EULENSPYGEL — 2 (review)

Album · 1971 · Proto-Metal

3/5 · 2022-05-28
siLLy puPPy

EULENSPYGEL was a bit different than most of the early German Krautrock bands that emerged in the beginning of the 1970s. While most European bands with the exception of the Italian ones were opting to ditch their mother tongue in lieu of English lyrics, a few steadfast bands chose to stick to what they knew best and sang in their own national lingo. This particular band was one of the few who stuck it out in German and paid the price of marketability in the process. Apparently a variation of the spelling that came from Till Eulenspiegel, a protagonist of a German chapbook that was published in 1515 however the 20th century band EULENSPYGEL was actually the next step of The Royal Servants who released a single album and then changed their name, hence this debut album being titled with the number 2.

Considered one of the politi-rock bands of the era, EULENSPYGEL’s lyrics dealt with criticism of Western society, capitalism, environmental degradation and not surprisingly the Vietnam War. Unlike many Kraut bands of the 70s, EULENSPYGEL stuck it though the entire decade and disbanded in 1984 although it only released four albums in the timeframe. Initially, the line-up consisted of Detlev Nottrodt (electric guitar, vocals), Matthias James Thurow (electric guitar, violin, mellotron, sitar), Ronald Libal (electric bass), Mulo Maulbetsch (vocals), Günter Klinger (drums), Cornelius Hauptmann (flute, saxophone) and Karl-Heinz Großhans (keyboard). That’s right, seven members but it was Haptmann and Großhans with their classical training that were the primary songwriters of the band.

Despite the disturbing album cover art of a baby chick sitting in a frying pan with another dead chick and frying egg which caused an uproar, EULENSPYGEL’s musical style was somewhat of a mix between the keyboard driven hard rock of bands like Birth Control and Frumpy only with moments of jazz and folk added for flavoring. Despite the classical training, EULENSPYGEL 2 sounds more like a jamming process with some improv thrown in for good measure. The general melodic constructs are closer to Deutschrock than progressive Krautrock but there were enough twists and turns, time signature deviations and psychedelic organ runs to let them into the prog club. The band Lied des Teufels comes to mind as the closest musical relative due to the German lyrics, melodic hard rock motifs and prog accoutrements however Rufus Zupall also may be warranted as a comparison.

The album featured six tracks of varying length with the two tracks “Son My (My Lay)” and the multi-suite “Das Lied vom Ende” with playing times of over ten minutes. The album is fairly uniform in its approach with incessant organ driven hard rock not unlike the Deep Purple or Atomic Rooster sound only with occasional flutes, violins and harmonica which at times sound out of place. The musicianship is generally top notch but the band never really reached the level of virtuosity of similar styled bands of the era. At times tracks like “Staub auf deinem Haar” are a bit funky with receptive bass grooves so the album offers a tightrope act between super accessible and marginally experimental. Overall EULENSPYGEL was not one of those cosmic trippers but rather played it safe with a style of psychedelic hard rock that happened to adopt a few jazz and folk elements.

Perhaps my least favorite aspect of EULENSPYGEL are the lead vocals. They are neither horrible nor pleasing. They are just average and although they get the job done i’m not too keen on this guy’s German pronunciation. German doesn’t have to sound so harsh and this singer exaggerates the harshness. All is pleasant but really EULENSPYGEL 2 doesn’t really excel in any particular way either. This is a play it safe sort of album where the band applies a prog by the numbers approach and i’m talking the most accessible prog of the early 70s. This has never been a band that offers a lot of appeal but yet when i listen to this album it’s not offensive or misconstrued in any way. It’s just not as good as countless other albums from the same era. Oh and that album cover really is awful! WTF, chuck? LOL