THE SHIVER from St. Gallen were, along with KISS INC. and PACIFIC SOUND, one of the Swiss bands coached by STEFAN SULKE, and – in this case – richly crude & clumsily produced. Musically they oscillated between PROCOL HARUM and CREAM; and according to everything you read, they must have been real hitters live. At the end of ’67 they won first prize at the “1st Swiss Rhythm & Blues Festival” in Zurich’s “Hazyland” (exactly, HAZY OSTERWALD’s club) even before the rather murderous WALTI ANSELMO TREND, and that is indeed saying something. Their 1969 LP Walpurgis for “Maris Musik” does not quite live up to this reputation, but also suffers from the fact that Mr. SULKE, at least at that time, obviously had no clue about the effective use of a mixing desk. Or was deaf. The stupid off-beat piano mixed into the foreground on “Leave This Man Alone” chops up what is actually quite a useful track into a “hammering polka” that it is a true splendour. The stakes are regularly & punctually dumbed down; and the slightly time-delayed drums greet completely detached with hard-to-follow swirls that were obviously recorded across the hall in the toilet. Pure KRAUT spirit! By 1970, the end had come for Shiver. The better half of the group reincarnated shortly afterwards as DEAF, while parts of the rest only reappeared in 1977 as ISLAND.
UK 2021, basic text by Werner Voran (†) 2004