Amon Düül II - 1981 - Vortex

Amon Düül II 
1981
Vortex

01. Vortex (5:50)
02. Holy West (5:09)
03. Die 7 feten Jahr' (4:33)
04. Wings of the wind (4:50)
05. Mona (5:01)
06. We are machine (5:16)
07. Das Gestern ist das heute von Morgen (4:30)
08. Vibes in the air (6:27)


- Renate Aschauer-Knaup / vocals, tambourine
- Jörg Evers: bass, acoustic & electric guitars,
synthesizer
- Daniel Fichelscher / drums, acoustic guitar, percussion
- Chris Karrer / acoustic & electric guitars, violin, saxes
- Falk U. Rogner / synthesizers

+ Lothar Meid / bass (6)
- John Weinzierl / guitar (7)
- Stefan Zauner / piano, synthesizers

Amon Duul II in a better form than in the two very disconcerted previous works. Their sound of course turns to something more mainstream but the songs are for a large part composed with a better taste. For the initiative, Daniel Fichelscher tries here to reform the original Amon Duul II notably with the return of Renate Aschauer-Knaup on vocals (very prominent for each tune). the alchemy of their debut are not evident in these short, rather conventional & polite songs but there's a few traces of eccentric ingredients and typical Amon Duul's soundmark (on "vibes in the Air" and "Wings of the wind" which reiterates with the "Wolf city" and vive la trance" era). Not too many ballads, some cool folk instrumentations, solid rock structures with nice electric guitar sections & dense sax parts. A rather inegal effort but there's some convincing reminiscences of fundamental sonorities which have made the band's originality.