genre: prog
country: germany
quality : lossless (flac, cue, log, booklet scans, size: 359 mb), mp3 (320k, booklet scans, size: 129 mb)
time: 46'45"
issue: remaster
ProgressiveRock :
At the beginning of the year, Chrisitan Grumbkow put down his guitar and became the band’s manager, though musically he continued with lyric duties. Spaniard Pablo Weeber took his place, adding a significant mark to the band’s sound. The album was recorded with Manfred Schunke, of the Kunstkopf or "artificial head" fame. "Haktik Intergalactic" and "Sky Lift" open, revealing a more song-based approach, though no less progressive. The latter features a fantastic break, complete with trademark Noppeny viola solo. Bruchmann and Baar are in prime form for "Before You Lay Down" and its instrumental second half. On the second side, "Rare Bird" goes for the gorgeous, while "Necronomicon" is another fiery instrumental track, written by Weeber. The closing "Sun Rays" is another vocal number, the slight down tempo adding to its lusciousness. Again, Hoelderlin deliver an exceptional and original album. During their career, Hoelderlin was a significant touring band. In fact, they crossed their native Germany more than any other band of the era, save the Scorpions. Fittingly, the double live album Traumstadt served as a great document of their performance and was their best selling to date. However, after all of the live albums out now, change was afoot. In 1978, the band went through significant personnel changes before their appropriately titled next album, New Faces. It was a change in direction, their penchant for lush instrumental beauty replaced with shorter, more populist songs. Switching to the German language, the band released one final album Fata Morgana in 1980. Although skirting New Wave, it was an original enough venture, but a long trip from the original lineup’s Traum a decade before. Hoelderlin however remain as the premier progressive band from Germany.
1. Häktik Intergaläktik (8:33)
2. Sky-lift (4:17)
3. Before you lay down rough and thorny (7:25)
4. Rare bird (7:45)
5. Necronomicon (6:15)
6. Sun rays (8:55)
7. Blackbird (Demo, Bonus Track) 0:58
8. You Are The One (Demo, Bonus Track) 2:29
- Hans Bäär / bass
- Michael Bruchmann / drums, percussion
- Christian Grumbkow / lyrics
- Joachim Grumbkow / keyboards, voc (4)
- Christoph Noppeney / viola, vocals
- Pablo Weeber / guitar, vocals (3)
- Manfred von Bohr / drums (5)
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