eclipsed No. 138 / 3-2012

THE DOORS
Mr. Mojo risin' and fallin'

Everything was different when the Doors went into the studio in November 1970 to record their sixth studio album "L.A. Woman". The band was more experienced than ever and yet everything felt different: new producer, new studio, new members and a new structure in the band. On the occasion of the re-release of the last album with Jim Morrison eclipsed spoke with Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek - and had the complete back catalogue commented.

AGITATION FREE
Hippies forever!

Nobody expected this reunion - least of all the participants themselves. Gustl Lütjens, Michael Hoenig, Lutz "Lüül" Graf-Ulbrich, Michael "Fame" Günther and Burghard Rausch have revived the Krautrock legend Agitation Free. The Berlin freaks, all around sixty, will not only play live in 2012, but also record a new studio album. A hustle and bustle as if it hadn't been forty years since the debut appeared!

CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX
Rock the monkey

On four albums so far, the British band has refined their symbiosis of guitar-heavy New Artrock and Floyd atmospheres. With "(Mankind) The Crafty Ape" she now seems to have reached her goal: Given the quality of this double album, it's hard to believe that it will increase any further.

THE HISTORY OF PROGRESSIVE ROCK,
PART 8 BENELUX

The progressive topography of the Benelux countries is clearly influenced by the artists of the Netherlands. Belgian acts, on the other hand, go their own stylistic ways. eclipsed went on a search for clues with two protagonists of the Dutch prog, Arjen Lucassen, "Mr. Prog" of the nineties, and seventies veteran Thijs van Leer.

GENRE REPORT NEOPROG

At the beginning of the eighties the Prog lies on the intensive care unit. Smug musicians, weak albums, new trends and the beginning digital reorganization of the world have pushed him there. But a new generation of musicians is growing up that not only rediscovers the heroes of the seventies, but also wants to save the spirit of these bands into the present. The first wave of the Neoprog rolls on..

MOTORPSYCHO & STÅLE STORLØKKEN Contoured noise

"Probably the craziest rock opera in the world!" Since their foundation more than twenty years ago, Motorpsycho have also been famous for the fact that they don't give a damn about conventions. With their current work "The Death Defying Unicorn", the Norwegian rock veterans sweep away even the last limitations in their ingenious madness - with the active help of master keyboardist Ståle Storløkken.

SYLVAN
The Sponsors

You can rely on Sylvan: The Hamburg Prog-/Artrocker present their albums in nice regularity. Routine has also made them more skilled workers. The most recent example is the double album "Sceneries". With its conceptual work, the quintet has practised its very own form of division of labour: anonymous sponsorship.

LEONARD COHEN
The joy of frustration

Whoever calls his album "Old Ideas" either has a healthy sense of humour or is simply honest. Like Leonard Cohen, the cymbal maker of folk music, who presents his first epic in eight years under this title - and sounds exactly as one would expect from him: gloomy, morbid, oppressive. What the 77-year-old eclipsed experienced in Paris, however, sees quite differently.

Keep the text up! Cult songs and their meaning
TOM WAITS - TIME

The melancholy of the gutter: Tom Waits manages in his texts to portray beauty in the midst of poverty, violence and despair in an extremely poetic way. The piece "Time" from Waits' ninth studio album can be seen as the crowning glory of his poetry.