Initially, I thought this song was a bit of a racket. It’s certainly got a lot going on.
But really, a large part of the song’s charm is precisely because of the odd, staggered nature of the rhythms. It’s like the musicians played the first bar of the main riff too slowly and had to squeeze in the rest of the notes.
Make no mistake though; there’s nothing wrong with the musicianship here. It’s just an unconventional song.
Amon Duul II was perhaps the most well known band of the experimental German Krautrock scene. This was essentially Germany’s expression of the 60s Psychedelic movement.
Amon Duul was the name of a commune, and members of that commune formed two bands. Amon Duul II was basically the good band.
The vocals are as chaotic as the rest of the song, zipping up and down the vocal register with an impressive fluidity.
The song is held together, in my opinion, by the drums. They roll forward with the bassline to create an unsteady rhythm.
“Archangel Thunderbird” was released in 1970 on the album Yeti.