Rainer Degner, known as the guitarist of the 60s beat group German Bonds, had a passion for the old German children's song "Meister Jakob". This is also the name of the studio project (featuring session musicians). This is one of the first psychedelic albums in Germany and is therefore a very interesting and unusual listening pleasure. Not only members of the Rattles are involved in this project, but also old acquaintances from German Bonds times, namely Peter Hecht and Dieter Horn, who in addition to their normal career with Lucifers Friend produced several unusual albums under pseudonymous names, including many productions under the Europe label. An example would be the band Electric Food.
The only album by Bokaj Retsiem released on the Fass label, and their name is the result from the backwards spelling of "Meister Jakob”. The listener can expect an excellent psychedelic album with a very good lead guitar, wobbly keyboard and crazy ideas. On the tracks that contain the word "Bokaj" in their name, snappy corruptions of the topic "Meister Jakob" are given at best. The highlight of the album for me is the beat number "I'm so afraid", which contains an extremely long fuzz guitar solo with wonderful feedback. "Bokaj Retsiem" is another relatively unknown gem from the interesting late '60s.
Tracks
1. So Bad - 6:04
2. Classic Bokaj - 0:29
3. It's Over - 4:21
4. Only A Child - 0:53
5. Sad Bokaj - 0:50
6. I'm So Afraid - 3:38
7. Bokaj Retsiem - 5:43
8. Bossa Bokaj - 0:30
9. Pill - 4:49
10.Something's Wrong With Bokaj - 0:45
11.Drifting - 4:39
All compositions by Rainer Degner
Bokaj Retsiem
*Rainer Degner - Guitar, Vocals
*Peter Hecht - Keyboards
*Dieter Horns - Bass, Vocals
*Noam Hazeid Halevi - Drums, Percussion
1970 Asterix - Asterix
1970 Lucifer's Friend - Lucifer's Friend (2008 remaster)
Thank you very much!
ReplyDeletefilename in cue sheet needs to be changed, though...
Anonymous, there is no reason to rename the cue sheet, open the cue splitter, select the specific cue sheet and all the tracks will appear immediately ...
DeleteThe musicians that played here, also made the Hell Preachers Inc. "Supreme Psychedelic Underground" record, but with the addition of the vocalist George Mavros, who also sung with Electric Food and Asterix.
ReplyDeleteEl Guajaolote is correct, these projects are loosely by the same group with Mavros not appearing on this one. These bands are generally credited as having Rainer Degner on guitar (and lead vocals with Bokaj Retsiem), Peter Hecht on organ, Dieter Horns on bass & Joachim Rietenbach on drums. But it's not entirely clear which releases Peter Hesslein (Lucifer's Friend lead guitarist) played on. This album credits Rainer Degner, but the Hell Preachers record supposedly features Hesslein as well as Degner, though the lead guitarist on both releases has a very similar style and sound..
DeleteI believe that Peter Hesslein didn't actually played on Hell Preachers Inc. As you already said, the style on this and HPI is identical, so i'm tempted to say that it was solely made by Rainer Degner, while in Electric Food, Asterix and Lucifer's Friend, Peter Hesslein took off the job of lead guitarist for that band.
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