Embryo (3) – Embryo's Rache

I also had a chunk on side B that hit the needle, I should have clean it! Anyway it plays with light background noise throughout mostly music overpowered it but this js not a godd pressing. I clean it a few times with okki nokki and nothing seems to get rid of that background noise. It is also not flat, there is a light warp. Avoid this one. It sounds well but probably from a digital source.

Received a copy with a nasty pressing defect. There was a chunk of stray plastic pressed in to the B side. Sound quality was pretty good until my needle hit that chunk. Wish I noticed beforehand haha.

Masterpiece of German freak jazz fusion. An essential part of any serious Krautrock collection.

How about the sound of this release? Any opinions? Thanks

My record has two plain white labels and no stamps at all.

My copy has 'EMBRYOS RACHE Schneeball 30561 LC5372 A' stamped in green ink on Side 1. Side 2 is a plain white label.

Anyone know what the sound quality of this reissue is or how it compares to some of the more recent reissues? Thanks!

I have heard only a few Embryo albums, and I always felt their second album, Rache, is one of their best, along with Steig Aus. Rache finds them in Jethro Tull territory at times, particularly in the flute department. That is particularly noticed in the opening cut, "Tausenfüßer". The ethnic influence is noticed in the percussion. "I Can't Wait" shows the weak point of the album: the vocals and lyrics. The vocals are obviously done by a guy who barely has a grasp of the English language, and the lyrics are very badly written. On the other hand they really shine instrumentally, so for me it's easy to block out the vocals and lyrics, because even this cut is full of fantastic organ and clavinet playing, with some nice jamming. "Revenge" continues with this fantastic jamming, except this time all instrumental, with some fantastic Mellotron provided by Jimmy Jackson (who played with the likes of Amon Duul II, Ray Charles, and apparently Tangerine Dream on Electronic Meditation, though not credited). The band lets their politics be known on "Espagna Si, Franco No". Here they're boycotting a visit to Spain because they opposed Franco (understandable, ironically they actually did perform there, which surprises me, since I assume the country would have barred the band from performing there thanks to this song). Again that weak point of this album shows again with the badly written lyrics and poor English, which makes me cringe when I hear them, particularly the part that goes, "Revolution is the only way". Again, I prefer the instrumental side of the song, more funky clavinet and organ playing, and some just fantastic Mellotron playing makes up for the lyrical and vocal shortcoming. "Sittin at the Moon" is a piece I really dig for more of that funky clavinet playing, while "Verwandlung" features some more killer Mellotron, this time with tron strings (Jimmy Jackson seems to favor the tron brass). For all you Mellotron fans, this piece needs to be heard!

Despite the lyrical and vocal shortcomings of this album, I still find it a mindblowing combination of prog, fusion, and world music, and I'm glad to have discovered Embryo, a band I've been aware of for years, but only recently started owning anything from them.