Amon Duul 2 / Made in Germany

	If the world-spread followers of Germany's oldest, premier rock
band Amon Duul II thought that the turbulent history of the band had
caught up with them when ADII broke up (temporarily) in late-1973-they
were all quite mistaken. A year's "rest" and a new producer A&R Director
Jurge S. Korduletsch of Munich's Lollipop Records-brought AD II out of the
shadows of Herrsching's Lake Ammersee in the fall of 1974. 

	Their musical drive restored, Amon Duul II returned to the studio
in October, 1974. Duplicating the same near spontaneous creative surge
that gave birth to their First album "PHALLUS DEI" in 1968, ADII and
Korduletsch produced the "HI-JACK" album in just 2 days of sessions. When
Atlantic/ATCO Records A&R Director Jim Delehant (already familiar with the
oeuvre of ADII) heard an advance tape at "HI-JACK" in November, he was
astounded. The album was subsequently released through Telefunken Records
in German y shortly before Christmas, 1974, and Delehant signed the band
to Atlantic/ATCO simuItaneousIy.

	When "HI-JACK" was released on ATCO in March, 1975, the
underground response was predictable. A certain mystery and tacit
notoriety greeted the album's appearance, the same veiled regard that had
accompanied the releases of their four previous LP's in America. Yet Amon
Duul II was already beginning to undergo the rigors of a band 'back on the
road. 

	Veteran German bassist Lothar Meid, who'd played with ADII in
1971-72 (and recorded the "CARNIVAL IN BABYLON" LP with them) had rejoined
the band in 1974 to record "HI-JACK." Meid, unable to leave his lucrative
studio session work to start touring with ADII, left the group directly
following the release of "HI-JACK" in Germany. Then Hobby Heibl, who'd
been with ADII around the time at their "VIVE LA TRANCE" album, was
recruited as bassist in January, 1975. The same month, ADII brought in
another member, singer/composer/guitarist Nando Tischer, whose work has
begun to figure significantly in ADII already. 

	Along with Nando and Hobby, the members of Amon Duul II are now
all familiar: Renate Knaup (vocals), Chris Karrer (vocals, guitar, banjo,
violin), Peter Leopold (drums, percussion), FaIk-U. Rogner (synthesizer,
organ), and John Weinzierl (guitars). of course, all seven members are
active composers. 

	With personnel intact at the beginning of 1975, ADII and
Korduletsch began to formulate their follow-up project to "HI-JACK," a
work that would encompass recording, staged presentation in concert form,
and film of the entire production. They went into th e studio in May,
1975, and the results are their second ATCO album, "MADE IN GERMANY"
released August, 1975. 

	"MADE IN GERMANY" is the quintessential statement of Amon Duul II
at this point in their career. It is proposed by Korduletsch that,
although there have been several concept-type albums tram Germany over the
rock years, "MADE IN GERMANY" ranks as the country's first proper rock
opera. Its sources are as timeless and varied as German history itself. In
it the listener finds a program of characters, events, and cultures as
mystifying yet as familiar as the country that spawned them, with a climax
more terr ifying than any of ADII's staunchest followers could have ever
predicted.

	 The album's opening tango, "DREAMS," written and sung by Nando, is
an abrupt beginning, a cabaret tune of frustrated love sung by Eva and
Adolph: "Dreams are our connection, dreams for satisfaction. " The trilogy
that follows, "LUDWIG/THE KING'S CHOCOLATE WALTZ./ BLUE GROTTO" concerns
the mad fairy tale King Ludwig of Bavaria, whose ironic detachment from
reality poses the perfect prelude for "5.5.55," the heavy metallized rage
of Germany's post-war economic ascent and its effects on a numbed, scarred
generation. 

	"EMIGRANT SONG," sung by Hobby, is jarring in its folk-style
recount of the heavy German immigration to the U.S. after World War I. The
side closes with an outrageous parody, "LA KRAUTOMA," an otherwise bizarre
instrumental treatment of the familiar folk tune, "La Paloma" done 'kraut 
rock' style, featuring Chris Karrer's guitar. 

	The cutting edge vocal of Renate Knaup on "METROPOLIS" begins side
2, a deliberately retrospective lyric of the burgeoning German culture of
the 1920-30's that gave rise to the Third Reich eventually; the era
epitomized by Fritz Lang's ageless film of the same name. Nando's "LOOSEY
GIRLS," among the most simple and unforgettable melodies on the album
(featuring evocative saxophone work from guest Bobby Jones), is another
post-war lament, focusing on the pitiable Fraulein-wunder ingenues bred by
Germany. 

	Nando's stage rocker "TOP OF THE MUD" follows, hinting back at the
essential plot of "MADE IN GERMANY," clarified in Chris Karrer's velvety
climax: The dream of "MR. KRAUT'S JINX," a subtly hypnotizing space-tale
of the events that bring the album's characters together as an
extraterrestrial Teutonic rock 'n roll band out to conquer (and eventually
destroy) the world in an apocalyptic closing, the explosion of the
dream-"... 'cause future ain 't tomorrow future is today."'

	With "MADE IN GERMANY" and "HI-JACK," Amon Duul II re-establish
their hold on the creative future of rock coming out of Germany-all of
Europe, for that matter. As "MADE IN GERMANY" whimsicaly prophesizes at
its closing what could happen if ADII's long-overdue presence in America
became reality-those who've followed the group for almost ten years now
sit patiently and await the inevitable.