Waniyetula (Galaxy) - or how it all went wrong

[TheH]

Waniyetula (Sioux for Winter) are a band from Frankfurt (am Main) Germany founded in 1969.

After being more or less a cover band (Beatles and similar stuff) they started writing their own material.
In 1974 they won a band contest of a big brewery in Dortmund, and won the interest of well kown (in Germany) producer
Dieter Dierks.

Their first album "Nature's Clear Well" was recorded in 1975, but no lable could be found for a release.

Frustrated they desided to do something more original at the begining of 1976 and developed a concept for
an album of songs based on Edgar A. Poe's novels.

As they were writing the songs they were hit by the Alan Parsons Project releasing an album based on the same idea
and quit the whole thing.

In 1978 a lable in the USA was found for "Nature's Clear Well", but unkown to the band the lable changed the name of the
band to "Galaxy" on the LP. The LP was also released in Europe later with a different cover.

galaxy-natures2.jpg
US Version


European Version

The band tried to support the LP by changing their name to Galaxy, but they weren't really succsesfull.

In 1983 they released (under the the name Waniyetula again) a private issued LP "Dreams within a Dream".
The LP went down rather unnoticed (exept for being an expensive collectors item).

After this the band was almost forgotten and just some obscure prog band, which was falsley widley regarded as
a swiss band (and still is on Prog Archives and Youtube).

But the band still exists and released alive album (totally unnoticed) in 2012.




There are also plans for a new album, so watch out.

[moecurlythanu]

Not sure why, but I thought these guys were related to Schwarzarbeit. A quick look shows not.

I have the album by Galaxy and think it's pretty good.

[spacefreak]

I like both their albums. To answer your question... From the obvious reasons you describe, they went unnoticed during the 70s (the golden age of prog). Unfortunately they will remain unnoticed as nowadays there is little interest for obscurities that went under the radar, even among the prog clan.

For the record. The GALAXY album saw a CD reissue somewhere in the fall of the 90s by the french label Spalax and the WANIYETULA one, in 2004 by the german label Garden of Delights (including 3 bonus tracks). There is also another release from that label under the Waniyetula name; "Iron City" that contains archival recordings from 1971-1978.

[TheH]

Not sure why, but I thought these guys were related to Schwarzarbeit. A quick look shows not.

I have the album by Galaxy and think it's pretty good.

Schwarzarbeit are another obscure German band I really like a bit. There was a rumor that Musea would rerelease their records, but I never heared of that again.

They (Schwarzarbeit) are related to Mekong Delta (Tech Metal) by the way.

[TheH]

I like both their albums. To answer your question... From the obvious reasons you describe, they went unnoticed during the 70s (the golden age of prog). Unfortunately they will remain unnoticed as nowadays there is little interest for obscurities that went under the radar, even among the prog clan.

For the record. The GALAXY album saw a CD reissue somewhere in the fall of the 90s by the french label Spalax and the WANIYETULA one, in 2004 by the german label Garden of Delights (including 3 bonus tracks). There is also another release from that label under the Waniyetula name; "Iron City" that contains archival recordings from 1971-1978.

I think you are right with your idea why they didn't make it.

Thank you for pointing out the CD releases, I forgot to mention them.

[Rarebird]

There has also been another German Galary, that did one album 'Visions', which had a CD release on Garden Of Delights.

[TheH]

There has also been another German Galary, that did one album 'Visions', which had a CD release on Garden Of Delights.

That album confused me some years ago. That Galaxy is from Bremen and I still have to check them out.
Have you heared this album?

[Mister Triscuits]

For the record. The GALAXY album saw a CD reissue somewhere in the fall of the 90s by the french label Spalax

Terrible quality, unfortunately, with all the high end rolled off.

[Rarebird]

That album confused me some years ago. That Galaxy is from Bremen and I still have to check them out.
Have you heared this album?

I have it and wrote a review for a Dutch magazine, but don't ask me now, how it sounds.

Alas I couldn't find the review on my computer.

[spacefreak]

There has also been another German Galary, that did one album 'Visions', which had a CD release on Garden Of Delights.

That album confused me some years ago. That Galaxy is from Bremen and I still have to check them out.
Have you heared this album?

The "Visions" album is a private 500 copies pressing. A decent and rather "easy listening" ELOY styled prog album, bordering on heavy rock. Typical 2nd wave of german prog in that -charming to collectors- basement sound of most private issuances.

[Rarebird]

The "Visions" album is a private 500 copies pressing. A decent and rather "easy listening" ELOY styled prog album, bordering on heavy rock. Typical 2nd wave of german prog in that -charming to collectors- basement sound of most private issuances.

I think you're right on that one.