Popol Vuh played large in my teenage years. Krautrocksampler aside, my number one squeeze of the time, Flying Saucer Attack, had tracks titled Popol Vuh 1, 2 and 3 I believe. There's not much of connection between the two bands, though clearly FSA felt that there was. I can remember purchasing this record from the legendary Revolver records in Bristol. I approached the counter with this and the first Third Eye Foundation record on Linda's Strange Vacation. The guy in the shop told me that there was a connection between the two. I can remember looking at the sleeve on the bus home to Wrington, trying to figure it out. There's certainly three people in the band:
Who the lady is I still don't know - the mysterious Gertig? Who's credited with Regie in Studio? Or Bettina credited with production? Then there's this picture:
Which strangely sums up the Popol Vuh ethos - two weirdy hippy types hanging out by the lake.
So In Den Garten Pharoas: Two tracks, one title track (18 minutes) and one called Vuh (20 minutes). The title track is stunning, waves lapping at the shore of the lake - congas and wailing synths. It shifts around a bit, sometimes more about drums and sometimes more about the synths. It's beautiful and like the great 20 minute songs, never outstays it's welcome.
My version of this record is a later repress on Bernhard Mikulkski, which weirdly rebadges the inner sticker as a Kosmischen Kuriere record despite it being on Pils. Discogs confirms that the original has a Pils inner.
Vuh is the krautrock tour de force. Huge organ drones and cymbal crashes for 20 minutes, a bit of a choir. The organ is from Baumberg according to the sleeve - not sure if they recorded it at the church but they could well have done. It's a huge wall of drone, a spiritual clash. This feels way longer than 20 minutes, like 20 hours of your life passes as you lose yourself in the noise. It's bizarrely impressive and I can't really think of any other group that could pull this one off.
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