Lord Lucan
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Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 03, 2004, 15:14
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Good call with Gunther Schickert. 'Samtvogel' is great and definitely unsung. The second album 'Uberfallig' is just as good too, with a bit more depth of texture to it, and a more agressive version of 'Apricot Brandy' on there as well.
E2:E4 is pretty good chillout stuff, which spawned Italian house and early Ibiza chillout sound, rather than house music per se, I think. Definitley better than any Ash Ra that I've heard
I've been interested in getting hold of some Asmus Tietchens for a while now. May have to flex my plastic card again soon!
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Lascivia
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Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 03, 2004, 15:19
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I love all of the major albums from the first-rank bands (Can, Faust, Neu!, Cluster, Harmonia, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II, in no particular order). I don't remember anyone listing Klaus Schulze's "Irrlicht", but I think it's magnificent, kosmische proto-synth drone coloured by orchestra.
Popol Vuh's "Hosianna Mantra" should get top mention too.
One album belongs to the top rank but is still little known and hasn't been legitimately reissued, though there's a good quality boot floating about: the second album of Tomorrow's Gift, "Goodbye Future". Don't confuse it with the first Tomorrow's Gift album, which was done by a very different band, and sucks. Amazing Canterbury influenced, cosmic rock, spiced with RIOisms, a wide variety of keyboards, and Conny Plank's production. Unique.
A few items are overrated in my book. The first Cosmic Jokers album is very enjoyable, the second a little less so, and then it drops into the toilet. Wegmüller's double album has a few good tracks, but is mostly weak, and I've like it less every time I've listened to it.
"Neu! 75" is good, but dwarfed by Harmonia's "Deluxe". Though the production is excellent and "Isi" is genius, the compositions are just not up to par; Neumeier's drumming is more subtle and effective than Dinger's, especially the slow build on "Walky Talky".
"Embryo's Rache" and "Steig Aus" are different but good; however, Embryo is just not as imaginative as the top rank krautrock bands. I've only heard the first Mythos album, but too much of it smacks of the bad side of prog (um, a cover of Handel?); "Oriental Journey" is brilliant, though.
I empathise with those who don't like "Cottonwoodhill". The woman's vocals annoyed me beyond end when I first heard them, and I wasn't too impressed with the funky ostinato peppered with random moments of musique concrete. (I always loved the first track on the album.) I think my problem was that I was expecting a great KRAUTROCK album, and it just doesn't have the alien sense I love about the best krautrock. Instead, it seems to me like the extreme conclusion of 60's psychedelia. I've since grown to appreciate it.
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MonkeyBoy
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Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 03, 2004, 15:27
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Bits of Mythos is good but I would be embarrassed to play some of it to a mate.
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Stevo
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Re: Krautrock: Love it! Incarock: huh?
Sep 03, 2004, 15:54
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There's some stuff on that Almendra 2cd that I've got that's pretty stellar.
I need to check out some more of this stuff though.
Stevo
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Popel Vooje
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Re: Krautrock: Love it! Incarock: huh?
Sep 03, 2004, 15:57
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Not forgetting the better known, but just as freaky, Os Mutantes and Tom Ze.
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Lawrence
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Re: Birth Control and problem drinking
Sep 03, 2004, 16:22
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You make it sound like that novelty song by Two Nice Girls or something...
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Dog 3000
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"Germanrock"
Sep 03, 2004, 16:37
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I think that's a key phrase (did you just coin it?)
"Kraut" is head music -- though it literally means "cabbage" I understand the word is also slang for "groovy grass."
Whereas a lot of german groups like Birth Control, Jane and the Scorpions that are really just your basic "70's rawk", only played by Germans. About as thrilling as finding an old Savoy Brown or Blackfoot record. So let's call that genre "Germanrock" and try to keep 'em straight . . . !
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Lord Lucan
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Re: Krautrock: Love it! Incarock: huh?
Sep 03, 2004, 16:47
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Araca Azul by Caetano Veloso is fucking nuts and utterly brilliant. Kinda like a tropical Faust. None of his other albums come anywhere near being as weird.
The French band Lard Free are very krauty and not very well known. Don't be put off by the name, they're worth checking out. Same goes for Heldon, though they're more Fripp/Eno influenced than anything else, but should appeal to krautheads.
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Lascivia
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Re: Krautrock: Love it! Incarock: huh?
Sep 03, 2004, 17:24
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I have Lard Free's third album, but don't like it that well; nice atmosphere, but the music seems kind of aimless. Artman's later Urban Sax project is awesome, though. MIO is planning on a box set reissue of their albums, and I can't wait.
Actually, France produced lots of good stuff in that era.
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Lugia
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Re: Krautrock: Love it! Incarock: huh?
Sep 03, 2004, 19:01
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Y'know, it's funny you should mention this. I was driving into town yesterday while listening to Faust's 1st album, and there were a lot of things in there that struck me as being really similar to the sort of studio production craziness that Rogerio Duprat was up to in Brazil at the height of Tropicalia. Not so much in material per se, but in the way the material was put together, the way the studio's effects/processing possibilities were being used, and so on. Nettlebeck's Faust stuff was shortly after that, so I do sort of wonder if he'd not heard any of this Brazilian wackiness and whether that might've affected the potential direction of Faust's work...???
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