Tips Zum Selbstmord

With a title that means "How to Commit Suicide," Necronomicon's one album, from 1972, featured bleak progressive garage rock with long instrumental passages. With wailing acid guitar solos, dark organ swirls, and angst-ridden singing in German, Necronomicon has created a dark and powerful vision that blends psychedelic and progressive music with a proto-punk garage band sensibility. They throw in some operatic vocals on several of the tracks; these are most effective in a couple places on "Requiem der Natur" to make the music sound almost like the Slovenian band Laibach. The same piece also offers an industrial droning beginning, some great walking bass soloing, bass and keyboard dueling, and a couple of melancholic folksy interludes. The title track combines proto-punk rhythmic energy with angry guitars and new wave-ish organ tones. The sound quality of this album is a bit rough, but that adds to the charm of the raw energy and despair of this underground Krautrock classic. ~ Rolf Semprebon