Don't Call Us (We Call You)
Henry E. Schneider | Houston, TX | 08/11/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"By August 1973, they had replaced Bruno Schaab with Hans Hartmann, were back in the studio, and released their next album Don't Call Us (We Call You). This album was the basis for their live repertoire in the early 70s. It is a mixture of free form improvised material "Africa Steals the Show" and "Guru Guru Ltd." and orchestrated songs "200 Clichés" and "Das Zwickmaschinchen". The fifth song on this album "Round Dance" is a Shoshone Indian dance, which was intended to be part of their concerts but never had the desired effect with their audience. "Round Dance" has some beautiful interludes that could have come from the West Coast bands of the time. The improvised music was where Guru Guru excelled. Ax Genrich favored more composed music and within ten months of its release, he departed the band. As a bonus, there is a second disc with a bootlegged live audience recording from a 1973 German rock festival in Krefeld. It features "200 Clichés" from this album, "Ooga Booga" from Känguru, and "Der Elektrolurch" and "Medley" from Guru Guru. As this is an audience recording, don't expect a great sound or a stereo mix though it does capture the insanity and energy of their live performance."
Guru Guru - 'Don't Call Us,We Call You' (Inside Out) 4 1/2 s
Mike Reed | USA | 01/30/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I've heard of this 2-CD/nine track Guru Guru release before.But this was the first time I'd gotten a chance to listen to it for myself.Good price,too.I guess this was like guitarist Ax Genrich's second-to-last album he did with drummer / group founder Mani Neumeier. "Round Dance" is an okay Avant Garde piece and I really enjoyed "Das Zwickmaschinchen" which sort of reminded me of Gong, maybe. But the two cuts that REALLY blew me away were the two epics (gotta have those extra-long tunes on CD's like this), the 34-minute "Ooga Booga" which will trip any true krautrock fan to full tilt and the 16-minute mind-melter "Der Elektrolurch". Does it GET any better than this? Essential!"
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1