Grobschnitt
(1972)
Grobschnitt (which translates to Rough Cut) were one of the
seminal German bands of the 1970s. Their popularity peaked in
the latter part of the decade with their trademark zany stage
presentation, elaborate light shows and "Solar Music" jams that
would quite frequently go on for hours. What really makes the
band unique to the German scene is their bizarre sense of humor.
Indeed, their self-deprecating silliness makes them much easier
to take than Eloy's frequently annoying (and badly written)
cosmic musings. Sure, Rockpommel's Land is pretty goofy,
but if one looks at it as a children's fable, one can forgive
the album's lyrical shortcomings.
That preamble
brings me to Grobschnitt's debut album. For a band's first album,
this is quite a remarkable beginning. Similar in style to the
Krautrock bands of the period, i.e., Wallenstein, Spermull,
and Mythos, it's a much rawer affair than what would follow
in just a few years. Happily, it's also one of the band's very
best albums! "Symphony" opens the album in grand style, and
at 13 plus minutes, one can hear influences as diverse as Pink
Floyd, Santana and Deep Purple. The track's opening theme is
quite heavy and wouldn't be out of place on Deep Purple In
Rock. From there it morphs into a nice Latin American-like
groove in which guitarist Lupo emulates Carlos Santana very
convincingly. The fact that Grobschnitt employed two drummers
at this point reinforces the Santana comparison, especially
in their frequent use of ethnic percussion. Then the track becomes
spacey and quiet, and ever so slowly builds in intensity until
the crescendo finale. The second track, "Traveling", also opens
very heavily, before locking into that Santana groove once again.
I am very much reminded of Abraxas here. The shortest
song, "Wonderful Music", is a bit hokey, and with its cheesy
hippy lyrics and recorder soloing, reminds me of Jefferson Airplane
on a bad day.
"Sun Trip", the
longest track, closes the album, and is the most typically "German"
of the bunch. "Solar Music" more or less evolved from "Sun Trip",
though on this album, the band's spacey improvisations are considerably
more aggressive. After a bit of German narration, the piece
kicks into high gear. I guess if I were to make a comparison,
it would be to Nektar's A Tab in the Ocean. Needless to say,
it kicks butt, while it also slows down in the middle for some
interesting cosmic psychedelia. The CD reissue on Repertoire
Records includes a live bonus track, "Die Sinfonie", and at
29 minutes, really shows the band's excellent improvisational
skills. It's the same piece of music that opens the album, but
played completely different. I find most bonus tracks to be
album filler, but for anyone into Grobschnitt, this song will
be historically valuable. Recorded live in 1971, it shows many
sides of the band that would be developed during the next few
years. Grobschnitt's debut is a great start to a varied career.
It may not appeal to the same audience that enjoys Jumbo
or Rockpommel's Land, but taken on its own terms, I find
it to be just as strong as any of their albums. Give it a shot.
- Steve
Pettengill [October 2001]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
Ballermann
(1974)
This album
foreshadows the later symphonic style that is featured on Rockpommel's
Land, but also has a hard rock element. Additionally, the
studio version of the legendary "Solar Music" suite is featured
on this album, which has an improvisational and unstructured
air to it.
The album
starts off with an extremely bizarre, incomprehensible monologue
by drummer Eroc, which I totally don't get, but which sets the
tone for the kind of cheesy humor that pervades the rest of
this album. The first five songs are great, with some tasteful
guitar playing and beautiful piano and keyboards. A lot of the
material reminds me of Nektar, in that it's prog with a lot
of keyboards, but also with a significant guitar presence, lending
an enjoyable hard rock feel. The music is generally very melodic,
and there are moments of high flying dual guitar soloing that
are totally great. The vocals take some getting used to, especially
since the lyrics are very bad. To Grobschnitt's credit, there
isn't as much of a silly accent as there is on any of Eloy albums,
which is a plus. Despite this, Stefan Danielak definitely has
a strange and unique voice which certainly has the capability
of turning some listeners off. He has a slightly nasal tone
that sort of floats around over the music, yet it is still quite
emotional and I didn't have a tremendous problem with it on
first hearing him. As far as the terrible lyrics, they can be
sort of funny, and don't harm Grobschnitt too much, in that
their music has a kind of goofy and irreverent air to it anyway.
After the
first half of fairly structured music, along comes the intense
"Solar Music", delivered in two parts. The studio version is
God-like and the live version on the Solar Music Live album
is even better. The intense jamming and soloing on this song,
coupled with the more vocally oriented stuff from the first
half, make Ballermann a winner. I would suggest this
album as a good place to start with Grobschnitt, as it represents
a good cross section of their rather diverse approach.
- Greg Northrup
[2000]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
Rockpommel's
Land (1977)
Well,
I'm sort of on the fence with this one. On one hand, this
album sort of represents everything that critics hate about
progressive rock. One reason for this is the fact that it's
a full-on concept album at its most ridiculous. Rockpommel's
Land has something to do with a little boy named Ernie
who gets swept up a magic dragon named Maribu, after which
they proceed to have numerous adventures. Pretty lame, but
then again Grobschnitt's bizarre humor is well known, and
it's certainly feasible that the whole thing might be some
sort of tongue-in-cheek parody. It definitely must have
taken some balls to do something this pretentious and twee
as this as late as 1977, when the whole movement had sort
of died down. Plus, the lyrics are pretty poor, which makes
the concept as a whole pretty thin and laughable, intentionally
so or not.
On the
other hand, there is some great music here. Rockpommel's
Land is very different from the other Grobschnitt albums
in that it draws its influences primarily from the classic
symphonic bands like Genesis and especially Yes, though
Grobschnitt definitely manages to inject their own style
and bizarre idiosyncrasies. Stefan Danielak's vocals have
an airy tenderness to them, and though they are quite nasally
and odd, they somehow fit in with the music quite well.
The music is grandiose, melodic and often very beautiful;
this is symphonic progressive rock in all its pompous, pretentious
glory, without being totally derivative. I find it difficult
to make an emotional connection myself due to the ridiculousness
of the lyrics, and overall the tone isn't as successfully
charming and humorous as their Ballermann album.
This is not what I would consider Grobschnitt's best work,
though many fans, particularly those of a strictly symphonic
progressive rock disposition, will love it. It has nearly
all the criteria.
- Greg Northrup [2000]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
Solar
Music Live (1978)
Essentially, this album is the intense instrumental Grobschnitt
piece "Solar Music" from Ballermann, stretched out
over a full album in a live setting. Indeed, this is a fantastic,
spaced-out piece, and one that should put all early Pink Floyd
fans, at the very least, on notice. The album features great
musicianship throughout and the guitar soloing is glorious,
managing to sustain a high energy level throughout the entirety
of the performance.
Some
call this the best live album of all time, and I would be
tempted to agree. To be sure, this is a very different beast
than the preceding studio album, the straight-laced symphonic
work Rockpommel's Land. Solar Music Live, in
contrast, is a dense, energetic, and powerful jam, as well
as being predominantly instrumental. Letting this album play
over and over and allowing it to sink in is essential to appropriate
enjoyment. Surely, this is a fantastic album, and one which
is among the few truly essential live documents in the progressive
rock genre.
- Greg Northrup [2000]
