Mark Lager’s Desert CDs: Agitation Free – Malesch (1972)
Best listened to on a CD in your car stereo while driving down a desert highway, the psychedelic rock band Agitation Free had returned from an eye-opening and mind-expanding two week trip through Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, the band’s contact with other cultures captured on tapes that they interspersed throughout the seven tracks of Malesch (“malesch” was a phrase the band heard as soon as they arrived in Egypt, roughly translated, it means “no worries”, a phrase similar to the band’s name). These tracks were recorded 50 years ago at Audio-Tonstudio in Berlin during July 1972.
When I first heard Malesch on my trip through the surreal gypsum crystal dunes of the White Sands (New Mexico) in 2014, I could envision the majestic, mysterious pyramids, sphinx, statue of Memnon, and temple of Karnak in the distance as soon as the deep Fender bass of Michael Gunther, droning Vox Continental organ of Michael Hoenig, exotic percussion of Burghard Rausch on congas/drums and Uli Pop on bongos, and dueling guitars of rhythm guitarist Jorg Schwenke on Fender Stratocaster and lead guitarist Lutz “Luul” Ulbrich (who also plays a zither) on Gibson SG emerged on the opening track “You Play For Us Today”, a phrase uttered by a Middle East Airlines pilot on their flight from Beirut to Nicosia.
Where the first track takes the listener on an ancient journey through the desert, the second track “Sahara City” ushers the listener into the nightclub that the band played in during their inaugural night in Egypt. You can hear the music, see the belly dancing, and smell the foods and the incense within the tent at the opening of the track. Then this is followed by many minutes almost akin to a haunted house movie soundtrack. There is percussion imitating a clock ticking. There is a heavy jam by the band during the last two minutes of the track. This is followed by Cairo’s street sounds during the opening seconds of third track “Ala Tul” (roughly translated as “straight ahead”), strange synth followed by Michael Hoenig’s organ and Michael Gunther’s bass locking into a rhythm and Burghard Rausch’s drums and marimbaphone adding to this beat with hypnotic textures. You can picture Cairo’s citizens crossing the crowded streets as in the time lapse sequences from Baraka and Samsara.
“Pulse” starts as a solo showcase for Michael Hoenig on his EMS Synthi A while Peter Hamel plays Hammond organ in the background, eventually there are improvisational interjections from the bass, drums, and guitar. “Pulse” is not as captivating and compelling as the previous three tracks, however, there is a return to the album’s atmosphere of Egypt on “Khan El Khalili”, named after the bazaar in Cairo.
“Khan El Khalili” melds the ominous opening of the first track “You Play For Us Today” with the experimental textures from “Sahara City”- echoing percussion and eerie voices. Lutz “Luul” Ulbrich’s twelve-string guitar lets in gleaming, glistening light amidst the darkness as the band comes together for the most soaring, uplifting music of the album, it sounds like the sun slowly rising over the desert. The title track “Malesch” begins with a Middle Eastern man chanting. Michael Hoenig’s organ is the leader, then the bass, drums, and guitars join, stretching out into a cosmic groove, the longest and one of the most mesmerizing tracks on the album.
“Rücksturz”, according to the band’s own self-written autobiography, means “stumbling back” and is about their return to Europe, this brief closing track, only two minutes, contains sounds that resemble an airplane or ocean waves at the beginning, the band waking up from the trance of their travels to find themselves in a German recording studio during the summer.
by Mark Lager