I only remembered Mythos as an electronic group, dominated by Stephan Kaske, so this find of the band in full-fledged krautrock mode is quite something. The band started as many of their contemporaries in the beginning of the seventies. In 1976 they'd already recorded several albums and on Superkraut, Live At Stagge's Hotel 1976 several songs originate from these albums, naturally with the focus on their latest studio release Dreamlab (1975) and coupled with several original improvisations. That's also the feel of the complete album: extended jams with a lot of jazz influences, mainly because of the echo flute played by Kaske. The music therefore resembles that of fellow German group Embryo a lot; the same continuing rock and jazzy improvisations. Listening to this album I can see why Kaske shifted his musical attention as the music isn't bad, but not particularly good either. The aforementioned Embryo performed this stuff a lot better and certainly with more originality. This makes Superkraut an interesting anomaly in the catalogue of Mythos, a valuable document of its time, but it will not become a CD you play a lot. ** André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
