Krautrock

[PublicImage]

That sounds really interesting. I will have to investigate as soon as I can. There's a group called Hash Jar Tempo who have always intrigued me but I still cannot find any of their albums.

The post I replied to has gone!

[Massed Gadgets]

The post was only there for about 5 seconds! I was going to re-tool it. Well here it is again...okay, he's not German, he's Japanese, but he's obsessed with Krautrock, especially the Ash Ra Tempel kind, although he has used that as a starting point to create his own unique sound. He records and performs under the name Aska Temple, and he has something like 25 albums out now! I have six of them, but my favourites, of the ones I've heard, are The Door Into Summer and Omega Point Live, the latter being two extended live performaces each around 45-minutes long.

[Syd'sSexy]

The post I replied to has gone!

That happened to me earlier! WTF????

[Stephen]

I'm gradually working my way through Julian Copes list of his 50 favourite Krautrock albums of all time as featured in his book Krautrocksampler. Unfortunately the book is no longer in print and pretty expensive when copies turn up on ebay etc. No doubt there are albums that should have been included on the list but at least it's a pretty good place to start for anyone interested in finding out more about that period. Obviously the list is in no particular order of merit here, just alphabetical.

1 Amon Düül - Paradieswärts Düül (1970)
2 Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei (1969)
3 Amon Düül II -Yeti (1970)
4 Amon Düül II -Carnival in Babylon (1972)
5 Amon Düül II - Wolf City (1972)
6 Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel (1971)
7 Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen (1972)
8 Timothy Leary & Ash Ra Tempel - Seven Up (1973)
9 Ash Ra Tempel - Join Inn (1973)
10 Can - Monster Movie (1969)
11 Can - Soundtracks (1970)
12 Can - Tago Mago (1971)
13 Can - Ege Bamyasi (1972)
14 Can - Delay 1968 (1981)
15 Cluster - Cluster II (1972)
16 Cluster - Zuckerzeit (1974)
17 Cluster - Sowiesoso (1996)
18 Tony Conrad with Faust - Outside the Dream Syndicate (1972)
19 The Cosmic Jokers - The Cosmic Jokers (1973)
20 The Cosmic Jokers - Galactic Supermarket (1974)
21 The Cosmic Jokers - Planeten Sit-In (1974)
22 The Cosmic Jokers - Sci-Fi Party (1974)
23 Sternenmädchen & Cosmic Jokers - Gilles Zeitschiff (1974)
24 Faust - Faust (1971)
25 Faust - So Far (1972)
26 Faust - The Faust Tapes (1973)
27 Faust - Faust IV (1974)
28 Sergius Golowin - Lord Krishna von Goloka (1973)
29 Guru Guru - UFO (1970)
30 Harmonia - Musik von Harmonia (1974)
31 Harmonia - Deluxe (1975)
32 Kraftwerk -Kraftwerk (1972)
33 La Düsseldorf - La Düsseldorf (1976)
34 La Düsseldorf - Viva (1978)
35 Moebius & Plank - Rastakraut Pasta
36 Neu! - Neu! (1972)
37 Neu! - Neu! 2 (1973)
38 Neu! - Neu! '75 (1975)
39 Popol Vuh - Affenstunde (1970)
40 Popol Vuh - In den Gärten Pharaos (1971)
41 Popol Vuh - Einsjäger & Siebenjäger (1974)
42 Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra (1972)
43 Tangerine Dream - Electronic Meditation (1970)
44 Tangerine Dream - Alpha Centauri (1971)
45 Tangerine Dream - Atem (1973)
46 Tangerine Dream - Zeit (1972)
47 Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht (1972)
48 Klaus Schulze - Blackdance (1974)
49 Walter Wegmüller - Tarot (1973)
50 Witthüser & Westrupp - Trips und Träume (1971)

[Massed Gadgets]

Hmmm, I only have 38 of those...I better get cracking!

Just picked up Harmonia Live 1974, which only came out last year, and I gotta say it's brilliant. Moebius, Roedelius, and Rother at their very best!

[2066]

Jeez, Jeff...I guess you've been listening to a lot of music! I guess your wife likes it all, too I love Harmonia Deluxe. It has such a bright sunny sound to it (backed up by the cover) that I love to put on to chill out. Harmonia's first album is kinda like Cluster or something. Still very good, though. Do you remember that TVO show Science International that used the Deluxe track?

[Massed Gadgets]

Man, I had forgotten all about that show...Joseph Campanella! Was that music by Harmonia? I can't honestly remember it. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it said the theme music was composed by the show's producer, but I suppose Wikipedia isn't always accurate.

The stuff on Live 1974 is more like the first Harmonia album, but even more so...long, exploratory tripped out head music...two of the tracks are over 15 minutes long.

[oz1701]

That sounds really interesting. I will have to investigate as soon as I can. There's a group called Hash Jar Tempo who have always intrigued me but I still cannot find any of their albums.

The post I replied to has gone!

i "acquired" an album from somewhere but i was not all that taken with it.

[2066]

Man, I had forgotten all about that show...Joseph Campanella! Was that music by Harmonia? I can't honestly remember it. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it said the theme music was composed by the show's producer, but I suppose Wikipedia isn't always accurate.

It's so long ago now but I don't remember them using Deluxe for the theme song. It was usually used for the outro for the segments. I could be wrong, Jeff. I remember hearing Deluxe (immer weider) for the first time and thinking "woah...deja view"!!!

[Stephen]

Hmmm, I only have 38 of those...I better get cracking!

Just picked up Harmonia Live 1974, which only came out last year, and I gotta say it's brilliant. Moebius, Roedelius, and Rother at their very best!

Anything else from that period that you would suggest adding to that list of Julian Copes Jeff ? Currently I'm listening to Harmonia / Brian Eno - Tracks and Traces which is pretty good up to now although this may be classed more as ambient than krautrock I suppose.

[Massed Gadgets]

Hmmm, I only have 38 of those...I better get cracking!

Just picked up Harmonia Live 1974, which only came out last year, and I gotta say it's brilliant. Moebius, Roedelius, and Rother at their very best!

Anything else from that period that you would suggest adding to that list of Julian Copes Jeff ? Currently I'm listening to Harmonia / Brian Eno - Tracks and Traces which is pretty good up to now although this may be classed more as ambient than krautrock I suppose.

Well, Krautrock is a pretty fluid term...there are lots of bands playing different styles that are classed under the Krautrock label...here's a few that I really like, and I've given short descriptions to show the different styles (also roughly in alphabetical order like Julian's list....

Agitation Free - 2nd is considered their best, I also like Malesch
Annexus Quam - Osmose...really freaked out stuff, in the same league as Organization's Tone Float
Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill...it is extraordinary, considered by some the most psychedelic album ever recorded
Can - Soon Over Babaluma...post Damo Suzuki era, but I still think it's a great album
Cluster - Cluster '71...it's very different from most of the rest of Cluster's work, closer in mood to TD's Zeit
Deuter - D...also very different from the majority of his output (which was more new age and world beat), this is freaky psychedelic meditations with much noisier guitar than you would ever hear on his later work
Eloy - The Ocean and Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes...great symphonic prog
Embryo - Steig Aus...really unique stuff, hard to describe, but this is the best album of theirs that I've heard
Epidaurus - beautiful symphonic prog with flute and female vocals
Edgar Froese - Aqua, Epsilon in Malaysian Pale...these are just two of the best electronic music albums ever and the latter makes especially wonderful use of the Mellotron
Harmonia - Live 1974...it was actually just released last year but it's a stellar vintage performance, more exploratory and adventurous than the studio albums
Höelderlin - Höelderlin's Traum...folk influence progressive stuff, really nice
Michael Hoenig - Departure From the Northern Wasteland...a classic of Berlin school electronic music in the vein of TD's Rubycon, by Agitation Free's keyboardist
Kalacakra - Crawling to Lhasa...excellent stuff that inspired Ozric Tentacles, amongst others
The Roland Kovac New Set - The Master Said...worth it just for the incredible psychedelic jam of the side-long title track.
Sweet Smoke - Just a Poke...these guys were actually all Americans, but they were living in Germany at the time and got adopted into the scene...two (vinyl) side-long tracks of groove based music with great percussion make up this album.
Xhol Caravan - Electrip...stunning album of sax and organ based freaked out jazz rock from 1969.
Yatha Sidhra - A Meditation Mass...one of my all time favourites, largely improvised jazz/rock/electronic stuff...just an amazing album but the only one they ever did!

There's lots of other great stuff I remember hearing, but haven't heard in ages, so can't quite recommend them, but bands like Novalis, Triumvirat, Virus, Faithful Breath, Tritonus and others whose names escape me.

[Stephen]

Thanks Jeff that looks a really interesting list and it seems like I have a lot of catching up to do even though I have heard one or two of those already. I know what you mean about the general use of the term Krautrock as it seems to be applied to almost any band that came from Germany at that time, although some I would class under heavy rock rather than the more freeform experimental music that I think of as Krautrock.

[Massed Gadgets]

Been listening this week to A. R. & Machines album Echo, which PublicImage brought to our attention, and he is right, it is a fantasitic album. Echo was the second album by Achim Reichel, I also have the first one he did (Die Grüne Reise - The Green Journey), which is both very different, but similar in ways too. The songs on the first were shorter and in some ways more focused, but you can also hear the experimental directions he was taking that would come into full fruition on Echo. He seems quite influenced by Ash Ra Tempel in both the extended space jam concept and the wasted, psychedelic blues concept, but these two albums are released in the same years the first few Ash Ra Tempel albums, so I wonder who influenced whom?

[2066]

Been listening this week to A. R. & Machines album Echo, which PublicImage brought to our attention, and he is right, it is a fantasitic album. Echo was the second album by Achim Reichel, I also have the first one he did (Die Grüne Reise - The Green Journey), which is both very different, but similar in ways too. The songs on the first were shorter and in some ways more focused, but you can also hear the experimental directions he was taking that would come into full fruition on Echo. He seems quite influenced by Ash Ra Tempel in both the extended space jam concept and the wasted, psychedelic blues concept, but these two albums are released in the same years the first few Ash Ra Tempel albums, so I wonder who influenced whom?

Did you ever get to watch those Krautrock DVD's, Jeff? What a find!!! I have to watch them on my computer because my stupid DVD player won't play PAL. My friends $99 DVD will play the dics but my $400 Sony won't. Go figure.

[Massed Gadgets]

Did you ever get to watch those Krautrock DVD's, Jeff?

I've watched some of them...there was certainly a wealth of stuff on those...I found it almost overwhelming I had kind of forgotten to get back and watch the rest of them, so thanks for reminding me of those! Think I'll go watch some vintage Krautrock!