Einjäger & Siebenjäger

by

Popol Vuh

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Wow, do I love this album! I got into Popol Vuh in my never-ending search for great obscure Prog records from the 70's. Popol Vuh sort of fall into that category of "German Art bands that were not really progressive but people called them progressive anyways" (like Can and Amon Duul ll.) Of course that's going by the more common definition of Prog Rock which was really Symphonic Prog (i.e. Genesis and Yes.) Using it's basic definition, this music is indeed progressive, and should appeal to adventurous Prog fans. PV don't sound anything like Can, or Kraftwerk for that matter. Their music is mostly instrumental, sometimes rocks but doesn't "RAWWK," instead being by turns very reflective, gorgeous, spiritual, spacy and uplifting. Fricke was apparently quite religious and that definitly comes through on record, despite the language barrier.

The entire record is just pianist Florian Fricke and guitarist/drummer Daniel Fichelscher, with some (very) occasional vocals by Djong Yun. Together they make some magic on this CD. Several very nice short pieces lead into the title epic, the heart and soul of this record. A long, involving and emotional jam with none of the pitfalls of most 20-minute jams: it never gets boring, and I often hit repeat and listen to it for another 20 minutes. The vocals are just beautiful, if too seldomly used. One thing you will not believe is that the same guy plays both guitar and drums. I scratch my head wondering how one instrument can be dubbed when they mesh so organically perfect that they just had to have been recorded together? On this track you can hear Florian and Daniel yelling to each other in German, probably giving each other encouragement and/or cues. You can even hear them singing along with their own jam. This must have been picked up by the drum mics, because it's way down in the mix and just adds ambience to an already great track.

The bonus tracks are good and the second one features Yun's return. They really should have used her voice more, but I won't quibble. This is a great find and for me it has incredible playability-I listen to it all the time. Recommended for the adventurous. Also great for reading, meditating, or as a late-night or...um..."romancing" CD (you know what I mean!)

Popul Vuh does it for me best when hitting with waves of mesmerizing Moog, and other keyboard splendor. In the Garden of Pharoah is probably the best example of this. EinsJager and Siebenjager is MUCH more in the vein of well executed, attractive, rather crisp and clean, progressive blues rock, albeit without anyone howling any distracting vocals.

The keyboards are limited mainly to acoustic piano and the lead instrument is a very accurately played guitar, very little is sloppy on this record.

The drumming is busy, and the entire ensemble sort of bury my preconceived notions of what I was to expect from Popul Vuh.

I was not anticipating this sort of pop from the creator of the soundtracks of Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo.

Enjoy!