Wacholder Crystal Palace 1978 Krautrock, Fusion, Space Rock, Jazz Rock, Prog Rock

Wacholder - Crystal Palace 1978 (Krautrock, Fusion, Space Rock, Jazz-Rock, Prog Rock)

Wacholder were a short-lived German band,formed in Berlin in 1976.Better known for the presence of future Eloy keyboardist Michael Gerlach,the line-up consisted also of guitarist Christoph Rinnert,drummer Jakob Peter,bassist Mathias Berner and guitarist Martin Röder.The debut ''Crystal palace'' came out in 1978 on Resco.

The opening cut ''Der sunder'' on side A is actually very interesting.Instrumental Mix of Kraut Prog,Space Rock with a touch of Fusion on the guitars and interesting keyboards.''Quasimodo-Bar-Blues'' is not in the same level.Very light-weight instrumental Jazz-Rock with influnces from Blues and Funk,way too commercial,long and boring.Another instrumental number,''Time of your life'' will close the side,this one is better but still far from essential,blending of Kraut Rock and light Fusion with no surprises,but good work on clavinet by Gerlach.

The flipside will open with the totally amateur ''Marokko'',a try of the band to mix Ethnic,Fusion and Kraut with a bad result,horrible vocals and only a couple of good solos on guitars and synths towards the end.''Tolstefanz'' contains again bad vocals,the music is not better in a Kraut Rock motive mixed with Rock'n'Roll.The closing ''Kanabis'' starts with acoustic guitars,synths and vocals and who shines again?Gerlach with his nice work on synths and electric piano,the guitar solo doesn't thrill me at all.

''Crystal Palace'' would be far better if it had a better production and was totally instrumental.There is also a chaos regarding the influences that make the album far from tight.Still some decent moments like the opener will make it worthwhile for a never-stopping prog-collector.
Private press LP.apps79 Dec 17 2010



A1 Der Sünder 0:00

A2 Quasimodo-Bar-Blues 5:50

A3 Time Of Your Life 12:59


B1 Marokko 18:08

B2 Tolstefanz 24:32

B3 Känäbis 29:50


Berner, Matthias
Ecker, Andreas
Gerlach, Michael
Peter, Jakob
Rinnert, Christoph
Rinnert, Stephan
Röder, Martin
Röder, Matthias