Amon Duul II Wolf City Genres:Pop, Rock, Metal The fifth Amon Düül II studio album, Wolf City, saw the light of day in September of 1972. While its predecessor, Carnival In Babylon, had, according to Karrer, still been produced "with revolvers ... more »drawn", the recordings of Wolf City went off comparably peacefully. The same applied to the musical direction of the album, which sounded more song-oriented, not as multi-layered and more geared to Renate Knaup's unusual vocal style. Even the sweeping improvisations of earlier days were a thing of the past, with only the seven-minute opener Surrounded By The Stars coming close to the playing time of their previous cuts. Atmospheric numbers such as Wie Der Wind Am Ende Einer StraÃ?e or the brief, avant-garde Deutsch Nepal were definite highlights of Amon Düül II's creative oeuvre. Amon Düül II, the second formation of this now legendary band, are one of the earliest and best known of the German experimental (Krautrock) bands. For the complete re-issue series of the Amon Düül II catalogue, the CDs will be released as remastered deluxe editions, with enhanced booklets, featuring new liner notes and photos.« less
The fifth Amon Düül II studio album, Wolf City, saw the light of day in September of 1972. While its predecessor, Carnival In Babylon, had, according to Karrer, still been produced "with revolvers drawn", the recordings of Wolf City went off comparably peacefully. The same applied to the musical direction of the album, which sounded more song-oriented, not as multi-layered and more geared to Renate Knaup's unusual vocal style. Even the sweeping improvisations of earlier days were a thing of the past, with only the seven-minute opener Surrounded By The Stars coming close to the playing time of their previous cuts. Atmospheric numbers such as Wie Der Wind Am Ende Einer Stra�e or the brief, avant-garde Deutsch Nepal were definite highlights of Amon Düül II's creative oeuvre. Amon Düül II, the second formation of this now legendary band, are one of the earliest and best known of the German experimental (Krautrock) bands. For the complete re-issue series of the Amon Düül II catalogue, the CDs will be released as remastered deluxe editions, with enhanced booklets, featuring new liner notes and photos.
CD Reviews
More acessible Amon Dull II but also supreme!!!
PortugueseMusicFan | Porto, Portugal | 09/20/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These ahead-of-their-time germans made several masterpieces of underground rock, half-progressive half-psychedelic, each of them a unique scented experience... Wolf City, envolved in a disturbing art cover, remind us something lost in the mysteries of ancient cities, a pagan Xanadu with strange rites, remind us how human is fear... Renate Knaup is a bit sweeter here, as in "Surrounded by the Stars", the acid entrance to this album; the atmosphere is still weird with the use of keyboards (especially the choir-like one - maybe a Mellotron?!) giving the dreamy touch, used in a particularly manner; the inner design making part of the music, in a Max Ernst way of contrasting elements taken from diverse places, a collage serving as a complement of the music... Well, I wish I could visit Wolf City personally just to see this really exist!!! ANOTHER MUST!!!
"
An emphasis on shorter pieces and glorious melodies
Jeffrey J.Park | Massachusetts, USA | 01/04/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The most noticeable difference between this 1972 release and classic albums like Phallus Dei (1969), Yeti (1970), and Tanz der Lemminge (1971) is the shift from lengthy "freak outs" to shorter pieces that emphasize melody and harmony. In fact, most of the seven pieces on Wolf City are in the 3-6 minute range with only Surrounded by Stars reaching 8 minutes in length. I for one do not mind the change at all because it turns out that Amon Duul II was just as good at writing shorter pieces as they were at writing the longer pieces. The major selling point for me on Wolf City is the haunting, drifting melodies that are developed on this album - they are simply wonderful and make me forget the pieces are only a few minutes long. Furthermore, the interesting thing (and this is really clever) is that spacey, instrumental preludes and interludes are worked in here and there to create the illusion of a larger piece. The use of loads of synthesizers does not hurt either. All in all, this is a very good album that is recommended along with Carnival in Babylon (1972) which is somewhat similar."
The Best Jefferson Airplane Album That JA NEVER Made!!
P. McKenna | Atlanta GA | 02/17/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If there is a disc in which the words psychedelic and brilliant can and should be used together, this tasty offering from Amon Duul II is most definitely it!
This band never met a sound or musical style it didn't like at the time this was produced, and as always, they managed to cook up a heady psychedelic brew of rock, folk, experimental and prog stylings with rich vocals, trippy atmospheres and haunting melodies plus their every whacky miles left of center humor.
Not one bad track on here, but I have to say my favorites are the title cut and "Sleepwalkers Timeless Bridge" which ends with one of the spookiest Mellotron passages you ever heard in your life!
If only Jefferson Airplane dared to get this ambitious and really stretch themselves (they did get dangerously close on some parts of "Crown of Creation"). In the end, AD II came out the clear winner for a time.
Highly recommended.
"
Another high-point for Amon Duul II
BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 04/24/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"By 1972, Amon Duul II was starting to record more accessible, song-based material, probably in the hopes of selling more copies, as Carnival in Babylon demonstrated. Later the same year comes Wolf City, which improves on everything they did on their previous album, including bringing back some of the experiments found on early albums, while sticking to this new shorter time constraint. Falk U. Rogner had returned for this album and he started to include synthesizers, which I thought was a welcomed addition to the band's sound, and Jimmy Jackson was back with the choir organ (sounds like a Mellotron choir, but apparently holds those chords indefinately, unlike the Mellotron). Renate Knaupe has her time to shine on "Surrounded by the Stars" and "Green-Bubble-Raincoated-Man". The former has a strong, early Pink Floyd-like feel, but it's full of strange electronic effects and cool analog synth sounds. "Green-Bubble-Raincoated-Man" is a bit more on the pop-oriented side, but without forsaking the psychedelic sound. "Jail-House-Frog" is an example of the band bringing back some of their early experiments, especially the second half, with the piano, choir organ, and strange sound effects. The title track is a more aggressive rocker, while "Wie der Wind am Ende Einer Strasse", despite the German title, has a strong Indian feel to it, complete with sitar and tabla, and some really interesting use of synthesizer. "Deutsch Nepal" is more rocking, with vocals in German. The last song, "Sleepwalker's Timeless Bridge" starts off not sounding too far removed from Carnival in Babylon, but then it ends up reminding me of Gong, especially because the male vocalist here reminds me of Daevid Allen.
What certainly can't be denied here is the band is more solid than ever before. It's a must-have album, my only complaint is it's too short (something you can't say of Tanz der Lemminge or Yeti)."
Pointless "upgrade" with even more pointless bonus tracks
Mike Fey | Los Angeles, CA | 07/04/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Be warned: sonically speaking this new upgrade is no different that the version of this that was available many years ago. And the bonus tracks are of very recent vintage NOT from when this album was recorded. So if you like drum machines and samplers etc (which is what the bonus tracks use to a very noticable degree) go ahead and buy it. But otherwise you might feel royally screwed like I did after getting rid of the old versions and spending quite a bit of cash to upgrade all the albums only to find that they sound EXACTLY the same! This is a great album but this new "upgrade" sounds just as horrible as every single version of it (including the original vinyl issue) ever has."
