Guru Guru is a German

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

band formed in 1968 as The Guru Guru Groove by

Mani Neumeier Mani Neumeier (Manfred Neumeier, born 31 December 1940 in Munich) is a German rock musician, free-jazz drummer, artist, and frontman (singer and drummer) of the German Krautrock-band Guru Guru. Probably best known for his work with Guru Guru, Neum ...

(drums),

Uli Trepte Uli Trepte (born 27 September 1941, Konstanz, Germany — died 21 May 2009, Berlin) was a German musician best known for his collaborations with various influential Krautrock bands in the early 1970s. Early career Uli Trepte began his musica ...

(bass) and Eddy Naegeli (guitar), later replaced by the American Jim Kennedy. After Kennedy collapsed on stage due to a serious illness, Ax Genrich replaced him to complete the classic Guru Guru line up, in time for their debut album in 1970.

Music

Guru Guru were related to the

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ...

music scene through their work with Swiss pianist

Irène Schweizer Irène Schweizer (born 2 June 1941) is a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. She has performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvis ...

and through Neumeier, who had already won several jazz prizes. The band was also influenced by

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

artists, such as

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown The Crazy World of Arthur Brown are an English rock band formed by singer Arthur Brown in 1967. The original band included Vincent Crane (Hammond organ and piano), Drachen Theaker (drums), and Nick Greenwood (bass). This early incarnation were ...

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

and early

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

. Among the band's closest musical colleagues were

Amon Düül Amon Düül was a West German political art commune formed out of the student movement of the 1960s that became well known for its free-form musical improvisations. This spawned two rock groups, Amon Düül (sometimes referred to as Amon Düü ...

Can Can may refer to: Containers * Aluminum can * Drink can * Oil can * Steel and tin cans * Trash can * Petrol can * Metal can (disambiguation) Music * Can (band), West Germany, 1968 ** ''Can'' (album), 1979 * Can (South Korean band) Other * C ...

and Xhol Caravan, with whom Guru Guru played jam sessions. Frontman Mani Neumeier (drummer and singer) has an original style of playing drums, and is known in the European

jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

-scene. He was also involved in numerous other projects, including Tiere der Nacht, The Psychedelic Monsterjam,

Damo Suzuki's Network , better known as Damo Suzuki (ダモ鈴木), is a Japanese musician who has been living in Germany since the early 1970s and is best known as the former lead singer of the krautrock group Can. Biography As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 19 ...

Globe Unity Orchestra The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble. Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by Alexander von Schlippenbach from the Berlin Jazz Festival. It had its debut at the Berliner Philharmonie on 3 November combining ...

Harmonia In Greek mythology, Harmonia (; grc, Ἁρμονία / harmoˈnia/, "harmony", "agreement") is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia. Her Greek opposite is Eris, whose Roman counterpart is Discord ...

, Acid Mothers Guru Guru, Voodootrance and Lover 303.

Social environment

Guru Guru's live performances in the late 1960s and early 1970s were politically left-oriented. They organized concerts together with the

Socialist German Student Union The Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund — the Socialist German Students' Union or Socialist German Students' League — was founded in 1946 in Hamburg, Germany, as the collegiate branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the ...

, read political texts between the songs, and sporadically gave concerts in prisons. Their shows were extravagant and anarchistic, some of the musicians lived together in a commune in the German

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried'' (the northeastern section ...

region, experimented with

hallucinogens Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorized ...

(one of their songs is titled "The

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

March" / German: "Der LSD-Marsch"). Mani Neumeier is one of the organizers of the annual Krautrock-Festival in ,

Oberzent Oberzent is a town in the district of Odenwaldkreis, in Hesse, Germany. It was created with effect from 1 January 2018 by the merger of the former town Beerfelden and the former municipalities of Hesseneck, Rothenberg and Sensbachtal. Geography ...

Publicity

Guru Guru has released over 40 LPs and CDs, and has sold over 500,000 records. The band has played numerous live concerts, appeared in films, radio and television. In 1976, Guru Guru was the first German band to play live on the WDR TV show ''

Rockpalast ''Rockpalast'' (''Rock Palace'') is a German music television show that broadcasts live on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). ''Rockpalast'' started in 1974 and continues to this day. Hundreds of rock, heavy metal and jazz ...

''.

Discography

*1970 ''UFO'' *1971 ''Hinten'' *1972 ''Känguru'' *1973 ''Guru Guru'' *1973 ''Don't Call Us, We Call You'' *1974 ''Dance of the Flames'' *1974 ''Der Elektrolurch'' (2 LP) *1975 ''Mani und seine Freunde'' *1976 ''Tango Fango'' *1977 ''Globetrotter'' *1978 ''Live'' (2 LP) *1979 ''Hey du'' *1981 ''Mani in Germani'' *1983 ''Mani Neumeiers neue Abenteuer'' (aka ''Guru Mani ... '') *1987 ''Jungle'' *1988 ''Guru Guru 88'' *1988 ''Live 72'' *1992 ''Shake Well'' – MC *1993 ''Shake Well'' *1995 ''Wah Wah'' *1996 ''Mask'' (limited edition) *1997 ''Moshi Moshi'' *1999 ''Live 98'' (3-CD set, also on 2 LP) *2000 ''2000 Gurus'' *2003 ''Essen 1970'' (live) *2005 ''In the Guru Lounge'' *2007 ''Wiesbaden 1972'' (live) *2008 ''PSY'' *2009 ''Live on tour 2008'' *2009 ''Wiesbaden 1973'' (live) *2011 ''Doublebind'' *2011 ''Live in Germany '71'' *2013 ''Electric Cats'' *2016 ''Acid Guru Pond'' (Split Album: Bardo Pond, Guru Guru, Acid Mothers Temple) *2018 ''Rotate''

References

External links

* (with