Staff Carpenborg's Electric Corona - 1969 - Fantastic Party

Quality: 3 out of 5

Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

Although I believe that the intention of this band was to knock out some psychedelic free jazz with a dose of teutonic 'Firesign Theater' thrown in for giggles, in retrospect this album serves as some of the primordial ooze of krautrock. Really, these audio freakouts barely qualify as songs. On the plus side, most of the tracks feature some killer breakbeats (really, if no one's sampled this album someone needs to), perhaps a groovy bassline, and some completely aimless noodling on guitar and organ. It's unfortunately the organ and guitar that really stops this set from being particularly good - that and the horribly annoying vocals when they appear.

As I mentioned, this are more like half-assed studio jams with a great drummer more than tunes than you'll whistle while strolling down the street. 'Lightning Fires, Burning Sorrows,' and the last track I suppose do this best job of recreating an evening at London's UFO Club, although it would have admittedly been a substandard evening there. Avoid 'The Everyday's Way Down to the Suburbs,' 'P.A.R.T.Y.,' and 'Let the Thing Comin' Up' as the vocals will drive you to take out everyone in your neigborhood and finally turn the flamethrower on yourself.

No, this isn't a particularly good disc, but it is interesting for the armchair music historian as an early example of Germans going completely nuts. And there is definitely some fodder for the sample junkie here as I think electronic and hip hop producers have picked the corpse of David Axelrod's music clean.