OFF: Amon Duul, Kraan, Circle, The Mike Gunn, oh yes, some Hawkwind too

[Stephan Forstner]

Amon Duul II
Follow-up to the Amon Duul II discussion from a few weeks back - I picked up
the remastered Phallus Dei, much better sound than my Mantra CD version, but
the 'Freak Out Requiem' bonus tracks turned out to be just side 4 of 'Dance
of the Lemmings' with a little extra at the beginning and the end. Maybe
this shouldn't have been a surprise - ADII 'bonus' tracks are usually not.
All the bonus tracks on 'Utopia' are mis-titled album tracks, the bonus
track on 'Live in London' is just the album version of Soap Shop Rock mixed
with some ambient synths, and elsewhere 'Cerberus' (album version) and
'Between the Eyes' seem to pop up with some regularity. Never mind, regular
ADII album tracks from the early 70s are among the best ever created.
Speaking of 'Dance of the Lemmings', picked up the remaster of that as well.
No bonus tracks, but again much better sound than the Mantra release,
especially on sides 1 and 2, plus legible credits and full track indexing.
Very sweet.
Also got the BBC Radio disc. It's not nearly as bad as I'd feared, even has
a few really good bits. But its still nothing close to 'Live in London'.
It's hard to believe that apparently less than 6 months (Dec 72 for 'Live',
spring 73 for BBC) and only one band member (Lothar Meid is the only one of
the 7 musicians from 'Live' not playing on the BBC disc) separate the 2
releases. Leaving aside relative musical merit, I found it almost like
comparing 'Space Ritual' and 'Atomehenge 76' in terms of sound/presentation.
And finally found that the only bits from 'Kobe Reconstructions' that do not
appear on regular albums do appear on the 'Eternal Flashback' release.

Kraan
Got the reissued/remastered CD of their debut S/T album - found it includes
'demo' versions of most of the songs, increasing the length by about two
thirds. The demo tracks sound very clean, and this is quite a good album,
easily their best IMHO and one that may appeal to some listmembers out
there. Still don't like Peter Wolbrandt's vocals though.

Circle
Just released: Circle - Raunio - live. Yet another amazing piece of work
from this band, once again managing to sound unlike anything they've done
before while still being almost instantly recognizable and doing tracks off
previous releases as well as brand new stuff. This time round I think the
sound is very Faust-ian (90's), and the title track(s) are very eerie.
Spooky and intense stuff. Get it from Richard at www.cranium.co.nz and
possibly other places too. I hear Circle is already recording a new one.
Also coming soon, a double CD of Ektroverde.

Internet
Visit www.aquariusrecords.org and plug Hawkwind into the search engine -
it's great to see when someone gets 'turned on' to HW, I envy him the joy he
is feeling! Nice to read such enthusiasm, takes me back to my own discovery
of the band.

The Mike Gunn
After a heads-up from Keith and a recommendation from Doug, nabbed this off
Ebay and listened to it for the first time yesterday. Very nice.
Incidentally, if you do the Hawkwind search on the Aquarius Records site you
will notice that they have a kind word for the Assassins of Silence release,
put out by someone called Doug Pearson, (also on Sternklang I), which
happens to contain the only track from The Mike Gunn that I had previously
heard, a fairly straightforward rendition of Master of the Universe.

Stephan

...We are all..