The Cosmic Jokers - 1974 - Galactic Supermarket

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

The endearingly disreputable Kosmiche Records producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser dug deeper into his bag of ill-gotten recordings for another wild ride through spaced-out psychedelia. Our intrepid explorers from Ash Ra Tempel and Wallenstein are once again here as your tour guides, along with Kaiser and guitarist Manuel Gottsching's girlfriends spouting of reverbed verbal oddities. This time out, the energy level is much higher with the rhythm section plowing through most of the album, and if I dare say so, these Germans managed some pretty funky moments here. Maybe that's why this was originally released without the Cosmic Joker's name attached.

There are again side-long expanses of music, titled "Kinder des Alles" and "Galactic Supermarket" here, but they legitimately subdivide into about three tracks each. I guess once you've infuriated your musicians, you have trouble getting track titles out of them. Only the second part of "Kinder des Alles" really scrapes the interstellar aether, but the grooves here are uniformally first-rate and there are plenty of deranged noises riding on top of them. It's best to absorb this one all at once, but keep an ear out for the phenomenal drum work in the second section of "Galactic Supermarket." In fact, that second side probably rates a few hairs over the first in my book.

Although far from a copy of the first album, Galactic Supermarket also deserves a place in the pantheon of krautrock. This is a much more rocking affair, and I'd say that especially on this one the 'supergroup' aspect coalesces more or less completely. In fact, I can't think of any other 'supergroups' that I prefer than the Cosmic Jokers. Too bad that the joke turned out to be played on the band itself.