The fourth album by German space rock specialists Guru Guru, 1973's GURU GURU consists of five long, guitar-based instrumentals akin to Hawkwind's spacier moments.

Guru Guru: Bruno Schaab (bass guitar); Mani Neumeier (drum); Ax Genrich.

Personnel: Ax Genrich (vocals, guitar); Mani Neumeier (vocals, keyboards, drums, percussion); Bruno Schaab (vocals, bass guitar); Konrad Plank (guitar, keyboards).

Liner Note Author: Matthias Mineur.

Author: Mani Neumeier.

Photographer: Tai M. Ldicke.

Translator: Veronika Gruber.

One of the great Krautrock/prog groups, Guru Guru were given to long, exploratory tracks, laden with guitar solos and pixie dust. This 1973 album--the band's fourth LP--finds them in long-form mode, with five bluesy tracks that bend and wail and refract in a pleasantly lysergic manner.

The self-titled fourth album from this Krautrock underground group is a fierce display of droning fuzz psychedelia that easily holds its own on the shelf next to the Stooges' Funhouse, Can's Tago Mago, and Kraftwerk's first three albums. While the group remains one of the more obscure footnotes in the German psychedelic underground, their first three albums were profoundly influential of the global neo-psychedelic scene, with groups such as Spacemen 3, Bevis Frond, Nurse With Wound, Fushitsusha, and High Rise citing this album as a key influence. While the lineup changed periodically throughout the '70s, the core group of Ax Genrich on guitar, longstanding member Mani Neumeier on drums and keyboards, and Bruno Schaab on bass cut this masterpiece with the aid of Krautrock legend Conrad Plank on guitar and keyboards. This sprawling, guitar-driven workout relies on a couple of chords and a heavy dose of distortion worthy of early Hawkwind with riffs as crunching as Black Sabbath. One of the defining albums in the movement known as space rock or drone rock, this album is well deserving of the attention of those tuned into that axis. ~ Skip Jansen