KRAUTROCK Listening Klub! - New Albums Every Wednesday

I like that Shrieve record too, thanks for introducing it to me, and no problem on the electronic bent to your selections, I'm all for it!

Harald Grosskopf album is really good - enough to have his old bosses, Gottsching and Schulze looking over their shoulders I would have thought - dude should have made more albums (maybe he did?)

Liked the 1st side of the Michael Shrieve album but lost interest when the guitars came in.

I confess i don't really know what Italo Disco is (I know, what am I doing on ILM?) Leda album sounds to me like an attempt to make a pop album - and better than Peter Baumann's own efforts at making a pop album!

Hello Krautrock listening club!
This week I have a few minor suggestions for you all even though you might dislike them severely because you're not into fairies and wizards and whatever.

1. Witthuser & Westrupp: Trips Und Traume
http://zengiz.mydnd.com/images/trips-und-traume.jpeg
blogged: http://spoiledmetropolis.blogspot.com/2007/06/witthuser-westrup-trips-und-traume-1971.html

I think this to be a strangely affecting listen, given that things in 'other' languages don't usually resonate with me emotionally, but a few of the songs here do. Really beautiful stuff, IMO, and a kinda goof track about smoking doobies too.

Will post two more albums as workday allows.

11/08 - Tom D
18/08 - von kelson

Anyone for afters? I cant take a turn for a couple of weeks due to metal poll.

Surprised to find that there's stuff in my collection that hasn't been posted yet, so I'll gladly take a turn.

11/08 - Tom D
18/08 - von kelson
25/08

anyone else? Happy to keep club going as long as there is interest.

i can't do 25/8 but will be happy for the week after that

Record #2:
http://www.psychedelicfolk.com/files/kalacakra.jpg
http://sharebee.com/d7d736fb
Kalacakra's "Crawling To Lhasa" is a much darker psych folk affair with more obvious eastern influence.
The incomprehensible, mumbled and slurred vocals are a nice touch.

from 72.

i love that kalacakra album, as well as fairies and wizards and whatever

I've heard a lot about Kalacakra, but never heard it before so look forward to listening this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pwHQlv4tuA&

CAN

What's with the last two tracks on the Kalacakra album? They are obv. not from 1972!

Bonus tracks dude.

Indeed, but have they got anything to do with Kalacakra? They sound like they're from the 90s.

flutes certainly were an important instrument for these hippie bands, weren't they?

Unfortunately, IMO. Quite easy to get a tune out of a flute - not easy to play well of course.

1. CAN - Soon Over Babaluma (1974)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2T15FI3POt8/SScbf7V-KJI/AAAAAAAADYs/x_tnF6u3G5Y/s400/Can_Soon+Over+Babaluma*.jpg

OK, let's begin with a classic. It's where I began with Can because it was the first Can album I ever bought. Before this, I'd heard "I Want More" because my sister had the single (it was a hit and they were on Top of the Pops) and I'm sure John Peel once played "Mother Sky", because I distinctly remember hearing a track with a one note octave bassline plonking away endlessly (or maybe I remembered it from that film "Deep End", about a guy who looked like David Bowie and lived in a swimming pool (in the course of which Jane Asher got her tits out, but I digress)). This was long before the internet, kiddywinks. Anyway I don't know what I was expectiing but I was not expecting upside down reggae with gypsy violins and a wobbly bassline wobbling in and out of focus, or a twisted mumbly tango in cod-Italian - and that was just the first two tracks. This is the least straightforward Can album in a career not exactly renowned for being straightforward: instruments rarely sound the way they're supposed to; rhythms slither inside and outside or else mercilessly STOMP ON YOUR BRAIN; the rulebook on sound engineering and production is well and truly ripped up (not always a good thing - "Splash" would be so much better if the rhythm section was produced the way the rhythm section used to be produced on the early Can records). You haven't asked me, but I'm going to tell you anyway: the second side of this album and the title track of "Future Days" are the best things Can ever did. There I said it.

Spotted

Lesser Spotted

2. AMON DÜÜL - Paradieswärts Düül (1971)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oi_cYAgvy0I/R4Bv63dP7PI/AAAAAAAAAik/6BdpbFuC_Kg/s400/Amon%2BD%C3%BC%C3%BCl%2B-%2BParadiesw%C3%A4rts%2BD%C3%BC%C3%BCl_n.jpg

Talking of flutes, here's the Other Amon Düül, who smoked lots of pot, had cool haircuts and made a bunch of albums that only intense young men with beards and a complete collection of Boredoms albums can appreciate - except they also made an album the rest of might be able to appreciate, "Paradieswärts Düül". This album shows that Amon Düül actually had some talent after all: they are no virtuosos of course and they struggle with boring musicianly stuff like how to end a song... but Rainer Bauer is actually a much better singer than anyone in Amon Düül II (except Renate) and, particularly with the opening track on the album, "Love is Peace" and the two sides of their single included here, they come up with an slow motion enervated sort of psychedelic folk-rock which is novel and affectting. (Yes, you read that right, some strange person or persons actually thought it would be a good idea for Amon Düül to release a single!)

Spotless

3 . EDGAR FROESE - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (1975)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_41Q3K6TRmxk/Sq1X_dlrXkI/AAAAAAAAFRE/bOpxTynmKAA/s800/EF.png

I sometimes think this might be my favourite Tangerine Dream/ Tangerine Dream-related album of all. Recorded between "Phaedra" and "Rubycon" (I think it's fair to say old Edgar was on a bit of a roll at the time!), so that'll give you some idea of the contents. Mellotron fans will love this album, esp. the title track. Apparently this was a big favourite of Iggy & Bowie's during their sojourn in Berlin chasing drag queens.

Spotless

great choices

^^^^^^^Agreed.
I just listened to the top two in the last five days, never heard the third! Can't wait, frankly.

you're in for a treat

uh thank you for alerting me to the fact that can were on totp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l2K9Zigc0w

u r simon reynolds and i want my thirty dollars

;)

Obv. Michael Karoli was too embarrassed to appear on TOTP so they got Lou Reed to do it instead

Holger and Irmin = almost ancient enough to be Radio 1 DJs

oh man... paradieswarts duul. probably my favorite on the hippie end of the kraut spectrum.

never heard that particular froese album, so i'm definitely excited about that one too

I sometimes think this might be my favourite Tangerine Dream/ Tangerine Dream-related album of all.

pretty much! though mp3's of live TD from 1970-74 definitely make all the things they decided to put out on vinyl seem too cautious

the second side of this album and the title track of "Future Days" are the best things Can ever did

not so sure about future days but i agree wholeheartedly about chain reaction/quantum physics: so slinky and beautiful. definitely their last great album amongst so many.

haven't heard the amon so looking forward to that.

epsilon - i don't like this as much as aqua but they're fairly similar, i suppose. as for TD - how about ricochet: that was my 1st intro to them and still pretty fantastic.

Love "Epsilon...". Just look out for the 2004 "remake" Froese put together. It doesn't hold up.

I have a feeling that listening to these mpfrees of Epsilon just can't compare with it on vinyl.
I guess I should start checking the Tangerine Dream section again.

guess I should start checking the Tangerine Dream section again.

be very very careful, most of it really does not hold up. it's important to keep perspective and hear what was actually finding the commercial audiences in the cosmic 70's, but it's been reassuring how the better bands have finally been finding the audience

TD up to 74 is definitely worth checking out, and if you're still interested keep going to 80 or so.

TD were great til 1980. Force Majeure is prob my fave.

FM gets a little goofy, but it's good. I think I started listening to it on your recommendation from a TD thread, pfunk.

Phaedra & Stratosfear are my tops I'd say.

my 3 faves prob!

I am pretty well-versed in the TD back catalog. It's easy to find cheap copies of the best lps.
Phaedra is probably my favorite, but I like my 2fer of Alpha Centauri and Atem a lot. And Zeit is sweet, but I don't have that on vinyl.

I have the early spacey stuff on cd

TD LPs used to be incredibly cheap and common, now I don't see them nearly as much or I would pick some up again.

Are we still doing Friday Bonus Albums? Anyway, here ye go:

SEESSELBERG - Synthetik 1 (1973)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61IpTJ%2Bq-8L._SS500_.jpg

I'm almost tempted to believe this might be one of those fake albums we've already discussed on this thread, perhaps the geezer from Nurse With Wound and some of his mates got together one weekend, cracked open a few beers and perpetrated a gigantic fraud on us. Fear not though, there exists YouTube footage out there of the Seesselberg boys, back in der tag, creating the unearthly racket that is Seesselberg. So, for certain, this album was the product of two brothers whose idea of fraternal togetherness was squeezing as many outlandish noises out of their homemade synths as humanly or inhumanly as possible and was recorded at various venues between 1971 and 1973. One of the tracks was recorded at an art gallery in London: about 4 years later Throbbing Gristle were doing the same thing and, coincidentally, sounding very much the same.

Non-stick

Dunno this, so thanks!

Like both description & cover, will try this out. Found Epsilon in Malaysian Pale on LP really cheap a couple of years ago, just as I was dipping carefully beyond Can/Faust/Neu! et al. Bought it for the cover alone, really. Beautiful. As is the music. Didn't know it was a Bowie/Pop fave back in der tag, no wonder it works for me too ;)

Epsilon is lovely.

Babaluma isn't my favorite Can (by far), but I do really like "Come Sta La Luna."

I picked up a reissue of that Paradieswarts Duul and hated it at first but will return to it and give it a second go.

Was at the Fort Greene flea market on Saturday too and saw a dude with Amon Duul II Hijack. Was unfamiliar so i left without it, but I am sooooo pissed I did when I went home and listened on youtube. Super good.

You might want to save Paradieswarts Duul for fall/winter if you still don't like it. That's when I "got it."

And there's one song on "Hijack" that's AWESOME. But I can't remember the title.

Here are three more from me, descriptions again from The Crack in the Cosmic Egg:

Necronomicon - Tips Zum Selsbtmord (1972)
http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/2130/cover_165032122005.jpg

An obscure, yet legendary heavy and psychedelic underground band, whose only LP was released privately, instantly becoming obscure and collectable, not least because of its title, meaning "Tips For Committing Suicide". Also, aptly the music was dark, outer-edge bleak rock, with acid guitars and distinctly psychedelic wailing angst ridden German vocals. A kind of dark sinister Frumpy turned garage band, even stranger than the occasionally comparable Ainigma. The only shame is that none of Necronomicon's output is what one could call hi-fi, yet despite this, the brilliance of their music always shines through.

More of a garage/heavy blues sound. Also notable for having an organist by the name of Fistus Dickmann, apparently.
Not a Spotify Link

Mammut - s/t (1971)
http://www.longhairmusic.de/covermammut.JPG

Born out of the jazz scene in Villingen (near Stuttgart, Southwest Germany) from musicians formerly of the bands The Rope Set and Those. Mammut were an obscure underground band, whose sole album was the result of no-holds-barred late night jam sessions at the MPS studios. Dark sounds, with hints of Amon Düül II, heavy blues-rock (in the more freaky Frumpy or Tomorrow's Gift vein), with all sorts of strange, ethnic and gothic touches combined in their music. Although the band themselves quoted Deep Purple's IN ROCK as a major influence, their spirit was purely Krautrock. Their sole album is a legendary rarity, and rightly so. The CD reissue was withdrawn due to legal problems.

More free jazz than Frumpy, thankfully.
Not a Spotify Link

Agitation Free - Last (1976)
http://fotos.subefotos.com/5816ba9df2ce931ba51902f8ee8339a2o.jpg

It's unfortunate really that Agitation Free only really gained success in France, being barely noticed in their homeland, and totally ignored by the British media. Still, two studio albums were not the end of Agitation Free, and they kept on recording right up to their final session. The album LAST was posthumously released (only in France), it contains recordings from two concerts and is certainly the best document of the improvisational capabilities of this most innovative group of Teutonic pioneers, developing the Agitation Free sound beyond the guitar based music of Ash Ra Tempel onto purely cosmic floating realms.

A good mix of Agitation Free material - the first track turns into "Rucksturz" from Malesch; the second is motorik similar to the songs on 2nd; the third is a long Ashra-type drone.
Not a Spotify Link

Also notable for having an organist by the name of Fistus Dickmann, apparently.

I approve of this

Ta for the Agitation Free album, tho 1st album is a better intro for the initiated. Thx for the Mammut and Necronomicon albums too: both are terrible but at least I can now say I've heard them!

can we get this thing going again?