German group Annexus Quam was one of the many experimental, psychedelic rock groups that emerged from the early German "cosmic rock" scene. They quietly released two albums on Ohr (alongside giants like Tangerine Dream, Embryo, and Klaus Schulze) that practically went by unnoticed. Beziehungen is the second and probably least musically successful of the two. While their debut Osmose gets notice for its incredible original packaging, an album cover that folds into a pyramid, it was also the better of the two sonically as it presented a more atmospheric and cohesive spacey fusion of subtly intensity and vision, especially when compared to the disparate elements at work here. Two out of four of the tracks on this one ("Leyenburg" parts 1 and 2) are noisy free jazz like the rambling and annoying bits of Henry Cow or Area with a Teutonic twist. While its more listenable than most, sort of like Zamla's mixed attempts, it interrupts the continuity of the whole that made Osmose so good. So overall, not a superb album, but considering the general high quality of music from this country and era, if you are a "Kraut Rock" fan, it's certainly worth a listen.

(Originally published in Exposé #4, p. 25, Edited for Gnosis 4/8/01)