Mythos - 1975 - Dreamlab

Quality: 3.75 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

We don't see a whole lot of prog rock here at the psychedelic garage. I must admit that it has more than a little bit to do with my personal bias against prog. I've never really been able to enjoy a Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer album. I've had a little more luck with Caravan and King Crimson, but they still don't rank anywhere near my favorites. Yeah, I know that many see psychedelic rock and prog as kissing cousins, but the latter is missing a few of the elements that really make me dig the former. For one, I dig disorientation in my music. A lot of prog rock separates the instruments to a crystaline degree and the focus is often on instrumental prowess. I'm more into the strange blurring of instruments. I'm also a major proponent of drones and grooves, and I find that usually when a prog band stumbles into one of those they change it two seconds later.

Now, Mythos is a krautrock band, but there are certainly some prog-like elements at work here. For me it's a de-evolution in comparison with their first album. They often hit upon some truly awesome passages (and I'd say those bits actually surpass the previous album), but then some of the other parts make me think more of Jethro Tull, and that doesn't impress me as much.

So, let me point you straight to the parts that make me happy. The opening track, "Dedicated to Werner von Braun," is bloody awesome. For me it begs favorable comparisons with Ashra's "New Age of Earth" or "Blackouts." It rests on a nice delayed guitar pulse and produces one of those sonic clouds of blue smoke that always gets me going. If I end up as a rocket scientist when I grow up, I hope someone dedicates a similarly awesome track to me. "Message" fights the good fight for about three minutes, but then turns me of as it opts for a flute groove instead. This happens several times until about four minutes into the title track, when we once again get a few minutes of sonic opium.

I'll recommend this album for the prog fan, but it doesn't really hit the right buttons for me for three quarters of its running time. That last quarter flies into pristine spacey essence, however. If only they focused a bit more on that.

Mythos - 1971 - Mythos

Quality: 4.25 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.25 out of 5

In many ways Mythos strikes me as being Ash Ra Tempel-lite or something. I really don't mean that as an insult since the Tempel tends to barter in insane psychedelic squealing. These krautrockers play with a little more restraint, but the music is still very imaginative and the fire does kick up a notch here and there. Mythos tends to let you drift on downstream with them a little more. There's a fine tribal-sounding rhythm section along with some very groovy, if particularly flamboyant, guitar. There's a fair amount of drifting flutes to keep your attention, too. I guess it adds just a touch of more conventional prog rock to the proceedings.

The first couple tracks are more meditative. Really, this album does manage to do an artistic job of upping the intensity until we find a few truly insane noise voids in the two part "Encyclopedia Terra." Stuck in the middle is "Hero's Death," which rides out a pretty reasonable groove for almost ten minutes. It's my least favorite track here, but it's still of fine quality. I'm more partial to the mystic mountain space jam of "Oriental Journey" with its waves of sound, or the aforementioned "Encyclopedia Terra." I think that suite is more like what I wanted to hear from the first Tangerine Dream album (I dig the goofy concept-ridden spoken word at the end as well). Electronic meditation indeed.

While this may not quite have the demon spark that possessed Can or Ash Ra Tempel, Mythos will come a long way in convincing you that sometimes a touch of restraint is worthwhile as well. Most of the key element of the more psychedelic-side of krautrock is front and center here, but it won't necessarily assault your fragile egg-shell mind as much as some of their peers will. I'm happy to give the cover art seven 'groovy points' as well.

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Mythos - 1971 - Mythos