Anteater

An obscure and weirdly childish concept album about a boy named Ernie and a giant magical red bird named Maraboo that transports him to a fantastical reality where they go on lots of adventures together, brought to you by one of Germany's most interesting bands from the 70's, a group called Grobschnit that formed out of the remains of 60's psychedelic rock group The Crew in 1970 and who as the 80's arrived would produce several mainstream New Wave/pop-rock albums for radio. Still, as of the making of this album, those evil AOR years are still far in the future, and in 1977 at the end of progressive rock's time in the spotlight, this band still had one arguablyy great work left in them.

To be honest though, this sort of stuff would normally be hard to swallow even for the most dedicated progressive rock fans if it weren't for Grobschnitt's uncanny ability to inject genuine humor into the compositions, along with some fairly memorable melodic progressions that remind me quite a bit of Yes without actually sounding like them, and a vocalist who can actually sing worth a damn in English. The humour is a particular highlight; for example, take the news broadcast interjection at the 7:04 mark in 'Ernie's Reise":

"This evening a huge bird was seen carrying a little boy on his back in a height of about 3.000 feet right above sector 0/16. The bird was carrying some beer-bottles, a bag with vegetables, was lit contrary to regulations and was smoking a pipe. We instruct all planes cruising this sector to observe this incident. Over."

Gotta hand it to Grobschnitt here; interjections like these really set them apart from their English proggy counterparts back in the day. Perhaps the genre as a whole would have probably stuck around on the charts a little longer if more bands took themselves less seriously eh?

So, for fans who are looking for Germany's best in the short-lived German progressive rock scene, look no further than this simple symphonic illustration of a boy and a giant bird's journey into wonderland. Whether you laugh at its absurdity or simply nod admiringly at this silly band's attempt at a masterwork, I guarantee there's a good time for anyone who checks out Rockpommel's Land.

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