"Zakarrias" by ZAKARRIAS – October 1971 UK Debut Album on Deram Records featuring Zakarrias (Bobby Haumer), Peter Robinson, Geoff Leigh, Don Gould, and Martin Harrison (February 2010 UK Cherry Red/Cherry Tree Records CD Reissue – Andy Pearce Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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Rating: Content **** Audio **** to *****

"...Cosmic Bride..."

Apart from his very vague recollection of the album sessions in the summer of 1971 in London as "...a reasonably excruciating learning curve..." - Deram Records Producer Roger Watson then goes on to describe Bobby Haumer as "...a very odd Austrian bloke". The Record Mirror reviewer for its 6 Nov 1971 issue (the only review available of the album) was less enthusiastic of Haumer's Zakarrias alter-ego - helpfully suggesting that "...it might be kinder if all copies were withdrawn from public consumption". Nice.

Slithered out into the British marketplace in October 1971 on Deram SML 1091 - not only did Bobby 'Robert' Haumer (aka Zakarrias) not have a band - but he hadn't a work permit visa either. So legend has it that Decca gave the LP zero promotion (while Haumer went back to Europe) and probably put out maybe 100 copies or less into unsuspecting Blighty stores. And Decca/Deram then it seems did indeed heed that reviewers advice and withdrew the album. 

As a result the lone "Zakarrias" LP has steadily begun to accumulate frankly ludicrous bid-amounts online. The liner notes (written in October 2009) to this February 2010 UK Cherry Tree CD Reissue and Remaster told of a copy reaching $1000 - when in March 2024 you have copies for sale at over £2100. Is it worth that - yes and no in equal measure would be my curt response - but if you are interested (and there's a lot to like here) - then CRTREE006 sports fabulously clean CD audio.

Let's talk genres also. As everyone knows England's 'Deram' Records was Decca's home for all things Avant Garde and Progressive in the late 60s and early 70ts. Any album on the label garnishes dosh - but the idea that this LP is Psych is rubbish. I suspect some enterprising trader peddled this largely Rock and Prog Folk orientated LP as 'Psych' - thereby sending fans and buyers into a frenzy. As there is a distinct lack of electric guitars on the long-player - Psych whig-outs are absolutely not the order of the day. The "Zakarrias" album is more Prog Folk - part Jethro Tull - part Van Der Graaf Generator - part Soft Machine - part Audience - even Funky in tunes like "The Unknown Years" and "Let Us Change". 

And when Universal started releasing those 3CD Label Retrospective Clamshell Box Sets - the rather excellent Acoustic-Rock-Folk of Zakarrias track "The Unknown Years" showed up on the January 2003 set "Legend Of A Mind: The Underground Anthology" - while the album's flanged-finisher "Cosmic Bride" showed up in May 2008 on the "Strange Pleasures: Further Sounds Of The Decca Underground" 3CD set. It's a fair bet that most collectors had not heard either track up until then and I suspect those entries alone sent collectors a-hunting and a-bidding. Let's get to the reissue at hand - the first official issue of the album in forty years and thankfully with stonkingly great audio courtesy of obviously very clean master tapes.

UK released February 2010 - "Zakarrias" by ZAKARRIAS on Cherry Red/Cherry Tree Records CRTREE006 (Barcode 5013929690622) is a straightforward CD Reissue and Remaster of the 1971 album that plays out as follows (41:21 minutes):

1. Country Out Of Reach [Side 1]
2. Who Gave You Love
3. Never Reachin'
4. The Unknown Years
5. Sunny Side [Side 2]
6. Spring Of Fate
7. Let Us Change
8. Don't Cry
9. Cosmic Bride
Tracks 1 to 9 are their debut album "Zakarrias" - released October 1971 in the UK on Deram SML 1091, produced by Roger Watson. Tracks 2, 3, 5 and 6 written by Zakarrias - Tracks 1, 4, 7 and 8 written by Zakarrias and his wife Eva - Track 9 written by Zakarrias and Samy Bimbach (Manager of Salt, Bobby Haumer's previous band).

Musicians:
Zakarrias (Bobby Haumer) - All Lead Vocals, Guitar, Bass and Kazoo
Peter Robinson - Keyboards
Geoff Leigh - Saxophone and Flute
Martin Harrison - Drums
Don Gould - String Arrangements on "Spring Of Fate", "Don't Cry" and "Cosmic Bride" and played Piano on "Spring Of Fate". 

Bobby Haumer had been with Vienna based teenage Psych band Expiration who managed one Euro 45-single "It Wasn't Right" b/w "And The World Will Be A Bird" on VRC Records. Haumer then joined forces with Huw Lloyd-Langton and John Lingwood to form the Munich-based Salt with the idea of peddling songs to Decca. Lloyd-Langton eventually jumped ship and would then famously join the newly formed Hawkwind in the UK while Langford did stints with Amon Duul, Steamhammer and eventually Manfred Mann's Earth Band. But the Zakarrias album appears to be just Bobby Haumer under the pseudonym with guest musicians - Peter Robinson would end up in Quatermass over on Harvest Records while Geoff Leigh did stints in Henry Cow (on Virgin) and Quiet Sun.

There may only be 8-pages in the booklet but the DAVID WELLS liner notes (which I have liberally used as a basis for this review) are the kind of researched genius you expect from someone like him – a proper fact-fest that lays out the Bobby (Robert) Haumer/Zakarrias story for the first time in its many lurid colours. There are some promo photos (Salt, a smiling long-haired Baumer as alter-ego Zakarrias) and even photos of the Expiration and Bobby Haumer Band (BHB) 45s out of Europe. But the real deal comes with one of my fave Audio Engineers – ANDY PEARCE – who has done Budgie, Free, Rory Gallagher, Spooky Tooth, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, ELP, Wishbone Ash and loads more. If he gets his hands on a master tape – it will sound alive and kicking and so it is here. Admittedly the flange separation sop favoured in the day on say "Cosmic Bride" can be speaker-to-speaker harsh, but that is more down to the recording trickery of the time. Mostly this sounds so clear and vibrant and a properly great job done.

Both the Side 1 opener "Country Out Of Reach" and Side 2's "Don't Cry" employ a very heavily fuzzed Bass Guitar line as the basis of the songs which gives both an ever so slightly amateur-hour grungy Rock feel – like you have stumbled on Roger Bain (of Sabbath fame) producing Budgie on their 1971 MCA Records debut. They are both good but falsely make you think the album is going to Psych it up bigtime any second now when it does  nothing of the sort. Many of the songs are Acoustic Guitar based – more a Prog Folk feel with some funky keyboard fills – and his voice is good without ever being great – but still more than Peter Hammill-acceptable. The album's other gems include "Spring Of Fate" and the speaker-to-speaker harmonies in "Who Gave You Love" even if lyrically it can all feel a tad too down for its own good. 

"Zakarrias" is the kind of obscurity that deserves rediscovery but temper those Psych hopes and amp up your inner Prog Folk with a sprinkle of flange instead. Well done to Cherry Tree Records (part of England's Cherry Red roster of labels) for getting this big-bucks charmer out there once again and don't ya just love the Seventies where people made albums like this and hoped for the best...