KRAUTROCK Listening Klub! - New Albums Every Wednesday

I'll take a week.

is this just going to be German Krautrock

I wasn't aware there was any other kind

Love that La Dusseldorf record (and their ST one is great also), don't know the others. Only Ash Ra stuff I know is "New Age of Man", which I think is a later incarnation of the above band. Amon Duul II-wise, I only have Yeti, which is also great, if very different to what many consider to be the classic krautrock sound.

Another listening club to keep up with...

the Ash Ra Tempel is thoroughly awesome, and I decided to leave out Yeti as I figured most people had heard it but may not know this one.

"Phallus Dei" starts out like it's going to be the greatest album you've ever heard in your life but then doesn't follow up on it, IMO. Still wonder how they came up with it though. In Munich. In 1969.

I blow hot and cold on Ash Ra Tempel (I prefer Ashra!)

La D is obv. great.

... "Viva" is prob. the La D album that most convinces me Klaus Dinger was a fan of the Glitter Band!

I'm in.

Damn you for making another listening club that I absolutely have to follow.

Love the Amon Duul and La Dusseldorf albums, both staples of my listening habits during the past 5 years or so, especially. I still haven't managed to track down a copy of the Ash Ra Tempel, however...

tom d you want to curate a week?

I should really, shouldn't I? What do I do?

On your week you choose 3 albums, post in the style of the 1st post with album covers, spotify links etc. You can add your own thoughts or post reviews. Whatever you like.

12/05 - fit and working again
19/05 - Tom D

Anyone else?

Hold on there, don't pencil me in for the 19th just yet, give me time to think of stuff!

its 2 weeks!

Anyone else?

ME! As mentioned upthread.

Hey, some of us might be busy for the next two weeks! Also I want to see what other people are posting and the general direction the whole thing's headed (xp)

alright
12/05 - fit and working again
19/05 - ilxor

dont blame me if 20 people jump in ahead of you and you dont get a shot until next year, tom.

Already have my three albums lined up (in my head).

^ deserves to go before me

Actually, I might prefer to go later... unless Herman's down for having me highlight some Kraut-influenced stuff instead of a bunch of the "classic" '60s/'70s era stuff. I'm gonna switch it up a bit!

My immediate thought is that it might be best to get some of the "classics" out of the way first, though.

yes, get the "classics" out of the way. I dont think we need do Stereolab ever on this thread.

I've never heard VIVA. I'll have to grab it later. This is the first listening club thread I've opened.
I'm a big fan of the first two bands, but neither of those records are my favorite. They are pretty great debuts, though.

yes, get the "classics" out of the way. I dont think we need do Stereolab ever on this thread.

Hmmmm, you may want to push back my contribution week? I've got one classic lined up, then two heavily Kraut-influenced things from the '90s/'00s that are well worth hearing.

1st round of goes we definitely stick to the classics, "influenced" stuff comes much later as we run out, i think)

I cant push you back as noone else has volunteered and tom needs 3 months to pick his albums.

I'll give it a go Herman!

Can I have a week for classics, then another week for influenced stuff a bit later on?

Greedy

sure.

I'll be having multiple goes myself, hopefully not too many though as lots of you will volunteer.

12/05 - fit and working again
19/05 - ilxor
26/05 - Neil S
2/06 - Tom D (provisionally)

ta. Now I have to get thinking, should be relatively easy if we're the more canonical end of things.

i think we can be loose on the 70s end of things

tom is digging out his early Scorpions lps as we speak. I heard he liked a bit of Frumpy and Hairy Chapter too.

Promise to avoid crap German heavy rock and crap German jazz rock - and there's a shitload of the latter

...that you own?

... a lot of it, yes, unfortunately

you hippy!

What do you have then german jazz-rock wise?

Oh, various shite

name some names!

I bet he has Scorpions albums

Hey, select portions of "Lonesome Crow" are fairly krautrockish! (Particularly the Echoplexed bits.)

Hairy Chapter's "Can't Get Through" lp is a thud-rock classic, imo.
Early Scorps certainly ain't bad, either.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the concept: What are the responsibilities involved in volunteering to do a week?

1) Pick three albums!

2) Get wasted.

Yes, except you've got it in reverse order.

Thanks for posting Sand! I love that record. Great short write ups too. I haven't heard that Kluster record and haven't listened to Floh De Cologne in many years. We're at a nice mix of cosmic and pre industrial music.

Yeah, that Sand record is pretty excellent. Pretty unique sounding. I remember listening to it on headphones for the first time, and thinking that noise was coming in from the street...only to find out it was the record. Good stuff.

next two weeks have been spoken for. any takers for june 1st?

5/18 - dronestreet
5/25 - Tom D.
6/1 - ??

Any chance you can upload these to mediafire or some such? That sharebee site wants my email and home address so it can send me junk mail.

Hey, sorry I missed this. Don't click on the giant flashing download button, but just on one of the green links that say zshare, badongo, megaupload, rapidshare, etc.

I'll gladly take another week!!

really like the T. Dinger lp--thanks!

5/18 - dronestreet
5/25 - Tom D.
6/1 - JacobSanders
6/8 - ??

sign me up again, why not..

whoops, left my files at home...i'll be posting records when i get back there in a bit.

5/18 - dronestreet
5/25 - Tom D.
6/1 - JacobSanders
6/8 - ilxor

Moebius & Plank - Rastakraut Pasta (Tracks 1-7) and Material (Tracks 8-12)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/couldyoudefine/moebius_plank-rasta.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/couldyoudefine/Moebius--Plank-Material-440046.jpg
Mediafire link

Two LPs (1979, 1981) by 1/2 of Cluster and producer-extraordinaire Conny Plank. Getting past one of the worst album names of all time, Rastakraut Pasta is largely a dubby, world-influenced record (CAN's Holger Czukay plays on 3 tracks); I find it to be an almost chopped-and-screwed Cluster. There are exceptions, the piano-heavy "Two Oldtimers", which ends with synth/guitar harmonics reminiscent of Harmonia & Michael Rother's solo work, and "Feedback 66" which is as close as this record gets to the driving, panoramic feel of Plank's work with NEU! Material is a different affair from the beginning, the drums out in-front of everything at the opening of "Conditionierer" with Moebius adding flourishes as the track motors along. The pieces here are less laid back, both "Infiltration" and "Tollkuhn" flirting with different ends of electronica, ambient soundscape on one & a phase-heavy attacking piece to follow. The sound throughout is much darker than on Rastakraut Pasta, closing on a spaced-out instrumental that rides a quivering bass note to the finish.

I always wanted Rastakraut Pasta to be more dubby than it actually is. Material is the better release in my opinion. The proto-techno songs and synth washes are nice.

You accidentally typed "worst" there instead of "best."

You prefer Rastakraut Pasta over Material?

haha, no was making a joke about "one of the worst album names of all time"

"Rastakraut Pasta" is miles better than "Material" IMO. Why is it one of the worst album names of all time?

Shrug, I just cringe every time I hear it. Just a gut reaction.

I too prefer it to "Material"...a little much of an industrial vibe for me.

"Solar Plexus" from Rastakraut Pasta is terrifying. Like waking up from surgery in something like that final weird hall in 2001: A Space Odyssey and not being able to feel your limbs, and hearing ambient alien chatter from a few rooms away. Robert Ashley-type horror.

Two Oldtimers is an all time favorite of mine. So gorgeous.

MOEBIUS, PLANK & NEUMEIER - Zero Set (1982)

http://991.com/newGallery/Moebius--Plank-Zero-Set-440042.jpg

OK so we've started with Moebius + Plank. so let's continue. From earlier in the thread:

"Sowiesoso" - I got this, one lunchtime, in a little record shop called Casa in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. This was a shop which nobody seemed to buy anything out of, it appeared to be run by middle-aged women, their stock was ancient and mostly easy listening and Scottish folk music. This album was in a German folk music section (between the French and the Greek sections), alongside "Zero Set" by Moebius, Plank & Neumeier and "Double Cut" by Moebius & Beerbohm - hey, I don't know much about German folk music but I know what I like!

So here is "Zero Set". Hard to describe this album, sort of dense rhythmic electronic jiggery-pokery from Plank and Moebius with Neumeier clattering away on top (Mani being the polar opposite of the Liebezeit/ Dinger metronomic school of drumming). Bit let down by the last two tracks perhaps, but I'll leave youse to make your own mind up about that.

Link

DZYAN - Electric Silence (1974)

http://www.qpratools.com/gallery/big/dzyan-electric_silence-front.jpg

Trying desperately to post some music that doesn't include Dieter Moebius here. 3rd album by Dzyan: 1st album was prog rock bollocks, 2nd was closer to this album but got a bit too Mahavishnu Orchestra in places. This album is in a similar vein to the Et Cetera album I posted earlier: jazz rock elements, ethnic elements, bit of improv, sprinkling of mellotron, dash of electronics here and there, title track goes slightly Mahavishnu Orch. on us again but some people like that sort of thing.

Link

lol @ that cover

I've completely falling in love with the Thomas Dinger album, it feels so personal and idiosyncratic. I love music that feels like it could fall apart and there's plenty of those moments on here. What an opener "Ballgeflüster" is...

"Solar Plexus" from Rastakraut Pasta is terrifying. Like waking up from surgery in something like that final weird hall in 2001: A Space Odyssey and not being able to feel your limbs, and hearing ambient alien chatter from a few rooms away. Robert Ashley-type horror.

― Clarke B., Tuesday, May 24, 2011 8:49 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

This totally made me want to listen to an album that I had been avoiding for a long time because its name evokes either the world's most repulaive food (like chocolate cheese tilapia casserole) or embarrassed me to say out loud for whatever reason. It's a lot better now that I'm on the second track.

It's dark and rainy outside, so this seemed liked a good day for terrifying music.

Miss Cacadou is really cute, kind of half what I expected. I like that there can be one album with a song this cute and one that sounds like alien chatter.

Can someone describe for me the following: who bought this record when it originally came out? I mean, what was the audience for this music?

I bought it. I discovered Cluster via Brian Eno, and somehow, new vinyl imports started to show up in Pittsburgh, so I bought them when I could. I don't think I ever heard it on any radio stations.

By the way, a little bit off topic, but my husband wrote a piece for his blog that might be interesting to this thread.

Thanks for posting Zero Set, I have been wanting to hear the whole thing after catching a youtube with one of the songs.

Thank you doo dah! Looks like a great read and I cannot get enough of these cosmic fashions.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z3s5BmGhL2E/TdvpoyC7ovI/AAAAAAAAAHA/WvLzH53AFvA/s1600/Cosmicfashions.jpg

By the way, a little bit off topic, but my husband wrote a piece for his blog that might be interesting to this thread.

Great article, thanks! It's great to learn some of these little details like the Macht das Ohr auf / Macht das Tor auf pun that I never would have otherwise realized.

In reference to Rastakraut Pasta, thanks to Garyln for putting my album title distaste into more understandable terms:

an album that I had been avoiding for a long time because its name evokes either the world's most repulaive food (like chocolate cheese tilapia casserole) or embarrassed me to say out loud for whatever reason.

Looking forward to checking out the Moebius/Plank/Neumeier record...I Moebius/Beerbohm's Double Cut, though that's probably one of my least favorites.

Love the first track on Zero Set--those drums!--but I'm kinda ambivalent to the rest.

Wolfgang Riechmann & Streetmark - Wolfgang Riechmann & Streetmark
http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/3234/r9094741269414876.jpg

There seems to be two releases of this record with different track listings and art work. I prefer order of the songs on this one. Streetmark's second album from 77. Dreams is a bubbling cosmic jam.

http://www.mediafire.com/?c1ubl12yx5awf4h

Randy Pie - Randy Pie
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/1040/randypiecopy.jpg

Randy Pie were ex Rattles who were maybe not quite Krautrock. Maybe cosmic blue eyed soul jazz?

http://www.mediafire.com/?ech2u7we8gq7d5s

Awesome. Thanks for the Streetmark/Riechmann. I haven't heard that one yet and will listen in the morning.

Last Saturday, I went to a yard sale and saw Riechmann's Wunderbar lp in a stack of used records and wanted to buy it, but the guy wanted $125 for the damn thing. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. I'm pretty sure it was the 2009 reissue and not an original Sky release.

No love for Randy Pie?

Oh man, the cover of 'Rastakraut Pasta'. I'd forgotten how great these album covers were. Did Sky have an in-house designer? Or was it Moebius who was really into design?

Moebius trained as a graphic designer I think

Moebius studied art with Joseph Beuys, right? Then again, so did Schnitzler, but Schnitzler wasn't much into design. i think Schnitzler was really into the sculpture side of Beuys. Beuys did do some great design work, though.

Those Cluster/Harmonia/etc records are so insanely well-integrated, on a conceptual level--the song titles, the graphic design, everything.

Streetmark album is pleasant (what is a Streetmark anyway?) but given that Dorothea Raukes was responsible for the Deutsch Wertarbeit album, I think she deserves her name on the cover too! Other than the fact that it's German, can't see any reason to be interested in the Randy Pie album however. Thx for all contributions as always!

I wonder if I can "like" Randy Pie on Facebook.

Won't someone help me find other things that sound like the Earthstar and Deutsche Wertarbeit albums posted upthread? I have been listening to both of them pretty constantly since.

Michael Shrieve's "Transfer Station Blue" (referred to upthread IIRC) is full of burbling synthy goodness. More well known, but Ashra's "New Age of Earth" is also fantastic. Peter Baumann's "Leda Welcome to Joyland" is more in the proto-Italo disco vein, but is v nice, and I think was also discussed upthread.

Love Ashra, haven't heard the other two. Thanks!

Couldn't find either of these on spotify, and could only find Transfer Station Blue (and other Peter Baumann, enjoying Bicentennial Presentation) on youtube. Didn't want to download the wrong thing by accident.

I think non-spotify links are on this thread if you wind back through it.

oh ok, got it. i don't know if anything could be better than earthstar.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/tengger-spiritual-2/

Had never heard of Tengger before, but this review got me listening and this is great. The opener is so up my street, it immediately won me over. Meditative mantras, soft buzzing drones and motorik beats discreetly chugging along... Recommended.