Krautrock

omayyad · Post by **omayyad** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:12 am

Massed Gadgets wrote: you may want to look into are Ash Ra Tempel...their first is a space rock classic, but all their early albums are great stuff

Sonic Destruction · Post by **Sonic Destruction** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:17 am

I have just one Ash Ra Tempel track - "Der Vierte Kuss" - from a prog rock compilation called "Supernatural Fairy Tales" (a cool title in anyone's language). It is pretty good, being a grinding one chord guitar jam with, I think, Klaus Schultz on drums.

At what point did Ash Ra Tempel drop the "Tempel", or are they two different bands?

If I do buy "Psychedelic Underground", I will let you know what it is like.

Massed Gadgets · Post by **Massed Gadgets** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 2:15 pm

The Ash Ra Tempel name was used for the first five albums...generally, they consisted of one side of heavier stuff, and one side of spacier stuff for the first four: Ash Ra Tempel, Schwingungen, Seven Up, and Join Inn. The fifth album, Starring Rosi, was more or less all Manuel G?ttsching (with his girlfriend Rosi Mueller on vocals, and a drummer, and featured shorter tunes that broke the mold of the previous four albums). Generally, the debut, Schwingungen, and Join Inn are considered the best. The album done with Timothy Leary called Seven Up is good, but not as good as these other three. Starring Rosi has been somewhat panned by fans and critics but I really like it.

After that, G?ttsching did a solo album under both his own name and "Ash Ra Tempel VI", called "Inventions for Electric Guitar" which is similar in style to Berlin school electronic artists like Tangerine Dream, except he used no keyboards or synths, only guitar and effects. If you like this kind of music, it is highly recommended.

Beyond that, G?ttsching dropped the "Tempel" part of the name and became Ashra. The style also changed from a more guitar based sound to a more electronic/synthesizer based sound, though G?ttsching still plays guitar. New Age of Earth is quite nice, very mellow stuff. Blackouts is also quite good and a little more upbeat. By this time, he was developing the style that would characterize much of the rest of his career, basically, guitar soloing set to electronic rhythms, generally mellower in nature, and definitely not the freaky acid space rock of the early days.

PublicImage · Post by **PublicImage** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:29 pm

I wouldn't spend much on Psychedelic Underground. What I've heard of it was very disappointing, I didn't like it at all.

The sound quality isn't very good, it's almost unlistenable..

Has anybody heard Ash Ra Tempel's last album with Klaus Schulze back in the band? Is it as good as the early material?

Massed Gadgets · Post by **Massed Gadgets** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 6:41 pm

PublicImage wrote:Has anybody heard Ash Ra Tempel's last album with Klaus Schulze back in the band? Is it as good as the early material?

I remembered these albums when you mentioned them here, and decided to go the the Ashra web site and listen to some mp3 samples from here

http://www.ashra.com/pages/gallery.htm

They actually have samples from from all the albums...a bit difficult to assess a 20-30 minute piece from a 3 minute clip, but it's better than a 30 second clip!

Anyway, the reunion albums, Gin Rose Live and Friendship (and keep in mind, this is only from what I've heard from these samples), don't strike me at all like the early Ash Ra Tempel (and Hartmut Enke, the other original member, was not involved). They sound more like New Age of Earth/Blackouts period Ashra, but with Klaus Schulze style keyboards and electronic percussion (and I mean his latter day style, not his early style).

Sonic Destruction · Post by **Sonic Destruction** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:34 am

Thanks PublicImage. I think I will give it (Amon Duul's "Psychedelic Underground") a miss, and instead see if I can order up the first Ash Ra Tempel album instead. It will probably not cost me any more.

Sonic Destruction · Post by **Sonic Destruction** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 2:52 am

Just put down an order on the first Ash Ra Tempel album; it will be about two or three weeks away. The record shop guy had never heard of them; funny that ...

PublicImage · Post by **PublicImage** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:15 pm

You won't regret getting ART's debut, it's brilliant. Manuel Gottsching's guitar playing on Amboss is just mindblowing!

Machina · Post by **Machina** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:51 am

I've been an Amon Duul II fan for years.I'd stay away from the early Amon Duul stuff like Disaster and Psychedelic Underground.Most Amon Duul was recorded in Jam sessions and it pretty crap and very Lo-Fi when they split into Amon Duul and Amon Duul II the difference is staggering.Any Amon Duul II albums up to Hijacked are good stuff after Hijacked in 1975 the band fell apart again and got american ond other musicians involved and it all plain sucked.The stuff from Amon Duul UK from the 1980's and 90's is also very poor ,Titles include Meeting with Man Machines,Fool Moon, Die Losung and Airs on a Shoestring.That stuff is nothing like Amon Duul II and I'd stay away from it like a Plague.I've listed a few Krautrock bands I listen to and included a link to a list of best Krautrock bands as selected by a German fansite.The site is nice and has just about everything listed thats worth seeking out.
http://www.electric-orange.com/kraut/index.htm

MY Favorite Krautrock bands and albums
Amon Duul II,Yeti,Live in London,Wolf City,Lemingmania,Viva la Trance,Carnival in Babylon,Tanz Der Lemmings
KLUSTER,.A Tab in The Ocean,Recycled.
FAUST.first 8 albums.
Popul Vuh,anything up to 1974
Krokodil.Anything you can find.
Can .Early 70's stuff
NEU!.Early 70's stuff again
Birth Control.Most everything

Machina · Post by **Machina** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:59 am

I must add there's a Kraftwerk Boot from 1971 floating around from when the Neu! members Micheal Rother and Klaus Dinger were part of the band .It's very good

Sonic Destruction · Post by **Sonic Destruction** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:26 am

"Die Losung" - that was the name of the ADII album with Robert Calvert that I have got. I couldn't remember what it was called, but Machina has reminded me. I would have to say that I thought "Die Losing" was actually pretty good to my ears, but only because it sounded like a Calvert album; it sure did not sound anything like the other AD material I have heard.

It would be very cool to lay hands on that early Kraftwerk boot!

Still haven't got my hands on Ash Ra Tempel; might be in in about another week.

Massed Gadgets · Post by **Massed Gadgets** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 12:02 pm

Machina wrote:I must add there's a Kraftwerk Boot from 1971 floating around from when the Neu! members Micheal Rother and Klaus Dinger were part of the band .It's very good

I'm not sure about a bootleg, but many people think the first Kraftwerk album is Autobahn. That's even what the band themselves list on their website as the first album in their discography. But they actually released four albums prior to it. The first was under the name Organisation and was called Tone Float. It's an excellent album, featuring weird percussive grooves, experimental sounds, organ a flute. A true Krautrock freak out. From that point on there is Kraftwerk 1, which is similar in sound to Tone Float; Kraftwerk 2, which starts blending in the more mechanical electronic rhythms with the krautrock freakiness; and Ralf and Florian, where they fully begin to explore the Kraftwerk electronic sound, but in a much more organic way than they would on later albums. The members of Neu! played on Kraftwerk 1 and 2. All four of these albums are fantastic. In fact, as far as my tastes go, I think they are better than the later, more well known Kraftwerk stuff. It's really fascinating to them as they slowly build the classic Kraftwerk sound. I don't know why they ignore these albums and don't give them an official release. There have been rumours in recent years that they were going to, but so far nothing has surfaced.

Machina · Post by **Machina** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 11:12 pm

It's not really a boot but rather a Radio broadcast june 25th 1971 called K4 .It's a live gig recorded for Bremen radio and it's soundboard.The sound quality is really good as is the music.The Cd lasts for 70 mins.The track list is Heavy metal Kids,K1,Ruckzuck,K3,K4,K5.I heard the albums Tonefloat,Highrail and Var back in the 80's on vinyl at a friends house which I assume were released before they changed to Kraftwerk.I have Kraftwerk 1 and 2 on CD and Ralph and Florian on Vinyl .I like all 3 better than the later poppy stuff.

Machina · Post by **Machina** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:28 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=givbP4-x7UY

Totally mental Amon Duul II music video Deutsch Nepal by The animator Bakshi who also did Lord of the Rings Animation.

Post by **henno** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:34 am

the last krautrock i purchased was...

tangerine dream... some best of...

worth having IMHO.....