Dieter Moebius Poll 1978-2011 [Update: RIP, July 2015]

this should have gone in before Blue Moon - made a mistake upthread, it was recorded 1983 after Zero Set, not 1986

Moebius & Plank - En Route (1995, recorded 1983) - The first album that goes full on digital, this is basically Moebius & Plank meet the Emulator digital sampler. There's a good reason why Kraftwerk, Jarre, Schulze pretty much all simultaneously began to release horribly unimaginative music precisely in the mid-80's: the learning curve on programming the 80's machines needed to sufficently evolve the sounds beyond the presets suddenly became very steep, and even if you got there, the interfaces made it a lot more difficult to do so in real time. You couldn't tweak your sounds with multiple faders as you played them on the keyboard; everything was isolated on seperate screens, each submenus deep. You can tell why En Route didn't come out until 1995; these sound like unfinished demos that missed a final trip through Conny's mixer to weird up the sounds, but the digital sequencer has also left all the sounds unusually stiff & hanging on the grid, and a lot of the drum and pad samples are all factory presets. If you can handle the occasional shakuhachi sample, this is still fairly strange music and I'm happy Cluster superfan Russ Curry put this out, but do not expect something on the level of the first three Moebius & Plank records.

Moebius / Plank / Thompson - Ludwig's Law (1998) - Released three years later on Drag City, finally En Route made a bit more sense; they were demos for this album, which had been completed in 1983, and rejected by Sky Records: a collaboration with Mayo Thompson of the Red Crayola, who took the instrumentals and recited spoken / sung poetry over the top of them, as well as adding guitar to one or two tracks. Your mileage is really going to vary with this one; this definitely now seems like a finished album, it's simply left to you to decide if you enjoy what was added. For me I find a few of the tracks are maniacal enough if you hit them as one-offs in iTunes.

Moebius & Renziehausen - Ersatz (1990) & Moebius & Renziehausen - Ersatz II (1992) - These are the first true digital-era Moebius albums, recorded in collaboration with visual artist Renziehausen, whose sonic contribution I am still not entirely clear on; for all the new equipment, this still sounds exactly like Moebius. There are a still lot of typical 80's sample-library sounds and presets, but all warped and deployed in the most unintuitive and ridiculous ways possible, in ways that turn the stiff sequencing into a conceptual advantage. The humor is really turned up to 11 on this record. It also truly understands minimalism; it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it truly is the case that things that are not interesting for one minute slowly become very interesting over eight. And once again; as with Strange Music, over the last five years a lot of twisted records that return to this era of sound are starting to pop up -- when I try to listen to those records I usually end up taking them off and putting these on.

Moebius / Neumeier / Engler - Other Places (1996) - Expanding the trio with Neumeier to include Jürgen Engler of the industrial / EBM band Die Krupps, these tracks were improvised in real time to stereo over a few days. Neumeier is in a much freer and jazzier mode, and Moebius & Engler lock in on their digital synths in very complimentary ways. The tracks are long and don't sound edited, and some of them perhaps wander a bit; also, if the 80's were a bad time for synth design, the 90's were worse; there are moments where the sound design is not as distinctive as you'd expect it to be. The album starts strong and as they say, the energy is good.

Space Explosion - Space Explosion (1998) On paper, this looks too good to be true: an expansion of the trio of the previous record to include Chris Karrer of Amon Duul II and Zappi & Peron from Faust. All veterans of free-wheeling total improvisation; it is more in the vein of those 70's side-long Amon Duul II freakouts, or the 90's live Faust records, than anything else in Moebius' discography. I listened to it twice when it came out, and once two weeks ago after starting this thread and I've always had trouble engaging with it; I'm a fan of truly freeform music but in some important ways this really is one of those utterly predictable jams where everyone's perfectly competent but it never quite clicks in.

Moebius - Blotch (1999) - Only his second solo album, 16 years after Tonspuren, largely textural sketches that set a drony little mood for a few minutes and then fade -- no melodies on the whole, a very well named album. Underwhelming at first, but towards the end, the 11 minute 'Kohlzug' creeps in and takes over like a modern update of Cluster's 'Rote Riki', and then Tim Story contributes a prepared piano melody to the last track 'Balisong' giving it a lovely ending.

Moebius & Neumeier - Live In Japan (2003) - I would have loved these concerts and they were well recorded. As a record, it wanders a bit.

Moebius & Neumeier - Zero Set 2 (2006) - Like Other Places, sounds like it was recorded live in the studio. Even on the original record, the tracks aren't that structured; they obviously just got into a rhythm and tracked it for five minutes, then began recording and processing the layers. Here, the engine is still present, but calling this a sequel really makes you miss those layers. But this engine still gave the remixers more than enough to work with for the 12" series that followed.

Moebius - Nurton (2006) - This one is actually my favorite of the whole later period, where the technology finally caught back up to what people had to work with in the 70's, but with an extra level of control. The simple tunes are back, and the sounds are all distinctively authored again, and everything's just back to being very strange. There might be a lot more people making oddball electronic home recordings these days, so this is no longer as automatically progressive sounding as it used to be, but it is in some ways one of his more personal-sounding records, and coming this far into his discography, someone who's managed to take the fourth decade of consumer electronic music equipment and make it sound like him ends up being a really valuable example. The last third of this record is the strongest.

Moebius - Kram (2009) - German for 'Stuff' -- definitely a random sounding assortment, piled down with layers that initially don't make very much sense but open up after you listen a few times. Sounds like he is getting much deeper into using software to sequence & structure. The pureed 'library of funk' samples on the last track 'Markt' come off as deeply strange surrealism.

Moebius - Ding (2011) - Going even deeper into computer editing and modern digital sounds; there is even a glitch track. He also dives into self-sampling on this one, building some tracks around samples from the Moebius & Plank records and pushing them to different places. Makes for an even wider variety of sounds this time, and the free-form abstract collages this time are really confusingly lovely. The ten minute track 'Ding' was offered for free on Soundcloud and sounded a little bit too minimal coming over computer speakers, but on headphones or on a good system, the tiny, static changes are reasonably powerful.

Moebius & Tietchens - 20110812 Dockville Festival, Hamburg - Live versions of their forthcoming duo album, already finished, awaiting release, first time they've worked together since Liliental and they are not slacking. Hard to tell who is doing what in this one; I love it when Tietchens does weird rhythmic pop as much as his completely abstract stuff, and some of these rhythmic loops sound like the recent Hematic Sunsets albums he does, sometimes in collaboration with Felix Kubin & Michael Rother; in any case, they are totally thinking as one with this project and I can't wait to hear the studio version

http://redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/4308/ (thanks geeta for forwarding this; there are two shows from the last & final Cluster tour up there as well)

OK am I the only one who keeps reading this poll as Doctor Morbius 1978-2011

Good work, Milt! Hope people vote!

thanking you mr parker, gonna use this as a listening guide

\(^o^)/ now do the roedelius discog

I simply don't own all of the Roedelius albums

The tone of these reviews is probably a little presumptuous and annoying for ILM but there isn't another website in the world that would publish this

In honor of Milton's reviews, here's a Spotify playlist featuring everything it has on this list. I was almost inclined to keep off all the post-1983 stuff just bc I'd rather listen to the earlier material. But hey, voting is still open.

http://open.spotify.com/user/124420673/playlist/4a06spCB0v9KzH52VgXtuj

Incredible. Thanks to Milton and NTI in excelsis.

Thank you for those reviews!

The tone of these reviews is probably a little presumptuous and annoying for ILM but there isn't another website in the world that would publish this

― Milton Parker, Thursday, February 9, 2012 1:37 PM

no more than the reviews in this thread: s/d popol vuh and thats one of the best threads on ilm. way more into reading someone's reviews of an artist's discog than "rolling garbage 2kfart"

p.s. this entry looks pretty empty - http://allmusic.com/artist/dieter-moebius-p19379/discography ... maybe ned can get your foot in the door there ; )

also got around to reading that interview, nice one geeta

I almost mentioned that Cubic Yellow album, except it's actually by two other people and moebius is only on two tracks? Allmusic should certainly not be listing that as a solo moebius album.

Amazon has the mp3s for sale, I checked out the samples, my completism only goes so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9nQ-PfK4e0&feature=related

haha, yeah those reviews are quite tame and tempered compared to my purple prose fanboy monstrosities in the Circle thread! <3

I almost mentioned that Cubic Yellow album, except it's actually by two other people and moebius is only on two tracks? Allmusic should certainly not be listing that as a solo moebius album.

Yeah, by that reckoning "Highdelberg" and "Mani und Seine Freunde" could be classed as Moebius albums!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow

I am very proud of the person who voted for Space Explosion

My husband gave me the Moebius+Tietchens for an anniversary present! <3<3<3

now there's a great husband! this record is almost too much of a dream team match up for me; i'm afraid to listen to it!

I'm listening to it now at work! It's great!
AT is one of the reasons we got together ;)

and what Milton said above about hard to tell who is doing what.

find it pretty weird to "poll" one of ILX's active members, especially on ILM

?

Love the new Moebius/Tietchens cd, it stays pretty laid back & sparse for the first 15-20 minutes but from track 4 on, crazy. It's not melodic like 'tonspuren' or the first four Tietchens lps on Sky but the sense of rhythm is stranger and more powerful than ever

http://events.947thewave.cbslocal.com/losangeles_ca/events/negativland-moebius-/E0-001-049588160-2

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Sprad/Moebius_06A_triangle-easy-fade300.jpg

find it pretty weird to "poll" one of ILX's active members, especially on ILM

― funny-skrillex-bee_132455836669.gif (s1ocki), Friday, July 13, 2012 7:49 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

i've been strongly considering the show with negativland, but i haven't bought tickets yet.

the poster is beautiful!

didn't even know about this tour - Rother / Moebius, Tokyo 1999

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_h8kGOeGl0

so incredible

so tomorrow geeta and moebius will be at space4art in san diego. anyone want to come join us?

thank you milton 15 minutes in is melting my brain

was listening to "one of them" yesterday to get pumped

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Sprad/Moebius_06C-accidental-diamondstriangles.jpg

did i just play frisbee with moebius and milton parker or did i dream that?

whooooa

argh Im broke but prob going to this

xpost hey thanks for bringing those frisbees and next time write down that gnosis who knows you could be right

did i just play frisbee with moebius and milton parker or did i dream that?

Yeah, I think my brain just melted.

i didn't vote in this but put me down for "zero set" for "pitch control" alone

Objectivity!

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/so-much-strange-music/Content?oid=14723164

I'm playing 'CHOONZ in between Wobbly and Moebius's sets at the Seattle show tonight. Fun!

milton do you have a blog or write anywhere else or anything?

Damn.

https://www.facebook.com/michaelrother.music/posts/10153008205291186

"Very sad news today for all friends of Dieter Moebius and his unique music. Our friend, neighbour and collaborator passed away this morning, July 20th 2015. He will be missed dearly by all of us. Our thoughts go out to his wife, Irene. RIP, Dieter (Möbi)

Don't think so.

how did I miss this

RIP

thanks for the Moebius/Tietchens recommendation

This is a really nice picture (among many others) of Moebius alongside Roedelius. Also: ;_;

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CK987MAWwAIBnbj.jpg

Would have voted repeatedly for Zero Set. As important as E2-E4 to today's music, even if presaged by later Can and Eno & Byrne in places.

Anyone have opinions on his OST for Blue Moon?

>even if presaged by later Can and Eno & Byrne in places.

Czukay was working on early mixes for 'Movies' at Conny's around the same time he played bass on the two Cluster & Eno records, and they all definitely heard each other's works in progress so all of these records are pretty much all in the family

Ummmm, "Zero Set" is from 1983.

Ignore that, misread Sanpaku's post! Soz. Plank played on "Der Osten ist Rot" of course.

New to Spotify, an album from Moebius Story Leidecker called "Familiar". Is this a reissue, or something new pulled from the vaults?

The latter, it seems: New Album from the Moebius Story Leidecker - sessions. October 6th 2017.

More info on the Bureau B website: http://www.bureau-b.com/msl.php

the album he did with Wobbly/Jon Leidecker right before he died is really fucking good, I just listened to it three times in a row

Sure would be cool to know how that record got made ...

finally listening to Zero Set and here are my first two thoughts

1) this is exactly what I was hoping My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was gonna sound like

2) Mouse on Mars may have taken a lot of ideas from this record