Pancake - No Illusions ( 1979 )

Pancakes third and last album is a scorcher.

More rock based than previous albums but with a more polished and refined sound with touches of "Eloy" , "Jane" and even "Babe Ruth" maybe . Like "Babe Ruth " "Pancake's " "No Illusions" also has female vocals - albeit German accented by one "Biggi Zmierczak"

This is probably my favourite Pancake album which alternates between heavyish melodic / symphonic guitar based passages to lighter moments and many shifts in mood but still firmly rock based , but certainly not your average straight ahead rock. much more progressive / krautrock in that department. Excellent and quite unique sounding really, despite the obvious ELOY comparison and i find the female vocals very nice indeed!

Check out " I Try" ," Autumn Leaves" and the brilliant outro of " Dream Delta Land " for the "Eloy" sound taken to another level.

Once again a completely different line up here with only the original guitarist, who really excels himself on this one!

A fantastic obscurity from a sadly neglected band, of which all albums are really worthy of a listen for anyone into Krautrock / Progressive Rock music. A great pity they only released three albums , which leaves one wondering what delights may have followed !  


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Line Up / Musicians

Biggy Zmierczac - Vocals
Ralf Schibe - Bass 7 Vocals
Uli Franke - Keyboards & Vocals
Walter Negele - Guitar & Vocals
Hans Derer - Drums & Vocals

Track Listing
1 - Just Miss your Smile
2 - Fire And Rain song
3 - Dream Delta Land ( Prt 1 & 2 )
4 - No Touch Of Ilusions
5 - Autumn Leaves
6 - I Try

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Pancake- Out Of the Ashes

Different to there first album " Out Of the Ashes " is lesser psychedelic/krautrock styled with more of a "Pink Floyd" and dreamy "Pulsar" "Jane" "Novalis" type sound. Indeed, this is all so much more symphonic/progressive than the previous "Roxy Elephant".

Emphasis is more on vocals, keys and guitar, of which guitarist " Walter Negele" is the only original member here..

Favourite track is "Arctic Ocean" which has excellent melodic high fyling guitar from "Negele".This sounds very close to " Pulsar " to me in many respects. Superb stuff! Just to stir things up there's also a nice funky psychedelic number "Cakey Funk"

All in all another great album from Pancake.


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Track Listing:

Painted Rush Hour
Arctic Ocean- a. Fool's Nightmare- b. Back In The Reality
Cakey Funk
Rainbow - Suite- a. Introduction: Colors In The Rain- b. Winds of Thor (including the Appearnce Of Aeolos)- c. The New Day- d. Gone With the Wind
Out Of The Ashes

Line Up
Heinz BertschSynthesizer, Keyboards
Hans DererPercussion, Drums
Peter IndrakBass, Violin
Walter NegeleGuitar
Rainer RohmPercussion, Vocals

Pancake - Roxy Elephant ( 1975 )

Though one of the lesser known late 7o's German progressives Pancake were an excellent Krautrock band who released 3 albums. All of which were different to each other with ever changing line ups. The only mainstay being Walter Negele , guitarist and main songwriter.

Roxy Elephant is is still as fresh sounding today as it was in 1975. This was Pancake at there best which owed its sound and style not only to Krautrock but British progresssive / psychedelia of the era too. Here we have multiple guitars with hard edged rock/ ballad songs peppered with more spacey/psychedelic jams and breaks. The vocals are sung in english and are really good. In parts i'm reminded of some Eloy instrumentally.

Hilight of the album for me is the 13 minute Aeroplane which has excellent high flying dual guitars and great shifts in tempo with lots of dynamics and subtleties. Some Grobschnitt certainly springs to mind here, and just as good too by the way. The title track is also a superb instrumental with excellent rhythm guitars and driving drums/percussion and bass. Fantastic drum solo in there too! A great way to wind up a very underrated album which deserves a much wider recognition.

Overall then, very hightly recommended to krautrock/ psychedelic/ rock fans alike. You also get an excellently recorded and produced album as well. Definitely worth a listen!

Gunther Konopik Drums, Congas, Percussion ( Vocal )

Walter Negele Lead Guitar, 12 String

Tommy Metzger Lead Guitar ( Vocal )

Werner Bauer Bass,Guitar, Triangle,( Vocal )

Hampy Nerlich Vocal

Track Listing

1. Heartfire

2. Rolltreppe

3. Aeroplane

4. End Of The day

5. Remember

6. Longlife

7. Harmony

8. Roxy Elephant

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