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Gurumaniax, "Psy Valley Hill"
Guru Guru were one of the finest groups of their era, the closest any of the krautrock groups to the progressive rock of Gong or The Soft Machine but still they stood apart. They contained enough rock and blues to make them accessible but pushed these forms into new shapes thanks to their impressive improvisations. Containing both Mani Neumeier and Ax Genrich, Gurumaniax are an almost complete reunification of the classic line-up of Guru Guru. The name change is in part due to the passing of bassist Uli Trepte whose large shoes are now filled by Guy Segers. This album is the result of one week’s work in the studio and sounds as vibrant and stunning as Guru Guru ever were.
There are few classic bands which can claim to be as vital today as they were in their heyday. Faust have done well for themselves in not only being as good as they ever were but have divided into two equally exciting Fausts. On the other hand, Kraftwerk have become the Tony Bennett of krautrock who do a great live show of hits but show little to no capacity for any new creativity. Gurumaniax sit nearer to Faust than to Kraftwerk in this regard. Their intentions are in the right place and several times they come very close in generating the same uninhibited excitement that Guru Guru did all those years ago.
Much of Psy Valley Hill follows the same path as seminal Guru Guru albums like UFO and Kang Guru; the DNA of rock’n roll being spliced, rearranged and reassembled into something that still retains the vigour of the music but works in previously inconceivable way. "Spaceship Memory" drags the seminal Guru Guru piece "Space Ship" through a time warp, the unmistakable guitar riff re-tailored and set bursting through the cosmos before arriving at the same sprawling expanse of a distant galaxy as the original. This time, the instrumentation sounds earthlier as if these are celestial explorers returned to ground and trying to recreate the psychedelic experiences of unknown geometries and new colours for the benefit of those left behind.
"Voodoo Touch" begins sounding like a pub band doing something Krautrock-influenced but the impeccable drumming of Neumeier brings the piece around to stranger territories. As the piece progresses, the other instruments start vibrating away from anything resembling pub rock. It sounds like it is straightforward blues-influenced rock but the layering of instruments and drifting of structures open the music up into a wider, genre-free existance. The same sensations of an almost nostalgic rock style being co-opted into something newer and stranger run through the album’s climax "For Uli T." (dedicated of course to Trepte). While the piece never progresses in a way I expect it to, its slinking bass line provides a audible monument to Trepte’s own style.
Overall, this is a fun album but not a true return to the brilliance that Guru Guru were capable of in their heyday. However, for a group of musicians who must be eligible for their bus passes Psy Valley Hill is a monster. Neumeier certainly sounds like a man less than half his age (in fact, he sounds tighter in places than he did with Guru Guru!). Plus the fact that Gurumaniax seem to be truly into what they are doing unlike any of the cash cow reunion bands that are clogging the release schedules and music festivals over this last decade counts for a lot.
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