Mythos ~ Germany

Dreamlab (1975)

Even though I've owned Dreamlab the longest, it's the Mythos album I'm the least familiar with. It's much more cosmic than the heavy Krautrock of the debut or the weird hybrid of prog and hard rock that the follow up Strange Guys brings. Lots of echo flute, mellotron, synthesizers, and some rock rhythms define this excellent work. Kaske fortunately keeps his mouth zipped for most of this, though his voice isn't as offensive as usual here. I slightly prefer Side 2 as it's a bit more dynamic. Overall, Dreamlab very much fits the vibe of the Cosmic Courier movement, which was close to shutting down shop by the time this was released.

Ownership: 1975 Kosmiche Musik (LP)

5/22/89 (acquired); 9/15/22 (review)

Concrete City (1979)

Mythos, under the direction of Stephan Kaske, were always an odd bird. Never fitting convention, they went on to release a number of albums that do not fit any preconceived notion. Concrete City was the latter of two "normal rock band" albums from Mythos. Kaske couldn't sing to save his life, but yet he continued on cluelessly here, always offsetting that weakness with his brilliant flute and synthesizer play, and having the smarts to employ an excellent guitarist. I can assure you, Concrete City sounds nothing like anything you've heard prior - yet it is familiar all the same. There's symphonic progressive, electronic, NDW, AOR, and hard rock all within the confines here. I find this album more enjoyable now than ever. One of those unique albums that are worth holding onto. Not one to win any awards, but well worth your time to give an ohr.

Ownership: 1979 Venus (LP)

1992 (acquired); 2008; 12/22/15 (review); 7/29/19; 5/7/20

Quasar (1980)

Mythos' first two releases (Mythos, Dreamlab) are classics in the Krautrock / electronic rock genre, but the next two albums were relatively mundane straight ahead hard rockers (though I've since reconciled with both). So I never bothered to check out their two 1980s releases on Sky, as I didn't think they'd amount to much (and, truth be told, Grand Prix didn't amount to much). However it turns out Quasar is definitely a creative effort, with quirky electronics and fast paced mechanical (and fortunately some real) drums. Stefan Kaske still sings in his ridiculous out of tune low voice, but is sporadic and fortunately buried in the mix. Some really great synthesizer work here, plus it's nice to see Kaske not abandon the flute, and he puts the instrument through many effects to achieve a cool sound. Innovative effort, unlike any other album really. Like a New Wave / Berlin School / Krautrock album. I personally think it's their best album after Dreamlab.

Included as a bonus on the CD is one 10 minute collage of TV jingles and other such advertising music, that has been processed utilizing modern equipment and heavy dance beats. Not a good choice, as it belies the excellence and unique creativity of the Quasar album itself.

Ownership: 2012 Sireena (CD). Digipak. Historical liner notes and photos. These liners from band leader Stephan Kaske are quite telling. He's a techie geek! Most of the discussion revolve around the equipment he purchased, discussed in nauseating detail, along with his considerable glee that he didn't have to work with annoying bandmates anymore. Haha, spoken like a true cube dweller. He apparently missed his calling as an engineer!

Reading some criticism about the CD mastering on RYM and Discogs. I was surprised to read this, since it sounds great to me. Further research shows the complaints seem to center around track 9 (light) and track 11 (heavy). No idea what the issue with track 9 is, sounds excellent to me. The music is not linear to begin with, so I think that criticism may be misplaced. Track 11 is supposedly distorted. Listening with headsets and I do not hear any distortion beyond the Moog being laid on thick, which by definition, could be considered distorted. In the same manner as the guitar is in heavy metal. At the very end of the song there's a tiny bit of wobble on tape. I'd have to hear the LP again to see where the discrepancies between the two are. Unfortunately there hasn't been any pushback to these harsh reviews, and I can't find anyone else making the same claims. I'm beginning to wonder if they just got a bad CD.

1//08 (LP acquired); 4/9/11; 5/9/12 (review); 12/27/24 (update)

Mythos (1972)

I recently spoke in reverent tones about Germany's Ohr label in the Annexus Quam Osmose review. We continue our Captain Trip Japanese mini-LP tour with Mythos' debut, yet another classic from the Ohr creative freak factory. The cover's cartoon art is quite telling: We have some sort of winged eyeball ruler sitting on a tree stump (or is a rockpile?) with legs crossed, wearing a nifty pair of what looks like PF Flyers. What he's thinking about or what's he's doing there is anybody's guess, but there's a better than good chance his brain flew away after digesting the contents of the album. The back cover may be even better: Three eyeballs wearing viking helmets stand ready to do battle with knives and... carrots ... and ... ice cream cones! Honestly they look like Marvin the Martian hit a tab of acid after taking in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. All in day-glo yellow and pink. You don't even need to hear a note and already know it's a classic.

We begin with the 3 minute 'Mythoett', where band leader Stefan Kaske shows off his somewhat Tull-ian flute demonstration. A classically motivated piece, the bass and drums drive the piece forward for a pleasant, if not overly creative opener. Acoustic strumming with an Eastern motif introduces the appropriately named 'Oriental Journey'. Kaske's voice enters and is heavily processed. In later albums, his voice was not processed. Let's just say - be grateful it's affected. Sitar is added as well, giving it the right amount of exoticism. After a couple of minutes, we hit our first "Ohr moment", as spacey flute and bass guitar are put through the mixer in a completely zoned out cosmic way. Cymbals bash, and hand percussion thumps. It's Krautrockian. It's Ohrrockian. It's the work of the Cosmic Joker meister himself: Dieter Dierks. Scorpions be damned. To this point, however, the album is relatively "normal". Then comes 'Hero's Death', and it's time to get all freaky. And downright heavy metal, with a diabolus in musica guitar riff. Disembodied voice enters in while Kaske goes Edgar Froese on us. Which means play the guitar as loud as hell and we'll worry about notes later. You will drown in the strings mellotron against flute mid-section. The heavy metal returns. Fierce, driving and floating. The album cover art is starting to make sense. Bum-bum-bum-bum-badum badum goes the bass. Bum-bum-bum-bum-badum-badum. Epic.

And we're only now getting to the side long track: 'Encyclopedia Terrae'. We're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy, but in the land of the mutated Marvin the Martian. The planet Ohrian. The death march snare drum. The matching bass. The harmonious guitar. Loud, acid guitar thank you. Not Number 9! Bring me K-9! Then Mythos sounds the air-raid alarm. It's serious and it's for real. Synthesizers emulate war sounds while snare drums snap in the background. Bombs are everywhere - no place is safe. The viking eyeballs are winning! In the aftermath we hear church bells and chirping birds as we walk amongst the ruins - synthesizer and bass mournfully play along to the beat. Where better to insert a mellotron blast?

Echoed electric guitar strums as Kaske narrates in heavily accented English: A long time ago there was a man who didn't want to live in this world of killing and fighting anymore. Fully convinced that mankind would improve and become more peaceful during its evolution, and being a man of genius, he built a machine which would enable him to sleep as in death. A hundred years later the machine was supposed to wake him at which time he hoped to find a better world, one that would be worth living in. One hundred years passed.... The machine woke the man, but although nearly everything had changed, mankind hadn't. So the man turned his machine and kept returning to it until the 32nd time, when he awoke to find that there was no more life on Earth. (music stops except one sparsely played synth) There was no bird in the sky, no fish in the sea, no tree and no flower. Man had killed all the plants, all the animals (guitar strums again) and at last even himself leaving the Earth a dead bowl in the universe. Seeing this, the man sat down on the bleak ground and tears ran down his cheeks. His lungs inhaled the deadly air and darkness closed in about him as he followed all the others to a place of no fighting and no killing, no grief, no envy and no sorrow. Would you like to know the name of this place? It's called Eternity and the only gate you must path (sic) through to enter it is the one which separates life and death.

Word.

Ownership: 

1972 Ohr (LP). Gatefold as described above.

2008 Captain Trip (CD). Papersleeve gatefold.

1991 (acquired); 8/19/08 (review); 12/10/21

Also need to review Strange Guys.

6/9/09 (new entry)