MONOLITH COCKTAIL 008:- Fiery Furnaces -- Eseben and the Witch -- Amon Duul II 'Wolf City -- 'La Planete Sauvage' Soundtrack.

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The Fiery Furnaces Live Review

Supported by Esben And The Witch and some strange fellow and his minidisc player.

Audio, Brighton
7th October

The torrential October rainfall, which would have usually put paid to me having a good night couldn’t be dampened as I stood waiting for Esben and the Witch to begin the night.
No I persevered as my soaked soaks and wet t-shirt dried out after three hours of standing in Audio, in fact I soon forgot that even my stupidly tight jeans had shrunk in the rain after hearing the band make ready the performance.

Taking to the stage as though preparing for some esoteric ceremony surrounded by Victorian props, such as a rather fetching wooden owl and old oil street lamps from some stage production of Sherlock Holmes, Esben and the Witch attentively and sheepishly began the first stirrings of a magnificent and brooding set.
Lead singer and Gothic glam siren Rachel is flanked by the duo of guitarists Daniel and Thomas, who with heads bowed play intricate riffs and melodies through a cacophony of effects building all the time to the songs punch line or laying down a crescendo of macabre textures which never quite but always threaten to reach a climax.
The focal point is a solitary bass drum and cymbal in the centre of the stage, ala An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump set up, which Rachel often lets rip on when not directing proceedings or occasionally playing the bass guitar.
All the time her vocals, which sound like a heroic clash between Siouxsie Sioux and a more sombre Florence Welch, steer the moody trio through some often choppy and rarely chartered musical waters.

Most of the current EP ‘33’ was offered with some tracks that I’m not myself yet familiar with but which sounded pretty good and further cement these guys as one of the UK’s best kept secrets, though I’m certain this won’t last long as some of the national press have started to cotton on.
‘Marching Song’, ‘About The Peninsula’ and ‘Corridors’ all sound more animate then the recordings, in fact you could say they where brought to life with both the playing and the theatrical display, at one point all three of the band huddled round the bass drum together and played a combination of beats at the same time over an already pre-recorded backing track. A hark back to the days of Jesus and Mary Chain perhaps, an Eighties that I would relish being sent back to.
They may take time to grow on you and demand concentration, the atmosphere has to be right which on this occasion it was as the musicianship is all very delicate and looks on the surface underplayed. In fact they take their cue from Johnny Greenwood and his shoegazeing doodling style of playing.

Esben and the Witch delivered tonight and showed me that my initial interest was well warranted. Doom pop with a twist.

The second support act shambled on stage in over the top Vegas style sunglasses, a Russian hat and a big old sheepskin like flying jacket. At first I thought he may just be someone from the crowd who decided to wander up on stage but once he put his minidisc player on a stool and addressed the audience we all realised he was the act.
I don’t even know his name but he delivered a strange set of observational and wry tunes that lasted for a couple of verses and chorus before the next one kicked in. His stage act was edgy and full of humour and his voice came across like Suggs trying to narrate the back catalogue of Lou Reed.
The concept seemed to be haphazard but it all seemed to be pretty stage managed yet proved refreshing, like a mix of poetry and uncomfortable performance in one package.
Our main man grimaced his way through his assemble of itchy subtle electro beats and twisty ambient soundtrack, titles such as ‘God Of War’ consisted of him profonticating his status while aiming a few lines at open toed sandal wearers.
His closing track had an unsettling moment as the backing track played for nearly two minutes before our stood still and motionless protagonist uttered some words, he seemed to be caught in the headlamps lips slightly parted.
A welcome interruption to tonight’s main event. 


Our headliners The Fiery Furnaces take to the stage rather unannounced and break straight into their stride, both awkward but melodic they mess about with the original versions of there songs changing the time signature or lyrics around to fit.
Showcasing the latest LP ‘I’m Going Away’, the Friedbergers and their bass guitar/drum-backing group performed a myriad of scattered tunes from ‘Single Again’ all the way up to ‘Widow City’ favourites like ‘Duplexes Of The Dead’ and ‘Japanese Slippers’.
Leading the set was Matthew on lead, who always reminds me of the actor Bruce Campbell, whilst his sister Eleanor in her old US khaki war jacket much like the ones worn in Vietnam, confidently addressed the audience throughout, her voice in fine form throughout.
The backing minus a couple of slip ups, were tight and the bass player must be congratulated on some impressive playing, especially when the timing changed from the super fast almost incomprehensible to half time in only a couple of bars. Also the drummer made some quip about his snare being on the wrong side as I think he dropped his sticks on one feverish song but managed to keep the whole thing together nonetheless.

Highlight wise for me was my current favourite tune ‘Keep Me In The Dark’ one of the poppier tunes off ‘I’m Going Away’, which always puts a smile on my face with its highly infectious hook and sheer unadulterated feel for John Hughes type teenage throwback angst from 1985.
Some of the tracks got heavy and took on a motor city feel like the Stooges or MC5 especially on ‘Starring At The Steeple’ as they took artistic licence to their own music.
‘Drive To Dallas’ had a slightly more omnipresent hard leaning sound invigorated with notes being pulled out of the bag or plucked from the air.
Their sound seems to go from mid American friendly guitar solos found in the Eighties to the Seventies guilty pleasures of soundtracks and dare I say it almost Carole King territory melodies, though all with a certain tongue in cheek yet I can’t help but feel there is a real soul in their music especially when seeing them live. Eleanor may have a drawl and dry wit but there are some real emotional stirrings on display, original on both the playing and subjects, it seems they always manage to hit a stride and feature strong melodies. Why their not about ten times more popular I’m amazed, if you don’t own a copy of their albums feel ashamed.

Closing on ‘Japanese Slippers’ after throwing requests to the audience, the show came to a quick end, though they did do a packed hour set so I’m not complaining.
They say there be back which I hope they will as I’m already in need of some more.

Dominic Valvona.






Brought to your attention 001.

‘La Planete Sauvage’ soundtrack to the animated feature film of the same name 1973.

Director: Rene Laloux

Composer: Alain Goraguer

Label: Pathe Label 1973, available to buy as a reissue on vinyl and as download.

Trivia: Won special prize at Cannes for animated feature.

Track List: -

Side 1
1.    Deshominisation (II) (0:51)
2.    Deshominisation (I) (3:45)
3.    Generique (0:40)
4.    Le Bracelet (1:22)
5.    Ten Et Tiwa (1:43)
6.    Maquillage Te Tiwa (1:12)
7.    Course De Ten (0:48)
8.    Ten Et Medor (1:43)
9.    Ten Et Tiwa Dorment (0:42)
  10. Ten Et Assome (0:40)
  11. Abite (0:47)
  12. Conseil Des Draags (0:49)
  13. Les Hommes – La Grande Co – Existence (4:22)
Side 2
1.    La Femme (2:06)
2.    Mira Et Ten (0:39)
3.    Mort De Draag (0:46)
4.    L’Oiseau (2:21)
5.    La Cite Des Hommes Libres (0:44)
6.    Attaque Des Robots (2:00)
7.    La Longue Marche – Valse Des Statues (2:09)
8.    Les Fusees (2:05)
9.    Generique (1:09)
  10. Strip Tease (2:19)
  11. Meditation Des Enfants (1:28)
  12. La Vieille Meurt (0:43)


I’m going to warn you now; this LP and the film it came from are strange, but strange in a good way so don’t start walking away quite yet.
‘La Planete Sauvage’, that’s Savage Planet to you and me, doesn’t flinch from being odd or far out, in fact its more like a surrealist portrayal of science fiction brought to us in an animation that takes its cue from the French artist Moebius and a Eastern block film studio during the most intense period of the Cold War. In fact this movie was collaboration between both France and Czechoslovakia, which at the time would have been part of the iron curtain so it makes sense that the film is full of those analogies.
The basic premise of the story is that in some far flung corner of the galaxy a uber higher intellectual civilisation of giant blue bug eyed aliens known as Draags keep us humans as pets and play things, though we are known as Oms as in from the French word hommes. See its all to do with role reversal as we are looked down on as some lower form of primitive creature, that is until more and more proof is found of our own civilisation and the Draags slowly change there perceptions of us.
For some reason we have ended up on this planet and have forgotten about our past so get used to be an amusing domestic toy for our new masters.
Anyhow the main protagonist is orphaned in the introduction and adopted by a teenage version of a Draag, growing up we see just how weird these aliens are with their proto organic technology which involves some far out trance meditation mumbo jumbo and plenty of really long worded anal descriptions of their superior way of life, to be honest they hardly seem like fun, though they have a strange way of dressing which always leaves the females with the breasts hanging out.
At this point I got to mention the ludicrous dubbing version, which is delivered in a real monotone manner and has a real disconnection to the action taking place on the screen, though it does add a certain charm to the proceedings and makes for some amusing viewing.
Anyway our main character, now called Ten, grows up in the draag household and cleverly learns to pick up on there knowledge before he manages to escape and find a colony of wild living Oms, who like appearing in the nude a lot and take part in some strange rituals which will rise a few eyebrows.
In the end both societies learn to compromise and live together in harmony though not before our so called more civilised friends try to exterminate the Oms, we get analogies a plenty here as you can tell from Nazi Germany to Stalin’s Russia.

I can’t really do the film justice here, you can watch it in eight parts on Youtube and see for yourselves, but I’m really much more interested in the soundtrack LP composed by the French musician Alain Goraguer.
Alain was a jazz pianist who from 1959 to 1965 arranged the compositions on all of Serge Gainsbourg’s albums and also worked with Boris Vian.
He wrote the winning French entry for the Eurovision song contest with the song ‘Poupet de cire, Poupee de son’ and started working on soundtracks.

‘La Planete Sauvage’ is probably one of his most well known scores and remains a cult favourite by all the heads out there. The last two years have seen an off and on revival with the original LP being reissued and the film being posted by fans on the net who act like curators of some far forgotten relic.

The moody and evocative soundtrack’s main theme is ‘Deshominisation’, an otherworldly jazz number that invokes a slightly creepy and unsettling tone.
The rest of the album riffs on the basic theme and either sweetens it up or adds some action sequence groovy space age funk.
On the tunes ‘Generique’ and ‘Strip Tease’ a breathless female voice adds a sexual undercurrent reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg and sounds like Air riffing on a Dario Argento gory porn flick; a fine balancing act between retro blue movies and the well thumbed giallo pulp novels.
Sometimes the funk really lets loose especially on the tracks ‘Le Bracelet’, ‘Course De Ten’ and ‘Ten Et Medor’ which go from Shaft like high hat and cymbal action and Roy Budd’s ‘Get Carter’ slinky style of funk to liberal dashings of ‘Bullitt’ composer Lalo Schifrin Seventies action sequences.
To say there is a wealth of samples and breaks on this record is to understate the case somewhat as quite a few people have mined it including the leftfield hiphop producer Madlib, who used it on the Quasimoto LP ‘Unseen’.

In the main this album has a sombre and certain sadness to it yet there is the occasional light relief such as the harpsichord led ‘Conseil Des Draags’ which acts as a pleasant segue way though it always has that looming omnipresent darkness ready to descend, much like a lost David Axlerod classic from the Prunes in places.
A thoroughly recommended soundtrack, which comes with a pedigree and should be, added to any self-respecting collector of both film scores and the underground. Stirring stuff indeed.

Dominic Valvona.







A German Music Odyssey Part 5

Amon Duul II – ‘Wolf City’

Background: -

‘Wolf City’ is probably the most popular and well known of all Amon Duul II albums; it’s also their most critically acclaimed one.
This was the second LP released in 1972 after ‘Carnival In Babylon’ and features the same structured way of song writing that almost leaves behind the improvised jams found on the first three records, though there are still some moments to be found that weren’t so scripted.
Made in the same year and with the same producer Olaf Kubler, ‘Wolf City’ continues to lay down the folk influences but uses a rich tapestry of Indian sounds such as the tablas, sitar and tambura, all elements found on the seminal and exotic ‘Yeti’ album. At times the sound finds the familiar gothic horror that they are renowned for, though it remains quite an uplifting record most of the time.

Personal changes and a move round on instrumentation culminated in the biggest line up yet as even more musicians and friends added whatever they could to proceedings.
The usual hardliners make up the bulk of the song writing and playing but were accompanied by an outer circle including the musicians Jimmy Jackson on organs, who played in the band Embryo, Al Sri Al Gomer on sitar, Liz Van Neienhoff on tambura and Paul Hydra on violin.
The now familiar Falk U Rogner not only produced the cover, a glorious tripped out gatefold that’s very much in keeping with ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’ artwork, but he also had another go on the keyboards whilst studio engineer Peter Kramper received his first credit for some synthesizer work on the track ‘Jail House Frog’.
Mainstay Reante gets to sing a lot of lead vocals again and is joined by the interesting character Rolf Zacher, actor and haphazard character, and bandleader John Weinzierl who leads the band throughout.
Just to add confusion a side project was recorded at the same session as ‘Wolf City’ entitled ‘Utopia’ and was led by Lothar Meid and Olaf Kubler, it also included a lot of the same players. This was an attempt to produce a more international sounding LP and even included a re-recording of the track ‘Deutch Nepal’ to boot, it became chaotic for all involved and Amon Duul II regrouped and went on tour to escape the debacle.


Championed at the time ‘Wolf City’ became an underground classic, unfortunately this was not to last long as the new attention they acquired led them towards a more commercial sound as they found themselves being dragged along rather then leading the scene. The next LP would be a live one, which was recorded in 72 but not released till the following year. ‘Viva La Trance’ their next album sounded way out of sorts with anything they’d recorded and sounds like a glam rock euro trash parody in places, but more of that in part six.

A return to form is the usual crap that’s always rolled out but to be honest apart from a few low points all their albums to that point where great. ‘Wolf City’ is just perhaps their most complete work, short but majestic it stands as one of the period’s best albums. In fact its much better then say Can or Neu! who never managed to sound quite as uplifting or joyous and always seem to carry a sniffy attitude, in a way Amon Duul II had more in common with the UK head scene and West Coast music scene of the US then their German compatriots did. Unfortunately for them they tend to get a bad press and even get ignored for there more respected and popular peers, though I would swap them any day for the coldness of Faust or the monophonic tones of Kraftwerk, though I do still love them those groups almost as much but they don’t hit the soul as much.




The Album

WOLF CITY

1973
United Artists
Gatefold LP

Side A
1.    Surrounded By The Stars (7:47)
2.    Green Bubble Raincoated Man (4:53)
3.    Jail House Frog (5:06)

Side B
1.    Wolf City (3:20)
2.    Wie Der Wind Am Ende Einer Strasse (5:45)
3.    Deutch Nepal (2:58)
4.    Sleepwalkers Timeless Bridge (4:53)

Personal

Danny Secundus Fichelscher – Drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals
Chris Karrer – Guitar, vocals
Renate Knaup – Krotenschwanz – Vocals
Lothar Meid – Bass, vocals
Falk U Rogner – Keyboards, artwork
John Weinzierl – Electric guitar, vocals, violin

Jimmy Jackson – Choir organ – piano
Olaf Kubler – Vocals, soprano sax, producer
Peter Leopold – Vocals, synthesizer, pauken (timpani)
Al Sri Al Gromer – Sitar
Pandit Shanker Lal – Tablas
Liz Van Neienhoff – Tambura
Paul Heyda – Violin
Rolf Zacher – Vocals
Peter Kramper – Sound engineer, synthesizer

The epic shimmering of ‘Surrounded intro By The Stars’ kicks in like a reworking of all the best parts from ‘Carnival In Babylon’ mixed with a sprinkling of the space found on ‘Yeti’, before the rolling drums break out into a cosmic jam of soaring proportions with Renate leading the way with an harassed torch song.
The feverish violins and bass guitar make for a truly psychedelic version of the folksters The Trees before the halfway mark is taken over by some dark moody sounds from a laboratory somewhere in deepest ravines of the Carpathian Mountains.
The gothic is laid on thick as Renate brings us back in with her tales of a troubadour lover leaving town with his violin slung over his back, he walks away on a star laden carpet surrounded by some aura that leaves our singer open mouthed like the biblical Judith in Gustav Klimt’s painting masterpiece, the lost lamented romantic exasperations laid bare.
Our song ends when it fades out into what sounds like a return to their best sweeping ambient tones before ‘Jail House Frog’, another Renate led tune, beckons us with its immense beauty and sweet, sweet melody that cannot be faithfully put into words but can only be merely transcribed as the essence of gliding through the cosmos on a see through zeppelin.
A sudden change in tempo nudges us onto a busy 12 bar bass solo that accompanies a funky little improvisation before Weinzeirl leads a clear path through with his whammy effects heavy lead guitar, all underpinned by some textured keyboards work. Renate sings her blessed self confessions of sharing burdens and doubt before a synth heavy fuzz riff whirls its way through as the misty Gothic hues sweep over the song and end back in the mountains of some Transylvanian ominous landscape.
‘Green Bubble Raincoated Man’ is Weinzierl song, he narrates his lead vocal more then sings it, his Germanic heavy prose turns into a strange bubbling brook sound montage where a lonely piano plays an old show hall tune from some Bavarian drinking den in honour to some Prussian victory. Lonely and quite sad it is saved by the ever-increasing looming mournful choir before the triumphant return of a drum break and the classic lead guitar dabbling we have come to expect.
The sinister but heroic chorus of German myths and esoteric beliefs keeps side one together at all times, references can be found a plenty from Hegel to Goethe.

Side two has the title track ‘Wolf City’, the powerhouse menacing behemoth, again an almost narrated or read from scripture like vocal which lays some heavy tracks down with which to follow on from.
Not quite a hit record but close to a single as they can possibly get, ‘Wolf City’ bounces along on a whim and a euro rock riff.
Lumbering along on some tight musicianship before it is stopped by the abrupt Clockwork Orange intro of ‘Wie Der Wind Am Ende Einer Strasse’, an Indian raga jam that has another superb bass line from Lothar Meid that you could float on. Dreamy and trance meditation like journey that Harrison would be proud of, India via Munich in one leap. Our trip across Goya is cut short as our players decide they’ve had enough of that and before the terrifying tomb of a tune ‘Deutch Nepal’ kicks the commune doors down unannounced, a police raid from the darkest corners of the inferno.
Slow and carrying the dead weight of centuries of conflict, our proto Heavy Metal ditty offers nothing but suffering. Like Black Sabbath if they were led by Alistair Crowley instead of some delinquent with long hair and tattooed knuckles from Birmingham.
‘Deutch Nepal’ carries some air of esoteric wonder as our Indiana Jones type Nazis dig for the signs of the uber primal ancestor from under the Tibetan mountains that never existed, a frightening narration by Rolf Zacher pictures him addressing the mongrel hordes or delivering a sermon in front of the ark of the covenant before his face is melted by the angels of death, scary stuff indeed.
Finally our LP ends with the bright and uplifting ‘Sleepwalkers Timeless Bridge’, another Indian influenced jam that sounds like Traffic jamming on a Santana tune. The backing is tight but is filled with space and the timing is spot on, the repeated riffs never tire, as the musicianship on show is so good.
The free expression drumming and bongos form a link back to ‘Sandoz In The Rain’ era Amon Duul II, which culminates in the most rewarding part of the whole album as Fichelscher blissful magnificent vocals raise the track to another plain entirely. Its as if everything so far in German music has been working to this point, no one else will agree with me but it always makes me nearly weep as I recollect the entire catalogue of all Western music till that exact moment.
I could seriously loop that part all day and not get bored.
It’s all such a disappointment when it all has to end rather quickly with some nice ambient mystical effects, which wouldn’t seem out of place on a Goldfrapp LP.

Far too short in my view ‘Wolf City’ does what all the best albums do and that’s leave you wanting more, unfortunately they never could quite follow on from this and struggled with trying to break the States with the ill fated ‘Hijack’ and ‘Made In Germany’ LPs.
If you had to purchase just one Amon Duul II record then this is the one, an encapsulation of all the best playing and song writing they ever did, though please don’t actually just do that as you will miss loads of other great moments on the rest of there catalogue.

Amon Duul II are German music’s heroic explorers who should be admired for the perseverance in the face of such hostility and ignorance. Keep your uber hip Can and dead cool Neu!, these guys are far more real.




PART SIX: - We look at the 1973 released ‘Live In London’, a recording of Amon Duul II at the Greyhound in 1972.
Made up of live tracks from both ‘Yeti’ and ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’, this cosmic full on psychedelic classic shows off the live talent of the group.
Julian Cope never had much time for it but there are some much more up-tempo and heavier versions of ‘Archangel Thunderbird’ and ‘Soap Shop Rock’, which improve on the originals.