Embryo (3) – Embryo's Rache

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

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.