Känguru

Germany's Guru Guru, formed in 1968 by drummer and vocalist Mani Neumeier and bassist Uli Trepte, gave new meaning to the concept of the "power trio." Originally from the university town of Heidelberg, the band shuffled through guitarists before moving to Berlin. There they added guitarist Ax Genrich, previously in an early lineup of Agitation Free, and proceeded to take the guitar-bass-drum formula and turn the combination on its head. Loud, intrepid and thoroughly soaked in psychedelia, Guru Guru created krautrock of the highest order. Both their debut album UFO and the following Hinten—released in 1970 and 1971, respectively on Ohr—displayed not only the guitar acrobatics of Genrich, but also the similarly freaked-out playing from the rhythm section of Neumeier and Trepte. Their third record, 1972's Känguru, was the first of two albums for the Brain label, and heralded a change. Guru Guru play rock ‘n' roll in the traditional sense of the word, but in a paradoxical fashion. "Oxymoron" opens with a renewed sense of purpose. Here the band are musical explorers, turning to arrangement and improvisation over the acid-soaked sonics of their previous works. "Immer Lustig" ("Always Funny") features a Neumeier march at the start; but from there, the rock ‘n' roll goes sideways. The track leaves Genrich free to explore his progressively inventive fretwork and tones, only to shuffle it off to Trepte, then back to Neumeier and so forth. "Baby Cake Walk" sports another rockin' riff from Genrich and initially, a vocal to match. It may seem incongruous, but wherever Guru Guru are musically, and whatever idea they're currently exploring, it's all but guaranteed that they'll switch to something else the very next instant. Yet, it all works and in the most psychedelic of ways. While many groups were peers of Guru Guru's, few—if any—were as original or as psychedelic.