If you’re looking for the most obscure bands and recordings, you don’t always have to travel to Africa, South America or Japan. Even a closer look at Upper Austria in the late 1970s can bring surprising things to light; for example, the equally authentic and charming progressive rock of Crazy Temple. Günter Schiller’s and Herbert Bachinger’s band may not have lasted long, releasing only one cassette and one 7-inch single, but as some of Crazy Temple’s members were employed at the Ebensee Studios, they were able to produce some fairly high-quality recordings, which are now available for the first time on a compilation. Unfortunately there are only six songs, but the influences and the time of their creation are clearly discernible. Bands like Deep Purple, Emerson, Lake & Palmer or King Crimson were clearly the godfathers of the sound. Bluesy guitar riffs, hymnal vocal lines and very present organs and analogue synthesisers characterise the soundscape, which still follows a very classical approach to rock stardom. There’s no ironic distance to be found here, and it seems that something like punk or disco still hadn’t found its way to Traunsee back then. With two edits that really bring out the four-to-the-floor beat of »Homecomer«, Avec-Plaisir label boss Frinda di Lanco tries to get a bit of proto-disco out of Crazy Temple.
Crazy Temple EP
