Guru Guru
Hinten

LA RECENSIONE

"[...], Miss the target, deflect the action to find the creative space and use soundscapes connected to historical images by deconstructing them at will; Guru Guru find the ideal ground for expression and perhaps, precisely because of the absolute consistency, and despite the little notoriety, they must be considered among the first under the list "misunderstood geniuses". *

_{* A. Aprile & L. Majer (European Progressive Music)}

An excellent start for an equally excellent album.

"Hinten".

1971.

Second album by Guru Guru after the overwhelming debut with "Ufo".

Hinten, at first listen, decidedly resumes the instrumental & stylistic themes of the first work while not being a pale epigone of it.

It is also impossible to deny an influence, a "west-coast" contamination (Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix) on the ample psychedelic and "cerebral" sound of this German group "lost" between electronics, hard rock, free and experimentalism of all kinds à la Can or Ash Ra Tempel (of the beginnings).

The impact of the proposed music is literally devastating, right from the "open track", "Electric Junk", a true "electric nirvana" featuring piercing guitar incursions supported by powerful and pounding drumming (Mani Neumeier, group leader), percussive experimentalism, and vocal parts reduced to a minimum (moreover in German, an acidic and really not very pliable language that nevertheless blends well with the aforementioned sound).

Increased from the first album is also the dose of "non-sense" expressed especially in tracks like "The Meaning Of Meaning" and "Bo Diddley", a true exaltation of a grotesque, absurd, surreal "semi Zappa-like" sound seasoned with curious sound and percussive effects of distinctly acid-lysergic flavors and with a "torrential" guitar progression peculiar to Guru Guru.

"Space Ship" shines with its own light, a gem of Kosmische Musik, which just like "Ufo" stands apart from the rest of the album to introduce us, with its eleven minutes, to the deepest, ethereal, and sidereal cosmos. An "alien", hypnotic and totally devoid of musical structures music.

In this case, the famous "label" coined by Rolf Ulrich Kaiser, Kosmische Kuriere, truly fits well.

"[...]... Break out of the shell, shatter the real, offend normality ...[...]". *

This is Hinten.

These are the Guru Guru (hypothetical) misunderstood geniuses.

_{* A. Aprile & L. Majer (European Progressive Music)}