Cravinkel

Released on the Phillips label in 1970, Cravinkel, the English spelling to the last name of the German band's guitarist (Gerd Krawinkel). They recorded this album in London with producer Rainer Goltermann The group's self-titled debut features ten short tracks, only a couple of which are longer than four minutes. The music is a mostly straight-forward Brit-rock sound augmented with blues, West Coast country, folk, and psychedelic. There are some hippy-esque tunes like "Get A Feeling Going Round" and "Candlelight" which sound a bit different.

The quartet made a second album ?Guards of Lonliness?(1972), But changes in the musical directive, and new members coming on signaled a change. Another album came but the musical tides had switched. The band had splintered by the mid-70s.

Gerd "Kralle" Krawinkel later got involved - together with Peter Behrens and singer Stephan Remmler - in the early German new wave scene in 1980. The guitarist played on six albums with Trio (of "Da-Da-Da" fame)as well as numerous singles.

Even though I think it might not appeal to most Krautrock fans, the debut album does have a unique sound, sort of in the vein of the Anglo sound of that era. They don't really sound very German at all and have kept the accents well hidden.

Cravikel Bassist Rolf ?Mick? Emperor died in 1997 from lung cancer.

As a bonus, the CD reissue of 'Cravinkel' contains the group's only single, 1971's "Keep On Running" / "Mr. Cooley".