Hoodoo Man

Many fans think this German prog band hit a creative apex with 1974’s Hoodoo Man, its fourth studio album. It opens with a sampled explosion before relaxed drumbeats introduce the first song, “Buy”: an organ-heavy post-psychedelic jam that stretches for more than seven minutes. But nearly halfway through the song is when the magic happens. Keyboard luminary Reinhold Sobotta breaks down the bridge into an extended piece that blends the organic tones of a grinding Hammond B3 organ with the (then) futuristic noises generated by analog oscillators and ring modulators of the Moog synthesizer. This is cleverly contrasted with bluesy slide guitar played by Bruno Frenzel. The following “Suicide” boasts intricate arrangements that, along with Sobotta’s virtuosic keyboard playing, make for a song that would sound like an intersection between Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer if not for the overtly jazzy flourishes and Fritz Groeger’s German-accented vocals. The funky Krautrocker “Gamma Ray” was the band’s biggest-selling single; two of the five bonus tracks here are different takes of the tune.