My Solid Ground - My Solid Ground (1971)

"A little known hard rock and psychedelic band, who just made the one album, My Solid Ground were amongst the most obscure of acts on Bacillus Records, but these days they are much better known amongst Krautrock aficionados.

The band originated in 1968 from the town Rüsselheim, with the line-up: Willy Waid (drums), Uli Weyrauch (bass) and Bernhard Rendel (guitars, vocals). Establishing themselves as a psychedelic hard-rock band, unbefitting their name they were never a solid or stable band, with one Werner Geilenkirchen playing bass for a year before being replaced by Karl-Heinrich Dörfler. Gelling the sound proper was Ingo Werner on keyboards, however it seems that he kept leaving the band and returning. Various early demos and sessions (a whole albums worth) can be heard now on the Second Battle CD reissue of their sole LP release MY SOLID GROUND, showing their roots and diversity of invention.

The LP itself is most notable for the tracks that feature keyboardist Ingo Werner, like the opening cosmic kind of Thirsty Moon-like opus "Dirty Yellow Mist" (a Krautrock classic) and the disturbingly sinister "Executioner" amongst them. Most of the rest of the album was more typical Teutonic hard-rock of the era, but with an inventive flair, a few surprises notably, and a nod in the direction of Guru Guru. A schizophrenic album maybe, but such variety also makes it unique.

Scarcely two months after recording the LP, the quartet went to Baden-Baden's SWF radio to record a unique and remarkable session that showed the band advancing in leaps and bounds. The session, all instrumental by the way, consisted of four pieces that totally mix-up every My Solid Ground style into what often sounds like classic early Gila, with swirly keyboards and sizzling guitar, with nods to both classical rock and Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive".

Werner, Dörfler and Würsching, it seems, had all left the band before the album was released, and thus Rendel brought in Bodo Gross (drums) and Günther Mildenberger (keyboards) and My Solid Ground continued at least until 1974, though never made a further album. Early members: Waid and Geilenkirchen later formed the hard-rock band Indianapolis. Werner formed the experimental band Baba Yaga, who made two albums, and later worked in the computer music trio A.I.R.. Bernhard Rendel is still active as a musician today, and a collection of his current "one man band" demos are used to fill-up the SWF Radio session disc." (Crack in the Cosmic Egg)

Dirty Yellow Mist
Flash Part IV
That's You
The Executioner
Melancholia
Handful Of Grass
Devonshire Street W1
"X"
"Y"
"Z"
Flash (original full length version)
The Executioner (different mix)
Handful Of Grass (different mix)
That's You (different mix)
Dirty Yellow Mist (different vocals)

Bernhard Rendel - Guitars, Vocals
Karl-Heinrich Dörfler - Bass, Vocals
Andreas Würsching - Drums, Percussion
Ingo Werner - Organ, Piano

Not my rip - EAC-SEPARATE FLACS-LOG.CUE.ARTWORK - thanks to original uploader

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