The Gloomys › Daybreak

Illustrators: Wilfried Zinzow; Mike Sanden.

Photographers: Wilfried Zinzow; Mike Sanden.

The relatively few pre-Krautrock German rock bands to have received some attention among international collectors tend to have a fairly raw, garage/R&B-flavored sound, like the Lords, Boots, and Rattles. In contrast, the Gloomys, their name to the contrary, recorded material with more similarities to the slicker side of '60s U.S. and U.K. pop/rock. Although half of the material on their 1967 album Daybreak was original, it's hard to get a grip on their personality, as the album is pretty innocuous, upbeat stuff without much distinction. Some of the peppy horns, chipper lead and harmony vocals, and vaguely mod-ish, it's-our-time attitude in some of the songs offer elements that fans of the lightest British pop-psychedelia and American sunshine pop might glom onto, though the parallels aren't that strong. Covers of tunes made famous by American and British artists -- like two stand-out Tim Hardin compositions, the Supremes' "Come See About Me," and the Troggs' "Hi Hi Hazel" (not one of the Troggs' shining moments in any case) -- offer nothing in the way of shedding new light on the originals. Occasional glimpses of the Gloomys' beat group origins are heard in the more guitar-driven songs, like "On a Friday's Night," on which faint traces of good-time Merseybeat linger. Bear Family does its usual stellar job with bountifully illustrated liner notes (in German), but it's hard to imagine this having much, if any appeal beyond German audiences who might remember the group from their youth. [In addition to the 14 tracks from the 1967 album, the reissue has no less than 16 bonus cuts, including mono single versions of two songs from the LP. More notably, there are also 14 tracks (the earliest four sung in German, not English) from 1964-1966 recordings by the group that the Gloomys evolved from, the Gloomy Moon Singers. These are, predictably, much more indebted to the early British Invasion sound; 1964's "Wenn Du Willst," for instance, might pass as a 1963 demo by a genuine Liverpool band if not for the German lyrics. Those early German-language singles have their charm for their credibly innocuous, faux Merseybeat sound. That charm fades on most of the 1965-1966 singles, as the focus shifts to inferior covers of U.S./U.K. hits like "Hang on Sloopy," "Keep on Dancing," and "From Me to You;" folk standards "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "All My Sorrows," and even '50s rock classics like "Wake Up Little Susie." ~ Richie Unterberger

Genre:

• Pop / Rock

Labels:

• Bear Family Records

Music Categories:

• Rock & Pop