Gomorrha - Gomorrha + Trauma. 1970-1971 Germany

Gomorrah (1970): Interesting to hear this album after absorbing the English language Trauma for a number of years. On the plus side, it's always great to hear a band sing in their native language - at least it is for me. But the big difference here is that the debut is clearly a product of the psychedelic 60s, whereas Trauma is more geared toward the 70s Krautrock / hard rock underground. The vocal harmonies and psychedelic fuzz solos are the blueprint for any great psych album coming from the US in 1968/69. Even the long cosmic track is toned down a bit here, at least in comparison to the molten 1971 Trauma version. Definitely an album you'll want to get as a bonus to the Trauma album, which most of the CD's possess. On its own, it's not worth tracking down, especially if you already know what the followup brings.

Trauma: In many ways, Gomorrha's Trauma is like the My Solid Ground album. At its core, Gomorrha are a straightforward psychedelic hard rock band. Perhaps a very good psychedelic hard rock band, but nothing more than that. But there's the one centerpiece track that calls a much greater attention to it. And it's monumental in scope. With My Solid Ground it's the 13 minute+ 'Dirty Yellow Mist'. And with Gomorrha it's the 13 minute+ title track, which is a magnificent psychedelic Krautrock piece just oozing with underground atmosphere. The loud acid guitar leads and droning organ chords go a long way to sending the message down that, yes indeed, you are in 1971 Germany.
 
As is well documented, Trauma is the English language recording of their self-titled debut. But that was a full year before, and the band had honed their skills just that much further since then. The variation in sound is significantly different, and you'll want to own both for comparison. And it's easy to do so, as most of the CD reissues feature both recordings on one disc. Make no mistake, Trauma is a huge improvement on the debut, at least for cosmic Krautrock fans.

And to think, they actually improved from here on I Turned to See Whose Voice it Was.

For those keeping score, here's the matrix between the re-recording 1971 Trauma and the 1970 Gomorrha album:

A1: Journey =  A4: Reise
A2: Trauma = B3: Trauma
A3: Yesterday = A6: Gestern
B1: Lola = A1: Lola
B2: Dead Land = A2: Totes Land
B3: Summer = B2: Sommer
B4: Rainbowlight = A5: Regenbogenschein
B5: Dance of Circles = B1: Kreiseltanz
B6: Firehands = A3: Flammenhände

Ownership: CD: 2013 Long Hair. Jewel case. Excellent presentation with full liner notes and sounds great. This replaced the Second Battle copy that I obtained from a friend (1998). 

2/24/98; 2008; 1/8/14 (new entry); 10/16/23

Gomorrha - I Turned to See Whose Voice It Was. 1972 Germany

For the 3rd album on the legendary Brain label, the very cleverly titled I Turned to See Whose Voice It Was (referencing the Biblical story of Lot's wife no doubt), I can recommend this one easily. Now this is true hard styled Krautrock. The kind of album where fans of complex progressive rock go scratching their heads wondering what the big deal is. It's underground rock, baby. Nothing more than simple blues rock motifs, gruff vocals, pounding drums, organ shards, and the cherry topping is the long stretches of fuzzy guitar solos, all played at "11" of course. And since it's on Brain, naturally Conny Plank was at the controls, so you can expect all sorts of echoing, phasing, and every other studio trick that just plain sounds cool. So while not necessarily memorable, it is the kind of album that sounds great while playing it. And really, isn't that when it matters most? So strap your seat belt on, plug in your air guitar, and get ready to jam. Best track is 'I Try to Change This World' (9:31). According to the liner notes of the Repertoire CD, this was it for the band, and they quit music and went into the workforce. A pity really.

LP: 1973 Brain
CD: 1997 Repertoire
LP: 2013 Long Hair

Originals come in a fine gatefold cover. Apparently the original press comes in a non-laminate cover with spelling mistakes in the inner gatefold.  The second press (1973) fixes these while laminating the cover. Apparently most of these laminates have peeled through the years. This is the version I own and can validate this finding. The CD on Repertoire is excellent, as were all of their Brain releases, with unique liner notes, photos, etc...  The Long Hair LP adds new liner notes.