Frumpy 2 by Frumpy (Philips 1971)
Old-fashioned, but certainly not dowdy or shapeless
Frumpy 2 Tracklist
1. Good Winds
2. How the Gypsy Was Born
3. Take Care of Illusion
4. Duty
Frumpy 2 Lineup
Rainer Baumann: Guitar
Carsten Bohn: Drums
Karl-Heinz Schott: Bass
Jean-Jacques Kravetz: Keyboards
Inga Rumpf: Vocals
Produced by Rainer Goltermann
These days there is a bewildering array of categories for progressive rock bands, like: proto prog, neo prog, prog metal, math rock, symphonic prog and heavy prog. In the early nineteen-seventies, there were just three broad groups: first were the almost household names, for example, ELP, Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd, who enjoyed strong album sales and played large venues; next came those bands, such as, Greenslade, Camel and Steve Hillage, who had moderate chart success, but rarely broke out of the club scene; and finally there were the avant-garde and Krautrock bands, for instance, Tangerine Dream, Can and Kraftwerk. Although the term seems derogatory now, it was often synonimous with quality and tended to be a collective term for German electronic experimental music. However, it also included heavy, progressive and jazz-rock bands from Germany (Birth Control, Jane, Grobschnitt, Guru Guru), as well as those from continental Europe (Golden Earring and Wigwam). British expatriots based in Europe, Gong and Nektar, were even branded as Krautrock. The Krautrock bands were relatively obscure and could be glimpsed listed in Virgin's mail order advertisements in the Melody Maker or on the back of Brain label compilations in record shops. Frumpy were one such German heavy and progressive rock band, with a bluesy feel, and I have to confess, before commencing, that I had heard of them, but never heard them. Frumpy 2 is their second and most highly regarded album.
The dissonant slide guitar and Hammond organ of Good Winds is redolent of Yes's much later Shoot High, Aim Low, making one wonder if the latter stored away memories of their support act for future reference. Inga Rumpf's voice is almost masculine in its depth and psychedelic in the use of echo, while also being buried in the mix. At around 3:40 minutes, the noisy first part gives way to a lengthy instrumental passage beginning with the classically trained keyboard player Jean-Jacques Kravetz's church organ-like Hammond. After two minutes, he is allowed free reign, with a rising solo sounding like a combination of Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson. Rainer Goltermann's production adds dynamism and the passage is propelled by the rhythm section of Carsten Bohn and Karl-Heinz Schott. Kravetz is joined by Rumpf's aaah-ing and the section culminates in a guitar solo. Rumpf closes the track with a final chorus.
If Good Winds predicts eighties Yes, the next track, How the Gypsy Was Born, reflects Stones of Years from ELP's contemporary Tarkus, although Rumpf is bluesier and grittier than on the opener. A cult figure of German heavy rock, Rumpf's raw blues technique seems partially at odds with Kravetz's symphonic progressive leanings. Kravetz and guitarist Rainer Baumann, on the other hand, play solos off of each other in a similar style to John DuCann and Vincent Crane of Atomic Rooster. At the halfway mark, Good Winds, appropriately, evolves into a heavy version of Paul McCartney's Eleanor Rigby, before becoming another whirling Hammond and Jon Lord-style 'Space Truckin' workout. Bohn's bouncy drumming compliments the organ perfectly.
Kravetz hits the ground running on Take Care of Illusion, which continues in impact where Good Winds left off. This is Rumpf's show and she provides a powerful performance, enough to send shivers down the spine of this listener. Baumann adds a great guitar solo, before the track closes on the vocals following the keyboards.
Rumpf gives a folk-blues feel to Duty, a song about a deserter betrayed to the Nazis by his parents. Kravetz compliments her with a touch of mellotron strings. Whereas Take Care of Illusion belonged to Rumpf, this is Baumann's tour de force, on which he plays an extended, but tasteful, guitar solo with plenty of wah-wah - in a Jimi Hendrix/Robin Trower/Tony McPhee style. By the second half he is soloing over a basic beat that sounds like a cross between The Groundhog's 3744 James Road and Roxy Music's Bogus Man (both of which came later). The keyboards re-enter giving an indication of what it would sound like if dancehall star Klaus Wunderlich were to join the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Carsten Bohn and Karl-Heinz Schott's playing is particularly original and devoid of cliche on the closing track, but they deserve credit for being the driving force of the band. Bohn went on to work for jazz-rock luminaries, Jan Hammer, Jack Bruce and Colin Hodgkinson.
Frumpy 2 is chock-full of ideas, which constantly come & go and ebb & flow. Throughout, Kravetz's keys are dominant, but balanced with guitar and spurred on by a tasteful rhythm section. If you like the heavy rock inclined, keyboard-led progressive rock bands of the seventies, such as ELP, Yes, Refugee and Atomic Rooster, you will enjoy Frumpy 2. Indeed, all of their seventies material is worth hearing as is Jean-Jacques Kravetz's solo album, Kravetz (1972).
Although sometimes compared with Deep Purple, Frumpy also had a lot in common with Atomic Rooster. When Chris Farlowe joined Vincent Crane's band on vocals, Rooster successfully combined their doomy progressive rock with a soulful feel. Yet, Inga Rumpf's vocals do not quite fit with Frumpy's symphonic approach. Ironically, when Frumpy later became the Free-like blues rock band, Atlantis, Kravetz remained, but his keyboards slipped more into the background, while Rumpf came more to the fore (sounding like a female Paul Rodgers). Surprisingly, it seems the difference was in the guitar players. The first two Atlantis albums, Atlantis and It's Getting Better (both 1973), although different in style from those of Frumpy, compare favourably in quality to the latter's seventies output.
Over forty years later, Frumpy are classified on Prog Archives as 'eclectic prog', which is actually a fair summation (considering the definition of eclectic, from the Oxford online dictionary, is [adjective] deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources).
April 2013