Krautrock Side-Projects

Who was it who made "e2e4"? Harald Grosskopf? That's a fucking great minimalist motorway driving album.

E2E4 is Manuel Gottsching, and, yes, it's pretty great. Very ahead of its time, as I recall.

How is Goblin a side-project?

avoid all RECENT can-side projects of the last twenty years minus 'movies' and jaki's 'phantom band'

i am justified in hating wobble-rock because it is world-beat. it's o.k. it took awhile for me to realise it as well.

The Snakecharmer EP is nice leftfield disco w/ Francois K. and Arthur Russell.

if i was in 'it's a wonderful life' i would rather have david crosby than clarence as my guardian angel?

WHOAH.

david crosby is KRAUT-ROCK. just listen to 'music is love'

Agreed, though, about "Music Is Love"...

>Roedelius "Selbstportrait" albums compilations of stuff that appeared on OTHER albums, or are they comprised of tracks that can't be gotten elsewhere?

the first six volumes compile otherwise unreleased solo experiments from the Cluster/Harmonia period. my favorite is volume II (vinyl).

the first four michael rother albums are collaborations with conny plank and jaki liebezeit. so, for me, mandatory. the first one, flammende herzen sounds very much like an extension of the second and third tracks on harmonia's deluxe. second one, sterntaler, quality recycled version of first album. third album, katzenmusik, very dorky/majestic unified suite of music, resisted me on first listen until it got to 'KM10': imagine a perfect hybrid of Can and Neu!, it's this track. Jaki the human fucking metronome.

fourth album, fernwarme, less guitar more synth. albums after this one lose jaki and plank in favor of a fairlight sequencer & drum machines, they make me cringe a bit. I buy but rarely play them.

if you love Rother's tracks on Neu! 75 & Deluxe, start with Flammende Herzen and work your way forward.

the CD reissues from a few years back tack on bonus tracks from the early 90's, not worth re-buying if you've got the vinyl.

Am listening to Roedelius' "Jardin Au Fou" as I type: FAR TOO MUCH FUN!!!

Canaxis is a minimal, atmospheric early ethnicplundercollage, v. nice

Movies and On The Way to the Peak of Normal; both absolutely crucial, much more meaningful to me than Can, just get them if you don't have them

Full Circle, Phew, Les Vampyrettes 12" - fun side projects, dubby jammy, like them. Don't like Snake Charmer as much.

The East is Red and Rome Remains Rome; pop versions of Movies, very nice

Radio Wave Surfer - bafflingly bad; edited from live studio & concert tapes with liebezeit, karoli, but the editing couldn't save what were obviously lukewarm shows. survivors of sheldon ancel's improvised lyrics have wounds in common.

Occasional moments on Moving Pictures, Good Morning Story (I love the 'Vitamin C'-sampling title track of the latter). La Luna, The New Millenium and Time and Tide are collaborations with U-She. They've got moments but don't start with any of them.

Crash is a 2 disc set of live improv jams with Air Liquide's Dr. Walker; if you can weather absolutely generic berlin techno to get to Holger's gloriously fucked up live noise mixing, then it's worth getting, but I'm the only one of any of the Czukay fans I know who like this album and even I was assuming that Czukay was going to edit & structure the material a bit more for release instead of just documenting the shows largely intact. it could have been a fantastically packed single disc.

I could be outside, yes.

KRAUT ROCK NOW...YEAH! (A, D, C, Ge...)
B#.

I wish there were "Kraut Rock" brand Corduroy
pants.

xpost

http://www.acuterecords.com/HowMuch.mp3

>plight & premonition

it's a quality ambient record. sets a sustained mood. the second one, 'flux and mutability', made more sense on vinyl, two seperate pieces, one a mellow saunter, the other a sound wall made of sylvian's fripp-cribbed "I am sad now" guitar tones, is good.

see you there

they encored with 'Rawhide'.

it's got me curious about Klaus Dinger's 'Neondian' aka La Dusseldorf 4 -- does anyone have that? Is it an improvement over the third? I haven't heard any >90's Dinger I've ever been tempted to play again.

looking through the forcedexposure blurbs, I'm getting the lineage a bit more worked out -- Engels der Herrn / la? Neu! etc. were the Klaus trainwrecks, but 1-A Dusseldorf was the Thomas Dinger band. I kind of had them all lumped in together. Has anyone checked out the 1-A Dusseldorf discs?

also, i've got la! Neu?'s "Dusseldorf" from 96 and i wouldn't say that it's a trainwreck at all. sounds kinda like any other neu/dusseldorf record. a bit more spacious, less rocking, but just the same.

though I'll keep an eye out for 'dusseldorf'.

xpost haven't heard SPACEBOX. captain trips was really spraying the krautrock canvas with those reissues for a while.

anyone heard the Conny Plank, Moebius & Mayo Thompson record from 83 (reissued on drag city)? weirdo stiff keyboard funk and mayo talking random crap on top. an insteresting listen, but not one of my faves.

thoughts on Plank-related projects like Creative Rock and Lava? i've picked these up in the past few months back but haven't spent much time with either. also To Be and the first few Eulenspygel albums. worth bothering?

yeah I don't really dig the Plank/Moebius/Mayo record that much either.

is lava the tears are going home thing? cause that wasn't too hot.

yeah, teh Lava iz Tears. i'll plan on being underwhelmed. though i had the same (low) expectations of La Pentola di Papin, based on the skimpy and dismissive verbage i've encountered, and was kinda blown away by what turned out to be some punchy, super-melodic Canterbury worship, Italo style.

i did check out that first Eulenspygel, 2. pretty sweet psychfusion, a la Embryo or Kraan. way less ropey than a lot of Stapleton's other List picks. as with Floh de Cologne, i feel like there's some satirical and political content getting lost in the translation. i totally want a t-shirt with that cover shot, so i can wear it to PETA rallies. haven't listened to Ausschuss yet. no one has much nice to say about it.

that thomas dinger record has got me seriously tempted to start checking out those 1-A dusseldorf records, though.

Anyone heard this?

my friend Martin rates it extremely highly, though. maybe I'll check it out again tonight.

Well, I've got Moebius/Plank's Rastakraut Pasta and Material on one CD and I like Material better. Unfortunately the song "Two Old Timers" still dwarfs the rest of RP, which is such a shame.

-- Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 22 May 2004 15:00 (3 years ago) Link

I must have been insane to say such a thing. I pulled out Rastakraut Pasta tonight and it was a delight. Not stoner rock so much as stoner...um...space.

Material on the other hand...this song "Osmo-Fantor" really freaks me out because it reminds me of exactly the way the bass goes in Genesis' "Back in NYC" with Peter Gabriel does anyone know that song here? And by extension, the Jeff Buckley cover of same.

How about Holger Czukay's awesome Les Vampyrettes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_7DnNBdALg

Wolfgang Dauner's Et Cetera = best band ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVl654-UAGY

Yes! I was going to mention that Holger played bass on "Rastakraut Pasta" and I forgot. Thanks.

That Wolfgang Dauner, though, that is some deep, heavy, hippie shit. I dig it. Especially since it's 3 AM.

I am starting to get into Thomas Dinger's "Fur Mich" and it really is very good. Now I too am curious about the 1-A Dusseldorf albums. La! Neu? is such a weird project all the way around but there are definitely some keepers. The third track on "Dusseldorf" (the 40-minute one) is brilliant for like the first 15 minutes, just a straight up big jim

Finally got a copy of the Alex Wiska compilation with all of the first album (recorded at Can studio around 1973 with Jaki and Holger on drums and bass) plus some some selections from later albums. The guy's voice isn't exactly immediately appealing and the songs aren't all brill but there's plenty to like nonetheless. If you've heard the opening track Ekmek you know the rhythm section reprises (or rehearses) the most hectic bit of Bel Air (with Alex doing a sort of ersatz Turkish Battle Of Evermore thing).

Of the later stuff there's the cosmic beach jam How Half Is The Moon, and Istanbulda which is in the kraut funk post-Can vein of Damo Suzuki's Network or Dunkelziffer, I guess. Both featuring Liebezeit with Michael Karoli also wah-ing up the latter. I'm into it!

Is there anything about the recording of this in Rob Young's book? I can see it's a little bit naff in places but still surprised it's not talked about more.

I am starting to get into Thomas Dinger's "Fur Mich" and it really is very good.

I haven't really got past the track Für Dich but that's some beautiful euphoric motorik goodness IIRC.

Further notes on the Wiska thing; other songs also see J & H rifling through variations on a repertoire of rhythms familiar from Can tracks. Patella Black = Pinch, Tales Of Purple Sally does something great with what we otherwise know as Bring Me Coffee Or Tea, while Derule is rhythmically a sexier Whole Lotta Love, and How Half Is The Moon has Jaki bouncing alongside a rapid beat from what sounds like an implacable Korg Minipops.

Naturally I first gravitated to those Can backed tracks but there's also stuff like Elements which is this beautiful drumless, mostly instrumental modal jazz trip that sounds a lot like Pink Floyd's Fearless and occupies a similar horizontal headspace to say Kraftwerk's Ananas Symphonie.

I don't agree that Czukay & Liebezeit are going through a 'repertoire of rhythms' or reprising or rehearsing anything on the Alex tracks, both have a style of playing so that what they play, partly because it's so distinctive, sounds a bit like other stuff they play.

I think you might be misunderstanding what I'm saying, reading it as a criticism or taking it a bit too literally.

Especially with the first track it seems undeniable that that's a variety of thing they were playing around that time that we know as part of Bel Air. Either this recording came first or Bel Air did so of course it's either a rehearsal or reprise of that recording.

Likewise those other tracks are in other modes they had that we know better from the Can albums.

At times they are so similar that I did wonder if they were literally repurposing tapes but given they recorded to two track that seems very unlikely.

I don't think it particularly sounds like what they play on "Bel Air" though! Anyway, it's a style they'd played before this album, live, it's one of things they did.

Anyway, I think the most notable aspect of the playing on the Alex stuff is that it's much closer to how they played live - much more improvisational and unfettered, especially Czukay.

So you recognises there's a stylistic resemblance but want to nitpick for no reason I can discern. Yes it was a mode / groove they had around that time and played live. That doesn't contradict the observation unless you really think there is no relation between the two tracks. xp

I don't think there's that much tbh.