Amon Düül II - 1971 - Tanz Der Lemminge

Amon Düül II 

1971

Tanz Der Lemminge

- Syntelman's March of the Roaring Seventies (15:50) :

01. In the Glassgarden (1:39)

02. Pull Down Your Mask (4:39)

03. Prayer to the Silence (1:04)

04. Telephonecomplex (8:26)

- Restless Skylight-Transistor-Child (19:33) :

05. Landing in a Ditch (1:12)

06. Dehypnotized Toothpaste (0:52)

07. A Short Stop at the Transylvanian Brain Surgery (5:00)

08. Race from Here to Your Ears (5:20) :

- a) Little Tornadoes (2:08)

- b) Overheated Tiara (1:46)

- c) The Flyweighted Five (1:26)

09. Riding on a Cloud (2:33)

10. Paralized Paradise (3:07)

11. HG Well's Take Off (1:26)

- Chamsin Soundtrack (33:05) :

12. The Marilyn Monroe-Memorial-Church (18:09)

13. Chewing Gum Telegram (2:45)

14. Stumbling over Melted Moonlight (4:38)

15. Toxicological Whispering (7:48)

- Chris Karrer / acoustic & electric guitars, violin, vocals (2,4,8)

- John Weinzierl / guitar, piano (12-15), vocals (10)

- Falk Rogner / organ & electronics (12-15)

- Lothar Meid / bass, double bass, vocals (7,9)

- Peter Leopold / drums, percussion, piano (12-15)

With:

- Al Gromer / sitar

- Jimy Jackson / organ, choir-organ, piano

- Renate Knaup ("Henriette Kroetenschwanz") / vocals (9)

- Rolf Zacher / vocals (11)

- Karl-Heinz Hausmann / electronics, engineer

Releases information

Tracks 12-15 from the Soundtrack of the 1972 film "Chamsin" directed by Veit Relin

After the double Yeti album, AD II had an extremely succesful year that made them forget about part of their tribe/Kommune (the other AD group to be more precise) moving to Berlin, one would've expected the group to calm down a bit but their third album was again a double lp, still released on the liberty label. With the Serfas disappearing from the scene and Anderson gone to Hawkwind (replaced by veteran jazzer Lothar Meid), ADII has to rebuild once more... With Yeti named album of the year of 70 in Jan 71, the next month sees the follow up Tanz Der Lemminge (Dance Of The Lemmings) and its double madness again. With another wildartwork covering the front sleeve, a spacecraft on the the inner gatefold and and a druidic forest scene on the back cover, the album left much to the imagination of its audience. Actually the album is made of three sidelong projects from Karrer, Weinzierland Rogner, the last side being a communal side

The first side of disc 1 is a 4-movement sidelong epic (lasting some16 minutes) called March Of The Roaring 70's where the group appears in top form, ready to exploit the ground broken with pallus and Yeti, and indeed the wild psych they dealt us in Yeti is at least matched on this first side. Wriiten by Chris Karrer, the track is an excellent progressive space folk track. The flipside is occupied by Weinzerl's 7-movement Restless Skylight/Transistor Child suite, which is extremely wide in its scope ranging from Indian (guesting is futurePopol Vuh sitarman al Grommer) to a devillish and ever-changing soundscape, including a mellotron.and

The album's second disc is opened by Rogner's Chamsin Soundtrack (for a seldom seen film), filled with completely spaced out ambiances created by a sliding growling organ lines and echoed guitars answers. While this track might be faaaaar out, it stands out also as a bit too spaced out for repeated listenings and since it takes on a full side of the album's seciond disc..... Its flipside is a confused affair, filled with a succession of short tracks that seem somewhat linked together. With these three "shorter " tracks, we return to the screaming full psych that had been lacking us since the start (there was a bit of it during Weinzerl's suite), but Chewingum Telegram is a bit short, but sounding like some Quicksilver Messenger Service on strong dope... More crunchy guitars on Melted Moonlight, but here the recording sound shoddy and the whole thing lacking tightness. Closing the album is the medium-sized (for this album anyway with its almost 8 minutes) Toxological Whispering, an excellent Agitation Floyd track

The group will escape a fire in a club (Keks in Cologne) where they were in concert, but two fans died and all their uninsured equipment is lost. Liberty records will drop them like a dirty rag, and with an English and French during the following summer, AD II is facing xcomplete bankrupcy. In November that year, they will sign to United Artiste and play with an enlarged rhythm section including future Popol Vuh member Fichelscher. While the logical successor of Yeti, TDL is only partly succesful (like its two predecessor), but here the second disk lacks real strength and aim. A real step downwards, IMHO, but TDL holds its share of unconditional fans.

AMON DUUL II were just one of those bands that I have had a huge addiction to my whole music life (well since I first heard them anyway) and "Tanz Der Lemminge" (Dance Of The Lemmings) represents my personal favourite album of theirs. This was the 3rd album released by the commune of frenzied cosmic voyagers and offers a true milestone in progressive-psychedelic rock. Sonically drawing parallels to the early-PINK FLOYD space-folk vibe and mixing in elixirs of heavy folk-like inspired psychedelia. This album is really a dark and freaked out psychedelic mess of free-form songs that filter through many different genres and moods. Originally "Tanz" was released as a double vinyl album but has been carefully re-mastered by GROBSCHNITT's "Eroc" and offers fantastic newly revamped sound reproduction. No fan of Krautrock can be without this recording and is absolutely 100% essential