Amon Düül II - Yeti

In recent years a number of the more prominent exponents of the constructed Kraut-rock genre have received a lot of attention, with most of the platitudes being reserved for Neu!, Can and of course Kraftwerk. Amon Düül II however seem to have been bypassed slightly; maybe it's the slightly unweildy band name or the fact that the II part is confusing, or maybe it's because they've had a longer history and so aren't as defined as say Neu!, who only released a few records. I think that actually it could be put down to the fact that their sound was so multi-faceted and dense that nobody has been able to rip them off in a commercial enough way to inspire the critical name-checking. Their second LP, 1970's Yeti, is a double set featuring one record of constructed studio pieces and one record of improvisations. See if you can spot the difference. Each track is a charging, psychedelic brainstorm of imagination which for its time blew away every contemporary in the head-fuck stakes. King Crimson were still only just getting going in a convincing way (don't get me wrong, Crimson King is a beautiful LP, but it aint Yeti), and Pink Floyd never gelled in an organic enough way to reach the same heights, there's always a hint of struggle even in their best pieces. Yeti is the seminal krautrock record; without this the genre wouldn't have sounded at all the same, and so it's no wonder that Julian Cope chose to reproduce its cover for the jacket of his excellent Krautrocksampler many years later. Here are a few tracks, the first from the studio lp, the other from the improv. Enjoy.

Amon Düül II - Eye-Shaking King
Amon Düül II - Sandoz In The Rain (Improvisation)