTLES (2'11)

25 - Heart Of Stone – THE FLAMMING STARS (2'45)

26 - My Babe – THE VANGUARDS (2'06)

27 - Rockin' And Rollin' – THE JAIL-BIRDS (3'20)

28 - Baby komm zurueck – THE ORIGINAL FIGHTERS (2'05)

29 - I Tried Before – THE DUKES (2'18)

30 - Love Me Too – THE UNITEDS (3'05)

RICKY BROWN & THE HI-LITES came from Holland and stranded high and dry in Kassel, where they reportedly were held hostages for a while by a clubowner, who had given them a considerable advance. They picked up one or two German members and got signed by CBS in '63. The resulting LP "The Liverpool Beat" was, in spite of some less convincing tracks, a surprisingly good fake- Merseybeat affair, and the two German-sung titles on it were released as a 7". "Schade" ( ="It's a pity") wasn't really a hit, but it had a lot of airplay due to its German lyrics – this was 1963 and few, if anyone, had done this before with such a straight uptempo beat number on a major label -, and the non-LP follow-up "Liverpool Beat" was rush-released the same year. This was an instro, and the music was as imaginative as the title. Not the group's choice, and deservedly a flop, but of course the white collars at CBS blamed it on the band and dropped them. Ricky and his Hi-Lites moved to Sweden, where they recorded two more singles. The best of these tracks can be found on Prae-Kraut 13.

THE ECHO SOUNDS from Scotland spent '64 and '65 in Germany, where they toured from coast to coast ( i.e. Nordsee to Bodensee), and recorded two 45s for the label Populär. "Too Late Now" has been immortalized on Prae-Kraut 5, and "You Must Be Joking", the flip of "Bull Moose", graces Vol. 9.

The story of THE MOTIVES, four British servicemen based in Wildenrath, Germany, and their EP "The World is a Trapezium" for the Dutch Telstar label has been told on Vol. 16. Here is another great track from that EP. And, yes, I found out a little more: the name of the drummer was John Redpath. Tom Winter on guitar and voc.

The only 7", a '63 German-only on CBS, by GEORGIE & THE MONARCHS, is included here for historical reasons more than for musical merits, although it still is quite a good one.They were one of the many Irish Showbands, something of an equivalent of our Indo bands. Not the best, but certainly the first to record in Krautland. Both sides of this still more Twist than Beat single have been written by one Bob Elger, who may have been Georgie himself, or their manager, who knows. The real interesting thing about it is, that this is the very first recording of a very young Van Morrison. Only trouble is: he wasn't allowed to sing, but had to stick to his saxophone, an instrument he later rationally left to others, when used on his own records.

In 1964/65, THE MORLOCKS from Bern, Switzerland, were big in their hometown, rivalled only by the more R&B-based Black Caps. Unfortunately both bands didn't record, but I stumbled over a live tape of a '65 performance these days, and what they do with "I Wanna Be Your Man" could make you believe that Lennon/McCartney wrote it for The Morlocks, not The Stones. And what a cool name long before another fine band picked it up... (Remember H. G. Wells' "Time Machine"?)

White-label-promo 45s were quite common here in the 60s, but usually the artist's name and songtitle plus label logo were printed on. Electrola/Columbia/Odeon, the German branch of EMI, had a strange habit of sending totally blank singles with an info-sheet to radio stations, and when these show up nowadays, you can bet your life, they come without that piece of paper. In fortunate cases like this one, a clever DJ took the trouble to leave a handwritten note saying: "BERNIE FRANK – "Look At Me". A sticker with catalogue- nr. 0 23671 hints at a 1968 release on Odeon, but according to reliable sources no such thing happened, and the project was probably shelved, when the expected airplay didn't happen. This may or not be the guy who recorded two German sung singles earlier in the 60s as Bernhard Frank, which definitely are worth your attention.

THE BEATMIXERS actually were Mike Rat & The Runaways, whose LP "Live from Kaskade Beat Club Cologne" was just out in '65 on Ariola, when the company decided to cash in on the rest of the live tape, and released it in the "Beat Beat" LP-series on their budget label Baccarola the same year. Mike was Michael Kogel, who had recorded as Mike Keller and as Michael & The Firebirds in Cologne, before he joined the Runaways, a band with Spanish members, and he went to Spain with them, where they became Los Bravos. He is the singer on "Black Is Black" and stayed with them till '68. The following solo career as middle of the road -crooner Mike Kennedy wasn't very successful.

NICK KILLER & THE SHAKIN'S (sic) were a Swiss band with two 45s on the Eurex label. Some of the songtitles indicate a French-Swiss origin, which makes the inclusion here somewhat doubtful, but then again... It's rare, it's raw and unproduced, and it's in that charming amateurish stumbling beat-style. Just couldn't resist....

Here's yet another band called THE STRINGS, this time from Hamm. In '64 they had a pretty early private release, manufactured by the Ariola pressing plant, and thus often mistaken for a proper Ariola record. The rather tame instro "Galaxi" was coupled with a lesser known Buddy Holly cover, on which The Strings had some help from a singer called JED EDMONDS. Cool idea to build this one around Roy Orbison's famous "Pretty Woman"-riff.

Not much known about THE TORPIDS. They came from the Greater Hamburg area, where they – according to the cover of their only 7" on Riwo - had won a "Beat Festival" in '68, which no-one else seems to remember. "To Me" sounds quite Rattles-inspired to me, unfortunately using the same "Bah-Bah-Bah-Bah"-lines that lessend the pleasure in some of the post-Reichel/ Dostal Rattles recordings around that time.

BEN CASH & THE CASH TONES was a fantasy name for one of the many studio groups who recorded cover versions of charts hits for a long running series of compiled cheapo- LPs on Pop, a Vogue subsidiary, released as "Original Beat aus England". There were about 14 volumes, if memory serves me, and the productions obviously were British indeed. The bands had names like High Tops, Beat Kings and Liverpool Beats, and the menue was pretty decent versions of familiar beat stuff. Now and then there was the odd choice of a song that wasn't a smash on either side of the pond, and Sir Douglas' "The Tracker" was the best of these. The domestic British version by Kenny Bernard & The Wranglers, though certainly not hit, may have been the blueprint, but Cash, intendedly or not, sounds much closer to Doug Sahm's Tex Mex-roots.

Another studio-only outfit were THE TOPPERS from Hamburg. Like the Top Ten Allstars they obviously derived the name from the Top Ten Club, and like them they had more British than German members. Although Paul Murphy and Alan Hawkshaw were involved,there wasn't a stable personnel on the 3 singles released under that name on Telefunken, all in 1965. Their best and most frantic track, "I'm So Lovesick", has been on Electrick Loosers Vol. 3, but the debut, a powerful version of Jimmy Powell's "Sugar Baby", is worth a spin too, and a big improvement on the original.

These BEATHOVENS (Hamburg) are the ones who had the outrageous "Blow-up Machine" 45 (see PKP Vol. 7). Lyricist and leader Rolf Zuckowski is a famous producer of singalong-records for Kindergarden-kids these days, but back in '67 he still was determined to write adult music. With a dictionary, I guess. Must have skipped or missed a line there, when he was looking for"to treat", and came up with "tread-trod-trodden". "Mistrodden" in German would be something like "misshundelt", but that's not half as funny. Anyway, it's one of the better tracks on the LP "Happy To Be Happy" (Somerset), a record full of moody little ditties like that.

The third appearance (see PKP 12 & 14) of THE SOUND RIDERS and their '64 Ariola LP "Liverpool Beat". (Yes, I know. It's getting on mine too, but back then it all was Liverpool or nowhere.) This live recording from the Kaskade Club, Cologne, always sounded a bit too mature and professional for a domestic band, and I meanwhile found out that The Sound Riders sound suspiciously similar to a British combo called The Plus Four. They even played a couple of the same songs. But as The Plus Four are only documented on the German LP "Live at the (fuck me!!!) Liverpool Hoop, Berlin" without a listed line-up,... well, not the great leap forward for archaeology. "He Would To Tell You" is a typical phonetic error by some poor guy, who had to do the layout in a hurry without a tracklist at hand. It's of course a hell of a version of Billy J. Kramer's "Don't Do It No More".

LES AIGLONS, a Swiss band from Lausanne, were specialized in instrumentals. They had a massive hit with "Stalactite" in '63, when Radio Luxemburg used it as a title theme, and Barclay Rec. sold 300 000 copies in France alone. The record even had a US-release as by The Eagles on Mercury's sublabel Smash. When the following two 7"s flopped, the band broke up. A comparativly weak remake of "Stalactite" by Monique & Les Tridents on the German CCA Label is a lot more collectible (and expensive) nowadays.

Frankfurt's SKINS had a fair share of exposure on PKP 12 & 15, but more than 9 tracks, spread across the CBS compilations "Beatwettbewerb der Stadt Frankfurt" und "Beatparty in Stereo, Part 4" (both 1966), haven't come down to us. "I Want You" is a very interresting and different treatment of one of The Troggs' finest.

THE NIGHTBIRDS from Locarno, Switzerland, released 4 of their 5 singles in Italy, and all of the a-sides were rather horrible schmaltz-ballads in Italian language with pretty decent stuff on the back. On the flip of the debut (Columbia, 65), we've found this killer instrumental. In 97 seconds it shows what the boys could have done without commercial restrictions. With two teutonic members on board a final 45, "Someone's Call", was put out on the CDA label in '68, but we haven't heard it yet. Drop a line if you can help.

The DAVY JONES in question was a black American singer, who came to England in the early 60s, where he recorded a couple of unsuccessful 45s for Pye. With the real British invasion he went to Hamburg in '63, where his authentic R&B-show was a bit too much for the average customer, but a sensation for the illuminated, and especially the local musicians were more than impressed. He recorded two mighty black singles with Klaus Doldinger's band, "King Lonely The Blue" for Star Club as Paul Nero's Blue Sounds plus Davy Jones, and "Night Time" for Philips as Davy Jones & The Blue Sounds, but both went down unnoticed, and his LP "Rockin' Twist Show At The Star Palast, Kiel", recorded with The Johnny Cliff 5, another British outfit resident at our side of the North Sea in '64, didn't do much better. Cover versions of Rock n' Roll standards usually don't give me much, but what Davy does to "Long Tall Sally" is something else. And, opposed to all the fake-live-LPs from the era, this is the REAL happening.

LES MARQUIS were an Austrian group, probably from the Viennan hinterland. This fine, moody ballad on the VCR label from 68 is all they handed us down. They were Peter, Hannes, Arno and Erich, but that's all we know.

Bremen's YANKEES are a German legend since they opened the groundbreaking Beat Club-TV Show in 65 with "Halbstark", a German teenage anthem if ever there was one, and a massive hit soon after. ( A turntable favourite to this very day, and not only at Gammelfleisch-Parties.) The following three 45s were a big disappointment with the exception of "I Was Born To Love You", a Polydor white label-promo that had no official release, and was the only Yankees record sung in English.

Pop-psychers THE TOXIC emerged from the ashes of Frankfurt's Roosters. "Einmal" was recorded for Opp in 68 as the flipside of "Horse & Director" (see PKP 6). You'll also find the toxic debut "Waiter" on PKP 7.

When Vienna's Slaves collapsed, Karl Ratzer formed the shortlived CHARLES RYDERS CORPORATION, and recorded "White Flames", a true monster for Decca. (See PKP 4). In some kind of a Moby Grape-campaign release policy ("Establish the name !") the label put out another 7" with identical cover the same day. "Six Ravens" still doesn't move me, but the flip, "Remember The Blues" grew through the years.

SHELLEY from Sussex was another of these UK-groups, who turned their backs on the home market after a couple of unsuccessful 45s with uncomfortable material, pinned on them by company executives, in this case compositions by middle-aged in-house "hit"-writers at PYE 1964/65. They never really made it in Germany, and split after a year, but here they had a bit more freedom, and recorded two remarkable singles for Hit-House and Metronome. The first one, "The War", was a hell of a noise orgy and undoubtably their peak, (see Visions of the Past, Vol. 2) but Sonny Boy Williamson's "Bye Bye Bird", probably inspired by The Moody Blues' version and also released in Denmark, still was a far cry from the tame Merseybeat-imitations they had to do back home.

No need to tell you much about THE RATTLES. The long career of Hamburg's finest has often and in depth been documented elsewhere, and most of their essential recordings (63 to 73) still are comparatively easy available on CD. "Yellow Shoepaste" is a bit harder to get, as it was the flip of a freebie/giveaway 45 on no official label, a gift for customers of the "Shop 15"-shoeshops. (Don't nail me down on it, but if memory serves, this was an attempt of the Salamander-Empire in co-op with C&A to shake off the conservative image, and draw a hipper crowd.) Recorded 69 and released 70, this piece of plastic seems to be one of the very few recordings of the shortlived line-up of Henner Hoier, Georg Meier, Zappo Luengen and Peet Becker.

The rare EP of THE FLAMMING (sic) STARS on Royal Splendid has already been object of examination on PKP 13. And while we usually don't go much for cover versions, it would be most irresponsible to withhold such an unbelievable re-write of a classic Glimmer Twins-song. Phonetic guess work always was an integral part of German Beat, but this guy won't take prisoners and comes up with a dadaistic caboodle of Schwitters-esque proportions. Chapeau! Claque!! Outch!!!

THE VANGUARDS (not the ones from Berlin, but probably from Kassel) and their "I Know A Girl" on Kerston have also been on PKP 13. Here's the A-side "My Babe", a rearrangment of an old Little Walter classic, which actually is based on an even older Gospel standard called "This Train (Won't Carry No Gamblers)".

These here JAIL-BIRDS are the ones who appeared on PKP 14 with the second of their two 45s for Beat Records, a small label from the Ruhrgebiet. "Rockin' & Rollin'", nothing to do with "Reelin' & Rockin'", is the first from '63 or '64, and it's a nice example of a band with one foot still on the Rock n' Roll-platform, the other already on the Beat-train. Other Jailbirds with records hailed from Hamburg, Mainz and Gelsenkirchen, and the latter, with a 7" on Hansa, might well be a later incarnation of the band in question, if they'd got rid of the hyphen by '66.

Another fine early - and extremely rare - single by THE ORIGINAL FIGHTERS is "Baby komm zurueck" (= Baby come back, but no relation to The Equals) on the Ela Ton label from Lautenbach/Saar. Just recently discovered, this one hasn't yet caused nervous reactions among the collectors, but as hardly anyone has ever heard it before, I guess it soon will.

Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg is a legendary source of rare recordings from Baden-Wuerttemberg, and due to a pressing service they offered to visiting artists at reasonable costs, these yellow labeled obscurities keep showing up every once in a while, and I hope there's still a lot to find. THE DUKES are not the meanwhile well known Sauerland group of "Unskilled Worker" and "The Dentist"-fame, nor are they the ones from Kassel with a 7" on Paletten, or yet another one with "Parzival" on the German HMV label. In Stuttgart's suburb Ludwigsburg a then quite popular group called The Dukes did exist, but to my knowledge none of the members were Fiedler- Kleiner- Moewer- Gali, who get writers' credits on the moody ballad "I Tried Before".

Talking 'bout moody: the though and heavy "Lucky End" by THE UNITEDS (sic) was one of the showstoppers on PKP 12. Here's the flip of this impossibly dear 45 on Binder Records. Very different in style, but oh, that charming amateur-factor is high again. "Love Me Too"? Sure guys, more and more each day....

Stay tuned . More volumes are in the can, but as this is just a hobby for the Pope and Popeye, it'll take the time it takes.

A Sturclub Production 2009

a prae-kraut pandaemonium vol. 18
(mp3 / 256 kbps / 150 mb / 31 tracks / liners & tracklist & pictures included / direct download: no ads)

zoned: the 39 clocks strike back and force: pain it dark.

aaahh, come on: NO! you can not download these two albums here. and far from it and beyond that thought i would like to encourage you not trying to find the music shared as files somewhere else in this=here blogosphere but simply to buy these two brand new cd albums: ask your local independent retailer or your favourite mailorder or amazon for heathensake. but please in this special case do not download this music for free but support the artists. please.

the 39 clocks: the spearhead of the northwestgerman psycho beat in the early eighties of the last century of the last chiliad. mij, frost, tim hardin, prae-kraut, kim fowley, sky saxon, doug yule, the warlocks, richard berry, karlheinz stockhausen, mike rogers, the velvet illusions, bobby beausoleil, helmut salzinger and mike ratledge: distilled and bottled to syringes. if you have never heard any of their music: please follow the according tag / link in this=here weblog. instant satori guaranteed. the 39 clocks.

between 1980 and 1987 the 39 clocks released four albums, a sawmill hand of singles and contributed exclusive tracks to two compilations. in 1993 a sortofbestof-cd saw the lights of the cut-out bins; followed by negligible passing mentions. these=here two new albums are the first official releases on cd within years and (uumhh yaahnmm) you should please by way of exception buy and not copydownload them. having said that that: here is more and why:


zoned. a compilation of 39 clocks tracks in reverse chronological order released by de stijl records early this year. starting off in 1987 with some exiguous undertones, dissipating more weightily and vitally until you bang your head carecassening to DNS with nixon in a bomber plane. all hits hit you. here. great. and ahm: buy!

pain it dark. 1981: the first album: a horror trip: ferrocious: celestennial: fragmental diseasiations: cosily cozily german angst: bambule swaying: arris in array: until you bang your head carecassening to DNS with nixon in a conciliable bomber plane: lie dancing. my-lai dancing. (plus surplus baby: a waytooshort rehearsal room fragment from 1978) so: ahmm: visit bureau-b and please buy.

yes: yesyes: please buy these albums and support jürgen gleue and christian henjes. so simple: these releases are completely and deliberately legal and blessed by the artists: please buy these albums and bankroll what ever JG and CH like to stick up their noses: i told you once and i will tell you twice: buy zoned visiting de stijl and buy pain it dark browsing the catalogue of bureau-b.

aaaaahhhhmmmm. two new albums: two new 39 clocks albums: on cd. quite a sensation. yes: i love them. but this=here blog can and will of course not stop at this point: here is some more: there is always more: in 1984 one emilio winschetti dug deep into the hannover underground for the release of the compilation tape von mir aus... and unearthed a track the 39 clocks and the world and tyme forgot: probably recorded in 1982 the 39 clocks were part of that compilation using their nom de guerre alice dee: what more can i say?: here they are:

alice dee - call of war

tune in. turn on. and: drop kraut! - german underground music 1969 - 1975.

and the german kraut underground garage zweifamilienreihenhauskeller strikes again! extrapoilating the tradition of kraut!demons!kraut!, kraut-bloody-rageous, obscured by krauts, kraut mask replica and hungry krauts daddy here is an other online-only compilation of rare-rare teutonic noise created in the no-time between 1969 and 1975. kraut! tune in. turn on. and: drop kraut!

20 tracks of most suspicious provenance intermissioned by / with 21 very short volte-faces and limping claudatiocations: informabstract german poetry foiled with creeping terror: yes: (sorry:) if you can survive german culturrism: you can survive any culture in an oxygen-respirating universe. but you probably will not like it.

aaaaaahhhh!!! coum on!!!! here is the tracklist. and then the linernotes. and the downloadlinks. we will keep you inspired and we will not recontaminate you.

listen to this:

01 - earschplittenloudenboomer (intro) – john kay (0'15)

02 - going straight – beatique in-corporation (3'30)

03 - große scheiße – otto muehl (0'42)

04 - confessions (priv. rel. 1. single) – virus (3'15)

05 - dies irae – h.c. artmann & gerhard ruehm (0'23)

06 - der 4. kuss – ash ra tempel (6'21)

07 - von zeiten – ernst jandl & manfred schoof (1'27)

08 - tamaurasset – krohn & micus (2'21)

09 - radiating fantasy – sternenmaedchen (0'23)

10 - deep sea soundings 2 – walt rockman (2'05)

11 - mantra yoga in hamburg – a.c. bativedanda swami prabhupada (0'42)

12 - endless music 73 – albrecht/d. (1'12)

13 - mozart –gerhard polt (0'07)

14 - burnin' fire –ex ovo (3'10)

15 - krautpreisung 1 – die stimme seines herrn (j. goebbels) (0'40)

16 - miscarriage of human thinking, part 3 – action (6'29)

17 - tonbandstimmenphänomene: herzraub – ernst knirschnig (hrsg.) (0'26)

18 - asvini mudra – okko bekker (1'46)

19 - martin luther originalzitat 2 – die schmetterlinge (0'48)

20 - holy holy – multi-media group (4'19)

21 - das kreuz – billy graham (0'41)

22 - bring back the love - creepy john thomas (3'22)

23 - lach-couplet, 1. strophe – karl valentin (1'00)

24 - blind – proud flesh (3'12)

25 - jet-lag – staatsdada (ein lübcke) (0'27)

26 - mirrored dimensions – association p.c. (2'31)

27 - eine gute komposition – king shepard pinsel (0'45)

28 - dan – rock machine (2'26)

29 - klopfgeister: spukfall pursuck – originalopfer (0'35)

30 - out blues - chil (2'18)

31 - krautpreisung 2 –gröfaz (a. schicklgruber) (0'43)

32 - spuren – talix (3'56)

33 - er ist nicht – oskar sala (0'22)

34 - westberliner stadtmusik 69, 1 (excerpt) – m.n.d. (3'13)

35 - tonbandstimmenforschung – renate scheller (0'37)

36 - come on in on in – wolfgang dauner quintet (3'32)

37 - schluesselloch – hans moser (0'45)

38 - love song – corporal gander's firedog brigade (3'16)

39 - der mai ist gekommen – anonyme taschenfaltenstimme (0'21)

40 - freies stueck – hotzenplotz (2'54)

41 - isi faellt und geht – zk (0'32)

and what do they want?

tune in. turn on. and drop kraut!

here we go again with another volume of kraut rarities, this time interrupted after each track by short messages from celebrities, some of them infamous for very ugly reasons, some of them highly estimated for their contributions to german culture, and some others are here for the sheer lunacy of the twisted usage of our native tongue. draw your own conclusions...

beatique in-corporation obviously was a loose jam-formation of german musicians at the hamburg pop & blues festival 1970. about 30 % of the announced big name-bands (mostly british) didn't show up (some of them didn't even know they were on the bill; common practice in these days), and there was time enough to jam a bit as a filler in between other acts' performances. german bands at the festival were sphinx tush, thrice mice, tomorrow's gift and frumpy. going straight, sounding like a frumpy/spinx tush co-laboration with jochen petersen on sax (but that's just guess work) was released on an mca double-lp named after the event, which only featured german bands, probably due to contractual reasons.

bielefeld's virus had one of the bigger names in kraut and don't need much introduction. before they released albums for basf and pilz, they debuted with a privately pressed single on their own papersun label in '70, of which confession is the better side, though facts of death is certainly worth a spin as well, if you can find it.

even more famous are berlin's ash ra tempel of course, and i guess everyone is familiar with the first 5 albums at least. before they signed with ohr though they recorded a couple of unreleased demos in autumn 1970. the 4th kiss is one of those and features the trio of klaus schulze, hartmut enke and manuel goettsching in a heavy riffing jam.

hans-peter krohn & stephan micus recorded a very rare eponymous lp (that didn't sound too far from kluster and limbus) in '72 for the munich based label german blues & underground, which is best remembered for the releases of the siloah-albums. krohn had been in pentagon, whose lp for that label only reached acetate-status, and micus went on to make a name of his own as a musical globetrotter in the bermuda triangle between world music, new age and neo-euro-jazz with at least 14 albums between '76 and '94 on japo and ecm.

walt rockman stays a mystery. like robert kovac, joel vandroogenbroeck or gerhard trede, he recorded for one of these german library labels, which produced film music for movies yet to come. in this case the lp is called underwater vol. 1 and was released in munich on sonoton probably in '74.

albrecht/d. was born in 1944, lives in stuttgart/germany since 1958 and acts like an artist since 1966. he worked and performed with beuys, throbbing gristle, vostell, paik, saree and many more. he invented permanent instant performance. he saved raoul hausmann from being forgotten. his work includes: mail art: endless music: processed copies: exhibitions: installations: concerts: stamps: art into society: instant life / love / death: kinky beaux arts: abstract energy: violence permanent: albrecht/d.

after they had changed their from inspiration to ex ovo, this band from koblenz (not to be confused with ex ovo pro) had a contract with polydor, and reportedly recorded a whole album, which is still unreleased. all that ever had shown up was a single in '71 for that label. the a-side, crazy nature, is quite common among followers of the kraut, as it was included in polydor's double-album compilation deutsch rock. here is the hard rocking flip.

totally unreleased until the late 90s was the action's astonishing album for kerston rec., recorded in 1972. why this fine record by a 5-piece from zweibruecken was shelved is hard to tell, it definitely was much better than some of kerston's later productions like the tyll-lp or the proton-compilation. action obviously had great admiration for bands like deep purple, but put in enough kraut spirit to create that typical german sound. very good records in dortmund found out about this lost nugget and contacted the band with the result of a 500 vinyl copies limited edition by the turn of the millennium. long sold out, of course, and as rare as many of these 70s private pressings meanwhile.

okko bekker is one of the sitar virtuosos of the kraut scene, and played on a lot of relevant albums as a studio musician. his best known own release was the basf album sitar & electronics, which had very fine moments, but also a couple of schlock muzak tracks, that didn't really help to boost his reputation. his best and most serious work was hidden on an lp for the cheapo-label maritim called yoga fuer millionen (71). trouble with this record is that the goddamn yoga teacher won't shut up for a second except for a short while at the end of each side. more than half an hour of great meditation music gets spoilt that way, and we have to be thankful for a couple of minutes that demonstrate what a tremendous record this could have been without the fake indian drill instructor.

the multi-media group was made up of 2 bands, but we only know that members of the (post-joy) joy unlimited were involved. this project, called morgen nach dem feuer-hymnus 2 was part of the cultural frame program of the olympic games 72 in munich, a combination of music, poetry reading and acting on a theatre stage. the only item handed down to posterity was a polydor 7“ with 2 allen ginsberg poems (holy holy b/w racks), set to music by the multi-media group. weird, but wonderful.

creepy john thomas usually doesn't get filed under kraut, but as we'll see, on the first album it was in 2 thirds a german band, and the albums were aimed at the german market. john thomas came from australia, where he had recorded in the mid-60s with the flies. his first euro station was cologne, where he made the lp come with me with the band rust. this record was only released in germany on hör zu/black label. in '69 he settled down in germany and formed a band with andy marx (later in tanned leather and cherubin) and helmut pohl (gomorrha). this line-up recorded the selftitled first lp for the german branch of rca in '69, but when it came out of the pressing plant, the picture of the band on the cover showed 3 british musicians alongside john, and – even worse – their names were printed as being the real members of the creepy band (rumour has it, that the agreed name of the group should just have been creepy.) this one also had a uk release a year later, but sank tracelessly. marx was not amused, and pohl quit immediately, but after some excuses marx stayed with thomas long enough to play on the follow-up brother bat bone, a german-only lp for telefunken. by the mid-70s john thomas was in the last incarnation of the edgar broughton band, and a little later he went to berlin, where he played for years with johnny & the drivers.

proud flesh from the cologne-bonn area have their 3rd appearence in our little series here. blind is the b-side of their 2nd single for resono (devil flight, 71)

due to serious ambitions of being considered as a jazz band, association p.c.'s 5 albums from '70 to '74 are still extremely underrated in kraut circles. sure, they produced strictly what we call kopfmusik, (and that's quite exactly the opposite of head music), jazz based stuff in tricky rhythms, but that's about what later versions of, say, embryo or missus beastly did as well, but not as good. they started as association, but had to add the p.c. (for pierre courbois, founder and drummer), when they found out, that they could be mistaken for the us soft rock group of the same name (windy etc.). the other members on the last album rock around the cock were toto blanke (g), siggi busch (b), karl heinz wiberny (sax) and joachim kuehn, who had replaced jasper van't hof (keyb.). the jazz pope joachim-ernst berendt wrote in his liner notes something like: with mirrored dimensions these studied virtuosos show all the overrated new kraut bands, how this kind of music should be handled. well, i mean, err..., he probably hasn't heard 10 % of the relevant acts, but still, the band does a remarkable job, though they don't seem to like the idea too much. or why are they through with it in 151 seconds? but honestly, you'll find some mindboggling music on each of the group's records.

rock machine had an lp in '72 on the cheapo label sonic (hamburg) called plays the best of deep purple. between decently executed versions of all the hits from hush to fireball, they had thrown in 3 own titles for good measure. the slightly hendrix-inspired dan is the only one that doesn't sound like the poor man's purple. credits for these tracks go to one l. mueller.

chil (not chill) most probably were a swiss group. their only lp was rhubarby feeling on sun ('70). it was subtitled musik zu p. felix straesslers film, a flick we've never seen, but judging by the soundtrack, it can't have been an action movie. all in all the album doesn't live up to its reputation and the € 300 minimum you have to bid these days, but it has wonderful moments like the melancholic out blues.

the spuren lp by talix on vogue (71) seems to be on top of everyone's want list these days, although it's a rather weird collection of mostly harmless beatschlagers with uncommon instrumentation and clumsy german lyrics, dealing with everyday life as well as with the joys of necrophilia. indigestible mixture indeed, but taken in smaller portions you'll recognize, that there are 2 or 3 standouts like the title track. talix changed name to pinguin after this predictable flop and recorded the similar in concept, but much better lp der grosse rote vogel on zebra by the end of the year.

m.n.d. stands for moderne nordeuropäische dorfmusik (modern north-european village music). in '69 norbert eisbrenner, werner goetz and sven ake johansson recorded 4 long tracks for their own independent label (later on re-released on the now-defunct leiterwagen records), produced by martin gellrich and released as westberliner stadtmusik 69. this was as free form as it gets, and even in old germany you had hardly found a more over the top record of improvised sound attacks this side of brötzmann's machine gun. (oops, reminds me... johansson was the drummer there, if my memory serves me well.) this kind of pseudo-dilettantism - by people who exactly know what they do - never had much commercial impact, but it has survived for decades in the underground. m.n.d. sound a lot like sturclub does these days, for instance. (well, sometimes at least...)

the wolfgang dauner quintet on the oimels (69) is nearly identical with the classic first et cetera line-up. (2nd drummer fred braceful is missing, while 2nd guitarist pierre cavalli is added.) this record is more song-orientated, but every bit as good as the highly rated first et cetera album. come on in on in is just a taster. go get the whole album. i just found out that that's not as impossible now as it was for years.

the rather silly name corporal gander's firedog brigade was made up by hamburg's most prominent cheapo label europa, and they may have had a bubble gum audience in mind, when they stamped it over the lp on the rocks in 1970. the incredibly ugly cover didn't help either, and so a pretty good hard rock record went down unnoticed. while this genre on europa usually was the domain of lucifer's friend, who recorded there as electric food, air mail, pink mice etc., in this case an embryonic version of wind, originally from erlangen, but very active on the hamburg scene, was behind this neat little exploitation project.

hotzenplotz from stuttgart (partly from the suburb leinfelden) was a radical leftwing agit-prop band in the tradition of floh de cologne. the lp songs aus der show on pläne ( a label spezialized in all things anti-capitalistic) was, like mostly in such cases, a rather uncomfortable mish-mash of spoken words, fighting songs and a bit of rock music. but while comparable bands usually fucked up the musical parts with grandeur, hotzenplotz, with local luminaries like peter schick and wolf kallert involved, were a great bunch when it came to improvisation, which, alas, didn't happen very often. front- or spokesman of the band was albrecht metzger, the infamous rockpalast host of the first hour. (dschoermen telewischen praudlie prissenz...)

and that's it for today. stay tuned, turned on and krautdropping.

yours truly, the lolly pope (andofcourse: rvd)

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a prae-kraut pandaemonium volume 17. german 60s garage beat punk underground. teutonic titanium.

the prae-kraut pandaemonium is an ongoing and everlasting series of compilations exploring german 60s underground music. the first 15 volumes hit your record player as 12-inch vinyl while some of the music (plus additional sounds) was released using compact discs later on. as disposition became awkward we decided to release the latest results of our researches through the world wide web for free and will be continuing to do so. volume 16 of a prae-kraut pandaemonium was our first online-only release and can be found in this-here blog; now we go-go for volume 17 right now. its-a happening!!

Here we go again with our continuing story of the German Beat. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. (talkin' 'bout blogs, of course). The whole damn thing was a non-profit project from the word "go" anyway, but since the market for vinyl and CDs has been crumbling to pieces meanwhile, giving it away for free via thee net seems to be the only way to keep it up without getting broke and homeless nowadays. You know,like Handsome Dick Manitoba used to say: "This is just a hobby!" Hope you'll like it...

listen, learn, read on: 29 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.

Now goes it lose:

a prae-kraut pandaemonium vol. 17

01 - The CT Plus 4 - Salz sollt ihr sein

02 - The Desperados - My Life

03 - The Desperados - You Better Go Home

04 - Prisoners Of Beat - The War

05 - Prisoners Of Beat - I'm Alone

06 - The Rebbels - Monkey Monkey (1st Version)

07 - Jack Ruane - The Pick Up

08 - The Hungry Eyes - Good Bye

09 - The Hungry Eyes - Junkie

10 - The Blizzards 4 - Why You Let Me Alone

11 - Andy Nevison - Shaking It Up

12 - Alec & His Scotchmen - Hey Sound

13 - B. G. System - Why Not For Me

14 - Die Anderen - Neurotic Reaction

15 - The Rocks - Love The Love

16 - Expiration - And The World Will Be A Bird

17 - The Gents - Wet Dream

18 - The Boston Show Band - Wow Wow Wow

19 - Hannes Patek & The Rangers - Lean Jean

20 - The Jet Blacks - Black Tomorrow

21 - The Jets Too Late

22 - Gordon James - House Of Pain

23 - John O'Brien-Docker - Sock It To Me Baby

24 - The Twangy Gang - Vampire

25 - The Beat Cats - Too Expensive

26 - Winy - My Son John

27 - The Jet Stars - What A Situation

28 - Jonah & The Whales - The Day I Met You

29 - The Motives - God Save Our Gracious Cream

Nice opener here, if you get along with the lingo. If not, you still may enjoy this weird message by THE CT PLUS 4 on the MFB label as the only known example of 60's Xian-Punk. Takes a while to get in the heavenly grooves, but then all the angels sing. Oh, and by the way: it translates as something like "you ought to be the salt of the earth, but you never get your asses up." Santo subito!

THE DESPERADOS from Bad Godesberg were an uncompromising R&B-band with a repertoire of well chosen covers from the Chess, Vee Jay et al. catalogues, found on LPs by the usual suspects ( Pretties, Stones, Yardbirds, Animals...) When they recorded their only 45 in '65 (a no-label private release rarer than a Rabbi in Mecca these days), they fortunately decided to write 2 original songs, both presented here. Not quite as wild and snotty as their stage routine, but cool as hell, and one of these nuggets that make the whole ditch digging still worth our while after all these years. (At least one of The Desperados showed up again a little later with Proud Flesh.) By the way: in case you've found a hidden track at the end of Vol. 16.: This is an unreleased recording by The Desperados.

Equally exciting is the 2nd single of THE PRISONERS OF BEAT from Andernach on the Ravenstein label. (Their first, "What Can I Do Without You" is O.K., but nothing to write home about.) You'd hardly guess that this rabid anti-war song was released as late as 1969 if I wouldn't tell you. Even stranger for the time is the hilarious story about the "House in Lou-easy-anna" on the flip. Kraut-bloody-rageous!

THE REBBELS from Koblenz recorded a split-LP with The Jaguars and 2 singles for Bellaphon in '65. (See PKP 3 for their space race-opus "Round The World".) The released version of their debut 45 "Monkey Monkey" sounded a bit lame and disappointing in comparision, but before they signed with Bellaphon, they auditioned for the German branch of EMI-Electrola, and laid down a much sharper version of that little frat rock ditty with a hell of a wild guitar solo. Here's the only surviving acetate.

No clue about who hides behind the name of JACK RUANE. This one-off 7" on German Pye (in this case a subsidiary of Vogue) is yet another anachronism for '69. The A-side is some indigestible Schlager-Schmalz written by Michael Holm & Jo Heider. "The Pick Up" on the other side is meat from a different bone, and probably a leftover from earlier days. Not the same band obviously. Took me weeks to find out where I'd heard that fine dancefloor-filler before. Written by Conway Twitty, it made a European debut in a nice, but less exciting version on the first LP of Cliff Bennett's Rebel Rousers in '64.

THE HUNGRY EYES from Hannover had the reputation of a tough R&B-combo, and were responsible for one of the hardest to find 45s on the celebrated Kerston label in '67. When it finally showed up, "Good Bye" turned out to be more on the soul side of the genre, which isn't half bad for a mod-infected band, even though the strange off-beat hookline is somewhat of an acquired taste. On "Junkie" they perform a combiation of "Green Onions" and Freddie King's "Steppin' Out", a tune they'd probably found on John Mayall's 2nd album. Bye and bye the whole caboodle ends up in some sort of controlled chaos with some free form piano thrown in for good measure.

THE BLIZZARDS FOUR (not to be confused with the Star Club band from Stade) hailed from somewhere in Bavaria. They used to work as Manuela's backing band for a while, and released a more than disappointing 45 on Telefunken during that time. Little did we know until we've found it, that they had a fine amateurish beat effort a couple of years before ('64 or '65) on the tiny Meilton label.

ANDY NEVISON & HIS RHYTHM MASTERS: their 3 hard to find singles for major labels have already been well documented on Prae-Kraut. But that's not all there is to the career of this black ex-GI in Germany. A big surprise – and a 7" the man himself had forgotten about when asked these days – is "Shaking It Up" on the totally obscure Tampicord label from Hamm, Westfalia ('64). Certainly a band in progress, and not up to the monster standard of "Indiano", but a good example of the early sound of the German red light districts on the wrong side of the tracks. On par with King Size Taylor and Bobby Patrick. For those of you who care: Andy Nevison had a 5th and last single (the only one without The Rhythm Masters) on the German label R+B in '67. This was a novelty German version of Ray Charles' "Busted" called "Pleite" b/w "Worried Blues". Funny, but not much more...

More likely than not, ALEC & HIS SCOTCHMEN were exactly that. A bunch of Scots who toured through Southern Germany, and produced and released a 7" in Ludwigsburg (suburb of Stuttgart) at Tonstudio Bauer, the studio with a pressing service, where The Rackets and The Monks (among many others) recorded in the mid- to late 60's. "Hey Sound", recorded late in '64, is a nice example for the British phase of transition, with Alec still insisting on presenting his best possible Cliff Richard-impersonation, while the band already seems to be on the way to Liverpool.

Nothing known about B.G. SYSTEM, who released the superb LP "Sunny Love Affair" on the Swiss based Ex Libris label in '69. A great unknown album with a lot of fine tracks. Possibly a studio group, and rumours of a Mark Wirtz-involvement exist, but nothing so far could be confirmed.

DIE ANDEREN (aka Kannibal Komix in USA and Australia, The Playboys in Greece, and who the heck knows what other pseudos in other countries. Later they changed name to Apocalypse and had an eponymous LP on Ariola, which was also released in Spain under – just to puzzle things a bit further – the title "Kannibal Komix".) Casted like The Monkees, they were Germany's first boy group. Nowadays they are most (and only) famous for having Jogi Drews, meanwhile self-acclaimed King of Mallorca, in their rank and file. (After a stint with the Les Humphries Singers, he tortured the nation with "Ein Korn im Feldbett" and similar cruelties, and at the age of 63 he's still around, getting weirder every day. Younger than yesterday, in his way.) The singles of the band are best forgotten, but their album, the real "Kannibal Komix"-LP (Ariola '69), had a couple of convicing tracks in the pop-psych mould like "Neurotic Reaction". (Their producer was the infamous Giorgio Moroder, who had released a couple of decent Beat singles on Hansa as Giorgio & The Morodians in the mid-60's.)

"Love The Love" by THE ROCKS is a great 45 from '68, released on the totally obscure New Sound Records from Bad Bergzabern. Flower Power with rough edges. Sorry, but that's all we know. ( If anyone out there can cast some light on this, or any other of the acts, don't hesitate to drop a line in the comment department. A good idea anyway, even if you only want to express your appreciation - or the opposite – concerning the quality of the blog.)

THE EXPIRATION from Vienna and their only 7" on VCR already did appear on the last volume (if you couldn't load it down, try again with 4-share. The reported problems have meanwhile been solved.) "And The World Will Be A Bird" is the other, in my book better side of this '68 release, and while their claim to be Austria's answer to Cream still seems to be a little exaggerated, in the much too short solo you can hear, that the guitarist indeed had a listen or two to good old Slowhand.

Not to be confused with the Gents Inc., THE GENTS may have been of Swiss or German origin, as they released this most charming version of one of Max Romeo's most explicit Porn-Reggae hits within a couple of weeks early '69 in Switzerland (on Eurex) and Germany (on Admiral). They quite obviously only had a foggy notion of what exactly they were singing about, and how they kill all touches of the (usually inevitable in Ska) off-beat swing by spasmodic heavy riffing... Sheer grandeur! Babylon churning with anxiety!!

THE BOSTON SHOW BAND (later abbriviated to The Boston) was a prolific 7-men army of Pan–Britannic origin with members from Ireland, Scotland and England. They spent their whole career ('66 to '69) in Germany, where they released 2 LPs and 8 singles for the Cornet label. 95% of these were stiff and pedestrian cover versions of everything from 50's Rock n' Roll to Stax Soul, with surprisingly competent exceptions when they had the chance to do a Small Faces album track like "Song Of A Baker" or Gene Pitney's underestimated mod rock classic "She's A Heartbreaker". One of their best performances however was hidden on the flip of the first single in '67. "Wow Wow Wow" may or may not be one of their very few originals, (credits don't match with members' names), but it's a great, driving number with the brass section reduced to a minimum.

HANNES PATEK was Vienna's King of the Twist (and other dance crazes), and had a couple of extremely scarce 45s in the early 60s, among them one with The Vienna Beatles. On "Lean Jean" (Rex Roval, '65) he is backed by THE RANGERS, a band that might be the first incarnation of the better known V-Rangers, but that's just guess work. Iwonder, whether or not Hannes had yet heard the much tighter version of "Lean Jean 17" as done by The Rattles on the flip of the "Stoppin' In Las Vegas"-single the same year. To my shame I must admit, that I can't quite figire out at the moment, who has done the US-original. (Writers' credits are Lee-Jones-Grande)

THE JET BLACKS most likely were another visiting British group, or at least a German band with English members. Their only sign of life is this '66 single on Kerston, the most collectable German 60s label together with Storz and CCA. A fine pop-psyche effort with all the wonderful backwards tapes collapsing to great, but unintended effect due to the legendary limited qualifications of the Kersten Studio in Hochspeyer and its engineer.

THE JETS from Hamburg's suburb Trittau were active from '66 to '69, and recorded their only single in '67 as a private pressing (Riwo-made) on their own label. Sold at gigs, it made little impression back then with all the international competiton, but nowadays it's a veritable collector's item. You'll find the other side on the CD-compilation "Beat im Norden" (beat the north!)

Another recent find is GORDON JAMES, a rich man's son and DJ from Zurich (real name: Peter Steiner), who had the ambition to get some more attention, and his own place in the spotlight. The better of his 2 singles was "House Of Pain" on the Swiss Label WSP Turicaphon in '67, a dramatic rearrangement of the Howard Kaylan-written track from The Turtles' album "You Baby". He put his "Gordon James Show" on the road to ruin, in which he had to compete with heavyweights like The Creation and The Sevens, and payed his 6-men British band The Injection a small fortune for backing him as "the new male vocalist in Detroit Sound". Three months later he'd gone broke and was "withdrawn" from the scene by his parents.

JOHN O'BRIEN-DOCKER from Ireland was a folk singer, who came to Hamburg in the early sixties and stayed there for about the next 15 years. He was the leader of The City Preachers, and – when they decided to go on without him as Frumpy by the turn of the decade – he formed Brave New World, one of the most experimental, alas shortlived Krautrock bands in '71. Like so many of the Hamburg Mafia, he had his fingers in many a pie, and did most everything from Surf-LPs for cheapo labels to TV-commercials. Just to keep the wolf from the door... In 1970 he recorded some tracks for one of these pseudo-educational sexploitation soft-porn flicks which flooded the shocked nation back then. "Sock It To Me, Baby" (not the Mitch Ryder hit) has been lifted from the unreleased soundtrack of "The secret sexual disires of the German".

Formed in 1960, THE TWANGY GANG was one of Berlin's first Rock n' Roll bands. Unlike many others, they rather changed to Pop than R&B when the Brit Invasion swept old sounds away. Hollies, Bee Gees, Marmelade, Love Affair etc. seemed to be their orientation, and of their three singles on Hansa, Rex and CBS only the last ('68) is worth our attention. "Vampire" was written for the sountrack of "Beiss mich, Liebling" ("Bite me, darling") but was considered as sounding too wild for the main theme. The Twangy Gang delivered the lame instro "Vampire's Sunday Afternoon" instead, but the movie made little impression. The original soft psych "Vampire" with hilarious "lyrics" and all these nice sound effects was released nevertheless, but went back to the coffin unnoticed and without much bloodshed.

The Berlin BEAT CATS and their '67 acetate has been introduced on volume 15. Here comes the promised flip side. Sound quality again a bit on the borderline, but don't expect to find a better copy. This is the last of its kind.

WINY was the nickname of Erwin Klarner, head of the Swiss Angels from Aargau. Though they only released 2 singles,this clean cut combo kept up the Shadows-inspired sound and image decreasingly successful until '68. After the split, Klarner, an ace guitarist and competent singer, kept going as Winy's Team, but covering "Ain't She Sweet" in '69 wasn't exactly the most clever career move. For a last effort he was persuaded to go to London, where he was taken under the wings of the Fletcher-Flett team, who had just produced another flop for The Onyx with "My Son John" b/w "Step By Step". Winy released BOTH sides of this single on Admiral in Germany, and it might well be that he only overdubbed the Onyx instrumental tracks with guitar and vocals. (Just a suspicion, though...) No chart action what so ever, but that wasn't the end of the song "My Sohn John". Another version was thrown on the German market (only), this time on Metronome, done by The Empty Vessels, a band that changed name short after to Wishbone Ash.

THE JET STARS and their two '67 German Decca singles still are a mystery in the vinyl history of this country. The covers have no band photos and there's no usable info on the labels. No releases in other countries known. The choice of material and relatively high standard of performance reminds of the many so-called Indo-bands, emigrants from the Dutch colonies, who – in the footsteps of The Tielman Brothers – came to Holland, but soon after dominated the German club circuit in the early sixties and, after a change of style, managed to stay popular as Top-20 cover bands. But once again: guesswork and any information welcome.

The detailed story of Nuernberg's JONAH & THE WHALES, who mutated to Ihre Kinder in the late sixties, can be found on PKP 15. Here is the flip of their projected, but shelved second single, which showed up in '67 on the Vogue/Pop-label promo-only compilation "Der deutsche Nachwuchs stellt sich vor".

Not quite the British equivalent to The Monks, but still a great discovery: THE MOTIVES were British servicemen of the Rhine Army, stationed in Wildenrath near Moenchengladbach. One of them was Tom Winter, who later played and recorded with Dutch soft-psychers Opus, and in Germany with Abi Ofarim. In '67 they recorded the EP "The World Is A Trapezium" for the tiny Dutch label TELSTAR, just a stone's throw across the border. Two of these tracks were re-released as a single in '70, but sounded pretty dated by then, and went down unnoticed again. (See the "Waterpipes & Dykes" compilation.) The self-explanatory "God Save Our Gracious Cream" is the heaviest of their songs. TELSTAR released a handful of other German acts, but only the (Berlin) Vikinks' "Gloria" 45 is worth your attention.

A Lolly Pope compilation 2008.
(plus some rvd here and there)

a prae-kraut pandaemonium vol. 17
(29 tracks: mp3 / 256 kbps / 150 mb / linernotes / artwork / tracklist / bonus track / add-supported download)

download with mediafire

download with divshare

bonus: track 30