CLUSTER: I have fallen in love with this band, please help

yeah, I had to leave early too. it was just getting way too late. which was part of my problem. I think some of my disappointment could def be attributed to the sheer fatigue that sets in after having already spent hours in a crowded, smelly, enclosed space with noise bands playing the whole time!

and it is more than a little unfair to hope they'll sound like some record from 40 years ago. I think hearing that really outstanding harmonia live record that just surfaced this year set the bar too high in my mind. endlessly looping/permutating melodies and stuff. their set was very much not that.

I'd say they sounded closer to the kluster/early cluster material. mostly pretty dark with a couple pertty ambient bits here and there.

and yeah, they seemed to have gotten fed up with the music the dj was playing. kept gesturing for him to stop it but he seemed to be waiting for a song to play out, the word from someone to stop, or whatever. hard to tell what was going on but a bunch of people in the crowd kept looking back and forth between them and the dj. cluster looked grumpy. it was funny.

I actually thought the DJ was ace, but I can understand Cluster's grumpiness. Not the best idea to put on veterans of their age on in the middle of the night. Or veterans of my age in the audience for that matter!

yeah, by that time, I was pretty grumpy myself!

booking Cluster at No Fun was an interesting idea but I could tell that wasn't going to be the best environment for what they're doing now. on friday they're playing here, much more appropriate

even 30 years ago, live Cluster was all improv, they've never played songs from their records live. structurally the 'Metz 77' mp3 isn't that different than the new 'Berlin 07' CD, space music & textures. the new record has its moments, I love the goony rave music that kicks off the 2nd track

set last night in Chicago was awesome. They are a treasure.

worth $20 to see them? (keep in mind i'm pretty broke)

Pretty excited for the show tonight...

Hey Bus Driver Stu! Wanna hook up? I'm in Hollywood on vacation, looking forward to tonight...

I just emailed you through ILX...

Aw man, I didn't check this thread since yesterday morning. Totally missed your post, Bimble. Didn't get an email either.

Anyway, the show was awesome and Farmlab is the coolest venue I've ever been to. Also, Roedelius is huge.

Well I'm glad you liked it. I was bored senseless from the minute I got there.

no fun @ no fun fest. too many blips and bleeps, not enough kraut and rocking. huge letdown after all that waiting and religious knives shaking shit up right before. roedelius solo live is much more entertaining

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k122/folkyeah/2540447252_951be41580.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k122/folkyeah/2516531789_5617610fd9copy.jpg

I caught the Big Sur, Santa Cruz, SF & Aquarius shows. R had three CD players, a Nord Electro & FX, M had two CD players, a MicroKorg & a Kaosillator. some people were nervous at their use of CD players, but all four shows were completely different -- on the 96 tour, they were using DAT machines for playback with no cueing flexibility or varispeed, and this time around they've got quicker access to a much wider variety of CDRs, so many to choose from that each night had maybe 30% recognizable overlap, and even then every night they'd respond to the other's ingredients in completely different ways -- one night, for M's rave loop, R faded up layers of tibetan bowl hits, the next lay a melody over it with the Nord, the next a minor key pulsing drone

the 96 shows were attended by hardcore faithful, but those CD reissues have obviously made the rounds because these shows were packed with young kids expecting tunes, and probably not this degree of improv ambience. the Big Sur was the most diffused and scattered, no rhythm ever took over, but the constant left turns in the mix were so disorienting as to become hypnotic and the completely silent audience was drawn in (especially those who knew they'd signed up for an outdoor show and brought coats -- it was cold and some people were going under). in Santa Cruz they took the stage after 7 opening bands, all rock, and they played their quietest show to the loudest crowd -- if you speakerhugged, this set had the most keyboard playing from R. in SF the Great American was nearly sold out, 6-800 people -- halfway through the set, they finally met the hallwide chatter with fantastic waves of slowly building white noise and people stopped talking and started screaming for the sudden noise show -- they played for 85 minutes, and the encore was the peak of all 4 nights, noisy atonal cosmic pulse, digital return to 'Cluster II', jaws had been dropped as they left the stage. the Aquarius show was half as long as the other shows, the mellowest & maybe the deepest and definitely the most intimate -- everyone sat crosslegged on the floor, and they were right there in front of us

great projections by Alison Childs, 80's vintage vector computer graphics slowly spinning about, projected wide angle across the entire stage -- but particularly special at the Big Sur outdoor show, where she projected onto the trees behind the stage -- that first picture doesn't even begin to hint at what those grids looked like slowly converging and refracting off thousands of leaves, I realized that I hadn't seen anything quite like that before and perfectly fit the music.

obviously being a beyond-the-pale cluster fanboy I knew I was going to have a great time at these shows, and I was occasionally frustrated that they're of a size now that has them in venues not perfect for what they're currently doing. but I thought they were in fantastic form. and it was pretty easy to see that they seemed to be getting along beautifully.

That all sounds really cool, Milton. Buddy of mine was at the Big Sur show and he was very into it.

one other tidbit. I was in Aquarius when M & R discovered the two new albums Schnitzler re-released on Important as 'Kluster' -- they hadn't heard about them. feeling more and more sketchy about them all the time, seeing them come out the month before Water released the 3 CD box of the three historical Kluster albums (which has great liner notes)

for fans of Kluster / Cluster '71 (or AMM / Stockhausen circa 'Sieben Tagen' / 60's noise psychedelia / the spacier Krautrock) this is my most awaited archival release of 2008: Human Being: Live at the Zodiak - Berlin 1968

http://www.nepenthemusic.com/catalog/humanbeing.html

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?StoryID=14066
http://www.strangeattractor.co.uk/further/?p=818

Kluster and Friends - 1969-1973 6xLP Box $199.99 (QBICO)
black vinyls/black labels/black inner sleeves. box, spray painted (stencil/lettering by Troglosound) in gold or silver or bronze (3 versions) and with clear plastic insert (rare photos). UNRELEASED MUSIC ! here's a little story for you:
when i mailed the news about the closure of qbico in 2010, some friends and musicians wrote me back... one was Conrad Schnitzler wondering if i wanna close with THE BOMB ! i said "yes, why not !?". so Con sent me 6 CD-R of UNRELEASED Kluster music, rec. in 1969-73 (along with Klaus Freudigmann and Wolfgang Seidel) ! he said to choose yr favourite 40 (+/-) from the 1 hour lenght of each CD-R, so to adjust to vinyl format... well, that's was one of the most joyful experience of my life ! this 6LP box collect that music which it's simply some of the most outstanding and revolutionary music that i ever heard !!! One of the most legendary release on Qbico ?! YES (screaming)!" - QBICO

any thoughts other than "too broke to buy?"

jeezus, that's expensive. and the write-up is pretty.... uh, hyperbolic?

and why not just release 6 full-length cds along with the edited 40min. lps?

but I'm more into the zuckerzeit/harmonia era stuff, so I guess I wouldn't be too excited anyway...

qbico is always expensive

well, let the buyer beware, I think -- Schnitzler / Freuigmann / Seidel historically played under the name 'Eruption' from 69-73, and he's now retroactively taken to calling that band 'Kluster' for new CDs of unreleased music, like the two on Important last year. Which I liked all right, though nowhere near as much as Kluster proper. The three Moebius / Roedelius / Schnitzler Kluster albums have their own sound (the sound = the instrumental lineup) and I think Schnitzler's muddying the waters a bit with these.

I'm glad they're coming out & there's got to be some good music somewhere on that box, but I'm not really tempted by this.

The real news though is this: April 30th, 2009:
http://www.nepenthemusic.com/catalog/humanbeing.html
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Being-Live-Zodiak-Berlin/dp/B001UTXAV6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1236707860&sr=8-4

Rastakrautpasta's getting a release on Water this week.

I saw that at Aquarius last week, I'd love to see an opened copy, they do such a great job with their booklets. The original Sky CDs are all 1-sided inserts.

there are late 60's film clips from the Zodiak Free Arts Club in the Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution DVD, which is actually a very interesting documentary on the origins of Krautrock -- the first hour is all about Tangerine Dream / Kluster / Ash Ra Tempel, with interviews with Schulze / Moebius / Roedelius / Schnitzler & lots of clips. Kraftwerk's first record isn't even mentioned until 60 minutes in, at which point the documentary switches over mostly to critics talking about the records and the archival footage becomes far less interesting, but if you like Krautrock 68-71 you definitely want to see that DVD

whoa, that sounds great! just bumped the kraftwerk dvd to the top of my netflix queue.

never heard of human being before.

Me too! Thanks Netflix!

the Human Being record is interesting if you're already into the Kluster records. it makes the Kluster records sound hi-fi by comparison, sounds like it's recorded one auditorium over from the one they're in, but it actually makes for weird ambience. no bongos or flutes or anything even remotely recognizable or hippy, this is just strange drone music

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VMepLvJZL._SS500_.jpg

new cluster record out next tuesday: http://www.nepenthemusic.com/catalog/qua.html

produced by tim story in his studio, sounds like this is the first time since 1981 they're releasing a proper studio record instead of just putting out live stuff or live-to-DAT improvs

PR fluff on that link makes it sound pretty good, but I caught them at no fun fest last year and wasn't too into it.

will still check this out, tho. hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Milton, how is the new Cluster record?

it's like the recent live shows / records, but with more layers overdubbed. But the layers still feel largely improvised and meandering, there's less in the way of chords / melody / counterpoint or any pre-composition than I was hoping, it's all about texture. Shorter tracks means it's paced faster than the last three official live records, so I've already listened to it more times than those, and I love how they never really repeat themselves, every record they've done is very different and this one is too. The sound samples at amazon give you a good idea of what's going on.

I like Moebius' last one 'Nurton' better, especially the last third. The last Roedelius / Tim Story album 'Inlandish' has some nice piano & counterpoint on it that approach the early solo stuff, though the production is on the glossy side.

the Human Being CD that just came out, though, that one's bonkers, and in this case the press release is not hyperbole, knowing that Tangerine Dream & Agitation Free were hanging out at Schnitzler's club, and that that was the house band -- that music predates every single Krautrock record & resets the whole history. listening to it with what Stockhausen was doing before and after, going from Hymnen to Aus Den Sieben Tagen / Stimmung is also interesting

I need to hang out on this thread more often. Human Being, wha?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKhYoeC-X-Q

http://www.nepenthemusic.com/catalog/humanbeing.html

yeah, summing up after more listening, the California 2008 live sets (esp. Big Sur & Aquarius) >>>> Berlin 07 and Qua

i've been playing some of a roedelius record a bunch lately (i can't remember which, but the one with cafe culture, i think it's called, and mitsommer as a bonus track (which is lovely)) - there's a crazy limited box set (<200 copies) getting a lot of play on fabio's show on fmu if anyone's interested on geeking on unheard classic cluster.

that box set is Schnitzler's Kluster (no Moebius / Roedelius) but I am interested in checking it out, thanks for repping the playlists

Schnitzler on Kluster / Eruption:

http://www.eurock.com/Display.aspx?Content=Kluster.aspx

Seidel: There is some confusion about Kluster/Eruption recordings. This is rooted long ago in the past but should also be solved after these many years. Kluster was always Conrad's brainchild. Eruption was used for events where Kluster was open to other people

Episodes 8 & 10: feed://www.eurock.com/Podcasts/EurockLive.xml

I've enjoyed most everything I've heard from that Kluster box, but ye gads it's expensive.

http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec308_release_page.htm

On June 12, 1980 Cluster performed at the Wiener Festwochen Alternativ with Farnbauer. The performance was recorded and released as a limited edition cassette on the British York House Records (YHR) label. It was reissued in Germany on the Transmitter label of "Grüne Kraft" owner Werner Pieper The style of the music is highly experimental and discordant and very reminiscent of Moebius and Rodelius' early work with Conrad Schnitzler in Kluster, albeit with updated electronic instrumentation.

yeah, I'm curious about this one. anyone heard it?

have only heard the two 15-minute excerpts tacked on as bonus tracks to the original Kluster CD reissues, and they definitely fit in there. atonal drones & fields with a lot of bowed cymbal & scraped percussion, no melodies to speak of, very abstract. the excerpts fade out just as they seem like they're about to get going, so I'm looking forward to hearing the whole thing.

http://boomkat.com/cds/340331-cluster-farnbauer-live-in-vienna-1980

2nd sample = Roedelius had a piano there after all

digging those samples.

picked up the Cluster & Farnbauer CD. there are some good sections for those who are very patient -- it was obviously an improvised concert and appears to be presented in moderate fidelity with no editing, the sound is thin and the textures are very spare. I don't think I'm ever going to need to listen to the first disc again. track 5, the 25 minute 'Metalle' on the 2nd disc is where they finally get there. the drumming on 'Drums' is so haphazard & sideways, you can kind of see why the collaboration happened, they did share an aesthetic.

upthread I mentioned bowed cymbals, but that was from memory, there's nothing bowed here, all the drones come from synths.

the bootleg of Cluster's 77 Metz show has slightly more repeat listenability than this, which is truly fans only. that being said, I'm happy it's out.

& here's stephen illife's review (the only guy who's reviewed nearly every single Cluster album). he likes it more. who am I kidding, of course I'm going to listen to the first disc again. just not today.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stepheniliffe/5036327861/

starting to think sowiesoso might be the prettiest album ever made

Good news that the long awaited CD re-release of Roedelius' Selbstportrait is now finally out. Here's my review of it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stepheniliffe/5208519329/

hey Stephen. thanks for posting.

original track order and everything! can hardly wait for volumes 2-3-5. especially 3.

awesome, had no idea these were in the works

I am told by the record label Bureau Buskies that they will definitely do all the Selbstportrait volumes up to vol. 6.

4 and 6 are already with 1 and 2 just coming out now, and 3 and 5 to follow in 2011.

looks like they're redoing cluster II as well? guess the water label has gone under [ba-dum-tsssshhhh]