Frumpy - Indian Rope Man

My complete article wouldn’t fit within YouTube text limitations so the rest is in the comments. An often-overlooked genre of music for those who love the Hammond organ is the cringeworthy named, “Krautrock”. Krautrock is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s among artists who blended elements of psych rock, electronic music and avant-garde composition among other sources. These artists moved away from the blues influences and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music, instead utilizing hypnotic rhythms, tape-music techniques, and early synthesizers. My own interest in Krautrock is admittedly limited to the early period (late 60’s / very early 70s) which owes more to the British “Freakbeat” and “Psych” scenes of the mid to late 60s rather than the later “electronic” aspect. In fact, it actually predates, “Krautrock” but I prefer it. A really good introduction to “the good stuff” which those touched by the hand of Mod would be interested in, is the colourful “In The Kraut” series of albums from the Marina label. These albums contain some real gems which are overlooked purely through being misunderstood and presumed to be of poor quality. Bad mistake! The majority of the music on these albums is just a continuation of what we had going on in the UK before we started heading into “hard” and “glam” rock. It’s very, dare I say it, groovy! One of the bands, Frumpy, were based in Hamburg and released four albums between 1970–1973. Their music combined jazz, soul and eastern elements with the Hammond organ as the most important instrument (instant recipe for success in my book!). Frumpy started as; singer Inga Rumpf, a distinctive “un-feminine“ sounding vocalist often compared favourably with Janis Joplin, French organist Jean-Jacques Kravetz, bassist Karl-Heinz Schott and drummer, Carsten Bohn. Formed in March 1970, Frumpy (a play on singer Rumpf’s surname inspired by seeing the word “frumpy“ in a CBS record catalogue) wanted to play music that was “a fusion of rock, blues, classical, folk and psychedelic.“ They recorded their debut album, “All Will Be Changed” in August 1970 which was all original with the exception of a Richie Havens cover, the excellent and often covered, “Indian Rope Man”. To promote the album the band embarked on a fifty-night German tour with Spooky Tooth, as well as playing supporting slots with Yes, Humble Pie and Renaissance. The album received both critical acclaim and commercial success and proved that rock music from Germany could live up to international standard. The band initially played without a guitarist, which was unusual in the rock genre, and the band instead made great use of Kravetz’s “spacey organ excursions“ through his powerful Leslie speaker (see other articles on this page for information on the Leslie). Rumpf said: “In the beginning we were happy enough as a quartet. I played and composed exclusively on an acoustic guitar. It was only later that we began to write songs that called for a guitar.“ In 1971, just before the band started recording their second album, called simply, “2”, they recruited former Sphinx Tush guitarist Rainer Baumann to the line-up. The album, which was wrapped in a round plastic bag, was “heavier and more mature progressive rock with classical overtones in Kravetz’s organ and occasional mellotron work,“ repeated the success of the first, and gave the band a hit single with “How the Gipsy Was Born“, which would become their “signature” tune. The German music magazine Musik-Express dubbed Frumpy as the best German rock act of the year, while Inga Rumpf, variously described as “smoky“, “demonic“ and “roaring,“ was declared by national newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to be the “greatest individual vocal talent“ of the German rock scene so far. Frumpy topped the Musik-Express poll as the most popular German rock group of the year and the newspaper FAZ proclaimed singer Inga Rumpf to be “the country’s biggest individual talent“, but a tour of England with Mott The Hoople failed to attract popularity in Britain. Musical differences guitarist Rainer Baumann and keyboarder Kravetz caused Baumann to leave in spring 1972, to record a solo LP with Inga Rumpf singing one song. Baumann did return for the recording sessions of their third LP “By The Way“ however they disbanded after a farewell concert on June 26, 1972. A double, live album, Live, was released posthumously in 1973. Here is their cover of the Ritchie Haven’s tune, “Indian Rope Man”. I’ve been thrilled to play this song myself in the band, Modus.