Popol Vuh: Affenstunde (1970) Review | Are You My Mayan Men, Are You Now?
Kronomyth 1.0: Bedtime for bongos.
Nineteen seventy was the year that German electronic music arrived in the form of debut releases from Kluster, Kraftwerk, Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream. Affenstunde may be the most unsettling of the lot, featuring forty minutes of “music” with nothing more than electronic sounds and drums. The record is divided into two works. Iche Mache Einen Spiegel begins with electronics (Dream, Part 4), then percussion (Dream, Part 5), then electronics + percussion (Dream, Part 49). Affenstunde balances the electronics and drums for a more organic feel. More than their contemporaries, Popol Vuh challenges the idea of What is music? With no melodies and transient rhythms, the listener is forced to expand their lexicon of sound to accept electronic flutters and thumps as music. In some ways, Popol Vuh is like Tyrannosaurus Rex’s evil mechanical twin. Both presume that you’ll be in a heightened state when you hear this music and that twenty minutes of some dude playing the bongos is perfectly justifiable. But there’s no denying that Popol Vuh does stretch the muscles of your imagination even as it suspends your judgment. The album’s title is translated as “monkey hour” or “ape hour,” and it’s tempting to view this music as just some German hippies monkeying around with a Moog synthesizer. I suspect, however, that what we’re hearing is the dawn of a new age in music that was intent on painting sounds with sticks and circuits instead of wind and strings.
The Product
A. Iche Mache Einen Spiegel
A1. Dream, Part 4 (8:40)
A2. Dream, Part 5 (4:50)
A3. Dream, Part 49 (7:35)
B1. Affenstunde (18:57)
All songs written by Popol Vuh.
CD reissue bonus track
5. Train Through Time
The Players
Frank Fielder (synthesizer, mixdown), Florian Fricke (Moog synthesizer), Holger Trülzsch (percussion). Produced by Bettina Fricke and Gerhard Augustin.
The Pictures
Cover design by Bettina and Steffen.
The Plastic
Released on elpee in 1970 in Germany (Liberty, LBS 83 460 I).
- Re-issued on expanded, remastered compact disc in 2006 in Japan (Arcangelo, ARC-7182) with one bonus track.
