Amon Düül 2 Yeti

Allmusic: The second album by Amon Düül II, 1970's Yeti, is their first masterpiece, one of the defining early albums of Krautrock. Yeti consists of a set of structured songs and a second disc of improvisations. It's testament to the group's fluidity and improvisational grace that the two albums don't actually sound that different from each other, and that the improvisational disc may actually be even better than the composed disc. The first disc opens with "Soap Shop Rock," a 12-minute suite that recalls King Crimson's early work in the way it switches easily between lyrical, contemplative passages and a more violent, charging sound, and continues through a series of six more songs in the two- to six-minute range, from the ominous, threatening "Archangels Thunderbird" (featuring a great doomy vocal by mono-named female singer Renate) to the delicate, almost folky acoustic tune "Cerberus." The improvisational disc contains only three tracks, closing with a nine-minute stunner called "Sandoz in the Rain" that's considered by many to be the birth of the entire space rock subgenre. A delicate, almost ambient wash of sound featuring delicately strummed phased acoustic guitars and a meandering flute, it's possibly the high point of Amon Düül II's entire career.

Tracks:
1. Soap Shop Rock:
a) Burning Sister (3:41)
b) Halluzination Guillotine (3:05)
c) Gulp A Sonata (0:45)
d) Flesh-Coloured Anti-Aircraft Alarm (5:53)
2. She Came through the Chimney (3:56)
3. Archangels Thunderbird (3:30)
4. Cerberus (4:18)
5. The Return of Ruebezahl (1:35)
6. Eye-Shaking King (6:37)
7. Pale Gallery (2:11)
8. Yeti (Improvisation) (18:00)
9. Yeti Talks to Yogi (Improvisation) (6:06)
10. Sandoz in the Rain (Improvisation) (8:55)


yeti