Search - WALLENSTEIN :: Blitzkrieg

Rediculous

ANDY ROTHMAN | aventura, fl United States | 02/13/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"people just dont get it.theres a wealth of amazin music from the krautrock genre,and its just sitting there out in space waiting for everyone to gobble it up. what a place to start.this is just frieghtingly amazing music.the 1st 2 tracks are all u need.piano/guitar is out of this world. awaken!!!!!"

Decent and very early German Progressive Space Rock

Jeffrey J.Park | Massachusetts, USA | 02/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Released in 1971 on the German Ohr label, this may very well be one of the earliest examples of a German rock band that incorporated stylistic attributes of the (then) embryonic symphonic progressive rock scene in England. Although the music does not really sound directly comparable to anything else that was going on at the time, aspects of ELP and King Crimson are present, along with heavier elements that sound a tiny bit like Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come circa 1971. The four pieces on this album range in length from the 7'38" Audiences to the 13'47" mini-epic Manhattan Project, with keyboardist Jurgen Dollase (who was later part of the Cosmic Jokers) as the sole composer. All of the pieces feature good ensemble work, one or two haunting and beautiful melodies, and decent playing by all band members. From a composition perspective, some pieces work better than others, but on the whole it appears that some time was invested in developing dynamic contrast, melodies and harmonies, etc. The album opens with the frenetic piece Lunatic, which consist of nearly 12 minutes of lightning-fast scales played on what sounds like an RMI electric harpsichord (not too sure about that) atop a thunderous rhythm section. Although the Hammond organ is used briefly towards the end of the piece, had keyboardist Jurgen Dollase used the instrument throughout, the comparison with ELP would have been unavoidable. The remaining pieces are comprised of a nice blend of very well-played acoustic piano (most of which is very classically influenced), spacey passages of mellotron (with flute and string settings), so-so electric guitar (with clean tones), and heavier passages that feature superb drumming from Harald Grosskopf (went on to record with Cosmic Jokers/Klaus Schulze etc) and heavily distorted, ear-splitting electric guitar (the hard rock aspect). As a huge fan of the mellotron, I especially liked the piece The Theme, although the remaining tracks Manhattan Project and Audiences are also excellent and feature wonderful passages played on the mellotron. Perhaps the only negative thing I can say about this album is that the vocals are, well, not spectacular. This is not a problem for me however, because the album is largely instrumental and the vocal passages are generally low in the overall mix. All in all, I generally liked this album and would recommend it to progressive rock fans - it is certainly worth adding to the collection. As a final note, although many of the members of Wallenstein would go on to participate in the Krautrock scene, the music on Blitzkrieg shares no stylistic affinities whatsoever with Krautrock bands (e.g. Can, Amon Duul II, Faust, Neu, Harmonia etc)."