30 Jahre Live (30 Years Live)

Performer: Guru Guru
Producer: Mani Neumeier
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: Guru Guru: Roland Schaeffer (vocals, guitar, saxophone); Luigi Archetti (vocals, guitar); Peter Kuhmstedt (vocals, bass guitar); Mani Neumeier (vocals, drums, percussion); Razem R�bel, Damo Suzuki (vocals); Ax Genrich, Hans Reffert, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Michael Karoli (guitar); Gunter Reger (saxophone); Ingo Bischof (keyboards); Mandjao Fati (bass guitar); Butze Fischer, Samson (percussion). Good grief, did we really need this?! What?! A three-disc, 30-year retrospective of live Guru Guru, as it was entering into its (shudder) fourth decade as a going concern. Drummer and spiritual leader Mani Neumeier is teamed with the "classic" Guru Guru lineup of Roland Schaeffer, bassist Peter Kuhmstedt, and guitarist Luigi Archetti at the 1998 Finkenbach Festival, looking over the band's then-30-year career and celebrating it with the familiar fractured funk and disco, playfully pretentious psychedelic insanity, and absurdist live skit show. Disc one presents the band jamming live on a set of songs (mostly from all vintages) -- "Ooga Booga Special," "Jet Lag," and "Moshi Moshi" are all included on the nine-cut set -- along with bonus track "Rastafari in Bayuwari." Disc two, called "Supersession," has Neumeier inviting up Damo Suzuki and the late Michael Karoli (Can), Ingo Bischof (Kraan), and Ax Genrich, Butze Fischer, Hans Reffert (former Guru Guru), and Japanese guitarist Uchihashi Kazuhisa. This set is a mess. Lots of guitar wanking, but that's about it. The third disc in this package is something to get excited about in that it comes from a 1971 fan tape of the band in Frankfurt. There are three tracks on it, all of them long jam tunes -- "Bo Diddley," "Babycakewalk," and "Oxymoron." Despite its sonic inferiority to the more modern sets included here, the dynamics, spontaneity, and sheer craziness that this band was capable of in their true 1971 prime is pure excitement. 30 Jahre Live is for the hardcore faithful only. ~ Thom Jurek

One of the original groups of the now famed Krautrock movement of 1970s Germany, Guru Guru positioned themselves quite clearly on the psychedelic rock end of the musical spectrum, considerably more so than their more proto-techno and ambient oriented colleagues. A predominantly instrumental act, Guru Guru mixed elements of free jazz, world music, and heavy American acid rock to create their sound. The band called it quits at the dawn of the 1980s, but have proven to be a quietly influential act on a host of contemporary psych bands.

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