i love that first faust record. it contains just the right mix of silliness and experimentalism that in other albums doesn't quite balance. and that x-ray cover - just fab. kurt graupner is the most unsung 'member' of the group. he built the boxes that helped produce the great 'synth' sounds on all their early records and his engineering and mixing is superlative - that snare drum sound: i've never heard it anywhere else.
― nonightsweats, Thursday, 20 May 2010 21:46 (thirteen years ago) link
"E2-E4". no-one gotta nottaspotifya ?
― Mark G, Friday, 21 May 2010 16:02 (thirteen years ago) link
stream it here
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/album/E2+E4/4329331
― this skit is ba-na-nas (onimo), Friday, 21 May 2010 16:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Streaming is nice, but..
― Mark G, Friday, 21 May 2010 16:07 (thirteen years ago) link
whisky's quicker
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 21 May 2010 16:11 (thirteen years ago) link
krautrocks slower with liquor
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 21 May 2010 16:12 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqlx_8MtoSk
― ( `ハ´)☞ ☜(´∀`☜) (am0n), Sunday, 23 May 2010 21:46 (thirteen years ago) link
where's that from? couldn't see any credits and it's too long to be the recent(ish) bbc4 documentary.
― koogs, Monday, 24 May 2010 11:50 (thirteen years ago) link
26/05 - Neil S2/06 - Tom D 9/06 - pfunkboy16/06- GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ23/06 - Von Kelson30/06 - emil.y7/07 - Matt #214/07 - Alan N
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Monday, 24 May 2010 16:19 (thirteen years ago) link
Neil are you primed?
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 25 May 2010 16:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Hope everyone's enjoyed my picks!
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 25 May 2010 16:16 (thirteen years ago) link
there wasnt much chat, was there?
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 25 May 2010 16:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Hey, Koogs, that youtube clip is from a film called Kraftwerk and The Electronic Revolution. It is available on DVD.It's a doc about Kraftwerk that delves into the rest of the krautrock phenomenon with some detail.
― Trip Maker, Tuesday, 25 May 2010 16:19 (thirteen years ago) link
thanks. dvd probably a better option than sneaking 18 10 minute segments whilst at work.
was something that covered similar ground on BBC4 at the end of last year. might be taken from the same sources though.
― koogs, Tuesday, 25 May 2010 16:34 (thirteen years ago) link
actually, amazon has recommended that to me before, but i'd thought it was a book 8)
― koogs, Tuesday, 25 May 2010 16:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Right, it's today!
― Mark G, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 07:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Something coming shortly...
― Neil S, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 11:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Then after that you will post this weeks albums?
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Wednesday, 26 May 2010 11:23 (thirteen years ago) link
It's a Michael Rother themed week this week- my favourite of Neu!'s unimpeachable run of first three records, a well-known collaboration with Cluster, and a perhaps less well known solo record.
Neu! - Neu!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IeVEawIpC_k/SaaJAf6N0bI/AAAAAAAAHYM/L9gkXYCWqj8/s320/neu_1235647396_crop_300x300.jpg
AMG review by Thom Jurek:
Fresh after leaving Kraftwerk in the fall of 1971 for what they perceived to be a lack of vision, guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger formed their own unit and changed the face of German rock forever -- eventually influencing their former employer, Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk. The 1974 album Autobahn was a genteel reconsideration of the music played here. Neu! created a sound that was literally made for cruising in an automobile. While here in the States people were flipping out over "Radar Love" by Golden Earring, if they'd known about this first Neu! disc, they would never have bothered. Dinger's mechanical, cut time drumming and Rother's two-note bass runs adorned with cleverly manipulated and dreamy guitar riffs and fills were the hallmarks of the "motorik" sound that would become the band's trademark.
Spotify linkLast.fm link
2. Harmonia - Musik Von Harmonia
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/MusikVonHarmonia.jpg
AMG review by Ned Raggett:
The debut Harmonia album is at once a product of their source bands and a fine new twist on them, resulting in music that captures what for many is the Krautrock ideal, or more accurately, the motorik ideal. It's not Kraftwerk's all-synth, clean, clinical pulse, nor Neu!'s seemingly effortless glide, nor Can's stomping art world funk. Instead it's at once playful and murky, steady and mechanical, a supergroup of sorts who easily achieves and maintains such a seemingly overstated status by embracing a variety of approaches that work wonders. The players bring their usual multi-instrumental roles to the fore, ensuring that the end results achieve their own distinct sound -- this isn't simply Cluster with Rother's assistance or Rother trying for a solo record with Cluster's backing.
Last.fm link Grooveshark link(sorry, no Spotify!)
3. Michael Rother - Sterntaler
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l3447Elf0wM/ScfqJZ-5rXI/AAAAAAAAAOE/ATs2YLqKS6M/s320/michael_rother_sterntaler_rem07.jpg
Sterntaler marked the beginning of Michael Rother's deep preoccupation with introspective melodies projected outward. Where Flammende Herzen was full of anthemic instrumental rock that was constructed to be just that, Sterntaler is more reflective even if its drive is as insistent and mechanically accurate. Again collaborating with producer Conny Plank and Can's drummer, Jaki Leibzeit, Rother set out with Sterntaler to create true electronic rock music -- even if what he came up with was the first real ambient trance music. Unlike his former bandmates in Kraftwerk and Harmonia who had wholeheartedly embraced electronic music as an end in and of itself, Rother was deeply entrenched in the idea that the entire idea for synthesizers and drum machines was to make rock & roll itself more futuristic. What's so odd about that notion is his method of composition.
Last.fm link(sorry, no Spotify!)
― Neil S, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 11:43 (thirteen years ago) link
All fairly "obvious" choices, but I hope people will have some strong views- I know that Michael Rother solo has already split opinion!
― Neil S, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 11:45 (thirteen years ago) link
Obvious schmobvious. I like "Sterntaler" but I'm not sure that anything Rother did beyond the first three tracks of "Flammende Herzen" is particularly vital. It's nice, polite music but...
― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Wednesday, 26 May 2010 12:16 (thirteen years ago) link
That was the objection upthread- it has the tendency to be too blissed out and polite. I think there's enough going on with Rother's guitar paying and the subtly changing motorik rhythyms to keep you interested, though.
― Neil S, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 12:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Interested yes, excited no IMO... by the time you get to "Lust" (and he's ditched Jaki) you're not even interested
― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Wednesday, 26 May 2010 12:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Love the first two albums you mentioned (though Neu! never quite did it for me like Neu! '75, which is their high water mark). I have not heard the Rother solo album, I'll have to check that one out...
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, 26 May 2010 13:19 (thirteen years ago) link
Rother is a giant imo. I've heard all the Neu!/Harmonia stuff, Flammende Herzen and Sterntaler, but not the rest of the solo stuff.It would be very nice to see the reunited Harmonia, but I that probably won't happen for me.I wouldn't mind hearing other solo things, but even if they are bland beyond words, I'll still think he rules.
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 13:25 (thirteen years ago) link
the harmonia albums are basically the pinnacle of krautrock for me
― original bgm, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 14:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I bought all three Neu! albums in relatively quick succession a year or two ago, so in some ways they all blend together for me. None are pure genius front-to-back, but their highest points are transcendent, or nearly so.
I re-listened to the first album this morning on my way to work and it reminded me how varied Neu! could be from song to song, yet how myopic people's view of them (or of "krautrock") can be. I suppose we have Stereolab to thank for ripping off/shining the spotlight on "Hallogallo" - but what would this album be without "Sonderangebot" or "Im Gluck"? It needs those more abstract songs to make the others really shine, especially "Weissensee," in my opinion. (That said, the last track still sounds like Rother and Dinger were on drugs both when they recorded the song and when they listened to it and deemed it worthy of putting on the record.)
I have De-Luxe, which I like, though I've yet to hear the first Harmonia album - need to find time to listen to it this week. I do know the song "Watussi" which I think is genius.
As with Neu!, I came across Rother's first three albums all at once, so it's taken some time for me to tell them apart. After the other day's Rother debate (upthread), I went back and listened to his album Katzenmusik, which I actually realized I liked! I'm still unconvinced about Sterntaler though. One of the things I like so much about Rother's playing on the first Neu! album is how textural it often is. Those albums are so rhythm-oriented with Rother providing an almost abstract backdrop. Sterntaler on the other hand is extremely melodic, and I'm not really certain that melody was Rother's strongest point. I'll listen to the album again this week, however, just to be sure I'm not totally misguided. (I'm sure you'll all tell me if I am.)
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Wednesday, 26 May 2010 17:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Nice thoughts Scott.
I need to get hold of Deluxe. The rest of Musik... doesn't quite live up to the incredibly high standard of "Watussi" (like Cluster's Zuckerzeit a pre-figuration of huge swathes of electronic music that followed it), but is still excellent.
― Neil S, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 18:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Just listened to Sterntaler again... taken as a whole I think it's mostly pleasant and inoffensive, but never truly awesome. Kinda reminds me of Brian May's guitar tone without the epic-ness of Queen's songwriting. Also, "Lichter von Kairo" is truly dreck... god, that synth! That one song nearly torpedos the whole record!
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Wednesday, 26 May 2010 18:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Lichter von Kairo is a bonus track from circa '93. That might explain its awfulness.
Original tracklist is A1 Sonnenrad 6:01A2 Blauer Regen 3:09A3 Stromlinien 8:11B1 Sterntaler 6:46B2 Fontana Di Luna 6:39B3 Orchestrion 3:40
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, 27 May 2010 06:38 (thirteen years ago) link
I need to get hold of Deluxe.
Title track is one the greatest things I've ever heard in my life. I prefer that album to the first.
― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 09:05 (thirteen years ago) link
^what he said
― lemon lime & butters (electricsound), Thursday, 27 May 2010 09:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Okay, will be having a look for that in Fopp this lunchtime.
Re. Lichter von Kairo: that track sounds like a poor Enigma out-take, and ruins the end of that album.
― Neil S, Thursday, 27 May 2010 11:25 (thirteen years ago) link
I've been checking up if my albums for next week are on Spotify, I hate the idea that people might think that bonus tracks have anything to do with the orignal albums!
― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Thursday, 27 May 2010 11:33 (thirteen years ago) link
oh yeah, those bonus tracks are straight-up garbage!
― original bgm, Thursday, 27 May 2010 15:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I knew the last dance remix was a bonus, but not the others. That definitely makes this a better album than I'd realized. (Still not my favorite though.)
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Thursday, 27 May 2010 16:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Gonna chip in a weekend bonus album here since it kinda ties in with this weeks choices as he was once in a band with Michael Rother (And Wolfgang Flur)
RIECHMANN - wunderbarhttp://shopbase.finetunes.net/shopserver/BinaryCacheServlet?albumid=1237809461132&datatype=fc300
Reissued from the vaults of the legendary Sky Records, Wunderbar was the first, and sadly only solo album by Wolfgang Riechmann, whose life was tragically cut short after a knife attack in 1978, just three weeks before this record was released. Riechmann's musical background stretched back to the late sixties when he met Michael Rother (of Harmonia and Neu!) and Wolfgang Flur (of Kraftwerk) with whom he formed the band Spirits Of Sound. Through the mid-seventies Riechmann played with the popular group Phonix, who released two albums on the Streetmark label, but once they disbanded in 1977 he devoted all his energies into this oft-overlooked classic of synthesizer music, recalling the sounds of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze in addition to the Dusseldorf school from which he emerged. In the most literal sense of the word, there's a mercurial feel to this music - the album brimming with a slippery, metallic quality thanks to the sweeping synth motions running through tracks like 'Silberland' and 'Abendlicht'. Wonderful stuff, and highly recommended to fans of both pioneers like Cluster to more recent exponents like Emeralds.
Hope you all enjoy!
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 28 May 2010 14:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Again, mit der bonuses! Dude was murdered, by the way, else killed in a bar room brawl
― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Friday, 28 May 2010 14:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Album's good but not up to Cluster's standards
― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Friday, 28 May 2010 14:45 (thirteen years ago) link
it's well worth checking out though!
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 28 May 2010 14:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh yeah, absolutely
― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Friday, 28 May 2010 14:46 (thirteen years ago) link
and it just fits nicely with this weeks picks
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 28 May 2010 14:47 (thirteen years ago) link
do you own it tom?
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 28 May 2010 15:52 (thirteen years ago) link
nice one, thanks Herman!
― Neil S, Friday, 28 May 2010 16:13 (thirteen years ago) link
So what do you think of those albums above? I know you're a Neu! fan...
― Neil S, Friday, 28 May 2010 16:20 (thirteen years ago) link
well i love the neu and harmonia. need ti hear the rother again, its been a while.
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 28 May 2010 16:25 (thirteen years ago) link
oooh, this REICHMANN album sounds right up my alley...
― original bgm, Friday, 28 May 2010 16:33 (thirteen years ago) link
What a terribly old fashioned question
― Wenlock & Mandelson (Tom D.), Friday, 28 May 2010 16:48 (thirteen years ago) link
The answer is yes,isn't it?
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 28 May 2010 18:43 (thirteen years ago) link
Alan N , I think it most probably is.
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Saturday, 29 May 2010 01:41 (thirteen years ago) link