There aren’t many bands who can run with just one guitar and one bass guitar but Jane do it and that’s because of the keyboardist. Werner Nadolny was known for having two speeds – stop and go but the truth is, that the band’s whole sound depended on his heady overlays.

This is the modern, reincarnated version below, the voices have lost that edge and yet you get an idea of the keyboards:

In their original form, Hangman shows Werner Nadolny at his brutal best. This is a long track so you might like to skip to about 3:05 for the following two minutes – you’ll get the idea of the organ used as a heavy instrument [let alone the two guitars] and his use of silences to accentuate the intensity:

Organ has always been used to bring out the manic and Thijs van Leer shows this to perfection below – mercifully for you, there are only a couple of minutes of it but you can see what happens when the keyboardist dominates. Incidentally, why is it in bands where this happens that there also happens to be an excellent guitarist or two?

If you still doubt the power of the organ, a trip to Philadelphia might dispel that:

The instrument can enter the realms of the dangerous though:

Who said the Devil had all the best tunes?

Filed under: Arts & culture