My Solid Ground

This obscure Krautrock record from 1971 has long been considered a classic of the genre, and the first track, the 13-minute "Dirty Yellow Mist," certainly lives up to its reputation, as the group goes into dark space rock that sounds like something between Pink Floyd and Thirsty Moon, with lots of long keyboard drones, a crunchy guitar riff, some acid guitar licks, and some distorted spoken vocals, as well as some higher-pitched wordless chanting. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the record does not live up to the promise of that first track, coming off like a typical early-'70s hard rock band, with belted vocals and maybe some occasionally interesting guitar work. "That's You" has enough energy to be proto-punk, and certainly its chorus of "do you wanna die" doesn't weaken that impression. Far more notable is the track "The Executioner," a sinister piece that alternates between echoed-spoken vocals and intense guitar solos. The rest of the original album is too mainstream, but thankfully the CD adds another album's worth of bonus tracks, and some of these are really good, especially the original full-length version of "Flash," a 24-minute tour de force of guitar solo blitzkrieg between a variety of segued pieces, some of which are far better than the two-minute cut that ended up on the LP. Other bonus tracks include some instrumental versions of songs and a stripped-down version of "Dirty Yellow Mist." ~ Rolf Semprebon