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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tE32JKmzDA

fun little demo of the Elka Drummer One, which Cluster & Harmonia used quite a bit. I recall some interview with Moebius where he said some of the weirdo rhythms on Zuckerzeit were made by pushing the tango & cha cha buttons at the same time? or something like that? idk I find that super cool, because that album has some rhythms on it which strike me as very "undefined", plus I think this is the exact approach that modern IDM groups use. like I think of Cluster as less the peers of Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze and more as a proto-Autechre/Mouse on Mars.

cool! I've always loved the drums on the first track of Zuckerzeit, the way they sound as if they are turning inside out is very trippy

Sly Stone did the same thing recording There's a Riot Goin' On, pressing multiple buttons on his rhythm boxes to get something less square than any of the individual beats.

Hollywood's rhythm track sounds like it's rotating between 2 or 3 different settings at various intervals. I don't know if there's a steady pattern to it. If there is it's probably in some time signature like 29/24 or whatever. I love it too because it's not unlike what I used to do as a kid when my keyboard would generate little rhythms like that

God I love those primitive drum machines so much. I have a Realistic Concertmate Electronic Accompanist, which is a cheap scaled down version of that type of rhythm box sold at Radio Shack in the 80s. Run it through a delay pedal and hit the Rock and Foxtrot buttons, you've got hours of knob-twiddling fun!

I love the fact that one of their frequent collaborators is a guy named Tim Story, always makes me think of On Cinema

husband of semi-famous Windham Hill artist Liz Story!

Curiosum is such a baffling record. I've listened to it 4 times in the last 24 hours and can't figure out if it's a load of wank or a portal to some primitive form of consciousness. "Oh Odessa" has been in my head constantly. "Tristian in der Bar" makes me laugh. "Seltsame Gegend" makes me wanna play QWOP. "Ufer" makes me crank the volume up and then I'm so calm I forget to turn it back down again. This is what they did after Grosses Wasser?? What other albums sound like this?

I'm obsessed with Oh Odessa, it's got this childlike primitive quality that I can't get enough of.

(xp) Maybe some Moebius albums? Though the childlike quality is more Roedelius' thing.

Haha yeah, it's a deeply weird and addictive record. "Portal to some primitive form of consciousness" is OTM. A couple tracks have a kind of "demented clown" vibe, which I'm not that into (e.g. "Oh Odessa", "Seltsame Gegend"). The queasy major-key waltz duo of "Tristan In Der Bar" -> "Charlic" is probably my favorite part of the record.

I haven't heard anything else that sounds exactly like Curiosum, but parts of Moebius and Beerbohm's Double Cut sound like a slightly less primitive version of its more menacing moments, like "Proantipro" with a hardware update.

I heard "Oh Odessa" on a Cluster compilation, sounds to me like a theme song from a public television educational kids' show from the era.

yeah, also get a little bit of a hardcore devo vibe from "oh odessa"

love this record

great 420 record too, close your eyes and put on "Tristan In Der Bar" and you will see a man tumbling around in a laundromat dryer

lol YES

Tristan in Der Dryer

listening to Sowiesoso yet again now and something that comes to mind is that a lot of this sounds like you're hearing the most incredible, cool, and joyous music ever but it's somewhere in the distance. so your mind fills in the blanks. like you know how some people say books are more intense than movies because your mind fills in images that will match the emotion? that it kind of what happens here. I think this is what James Ferraro was trying to do with all those lo-fi "Summer Headrush" albums.

yeah for sure it’s this sorta pointillist quality that it shares with the vibiest lofi stuff eg older James Ferraro and that amazing KWJAZ album. Walking through benevolent fog on a starlit night..

frogs u should listen to moebius's tonspuren if you haven't already, def has that childlike vibe

oh yeah that one's on my wantlist. I recall hearing it once a while back and really liking it.