Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Chris Braun Band — Both Sides
(Garden of Delights CD197, 1972/2023, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-11-27

Both Sides Cover art

Dortmund is a city in Westphalia, Germany, and it was there around 1967 that a band called Faces was formed. At the beginning of 1970 a 20-year-old Christel “Chris” Braun joined the already-existing and succesful quartet, and at that point their fortunes began to change, as she was a talented blues singer and skilled composer and lyricist, and took over the writing duties for the band from that point onward. Like many German artists of the time, her lyrics are in English. Later in 1970 they decided to rename themselves The Chris Braun Band, partially at least to avoid confusion with the better known Faces from England. Braun’s vocals are very soulful and filled with power, able to match the dynamic changes in the rock based compositions she wrote; some comparisons could be drawn to Maggie Bell (Stone the Crows), Lydia Pense (Cold Blood), Joanne Vent, or Julie Driscoll, but make no mistake, the power of the band was in her voice, and it was unique. The other members were Elmar Krohn (guitar, flute, percussion, vocals), Horst Schreiber (guitars, percussion, vocals), bassist Jochen Bernstein, and drummer Bill Bakine. The opening salvo is “Town of Children’s Blocks,” a thoroughly muscular blues-rock workout, featuring both acoustic and electric guitar, switching back and forth from softer acoustic verses into an edgy hard-rock chorus and solos. A short one follows, “Comfort Me in Hell,” though it features guitar soloing over the singer’s voice. Other standouts include the blistering “Icy Shapes,” another towering monument to the power of rock, showcasing Braun’s commanding voice, and over about seven or eight distinct sections, a few of which are mostly instrumental, and a false ending, it might well be the album’s strongest cut. “Anxiety” closed the first side of the original LP, a gentle harmonized opening vocal section bursts into a blaze of rock, a process that repeats several times over the song’s seven minute duration, along with some snarly guitar solos along the way. Original side two opener “Paul” has a distinct West Coast folk-rock feel, featuring an excellent though understated flute solo, while “Things for You and Me” features more of that folky acoustic style, this time with some additional hand drums, while the bluesy mid-section workout shows Braun’s voice at its full bluesy strength. Nine tracks is what you get, but the closer is only twelve seconds, so call it eight, a mighty debut that ranks with the best of German rock.

Filed under: Reissues, 2023 releases, 1972 recordings

Related artist(s): Chris Braun Band

More info
http://diregarden.com/god197.html

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.