Krautrock

[Stephen]

I had never heard of Krautrock until a few years ago. Perhaps it is like calling Brit Pop "Limey Pop"...a little too much of an outsider labeling something with a bit of a condescending tone.

Whether it's the same today I wouldn't know but back then the word Krautrock( which was coined by the British press and meant in a condescending way as you say) was accepted by the musicians as a term to describe their music.Quite possibly they did that to deflate the British music press who must have thought it to be an amusing expression that they'd come up with.

[nosaj]

I am pondering the purchase of a Brainticket box set...any fans?

[Massed Gadgets]

I love Brainticket....they were/are definitely one of the more out there bands...technically not a Krautrock band since they were from The Netherlands, they nonetheless still fit the mould, being of that experimental sound and being from the same time period, and often get lumped in with the Krautrock bands. Their first album, Cottonwoodhill, is a classic trip, sometimes referred to as 'the most psychedelic album ever recorded'. I have all their other albums too. Celestial Ocean is another favourite, which is based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The early 80's albums Voyage and Adventure are less 'rock' oriented, more experimental and ambient, but I love them too.

[nosaj]

Well, went ahead with acquiring the Brainticket "The Vintage Anthology 1971-1980". I am currently in the middle of the first CD of four. I really like it a lot so far!!!! Great stuff!!!

[PublicImage]

Manuel Goettsching has put out remastered editions of all five Ash Ra Tempel albums, and Inventions for Electric Guitar. Has anyone heard them yet? I'd be interested to know if there is a noticeable improvement in the sound quality, especially on the eponymous Ash Ra Tempel album.

[Stephen]

I could never seem to find that original one at a sensible price so I'd be interested in getting that plus Inventions for Electric Guitar, thanks for the heads up.

[nosaj]

I have finally gotten into Faust!! I am listening to the So Far album right now!!! Or is it Faust So Far?

I found they were hard to find in music stores compared to Can.

[Massed Gadgets]

I like Faust, but they have never been one of my favourite of the Krautrock bands. They can be difficult listening at times. I have their first 4 albums and Patchwork from 2002 on CD, and few other scattered things as mp3's, but would have to say their first two, Faust and So Far are their best.

[Stephen]

I just ordered the first Ash Ra Tempel album and Manuel Göttsching's 'Inventions for Electric Guitar', both the remastered ones, so I'm hoping to be blown away by the sound quality.

[Massed Gadgets]

I had never heard of Krautrock until a few years ago. Perhaps it is like calling Brit Pop "Limey Pop"...a little too much of an outsider labeling something with a bit of a condescending tone.

Whether it's the same today I wouldn't know but back then the word Krautrock( which was coined by the British press and meant in a condescending way as you say) was accepted by the musicians as a term to describe their music.Quite possibly they did that to deflate the British music press who must have thought it to be an amusing expression that they'd come up with.

Some of the musicians never embraced the term. Holger Czukay has never been fond of it. But when Faust actually called one of their pieces 'Krautrock' on Faust IV, it made the term more hip than condescending, so it has stuck. But Julian Cope maintains that 'Krautrock' was more of a British phenomena than a German one...as in it was the British press who defined the scene, not the German artists who were creating the music. Nonetheless, Faust later kind of stepped away from the term themselves. I always kind of preferred the term the German musicians were originally calling it...Kosmische Musik.

[danielcaux]

Which makes kind of sense since they were basically playing wild forms of space rock, hence cosmic music.

[Massed Gadgets]

A young friend of mine did a Tarot reading for me recently, and I was very surprised to see her using a vintage Walter Wegmüller tarot deck!! She has no idea of the history behind it. Wegmüller was designing the deck when he began hanging out with the lose collective of musicians informally called The Cosmic Couriers. It was actually Timothy Leary (my friend didn't know who he was either), at the time on lam from the US authorities and hiding out, who suggested an album based around Wegmüller's designs, with the artist/mystic/gypsy himself doing narration. All my friend knew was that it was a vintage 70's deck. I was totally surprised to see it.

[flippikat]

Anyone here heard the Can "Lost Tapes" set that came out recently?

Some sublime stuff there - especially the early versions of some Ege Bamyasi tracks.

[nosaj]

Anyone here heard the Can "Lost Tapes" set that came out recently?

Some sublime stuff there - especially the early versions of some Ege Bamyasi tracks.

Yes!!

[flippikat]

Anyone here heard the Can "Lost Tapes" set that came out recently?

Some sublime stuff there - especially the early versions of some Ege Bamyasi tracks.

Yes!!

if you have any kind of mp3 player, try inserting "a Swan is born", "Dead Pigeon Suite" & "Messer, Scissors, Fork and Light" into a playlist with the rest of Ege Bamyasi, and you have a killer double-albums worth of tracks.

Here's my playlist (and timings)..

Side 1 (14:17) -
1 Pinch 9:28
2 Sing Swan Song 4:49
Same as the first 2 tracks on original album, These two tracks work as a side on their own - one of these also pops up again (well, sort-of) later..
so it introduces a theme-type structure

Side 2 (13:59)
3 Vitamin C (3:34)
4 Soup (10:25)
The cross-fade between these tracks means they have to be together. It means the side is shorter than all the rest, but them's the breaks when you're doing this sort of thing!
Soup closes the side because I found it hard to put anything after it, and keep things somewhat balanced.

Side 3 (17: 22)
5 Dead Pigeon Suite (11:47)
6 One More Night (5:35)
DPS establishes themes that'll be returned to, One More Night is a nice mellow closer for this side.

Side 4 (17:30)
7 Messer, Scissors, Fork & Light (8:24)
8 I'm So Green (3:03)
9 A Swan is Born (3:00)
10 Spoon (3:03)
This ties everything back together: Messer & Spoon "bookend" the side well,
I'm So Green & A Swan is Born act as reprises for their longer counterparts earlier..

Thoughts, anyone?