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Wednesday 4 April 2018

TEMPLE - TEMPLE (Mental Experience LP, CD, D/L).

Continuing with Guerssen Record’s reissue of the entire Pyramid label back catalogue via their Mental Experience imprint, the latest release is the self titled LP from Temple who were an ad–hoc outfit born out of several late night sessions at Dieter Dierks studios in Cologne circa 1976/77. As with most of producer Toby “The Mad Twiddler” Robinson’s recordings, they were made his with friends from the Cologne underground scene and other musicians from adjoining studios, among them for the Temple album just happened to be the now legendary producer Zeus B. Held who at the time was the keyboard player with Birth Control. Up to now the Pyramid reissues have been from the quite dark and experimental ambient soundscapes end of Krautrock, however Temple is probably the most "Rock" sounding of all the Pyramyd titles. It’s more a chaotic mix of Amon Düül II freak outs, early Hawkwind space boogie and the Hammond driven Psych/Prog of Birth Control than the measured pulse of Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh as Temple played a kind of heavy, dark Psychedelic Krautrock that sounded well ahead of its time with lots of loud guitars, swirling Hammond organ, atmospheric Mini–Moog/Mellotron and spacey effects with distorted & echoing vocals from the mysterious Poseidon and Pauline Fund (who also provided the spoken word interludes for the Cozmic Corridors LP). It’s not really Krautrock in the current definition of the genre but more a fantastic 70s German underground album and a gateway to the more proto heavy Goth/Psych sound that evolved during the end of that decade.

Previously unavailable until 1997 when the album turned up as a limited release on the Psi-Fi label, Temple is an absolute gem of a record and this re-issue is well overdue. Zeus B. Held’s keyboards are all over this LP and along with crunching guitars and a heavy bottom end, the opening track ‘Heathen’ has the feel of Birth Control at their best with driving Hammond pushing the track firmly into the British post psychedelic era of bands like Uriah Heep. The rest of the record flirts between Gothic Prog Rock (‘Leaves Are Falling / Black Light’), atmospheric spoken word that is very much in the style of Cozmic Corridors (‘Age of Ages’), Hawkwind-esque Space Rock chug (‘Ship On Fire’) and closes with the epic ‘Crazy Hat / Kingdom of Gabriel’ which channels Yeti era Amon Düül II. For an album that was recorded over 40 years ago, the Temple self titled one and only LP sounds remarkably fresh and fits perfectly into the modern Psych Rock landscape that is currently plundering the 70s for inspiration. More than just hazy late night studio jams, Temples consists of beautifully constructed spacey and atmospheric songs that are as good as anything that came out of the European post Psych underground towards the middle of the 1970s. Fans of the more straight ahead Freak Rock influenced German bands of this era will really dig this record.

Lovingly remastered from the original tapes and with liner notes by Alan Freeman (The Crack In The Cosmic Egg), Temple is out NOW on vinyl and CD and available from all the best record shops, the usual suspects online or direct from Guerssen Records on line. Alternatively, you can check out the album and stream/buy it from the Guerssen Bandcamp site here…………………..

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