Search - Kraan :: Kraan

Will undoubtedly shock most Krautrock purists...

Worgelm | United States | 05/08/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...by the incredible musical virtuosity involved. This is no half-hour-long-crank-up-the-delay-pedal-and-add-goofy-phasing-effects "Kosmiche" type of Krautrock. The band is ultra-tight, and the songwriting complex and multilayered. In fact, I hear more parallels with Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and especially early King Crimson - than some of the more minimalistic and avant-garde influences that their contemporaries shared. Don't let that scare you, this is tasty, adventurous music nonetheless, helped especially by the adventurous Johannes Pappert on sax, who rams that thing through wah, distortion, flanging, and gets some absolutely FREAKY sounds out of the exercise. Helmut Hattler, as any Krautrock afficianado will tell you, can throw down groove with the best of them. He's a monster on the bass. Peter Wolbrandt (sp?) throws down some funky guitar licks to finish the jazzy stew, especially on the 18-minute monster jam "Head". The lyrics, are, well, exactly what you'd expect from some communal hippies to whom English is a second language. They don't get too much in the way of the lengthy instrumental passages.This master sounds a bit wierd, there is almost a palpable wow&flutter that seems to indicate a less-than-satisfactory master source was used, or there was degradation in the original source. Its somewhat tinny and a little slight, but its not bad enough to ruin the experience though. The extra demo tracks are the tiniest bit rawer and a bit different, but do not offer any revalations over the basic tracks on the album.Anyways, this is one of the less dangerous and off-putting of the Krautrockers, and now that it is back in print, along with some interesting liner notes and photographs, its well worth picking up for fans of fusion, prog-rock or Krautrock."

Kraans great first album

William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 06/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Kraan were a German prog band that hardly did anything in the U.S., but filled statiums in Europe in the 70s. This, their debut, is one of their best.



Like Traffic, early Kraan specialized in long jams and featured a sax plugged into a wha-wha peddal. But that is where the Traffic analogy ends. Kraan's jams shifted in and out of different time signautres, had very distinct parts to them. The solos were long and probative, but these guys never were content to pick a few chords and play. In this repect, they were like Henry Cow, using long and complex structures as a means to improvise. But Kraan gets you dancing as well as thinking.



And could they improvise. The bass player did extended runs and quicksilver moves on his Rickenbaker, making even the most complex work seem completely natural, and the drummer was light and flexable, but could turn on a dime.



This album is filled with this type of musicianship. The songs may be long, but they are anything but boring.



Kraan eventually became more song oriented, and a little commercial, though they never lost their playing expertise. But if you want to hear far above average musiciasn playing far above average art-rock, this is a great place to start."