...SIŁA I PIĘKNO MUZYKI TKWIĄ W JEJ RÓŻNORODNOŚCI...


..::OPIS::..

Out Of Focus to bez wątpienia jeden z 10 najlepszych, progresywnych zespołów lat 70. spoza Wielkiej Brytanii! Wydany na początku 1971 roku przez wytwórnię Kuckuck (znanej m.in. również z płyt formacji Murphy Blend i Armaggedon) wspaniały album zapomnianej, niemieckiej formacji - moim skromnym zdaniem jest prawdopodobnie najlepszym tytułem z Niemiec z kręgu ciężkiego, progresywnego rocka! Genialne połączenie klimatów wczesnych Jethro Tull z Pink Floyd i ze szczyptą Colosseum - poparte bardzo solidną grą sekcji rytmicznej i doskonałym, przyjemnie manierycznym wokalem. Pełen wyobraźni i niepohamowanej mocy, 78-minutowy CD bez słabych punktów! Dodatkowo dołączono 3 połączone ze sobą, koncertowe utwory (z Palermo 1972) trwające razem 30 minut! Doskonały dźwięk - nieco klarowniejszy niż na edycji Ohrwashl, no i znacznie fajniejszy booklet zawierający kilka rzadkich zdjęć tego kapitalnego zespołu! UWAGA! Umieszczony na końcu płyty krótki dźwięk zegara z kukułką pojawiał się zawsze na koniec każdej winylowej strony albumów wytwórni Kuckuck a dotychczas nie był uwzględniany!

JL

These guys really had a sense of humour even if it was in bad taste at times(haha). The vocalist is tremedous,and quite theatrical at times. The sound on this their debut is psychedelic and heavy with the jazz flavour coming in later albums.
"See How A White Negro Flies" has a repetitive guitar line as organ then flute come in. Vocals 2 minutes in are brief. This sounds great ! Raw guitar solo goes on and on as drums pound away. Organ and flute are back. Vocals too 5 minutes in. "God Save The Queen, Cried Jesus" opens with flute and drums before vocals and guitar join in. Silly lyrics as the vocalist really performs. Low end guitar 2 minutes in is fantastic. Bass joins in before a calm arrives with flute leading the way softly. Vocals don't return until 6 minutes in. "Hey John" features some beautiful flute melodies. Vocals after 2 minutes with a fuller sound a minute later. Love the guitar 4 minutes in as they jam for a while. Organ after 5 minutes with some excellent bass lines a minute later. Flute is back. Guitar after 8 minutes is again just a joy to listen to.This has to be my favourite song and not because my name's in the title. No it's not ! "No Name Hmmm" is more uptempo with flute and drums leading the way until vocals come in. I like how passionately he sings. The guitar's tone is perfect. It comes and goes. Organ solo 1 1/2 minutes in. This is the shortest song at 3 minutes. Some fuzz in that guitar that comes in before 2 1/2 minutes.

"World's End" has a pastoral intro with flute. A fuller sound arrives a minute in. Vocals follow as organ and drums shine. Guitar 3 minutes in is atmospheric and it goes on until stopping 5 minutes in when spoken vocals take over. The lyrics here are political as he talks about then U.S. president Richard Nixon as the band jams. Lots of flute to follow before it gets heavier 8 1/2 minutes in. Vocals end it. "Dark,Darker" opens with ominous flute as a SABBATH-like mood takes over. Vocals follow. This is contrasted with a more uplifting passage. The contrast continues. A change 2 1/2 minutes in as flute,bass and light drums come in. This builds then relaxes again. A vocal melody before 6 minutes. Flute then goes crazy(same with the background vocals) before becoming dissonant then calming down again. It stays pastoral until after 9 minutes when the intensity returns.

Just a killer album ! The flute, organ, guitar and vocals are all outstanding. Love the sound of this one a lot.

Mellotron Storm


If you ever read Asbjornssen's Cosmic Dreams at Play, you will know how high esteem he holds this band. His article finishes this way: WHAT AN AWESOME GROUP THEY WERE! I cannot say it any better as the three albums they made in their prime were all drastically different from each other yet so unmistakably OOF (much like Floyd did all of their albums so different, yet all so FLOYD). Their music is absolutely theirs and sound like nothing else and although they are Germans, I hesitate to call it Krautrock or as some call it Krautjazz. They develop a strange mix of psyched-out rock with a good sense of jazz rock (although not quite as much in this debut album), add a good dose of flute/sax dominated prog rock and give themselves a maximum space for instrumental interplay even if Moran's voice holds an important role (and is an acquired taste in the same way that Peter Hammill or Roger Chapman are an acquired taste) with some non-sensical lyrics laying out their hippy ideals. With an abstract artwork this debut album (released on the legendary Kuckuck label) is aptly named Wake Up, even if the goal is to send you into dreamy trip, the music is raw, just the way the Germans liked it, reminiscent of their crosstown colleagues of Amon Duul II.

Right from the first repetitive note of Drechsler's guitar, soon underlined by Herring's organ and Moran Neumuller's flute, in the opening White Negro, you just know you're flying in a wonderful universe where time seems to be a very random dimension and the dreamy soundscapes are an invitation to tripping around the universe. The tougher-sounding God Save The Queen is more of rougher guitar-lead early 70's UK proto-prog ala EBB or BechKendel, but the middle section (recorded a bit too low) shared between the folky flute and the organ is a great counter-point using the full dynamics contrasting with the return of the opening section. Hey John is an almost 10-min wild flute-lead jam that can sound like Deep Purple's Mandrake Root in the middle.

The flipside jumps at your throat with the short but powerful No Name track that could easily be called You're Wasting Time, and even if there are obvious flaws in recording levels, this track is most likely to also claim the album's title, Wake Up! World's end is a fairly doomy track that still trails a bit of 60's into it, sometimes reminding of Floyd (Herring's organ and Spori's drumming sound like early Floyd circa Saucerful Of Secrets), while Moran's flute is more reminiscent of Traffic's Chris Wood and the guitar reminding us a bit of Krieger in The Doors' epic track The End. Ending the album is the lengthy Dark Darker track, which is a bit disjointed in its psyched-out moods especially Moran's flute racing up and down the ladder of sanity. This is one track where the group shows an excellent aptitude at light improvisation that lead to wild jamming, a thing that we would see much more of in the next three albums. Again the raw sound gives the impression that this record could've easily been recorded live in the Anglo-Saxon world, with only the approximate accent of Moran giving a hint otherwise. The closing section is a hard-driving Atomic Rooster-like heavy prog.

As with most German band singing in English, the vocals are not perfect but this is very minor as the texts (lyrics) are easily understood and are of a very social/political nature that they could also be classified in German only category Polit-rock (never thought you'd read about such a category, Uh? ;-) This IMHO only adds to the quality of the music and does not make it dated just for that reason. Technically absolutely brilliant (D-E A + HCH). Just by the weird song titles, one can see that this band is heavy, I mean HHHEEEAAAVVVYYY , man !!

Sean Trane



..::TRACK-LIST::..

1. See How A White Negro Flies5:49
2. God Save The Queen, Cried Jesus7:30
3. Hey John 9:38
4. No Name 3:06
5. World's End 9:56
6. Dark, Darker 11:43

Bonus Tracks:
7. Whispering
8. Cafe Stiletto
9. Cafe Stiletto 29:23

Track 7-9 Recorded Live in Palermo, Italy on 26th May 1972



..::OBSADA::..

Remigius Drechsler - guitar
Hennes Hering - keyboards
Moran Neumüller - vocals, saxes
Klaus Spöri - drums
Stefan Wisheu - bass



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gjqgY-Phsc


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