KRAUTROCK Listening Klub! - New Albums Every Wednesday

Interested yes, excited no IMO... by the time you get to "Lust" (and he's ditched Jaki) you're not even interested

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...

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.

the harmonia albums are basically the pinnacle of krautrock for me

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.)

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.

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!

Lichter von Kairo is a bonus track from circa '93. That might explain its awfulness.

Original tracklist is
A1 Sonnenrad 6:01
A2 Blauer Regen 3:09
A3 Stromlinien 8:11
B1 Sterntaler 6:46
B2 Fontana Di Luna 6:39
B3 Orchestrion 3:40

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.

^what he said

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.

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!

oh yeah, those bonus tracks are straight-up garbage!

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.)

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 - wunderbar
http://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!

Again, mit der bonuses! Dude was murdered, by the way, else killed in a bar room brawl

Album's good but not up to Cluster's standards

it's well worth checking out though!

Oh yeah, absolutely

and it just fits nicely with this weeks picks

do you own it tom?

nice one, thanks Herman!

So what do you think of those albums above? I know you're a Neu! fan...

well i love the neu and harmonia. need ti hear the rother again, its been a while.

oooh, this REICHMANN album sounds right up my alley...

do you own it tom?

What a terribly old fashioned question

The answer is yes,isn't it?

Alan N , I think it most probably is.

2/06 - Tom D
9/06 - pfunkboy
16/06- GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ
23/06 - Von Kelson
30/06 - emil.y
7/07 - Matt #2
14/07 - Alan N
21/07 - pashmina

I'll trade my place with someone else already in that list who hasn't gone yet if they like, in interests of fairness. First call gets it.

ME!

Done

2/06 - Tom D
9/06 - pashmina
16/06- GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ
23/06 - Von Kelson
30/06 - emil.y
7/07 - Matt #2
14/07 - Alan N
21/07 - pfunkboy

Any thoughts on the Riechmann?

Won't be on the internet this Wednesday, so thought I'd jump the gun by posting my selections today:

1. POPOL VUH - Sei still, wisse ICH BIN (1981)

http://image-7.verycd.com/abef9b9b09b236ca59c8a84cf462e05f54887%28600x%29/thumb.jpg

Here's what I said about it here, a long long time ago:

Probably the most idiosyncratic Popol Vuh album of them all and one of the best. Soundtrack to Fricke’s extremely odd “film” of the same name (sometimes also called “Sinai Desert”) The mantra-like chanting and extreme repetition that Fricke had been exploring in more and more detail finds its ultimate expression on this truly unique album. Using the choir of the Bavarian State Opera, Fricke builds dense and rather unsettling walls of vocals over thundering, thumping percussion and Fichelscher’s pleasingly primitive guitar or else strips the music right down to simple modal melodies. Pretty special.

So, this is one of my favourite Vuh albums, still can't think what or who sounds like this... and the punk rockers got it wrong, three chords is still two chords too many.

Spotify Link (First seven tracks are the album, last track has nothing to do with it.)

2. ROEDELIUS - Jardin Au Fou (1980)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5jqVJD9To-A/SxeHUIGOwzI/AAAAAAAAAbM/TJw7qkQT_lo/s320/Roedelius+-+1979+-+Jardin+Au+Fou.jpg

I got given this as a birthday present by a friend of mine years ago, which was nice! Recorded at Peter Baumann's studio in Berlin, this is better produced and a bit more focused than a lot of his other solo albums. Basically, if you like the melodic, twinkly, childlike side of Cluster then this is the fellow for you. The fact that so many of the song titles are in French makes me wonder if this album isn't, in some way, an homage to Erik Satie, whose ghostly presence hovers over much of it. (By the way, does anyone have a version of Roedelius' first album, "Durch die Wuste" which isn't in mono?)

Spotify Link (First ten tracks are the album, don't know what the rest of it is.)

3. SYPH - Pst/SYPH (1980/81)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7St4jD20p0o/Rbva6ji88FI/AAAAAAAAA58/kQ86jcpIBEg/s400/syph_pst.jpg

Ever wondered if there was any kind of missing link between Krautrock and Punk Rock? Well look no further! SYPH were one of the first German punk bands and a punk band they definitely were, there's enough ramalama shoutiness in their back catalogue to satisfy even our own Colonel Poo. There was always something else going on with SYPH however, hence Holger Czukay producing (and playing on) "Pst", their second album, at Can's Inner Space studio. Czukay persuaded the band to adopt the Can approach to composition and recording, doesn't always come off tbf - 20 year old punk rockers being less adept at improvising than 30-something former students of Stockhausen perhaps. Their fourth, self-titled, album consisted of more (exploratory) material from the sessions with Czukay, so these two albums truly belong together, think of this pairing as the punk rock "Tago Mago"! Includes the classic (to my earholes anyway) "Little Nemo", which Czukay edited down, added a bunch of silly vocals to, and made the title track of his second solo album, claiming sole authorship in the process, naughty Holger!

Non Spotify Link

Bollocks. Crappy PV cover:

http://www.enricobassi.it/seistillfront.JPG

SYPH intriguing

Nice, 2 out of 3 on Spotify too!

That SYPH double pack's great.

Durch die Wüste isn't mono originally is it? Do you have a weird rip of it? I've got no setup to rip vinyl unfortunately. Bureau B has reissued high quality Roedelius/Cluster vinyl last year that I highly recommend (got Cluster II and Grosses Wasser for my birthday a few monts ago).

Interesting choices Mr D

Durch die Wüste isn't mono originally is it? Do you have a weird rip of it?

Weird rip, yeah. I only noticed because I have "Johanneslust", which is one of the greatest things Roedelius ever did, on a compilation called "Auf Leisen Sohlen", and when I was listening to it on my copy of "Durch die Wüste", I was thinking, "Hold on, this isn't very good", then I realised it was mono - and that's one track that definitely benefits from stereo!

... oh and "Durch die Wüste" is awesome too

good choices now to listen to syph..

Bonus album:

4. CONRAD SCHNITZLER - Con (1978)

http://www.enricobassi.it/krauto_pic005.JPG

Couldn't really begin to describe Conrad Schnitzler's discography, how many albums is it now? 50? 75? 100? The majority of them private releases, on cassettes, on vinyl, on CD-Rs, in limited runs from 25 upwards, some sold in galleries, some sold on the streets of various German towns by Con himself. On his earliest albums you really get the sense of a musician finding his milieu, coming home even, I swear this guy IS electronic! This particular album (aka "Ballet Statique") however was his first for a proper record label (his release schedule becomes truly ridiculous from hereon!) and was recorded and produced by Peter Baumann at his Paragon Studios in Berlin - clearly a man of great taste and refinement! I wouldn't describe this as exactly commercial but it's a lot more so than most of his stuff. Suffice to say, to make music as minimal as "Con" and still make it so compelling demonstrates an understanding of pure sound that is, well. profound. Lots of musicians are described as "experimental", Con is the real deal.

Non Spotify Link

the roedelius is pleasant enough. i love harmonia and cluster but their solos things leave me a little unimpressed. finally listened to the reichmann today - certainly has a lot of strings pads and sounds like vangellis or other sountracky electronic music. not my cuppa.

9/06 - pashmina
16/06- GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ
23/06 - Von Kelson
30/06 - emil.y
7/07 - Matt #2
14/07 - Alan N
21/07 - pfunkboy

I like the Reichmann! Got it from Ultima Thule a while back - it is nowhere near as good as yr classic electronic instrumental kraut stuff, but it has its own charm.

Will try to download the SYPH on the mister's computer as I know nothing about it - sounds interesting.

Pashmina's pRoxy picks

#1 Klaus Schulze - Timewind
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6SchU8D-e1s/SODMwR8xnZI/AAAAAAAADqA/aT58csAMrUg/s400/klaus-schulze-timewind-cover.jpg

Spotify Link

#2 Amon Düül II - Yeti
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/files/2009/07/amonduulyeti.jpg

Spotify Link

#3 Popul Vuh - Das Hoheleid Salomos
http://dreamchimney.com/slvs/07_big_20070322043220.jpg

Not A Spotify

Popol Vuh be ruling this thread

What an album cover!

Listened to that Conrad Schnitzler album yesterday - it's pretty good. I actually like the four short tracks more than the intro long track...