I recently bought this German bands first LP on cd and was pretty impressed - don't expect Krautrock (whatever that is)- more a sort of post-psych west-coast melodic mix. A long way from Can or Amon Duul(they even cover The Letter) but still rather good and certainly sounds much earlier than 1974. I only read one or two reviews (below) which are rather dismissive but I think there are a lot here who would enjoy it. It also has a nice psych cover!
Anyhow most of it is up on Youtube-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2EIrAQFXPw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXyDxlEbY6o
These were amongst the most dismissible mainstream of "progressive" rock bands from Munich, typical of the mid-1970's I suppose, with a light progressive edge, in the German equivalent of the Audience cum Wishbone Ash type of vein. Andy Marx was previously with the similarly easy listening but more folky styled Tanned Leather.
Their debut OUR SUNRISE is only of marginal interest, having some enjoyable moments. We haven't heard the second! Take note of the interesting cast of guests on both of these.
Cherubin were a band from the early 70's German scene that is often lumped into the Krautrock genre, even though they are extremly American-Anglo sounding to me. This album is a strange combination of slightly progressive songs in a jazzy rock style, a bit like Karthago (with their heavy percussion arrangements), and West Coast hippy country rock, similar to bands like the Burritos, NRPS, Poco, Pure Prarie League, etc.
It's interesting to point out that the second song sounds, to me at least, like a blatant rip-off of the Youngbloods song "Darkness Darkness".
Listening to both Cherubin albums, it's obvious that these guys were top-notch musicians, which is confirmed by the list of artist that some of these guys played with in the years after the break-up of Cherubin: John Fogerty, Robert Palmer, Simon Phillips, Larry Coryell, Alphonso Mouson, Klaus Doldinger, Oakridge Boys, Boxcar Willie......
All-in-all, an interesting album that is worth having, but not really worth going out of your way to find. Just don't expect any sort of typical "Krautrock sound.
Hi Paul,thanks for the heads up on this album,i just received it today,and i enjoyed most of it,its a nice mix of (as you said)a post psych US West coast sound mixed with a soft progressive pop sound....thanks for the recommendation and i picked the cd up pretty cheaply which was good,i could imagine the artwork looking awseome on an album sleeve as you miss its beauty on a cd sleeve,very nice artwork indeed.