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Customer Reviews of Affenstunde (Dig)

"Affenstunde": A Classic Debut From Popol Vuh!!
Popol Vuh was formed in 1969 in Munich, Germany by classically trained musician/composer Florian Fricke. The band emerged during the now-legendary German Krautrock scene which also spawned pioneering artists such as Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Neu! and Klaus Schulze. While the above bands initially used traditional rock instruments to create their 'electronic' sound, Popol Vuh was a different creature all together. Florian Fricke, having come from a wealthy family background, was among the first musicians to own a Moog synthesizer in Germany (pre-dating Tangerine Dream's Moog acquisition by four years). It is this instrument which became the primary vehicle for Fricke's early musical excursions.
Popol Vuh's debut album "Affenstunde" (German for "Hour of Monkeys") was released in 1970 and became an instant attraction because of its originality and innovative use of electronics. The band line-up for the album consisted of Fricke and long-time friend/producer/engineer Frank Fiedler operating the Moog along with Holger Trulzsch providing a vast array of percussion instruments.
The album's opening suite, "Ich Mache Einen Speigel", is divided into three parts beginning with "Dream Part 4". The track opening with sounds of rippling water before a splash gives way to chriping bird sounds and probing outer-space rhythms all created on the Moog. This first part continues in this fashion throughout its nearly 9-minute duration and becomes more dense as it progresses. The stereo-panning of the 'space' sounds are an awesome treat with headphones.
"Dream Part 4" segues into "Dream Part 5" with a swooshe of white noise giving way to a barrage of solid percussive rhythms from Trulzch. There is an occasional steeldrum sound provided from the Moog but for the most part, it's layer upon layer of harsh jagged percussion. The overall tribal effect is not too dissimilar to listening in on a drum circle in the parking lot at a Grateful Dead show.
Once again, a segue is provided from this track to next, the humorously titled "Dream Part 49". Compared to the respective spaciness and harshness of the previous two parts, "Dream Part 49" is a releatively calm meditation of misty tones and drifting chords. There is a slight Indian-style drone to this piece along with what sounds like a distant foghorn created with the Moog. A calm closing to a dynamic opening suite.
The next piece on "Affenstunde" is its title track clocking in at an epic 18:30. The track opens with the sounds of a crackling fire which in turn give way to loud percussion rhythms and bizarre electronic overtones. Six minutes into the piece, the chaos settles into a tamboura-like drone accompanied by light percussion and a whistle-like synth lead from Fricke. This raga-dance carries the piece to its finish.
The newly remastered version recently released on SPV Records displays the "Affenstunde" album in its best sound quality ever revealing its sharpness and depth which was missing on other previous CD issues. The reissue also includes a 10-minute bonus track entitled "Train Through Time" which consists of a train-like rhythms embellished by congas and hypnotic minimalist keyboard passages. A nice bonus epilogue to the original album.
The CD comes in a digpak case and includes a booklet of rare photos and tributes to the band and Florian Fricke (who passed away in 2001) written by such noted individuals as Klaus Schulze and long-time Popol Vuh collaborator Gerhard Augustin.
With all this said, it's great to finally have a definitive version of Popol Vuh's "Affenstunde" on the shelves for people to buy. This is a brilliant and timeless album of innovative electronic music from one of its early masters.
An Essential Title!!

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Without a doubt, the most untypical Popol Vuh
You might have heard Florian Fricke being one of the electronic pioneers, but if you've only heard their post-1972 works (Hosianna Mantra and onward), you'll be wondering why, since those works were dominated by piano and Fricke was, by that point, despising electronics. But all that happened after he had a religious conversion (he converted to both Christianity and Hinduism in 1972) and decided to completely change the musical direction (as well as band members) of Popol Vuh. Prior to that, Fricke had very little problems with synthesizers, as demonstrated on In den Gärten Pharaos (1972), and Affenstunde (1971), their debut, originally released on Liberty Records. Affenstunde is the original Popol Vuh, with Fricke handling a big Moog (which I understood Klaus Schulze purchased from in 1975 long after Fricke was no longer in synthesizers), Frank Fiedler handling the synthesizer mixdown, and Holger Trülzsch on percussion. The back cover shows some lady also handling percussion, although she isn't a band member, I presume she was Bettina Fricke (not sure of her relation with Florian), who produced the album. Unlike their following album, which found Fricke not only using synthesizer, but church organ and electric piano, Affenstunde is strictly a synthesizer and percussion album. The music doesn't feature any tunes or melodies, much like what Tangerine Dream was doing at the same time (in fact, Florian did make a guest on Zeit), it's mainly an experiment in various synth sounds and drones. The album only features two side-length cuts, the opening cut being the three movement "Ich mache einen Spiegel". The piece starts with "Dream Part 4" which features tons of computer sounds with a nice spacy feel to it. "Dream Part 5" is strictly a percussion experiment (which sounds like it was overdubbed, as it sound like about five different percussion instruments were played at once). Then the final momement, "Dream Part 49" is the most mellow part of the piece. It's basically synth drones, with that spacy, otherworldly feel. The album ends with the title track. It's much like the first movement of "Ich mache einen Spiegel", in that it's another experiment with computer-type sounds on the Moog, this time also with the sounds of traffic and a train horn. Then suddenly the music completely changes with a synth drone while the Holger Trülzsch goes in percussion overdrive, and Fricke gets some cheesy sounds off his synth. I believe the band was trying to simulate an Indian raga, with the Moog in place of a sitar or a harmonium. Admittedly, Affenstunde might not be to everyone's taste, particularly for the albums they're better known for. Affenstunde is no doubt to Popol Vuh what Zeit was to Tangerine Dream, but if you like off-the-wall experimental electronic music, this is the album to get.