from the LP Frumpy 2, Philips Records, 1971Many musicians, writers & artists in post-war Germany have been, justifiably, consumed with issues relating to human rights and the continuing plight of many groups around the globe, including what is perhaps the worst treated ethnic group in all of Europe: the Romani, or ‘Gypsies’. With lineage stretching back into northern India, this group of people began migrating west around 250 BCE, and they’ve been met with hostility at virtually every step of their journey it seems, culminating in the murder of over half a million Roma in Hitler’s concentration camps during WWII; however, unlike other groups afflicted by the Nazi disease (i.e. Jews, gays, the disabled, etc…), the Romani people have continued to face prejudice and hatred from all corners of the continent. Inhabiting the same, more western sounding, corner of the Krautrock hash den as Jane, the Hamburg-based Frumpy delivered a touching story here, establishing something of a creation myth for the Roma, conceiving of them as being higher than the rest of us, “…God saw that everything was nice, but there had to be a creature who looked like me and you…so he took some earth, and put it in a form, but the oven wasn't hot enough, so the white man was born…so he took some earth, and put it in a form, but the oven was too hot now, so the black man was born…I have to build another creature…he has to get a special blow…so he took some earth, and put it in a form, an the oven was right now, so the gypsy was born…go to the top of the mountain and look, do you see this land around? Go where you like to be, 'cause you and the gypsy will be free…” Yes, that is a female singing, the indomitable Inga Rumpf!
