Thursday, July 05, 2012

Zauberfinger 2 1981

Liese has got such a kissyneck, keep staring at it, ....[because she] found a newer way, watch her come-- she found a new of you, it was about time. You come by her tonight, she likes your style. She wants your anxieties, which are not hers, no longer. What's so great about being right, if you don't mean what you say? Don't mind public opinion if it ain't what you're feeling, insist on your opinion and never give up... it's hard work to walk the tiderope of doing what you think is best between compromise and integrity...

Now the second album from this crazy magic fingered and brilliant German band. Compositions are credited to the whole band, which comprises the amazing Hans Reffert on guitar, Wolfy Ziegler on bass, Rolf Schaude on perc, Liese Kraus as before on vocals and also saxes, Franzi Brandwein as guest musician, and additional composition by Steve Tomlin on track 4 (Kissyneck).

I didn't realize that Hans was actually one of the duo on Flute and Voice, the folky acoustic german band. What a surprise to see him do this stuff then! Later he was in Guru Guru and performed with Mani Neumaier.
Here as in the first we get the same odd but very enjoyable mixture of rock moves (note the funky intro to the first song which passes into a completely unique chord change in the chorus) with very progressive songwriting. Couldn't have been very popular commercially, could it? The writing is even more uncompromising, featuring recurrent tritones and dissonances; there is less of the classic rock chord changes to springboard from-- tragic that there wasn't a Zauberfinger 3, because they were at the peak of their abilities on this record.

Not since J F Murphy have I been so happy to feel I've discovered an amazing unknown artist that doesn't deserve to be so little known. These records are fantastic, and highly listenable.

The cover seems to be a homage to or a rip-off of the Rolling Stones' Some Girls, doesn't it?

As sample I produce for you the "Capt Beefheart meets James Brown" track-- pretty much a hollywood executive summary of the band's style in title.


Also "Das Knispel," an awesomely deranged song, check out those tritonal chords in the second part of the song.


And why did they disband after this? I'll let Liese take this one, since she spoke the intro words:
"It's hard work to walk the tiderope of doing what you think is best between compromise and integrity ... and make money and of course you have to live on it ... I'm tired of being buried in confusion, I'm sick of it."

8 comments:

Tristan Stefan said...

mp3
http://www.filejumbo.com/Download/F9EC92E5A252922E

flacs up soon

Tristan Stefan said...

http://netkups.com/?d=672f146832fe1
here as promised

Anonymous said...

zauberfinger is great, very great, greatest!!!!!!!!!

hh said...

thanx a lot, Tristan Stefan

wished I'd came in touch with them at their time, but it seems that they almost remained unknown, nationwide
a shame that (Lysa, Lisa) Lise's so rarely apears somewhere else

tried a translation from a review about a late '80s Finki performance with Guru Guru

'The band Guru Guru musically at home in
many areas. Whether Rock, Reggae, or Mambo sounds, every bit surprised the listener. In addition to the manic furious
Mani on drums, bassist Wölfy Z. and guitarist John "Lucifer" Reffert
set the singing by Lysa Kraus at scene, whose vocal power would leave even Nina Hagen herself quite nicely in the rain.'

hh stiletti

dieter said...

I know "Lucifer" Hans in person. At Zauberfinger's time I managed the "Alte Hauptfeuerwache" in Mannheim and had a lot of contact to him. The question 'why they disbanded' is very simple and lies in the personalty of Hans - a primadonna !!!. You should had seen him playing only one single wrong note in his favourite song 'Hoochie-coochie man' - he was laying for 5 minutes bent over the top of our stage piano and was crying ...... guess there is not much room for others left as well ....

Tristan Stefan said...

wow, thanks for the info...he deserves to be!
I saw from his wikipedia page that Hans was active with a number of projects or musicians, he is also an artist and sells art on his personal website. Currently he is still playing with guru guru of course. His other works from the 80s I am certain are worth seeking out, this man is genius incarnate, a true artistic fount of creativity.

sw said...

Please consider reposting the lossless files. Thanks!

Blogger said...

Get daily ideas and instructions for generating $1,000s per day ONLINE for FREE.
GET FREE ACCESS NOW

Post a Comment