Plain and Fancy: 07/15/26

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

rep>>> Kin Ping Meh - Kin Ping Meh II (1972-73 germany, great hard prog rock, remastered edition with bonus tracks)

Torsten Herzog and Willie Wagner left Kin Ping Meh in 1972. The band had already been expanded with Alan Joe Wroe (bass), Uli Gross (guitar, although he left again within months) and Gagey Mrozeck (guitar, ex-2066 & Then). 'No. 2' (1972) followed the path of its predecessor - it was filled with great quality heavy progressive rock.

Just like the debut album 'No. 2' was produced by the Hamburg team of Achim Reichel/Frank Dostal (Rattles) and recorded in the Windrose Dumont Time studios. Once again, Conny Plank was the sound engineer. One year later, Plank set up his own studio near Cologne and built his own monument by producing the first four Kraftwerk records. On 'No. 2', Kin Ping Meh followed down the path they had taken the year before - straight rock with no experiments, resulting in unspectacular, but highly powerful rock music.

All in all, the second Kin Ping Meh album seems to show them in an even more relaxed mood and offers not only catchy rhythms, but almost pop-like elements. The first two songs ('Come Down To The Riverside' and 'Don't Force Your Horse' are typical Kin Ping Meh rock. The next song, a cover version of the Beatles' 'Come together', ends on a well-done jam (the 'Together Jam'). And just like the debut album, 'No. 2' has its calmer moments as well ('Livable Ways' and 'Day Dreams').

The LP ends with the lively 'Very Long Ago' and 'I Wonna Be Lazy', written by Reichel and Dostal. As bonus tracks, this CD contains the single B-side version of 'Sometime' (1973, Zebra 2047002; the original version can be found on the debut album) plus the single A-side 'Sunday Morning Eve' (1973, Zebra 2047004)

by Matthias Mineur

Tracks
1. Come Down to the Riverside (Werner Stephan, Uli Gross) - 3:12
2. Don't Force Your Horse (Uli Gross, Dr. Grossenmaier) - 3:46
3. Come Together (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 6:00
4. Together Jam (Kalle Weber, Torsten Herzog, Fritz Schmitt, Gagey Mroze, Uli Groß, Werner Stephan, Willie Wagner) - 4:54
5. Liveable Ways (Uli Gross, Frank Dostal) - 8:02
6. Day Dreams (Werner Stephan, Uli Gross, Dr. Grossenmaier) - 7:32
7. Very Long Ago (Willie Wagner) - 2:55
8. I Wanna Be Lazy (A. Reichel, Frank Dostal) - 3:04
9. Sometime (Single Version) (Willie Wagner, Frieder Schmidt) - 4:33
10.Sunday Morning Eve (Gerhard Mrozeck, Uli Gross, Alan Joe Wroe) - 3:58

Kin Ping Meh
*Kalle Weber - Drums, Percussion
*Torsten Herzog - Bass, Vocals
*Frieder Schmidt - Organ, Piano, Mellotron 400, Vocals
*Willie Wagner - Guitar, Vocals
*Werner Stephan - Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Percussion
*Uli Gross - Electric, Fingerstyle Guitar
*Gerhard Mrozeck - Guitar

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rep>>> Various Artists - The Electric Asylum Vol. 2 (1969-74 uk, more rare acid freakrock)

These are obscurities -- and you better believe they are very obscure when the most well-known artists are Steamhammer and the Montanas -- from the late '60s and early '70s, and about as much early hard rock (with some prog rock elements as well) as psychedelia. With all due respect to the estimable Past & Present label for digging into a genre that reissues haven't explored much, it's doubtful that comps such as these will launch as much collector enthusiasm for the style as specialist reissues did for freakbeat.

The material is largely somber, the arrangements on the heavy side, and the songs not too memorable, if often tightly played and well produced. These are the kinds of releases that, in any era, clutter the bins of ill-distributed records that very few people have heard or are familiar with; these just happen to be ones belonging to the British early-'70s hard rock division. You can hear echoes of Jimi Hendrix, Spooky Tooth, Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, the Jeff Beck Group, Jethro Tull, and the like, if usually in a less lively and ebullient mood, but nothing that's going make you wonder why these acts didn't get bigger.

The inclusion of a couple pretty pointless covers of well-known tunes by big stars (the Deep Set doing Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" and the Treetops singing the Moody Blues' "Gypsy") doesn't help. On a more positive note, Josephine Levine's vocals on J.C. Heavy's "Mr. Deal" add welcome spice to what otherwise is a pretty testosterone-heavy set, and Steamhammer's "Windmill" has a lighter, dreamier, more psychedelic feel than their predominantly blues-based output (and the rest of this CD). And no, the Iron Maiden who do "Falling" here are not the famous metal band of the same name.

by Richie Unterberger