Kraan were a German prog band that hardly did anything in the U.S., but filled statiums in Europe in the 70s. This, their debut, is one of their best.

Like Traffic, early Kraan specialized in long jams and featured a sax plugged into a wha-wha peddal. But that is where the Traffic analogy ends. Kraan's jams shifted in and out of different time signautres, had very distinct parts to them. The solos were long and probative, but these guys never were content to pick a few chords and play. In this repect, they were like Henry Cow, using long and complex structures as a means to improvise. But Kraan gets you dancing as well as thinking.

And could they improvise. The bass player did extended runs and quicksilver moves on his Rickenbaker, making even the most complex work seem completely natural, and the drummer was light and flexable, but could turn on a dime.

This album is filled with this type of musicianship. The songs may be long, but they are anything but boring.

Kraan eventually became more song oriented, and a little commercial, though they never lost their playing expertise. But if you want to hear far above average musiciasn playing far above average art-rock, this is a great place to start.

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Bryan

wild indeed

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2014

"Saras Ritt Durch Schwarzwald" begins this krautrock extravaganza! It's unusual to me that the little guitar riff from the Cars "Bye Bye Love" appears every once in while throughout this song. Also the lead singer sounds like Bon Scott from AC/DC quite a bit. Not that either of these bands were listening to Kraan in the early to mid 70's. The wildness and explosive guitar playing that tears through your mind even more believably than most heavy metal out there that made the krautrock scene so special is fully displayed in all its magnificent glory right here in this opening song. Definitely possesses a similar feel to early Amon Duul II but maybe more on the rocking/heavy side, and less noodling around.

"M.C. Escher" opens with a VERY trippy/space rocky/swirling guitar riff before quickly venturing down somber saxophone territory almost making it sound like a trip through Mexico. While the sax jams away somewhat obnoxiously, the inventive drumming and guitar work also playing along serves it quite well. After a while the saxophone rebounds back to sensible melodic grounds while picking up where the intro of the song left off, and in my opinion the tune overall is very cool. "Kraan Arabia" opens with a very Arabian resembling violin riff with conga drums. Soon the head-slamming electric guitars come in and the saxophone jams in a Middle Eastern kind of way for a while. Soon the electric guitar takes over. This band likes to experiment with guitar riffs. The guitar solo afterwards is really good too. So far I'm impressed how melodic this stuff is. It's not just noise. No siree! The bass solo is really trippy and exciting as well before the main theme of the song returns for the conclusion.

"Head" is the near 19-minute monster. The bass work is excellent, the vocal melody is powerful and the guitars once again blow me away with how raw and aggressive they are. An unintentional comparison maybe, but this stuff sounds like early Yes say around the time of the Yes Album mostly in the guitar playing. Do you notice a similarity? The drum solo and the maddening guitar riff/cymbal smashing assures listeners that these guys mean business! This stuff is insanely intense. This song then gets downright CREEPY! Imagine being hypnotized and your mind takes you to a faraway fire-drenched area deep underground and you're surrounded by rocks and can't get out. That's the image that appears in my head during the second half of "Head". Hey wait maybe that's it! It's supposed to be a journey through your *head*. Several layers of instrumental passages painting different locations and feelings.

Towards the end of the song the eeriness goes away as the violins come in and provide a temporary feeling of optimism before melodic almost reassuring guitar riffage takes us to yet another short-lived element of somberness when the Middle Eastern-like saxophone comes in ONLY for the guitars to play ominously and build into yet ANOTHER mind explosion! What a song! "Sara Auf Der Gansewies" is a calm way to end the album. It shouldn't be calm though- I mean I fully expect something to jump out and attack me by this point, haha!

Wow WHAT an album! Easily 5 stars. This is some of the most diverse and creative rock music you could ever imagine that isn't shy to blast you away with a serious dash of energy, relentless excitement, musical ideas that work really well and so much more. Go on, give this big boy a listen but I have to warn you- it's *incredibly* intense!

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PhiloNine

Will undoubtedly shock most Krautrock purists...

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2001

...by the incredible musical virtuosity involved. This is no half-hour-long-crank-up-the-delay-pedal-and-add-goofy-phasing-effects "Kosmiche" type of Krautrock. The band is ultra-tight, and the songwriting complex and multilayered. In fact, I hear more parallels with Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and especially early King Crimson - than some of the more minimalistic and avant-garde influences that their contemporaries shared. Don't let that scare you, this is tasty, adventurous music nonetheless, helped especially by the adventurous Johannes Pappert on sax, who rams that thing through wah, distortion, flanging, and gets some absolutely FREAKY sounds out of the exercise. Helmut Hattler, as any Krautrock afficianado will tell you, can throw down groove with the best of them. He's a monster on the bass. Peter Wolbrandt (sp?) throws down some funky guitar licks to finish the jazzy stew, especially on the 18-minute monster jam "Head". The lyrics, are, well, exactly what you'd expect from some communal hippies to whom English is a second language. They don't get too much in the way of the lengthy instrumental passages.
This master sounds a bit wierd, there is almost a palpable wow&flutter that seems to indicate a less-than-satisfactory master source was used, or there was degradation in the original source. Its somewhat tinny and a little slight, but its not bad enough to ruin the experience though. The extra demo tracks are the tiniest bit rawer and a bit different, but do not offer any revalations over the basic tracks on the album.
Anyways, this is one of the less dangerous and off-putting of the Krautrockers, and now that it is back in print, along with some interesting liner notes and photographs, its well worth picking up for fans of fusion, prog-rock or Krautrock.

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