KRAUTROCK Listening Klub! - New Albums Every Wednesday

19/05 - ilxor
26/05 - Neil S
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

anyone else want in?

I didn't realize that week two had already gone into effect. I have never heard any Walter Wegmuller before and plan to tackle that link tomorrow.

Just got to the end of "Landed"..

I can see why people got underwhelmed by latter period Can, all that groundbreaking work early on, and a good quantity of albums, leaves the later ones less important.

Having said that, if this album and the second LP of Tago Mago were swapped, TM would still be highly regarded as a classic, save for "untitled" which has a lack of creativity in it's title, and is less 'out-there' than "Augm", but the other more 'traditional' songs make up for it in some ways.

Anyway, onwards to Popol Vuh..

listened to wegmuller last night and it didn't impress me. sloppy hippie mess. though there is a lot to digest so i'm gonna give it another try

Today, ilxor?

Tonight, I suppose. After work. If I can get my act together and pick a few albums.

Herman, can you assist with Spotify links?

Albums selected. I will post ASAP.

Alright, sticking to three decently well-known "classics" this time around.

Faust - Faust (1971)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31s8ai2C7RL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

AMG review:

The impact of Faust cannot be overstated; their debut album was truly a revolutionary step forward in the progress of "rock music". It was pressed on clear vinyl, packaged in a clear sleeve, with a clear plastic lyric insert. The black X-ray of a fist on the cover graphically illustrates the hard core music contained in the grooves, an amalgamation of electronics, rock, tape edits, acoustic guitars, musique concrete, and industrial angst. The level of imagination is staggering, the concept is totally unique and it's fun to listen to as well.

Cluster - Sowiesoso (1976)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41yfl42yTxL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

AMG review:

The evocative toybox melodies (usually the Roedelius compositions) on 1974's Zuckerzeit reached their peak with Sowiesoso, courtesy of ambling pieces like "Dem Wanderer," the title track, and the vaguely Oriental "Halwa." The drum programs are still irresistibly simplistic (not to say simple), but even when Sowiesoso stretches out into primarily beatless terrain ("Es War Einmal," "Zum Wohl"), the album retains its power.

Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4 (1984)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517S5GPG1YL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

AMG review:

E2-E4, one of the few records Göttsching released under his own name, has earned its place as one of the most important, influential electronic records ever released. It's also the earliest album to set the tone for electronic dance music; simply put, it just sounds like the mainstream house produced during the next two decades. Similar to previous Ashra albums like New Age of Earth and Blackouts, it does so with a short list of instruments -- just the nominal drum machine and a pulsing guitar line in the background plus some light synthesizer work. What sets it apart from music that came before is a steadfast refusal to follow the popular notions of development in melody and harmony. Instead, E2-E4 continues working through similar territory for close to an hour with an application to trance-state electronics missing from most of the music that preceded it. Though the various components repeat themselves incessantly, it's how they interact and build that determines the sound -- and that's the essence of most electronic dance music, that complex interplay between several repetitive elements.

My thoughts to come later.

By the way, if anyone could help out with links, that would be appreciated. I don't f/w downloads at all myself, so not well versed in that process... and also don't have Spotify access, of course.

Thanks all!

great picks - love the cluster and gottsching!

so, I was just listening to e2-24 last weekend. curious about how the guitar goes over w/new listeners...

Only one of the three on Spotify

Cluster - Sowiesoso (1976) http://open.spotify.com/album/3m9uV9nMHwiB3Cw96VwNB0

I can think of few pieces of music lovelier than the title track of Sowiesoso.

Cosign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5lwRjLd_4

Was just listening Soweisoso earlier today - absolutely love that record. And the first Faust is not my favorite Faust but it's still genius. I'm not at all familiar with the Gottsching so I'm hoping someone's got a link to that one.

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/album/E2+E4/4329331

thanks.

E2E4 is wonderful and i think its great its crossed over into the big canon in the past few years.

Not much of a fan of "E2-E4".

1st Faust isn't my favourite Faust either but still genius.

"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, yes, "Sowiesoso" is great, but not quite their best.

E2E4 does sound good. remember it being mentioned in the big observer article in, er, 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/apr/22/features.musicmonthly7

casa cassettes? I never did find out where that shop actually was! used to see it listed all the time though

That's it, Casa Cassettes! It's amazing they managed to stumble into the 1990s.

It started as Casa Cassettes then shortened to Casa. The same woman also had a shop at the traffic lights on Oswald St (I think it became the AA test centre or it was next door to it?).

listened to In den Gärten Pharaos this afternoon. cool record but I have to admit that I strongly prefer the title track to "vuh".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DON-CogKcfk

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.

"E2-E4". no-one gotta nottaspotifya ?

stream it here

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/album/E2+E4/4329331

Streaming is nice, but..

whisky's quicker

krautrocks slower with liquor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqlx_8MtoSk

where's that from? couldn't see any credits and it's too long to be the recent(ish) bbc4 documentary.

26/05 - Neil S
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

Neil are you primed?

Hope everyone's enjoyed my picks!

there wasnt much chat, was there?

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.

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.

actually, amazon has recommended that to me before, but i'd thought it was a book 8)

Right, it's today!

Something coming shortly...

Then after that you will post this weeks albums?

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 link
Last.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

AMG review by Thom Jurek:

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!)

All fairly "obvious" choices, but I hope people will have some strong views- I know that Michael Rother solo has already split opinion!

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...

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.

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.)