(KrautRock) Alcatraz - Live Trockeneis Zum Frohstuck (1980), Germany - 1980, FLAC (tracks)

A mysterious band, Alcatraz recorded just the one album at the notorious Wümme Studio (as used by Faust) and then promptly disappeared. Nothing at all is known of their history. But, what an album they left behind! With that unmistakable Faustian Kurt Graupner recording sound, their music featured fuzzed guitars and effects overdose in a heavy and bluesy over-the-top Krautrock akin to Frumpy and Nosferatu. Rüdiger Berghahn sounds like a male Inga Rumpf by the way! Though barely known, Alcatraz were remarkable in that they bridged and mixed together genres that no one else did. In fact, they pulled out all the stops to come up with one of the finest slabs of eccentric heady Krautrock. It's a masterpiece beyond doubt, right down to the deranged guitar blitz finale "Piss Off!"

As an addendum to the above, after publishing "The Crack In The Cosmic Egg" we were surprised to learn that Alcatraz didn't make just the one album, and in fact went on to make a further three at least...

Apparently, hassles with band members being forced to leave due to military service and such like, put the band on-hold several times, and with such a long break before the second LP a lot had changed. ENERGIE PROGRAMM IN ROCK still had three original members, with Klaus Holst's notably Faust-like guitar present, but musically it was closer to Floh De Cologne or Lied Des Teufels, being a mixture of progressive rock and theatre in German, with an obscure eccentric feel to it. Sans keyboards, but with one Rainer Hansen on winds, the live third LP saw an instrumental return to the jazzy edge of their debut, but also felt a little more like later Kollektiv or many other jazz-rock band of the era, a style which mellowed further on NO. 4, with a very much 1980's styled cross genre jazz-rock with a funky edge, akin to instrumental "guitar" Zappa, or the likes of David Torn or Terje Rypdal & The Chasers.

It would seem, in the long-term, that Alcatraz have been a band that goes along with whatever the underground "fashion" is at the time, i.e. moving to political rock, to jazz fusion, and even more out-on-a-limb with HOLM that fuses many past Alcatraz styles into a borderline death/Goth-metal, often veering dangerously close to the likes of Sepultura, et al.

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Path: ...\Alcatraz - Live Trockeneis Zum Frohstuck (1980), Germany @FLAC

01 -=- 01 - Unfung.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
02 -=- 02 - Samba Pardon.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
03 -=- 03 - Heinos Beerdigung.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
04 -=- 04 - Wock im Watt.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
05 -=- 05 - Alcaselteam.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
06 -=- 06 - Arabische Nachte.flac -=- CDDA (100%)
07 -=- 07 - Trockeneis Zum Frohstuck.flac -=- CDDA (100%)

Summary 100,00% CDDA

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