#falk rogner

* Long Live Rock Archive

Amon Duul II Archangel Thunderbird

Some comeback albums do not achieve their aims, they become either shelf filler for their respective musicians or, worse, a pretext for a tour. To give you a case, Amon Düül II released two such records. One was Only Human, their venture into the world of disco, which is not as bad as you think, whereas another was Vortex. One can tell they planned to have a Scott Walker-like transformation of their sound with the latter, but their change went the way of Starship. To be honest, Vortex is an LP of good intentions, it is Amon Düül II's bid to join another powerful German musical idiom after they abandoned krautrock. However, the thing is they mainstreamized themselves too much on it, they forgot that the other genre favoured quirkiness. The tune in the link is a good case of that, it is hilarious for the wrong reasons, just listen to that cliche backing vocals, yet the chorus is quite good and the energy is also there. All these qualities only missed the actual Amon Düül II.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87783FoiWns

Landing in the ditch - Amon düül II (1971)

Da Guadeloop - Amon düül II (1974)