Occasional Albums Thing 013 - Various Artists “The In-Kraut Vol. 1-3”

As this and the next post will show, I’ve not only got a thing about coloured vinyl, I also have a thing about weird and wonderful instrumentals, whether because they’re plain ol’ weird and wonderful or because of who is playing on them. I’m cheating again as “The In-Kraut” is once more a series of double LP’s, beautifully packaged and extensively annotated and all on coloured vinyl, Vol. 1 on clear vinyl and Vol.’s 2&3 on White vinyl. There are a lot of cover versions of well known tunes scattered amongst some genuinely bizarre German originals sometimes featuring people who would go on to greater success. Not all are instrumentals but there’s a healthy sprinkling on all 3 volumes.

As examples of the instrumentals Hugo Strasser and Dieter Zimmerman both have a go at British hard rock classics, “Black Night” and “Whole Lotta Love” respectively, with Dieter and his Zep cover, which actually brings some guitar to the rave up, just shading it over Hugo and his horn driven homage to Deep Purple. A band known as The German Top Five actually do a real good job on The Mohawks “The Champ”, you can barely tell the difference. Bizarrely an original Mohawks 7” is significantly cheaper than the German Top Five’s album on which their version appears. Elsewhere the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra make a groovy job of instrumentalising the Stones “Jumping Jack Flash”.

It’s on the original songs where things start to get weird. Memphis Black was a former American serviceman who stayed in Germany. His “Why Don't You Play The Organ, Man” is a bass heavy trunk o’ Funk. Wind back 4 songs and we find Hildegard Knef telling us what a terrible time she’d been having since birth in “From Here On It Got Rough”. Vivi Bach & Dietmar Schönherr tell us about their “Molotow Cocktail Party” over the sort of musical backing you expect to see dancers flinging them selves around to on 70’s variety shows. It’s sung in German but invites you to “Bringt man statt Blumen Dynamit mit” (Bring dynamite instead of flowers) and they are inviting “Anarchisten und Faschisten, Monopol-Kapitalisten” (anarchists and fascists, Monopoly capitalists), not sure that’s making BBC prime time ! Mary Roos “Blauer Montag” is another tune you would instantly recognise, from advertising I think, an advert where the people from the Ferrero Roche adverts are sitting around drinking posh 70’s booze. BTW it translates as “Blue Monday” and was originally released in 1970, nothing’s new huh ?

James Last makes an appearance (how could he not) on Vol. 2 with the soulful in only a way a German could conceive it “Soul March”, which features the sounds of marching men and somewhat militaristic drumming. “Swinging London” by the Hazy Osterwald Jetset is the sort of thing written by someone who was patently never a part of swinging London but just read about, which makes it strange for it to be so very appealing. Inga’s German language version of Sonny & Cher’s “The Beat Goes On” is extremely Teutonic and somewhat unsettling.

Possibly the craziest thing on these comps is “Kamera Song” by Inner Space. Inner Space were Holger Schüring (aka Czukay), Irmin Schmidt and Jaki Liebezeit who many of you may recognise as the founding members of Krautrock giants Can. “Kamera Song” was the B-side of Inner Space’s only single release (the A-side was “Agilok & Blubbo (Thema No. 1)”) in 1968. It’s a dreamy ditty with tingling bells sung by a breathy, almost in tune young lady…”Helleluwah” it ain’t !

Imagine the soundtrack to a film similar in nature to those “Austin Powers” things, but one that doesn’t feature Mike Myers and is therefore enjoyable rather than teeth grindingly annoying…and the soundtrack you’d have would be “The In-Kraut…”.

Mary Roos “Blauer Montag” - https://youtu.be/n9_uSxEJKqE?si=3G8BZOO2rHOmjLzc