November 11, 2018 - Amon Düül II - Between the Eyes (1970)

Ready your senses, bow to your sensei, because it's time for a visual and aural psychedelic salami tsumani tsunami (that's the one) from German rockers Amon Düül II. This is the essence of trippy, right?... Between the Eyes.

"What is this that stands before me?" - Black Sabbath...right, what are these ghostly purplish images? And what is that temple back there? Orc drums and whistling electronic sounds are joined by a menacing bass line.

At 0:25, giant swampy AMON DÜÜL II letters fade into view. Nice. The guitarists come alongside the main riff and the intensity builds. At 0:57, they turn the amps up to 11 for that extra push over the cliff and we are swept into the next movement.

We get an actual view of one of the band at 1:03, and it's our mustachioed pal, the multi-talented Chris Karrer. He rises to the moment, belting it out like the house is on fire. At 1:13, bassist Dave Anderson bops into view all shady cool.

Things change suddenly at 1:20 as the band leap into a new section of music. Don't get comfy, folks, because at 1:54...another change. Catch our breath, bass lopes along, Karrer is back on the electronics, then he switches to violin. It all quickly turns crazy. Whoa.

At 4:00, the band ready themselves for the finale and we experience a brief intermission. We hook onto the riff they're composing and the roller coaster heads towards its last summit. Everyone rocks out, and I especially love the mighty drumming of Peter Leopold. Whew, I need to have a little lie down after typing this one out.

Between the Eyes shows up as a 2:30 bonus track on a couple of Amon Düül II albums. This six-minute version is, as far as I can tell, only available on a legally sketchy German DVD called Krautrock- Volume 1.