Oldish Psych and Prog

Style: sympho prog
Country: germany
Audio: mp3 (320k)
Size: 148mb

Gibraltar:
This band took their name from a Frank Zappa song. An excellent symphonic rock outfit which originally released their obscure LP on the Jupiter label, but it has recently been reissued on CD by Garden Of Delights. Zomby Woof were part of the second wave of German progressive rock along with bands like Epidaurus, Second Movement, Madison Dyke, Minotaurus, Epidermis, Streetmark, etc. And their style is very much related to all these groups. They also sound similar to later period German band Anyone's Daughter. Zomby's main distinction is having 2 vocalists (and the english vocals are pretty decent too) and having the advantage of a good recording studio. Three band members played keyboards, so naturally the album has sumptuous keyboard passages of Grand Piano, Hammond Organ, Moog synthesizer, clavinet and some Mellotron. The bass player has a "busy" and up front technique that is standard for this genre and the album features lots of extended instrumentals which can get fairly bombastic in places and dreamy in others.
This band proposes nothing new, but are a stellar example of Germany's contribution to this style. They are as good as any of their better known countrymen. Lovers of symphonic krautrock, especially of the above mentioned groups or even Grobschnitt and Pell Mell, will probably eat this up. It's one of the better albums from the late 70's German prog scene, and a rediscovered classic.

The CD booklet reveals that an (unreleased) second album was recorded in 1979 with David Hanselmann involved on vocals. Who knows if this album (called No Hero) will ever see the light of day! Many people may not have heard of this band, and even krautrock bibles like "Crack In The Cosmic Egg" and "Cosmic Dreams At Play" are sketchy on details. But all fans of complex, keyboard rich symphonic rock should get a listen to the CD reissue. -- Tharsis