|
from The Crack In The Cosmic Egg CD-Rom (2007 edition)...
In
the original book version of "The Crack In The Cosmic Egg" we wrote
"A mysterious band, Alcatraz recorded just the one album at the
notorious Wümme Studio (as used by Faust) and then promptly disappeared"
which in reality is quite wrong, yet no one seemed to know that. Only later
did we learn of their long history.
Alcatraz came from Hamburg, rooted
in the rhythm 'n' blues bands: Smoke Stacks Lightning and Blues 'n' All,
becoming Alcatraz in Spring 1969 with a repertoire of heavy rock, blues,
covers and adaptations, and increasingly a number of songs of their own.
Taking on jazz and avant-garde influences they then went on to totally
reinvent themselves, and became quite prolific for a while on the local live
scene, most prestigiously on tour with Ekseption and the Pretty Things.
Their dedicated hard working
promoter Willy Jahnke secured them a one-off contract with Philips, and got
them three days at Wümme Studio to make an album. And, what an album! VAMPIRE
STATE BUILDING has plenty of that patent unmistakable Faustian Kurt Graupner
recording sound, fried and alive, but also full of strange intricacies. With
some pretty lengthy tracks and some real cool titles, and a corny but
striking cover sporting the words "oh Baby it ain't no use running away
from me" it's an all round tasty item whichever way you look at it. The
Alcatraz melting pot featured fuzzed guitars and effects overdose in a heavy
and bluesy over-the-top Krautrock akin to Frumpy and Nosferatu (with nods to
early Missus Beastly, Xhol Caravan, Out Of Focus) whilst fusing it all into a
sound of their own. The lead singer Rüdiger Berghahn sounds like a male Inga
Rumpf by the way! Alcatraz were remarkable in that they bridged and mixed
together genres that no one else did. In fact, they pulled out all the stops
to come up with one of the finest slabs of eccentric heady Krautrock. It's a
masterpiece beyond doubt, right down to the deranged guitar blitz finale
"Piss Off!"
But that wasn't the end of the
story, Alcatraz never "promptly disappeared". They did record some
demos for a second LP in early 1972, of which one track is featured as a
bonus track on the CD of VAMPIRE STATE BUILDING, yet that was never
completed. Apparently, hassles with band members being forced to leave due to
military service and such like, put the band on-hold several times,
drafting-in reserve drummers and trying out different new styles, it all
meant that the old Alcatraz sound was soon lost. Early member Thomas Hockling
(vocals, harmonica) had re-joined the band, and featured as stage front man
for the next few years, taking the sound in a more satirical Zappa/Mothers
like direction. A more recent release called MADE IN GERMANIA from a concert
in 1976 documents this line-up.
So, although the band had kept
going, it wasn't until 1978 that they released a second album. ENERGIE
PROGRAMM IN ROCK still had three original members, with Klaus Holst's notably
Faust-like guitar still present, but was a very different music. Close to
Floh De Cologne or Lied Des Teufels, being a mixture of progressive rock and
theatre in German, with an obscure eccentric feel to it, it's an odd one all
round, but definitely a grower when one becomes accustomed to the lopsided
Zappa-esque pastiche of it all. Another two and a half years on, and now sans
keyboards, but with one Rainer Hansen on winds, it was all change again. LIVE
"Trockeneis Zum Frühstück" (that's "Dry Ice For
Breakfast" incidentally) had the band at the breakfast table on the
front cover, with frothing mugs, and to the rear are a number of well-known
LP covers that were no doubt amongst their key influences, i.e. Miles Davis'
BITCHES BREW, Soft Machine THIRD and Mahavishnu Orchestra's BIRDS OF FIRE
amongst them. LIVE saw an instrumental return to the jazzy edge of their
debut, but also felt a little more like later Kollektiv or many other
jazz-rock band of the era, but still with that unique Alcatraz
"fire".
Sporadically the band has kept
going ever since, largely in a jazz-rock type vein. First, they mellowed
further on NO. 4, with a very much 1980s styled cross genre jazz-rock with a
funky edge, akin to instrumental "guitar" Zappa, or the likes of
David Torn or Terje Rypdal & The Chasers. It would seem, in the
long-term, that Alcatraz have been a band that goes along with whatever the underground
"fashion" is at the time, i.e. moving to political rock, to jazz
fusion, and even more out-on-a-limb styles. We've still not heard LAST
STATION, whereas HOLM was not really to our tastes, in that it fuses many
past Alcatraz styles into a borderline death/Goth-metal, often veering
dangerously close to the likes of Sepultura, et al. After that I'm not so
keen to learn what 2002's SOUND FACTORY SESSION is like, although it is bound
to be different yet again, now with only one remaining original member
drummer Jan Rieck.
|
