ACHIM REICHEL AR IV RARE GERMAN PSYCH KRAUTROCK ORIG @

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114

What a godfather of German rock Achim Reichel (born 28.1.1944) has been! His musical career started when he founded The Rattles with Herbert Hildebrand in 1961. They were kind of Liverpool-beat clones, regularly performing at the Star Club (in Hamburg), attempting to fill the vacuum when Beatles returned home. In 1968 he departed to form Wonderland. Reichel and Dostal continued to work together with more experimental music as Wonderland Band and Frankie Dymon Jr. Reichel's first four solo albums, as A.R. & Machines, were also experimental to say the least! Die Grune Reise (1971) was a twisted and whimsical work for echo-guitar, voice and bass, Reichel's idiosyncratic battle against the machines! Check out the insane voice-play "Truth And Probability"! Indeed he revealed himself as a talented multi-instrumentalist elsewhere on the record. Frank Dostal took care of the lyrics and drums, while Reichel did all the rest. His roots in conventional rock were also revealed though by the inclusion of some boogie-blues songs. These tracks were out of context with the otherwise experimental music and the result was a bit mixed in the end. Reichel's use of echo-guitar style predated Ash Ra Tempel's Inventions For Electric Guitar, but was used in a quite different manner. Also the subsequent albums of A.R. & Machines were mixed affairs. On Echo (1972), a whole symphony orchestra contributed, but this double album didn't receive many favourable reviews. The heavy boogie-blues rocking Propeller album (1972) gained much more success. A.R. 3 (1972) was more or less a return to the group format. Even with this long list of participating musicians, the overall sound was very much the same as before. Apparently, Reichel still wasn't tired of his experiments with echo guitar. Perhaps the album was a bit chaotic and over-produced - it was not an easy task to amalgamate echo guitars, rock and jazz. A.R 4 (1973) was generally a better effort. Here were just two long pieces of more simple echo guitars and jazz-rock fusion.

This album is clearly a lost classic that figures among the best recordings offered by German progressive rock. It features two long improvised compositions including a vast array of instruments and groovy, jazzy rhythms put into a spaced out rocking trip. "Vita" is a sumptuous orchestral track dominated by Reichel's typical bluesy, almost funky and cyclical / delay guitar workouts. The accompaniment combines excellent exotic percussion parts with solo flute / sax lines. The acid fuzz guitar of Reichel provides an eloquent, propulsive jazzy rock mantra. "Aqua" starts with a tranquil atmospheric, dreamy-like introduction then progressively goes into a luminous, colourful happy semi-folk and bluesy- kraut jamming with lot of patterns and clear guitar solos. Just imagine something between Agitation Free, Embryo, Manuel Gottsching with a gentle eastern jazzy pop dimension. Eclectic, extremely complex prog/ psych obscurity, full of excellent kraut-improvisations. A very ambitious project.

Vita:
1. Cave Explorers And Birdmen (5:25)
2. The Man In Kidleather (10:43)
3. Thin Is The Skin Of Ecstasy (5:47)

Aqua:
4. Every Raindrop Longs For The Sea (23:00)

Total Time: 44:55

Line-up/Musicians
- Achim Reichel / guitar, vocals
- Helmuth Franke / guitar
- Hans Hartmann / bass
- Claus-Robert Kruse / electric piano
- Jochen Petersen / sax, flute
- Hans Boche / drums
- Olaf Casalich / percussion
- Matti Klatt / percussion
- Frank Wulf / recorders, sitar
- Churchill Jolobe / drums
- Carsten Bohn / percussion
- Frank Dostal / lyrics

Germany/Zebra (1973) M-/M- Beautiful original copy of this rare LP.

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