My second Amon Duul 2 record, purchased (I think) from Replay records circa 1995/1996?. I was introduced to Amon Duul 2 via Wolf City and pretty much wrote them off on the basis of that - it's not a great record and Cope leads you to believe that all the records on the list are stone cold classics of the highest order. I vaguely remember coming across in the racks of Replay for about a tenner or so and thinking that I'd found a massive bargain not realising that the Sunset reissues were cheap as chips.
Anyway I probably raced home and was completely blown away - this was the Amon Duul 2 that Cope promised, or it was to some extent. The weight was there, the fuzz was there in spades but then why did they piss about so much?
Kanaan is as heavy an opening as you want, all fuzz and drums and these crazy unintelligible lyrics (see it live here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuHzDQvZd4Q). But then "Den Guten, Schonen, Wahren"brings on the silliness with fake laughing and Renate's witch like cackles. Luzifers Ghilom has the best intro of any song, paned horns leading to drums and fuzz. All the band in synchronicity playing something that sounds like you want music to sound. Renate does some wailing, everything stops and then they start pissing about again. The music's great, all stop start and crazy drums but those lyrics and the stupid made up words really grate. He seems to be singing "Running through the paper plates". At the end of side 1 "Henriette Krotenschwanz" is like a throw away from a marching band record.
But it's side 2 where it all comes together. I had read in the book about the concept of a side long track and thought it fairly ridiculous and I'm not even sure if this was the first one I had come across but it's certainly one of the best. Wails and squeals leads into one of the most furious fuzz and drum parts I've ever heard and they're all over place but in a strangely together kind of way. That goes on for about 10 minutes and it's into a stupid hoe-down before going back to stupid lyrics. "I broke my magic stick!". Great. Then it returns to drums for the last part. It's basically incredible.
And that was Phallus Dei - I can't remember it having a huge lasting impact on me at the time but I've certainly come back to it over the years more than most. There's a few sleeves knocking around, the trees one in the picture above is the original, and there's the psychedelic UK sleeve which I seem to recall is pretty expensive. There's some kind of DVD movie of a live performance of the title track which I've never seen. The CD above is worth getting - four bonus tracks (instrumentals thank god) which add about 15 minutes but they're pretty good all told.
In some regards, this was to me the quintessential krautrock record. Heavy, bizarre and little bit bonkers. They weren't as cool as Amon Duul but they're records were easier to find and more accessible. And they had a violinist.
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