Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen

Schwingungen

Schwingungen, which is probably my favourite Ash Ra Tempel album, opens with the utterly sublime Look at Your Sun. This is a towering psychedelic tour de force, building gently with the most beautifully laid-back guitar and bass and lyrics of a direct intense simplicity ("I look out my window and see the blue sky", "and I know, we are all one"), through the maniacally frantic central section and then back to the classic Gottsching lonely guitar sound as the track drifts away.

Flowers Must Die is a stunning trippy powerhouse of a song belted out by a manic John L, who sounds totally out of his tree. In places vaguely Hawkwind-ish, the overall feel of this track is surprisingly punk/new wave and therefore many years ahead of its time.

The extended third track, Schwingungen (Vibrations) covered the entire second side of the original album and is a brilliant example of the definitive Ash Ra Tempel cosmic/ambient sound.

A warning though! This track is significantly hypnotic and mood-changing, and it is not recommended to listen to this while you're driving!

The sleeve notes on the original album said something like "You're not hearing this music for the first time - you are recognising it once more" and you will understand what is meant when you listen to this. That classic Ash Ra Tempel chord sequence (later reprised in the Time sequence on the Seven Up album) does seem to grab you at a visceral or primordial level and, once heard, will be with you for ever.

Existing Ash Ra Tempel fans will surely not be able to resist this, and those of you yet to experience this music will not regret letting it into your lives!

Klaus Schulze- Irrlicht

Irrlicht

The year was 1972 when former Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel member Klaus Schulze embarked on his lengthy solo career which continues to this day.

Although it is considered to be a pioneering classic in Electronic music today, Schulze's solo debut "Irrlicht" was not well received when it was first released 34 years ago. Many listeners (as well as members of the orchestra which Klaus used on the album) didn't quite know what to think at the time. However, the listening public finally caught up with Klaus's crazy ideas and the album has since become a blueprint for the ambient/drone genre.

Although Klaus Schulze has long been regarded as a pioneer of synthesizers, "Irrlicht" was actually created without any synths whatsoever as Klaus did not own one yet. The instruments and tools that were used were the above-mentioned orchestra as well as a primitive electric organ, a broken guitar amplifier, echo and effect devices as well as other miscellaneous objects.

"Irrlicht" is essentially an album-length piece divided into three distinct movements. The opening 23-minute movement "Ebene" opens with a giant orchestra rush which leads into a low-end organ drone centered around D-minor. As the organ drone shifts and pulsates, the orchestra creates and intense cinematic atmosphere around it. After about 10-minutes, the mood becomes more intense as Klaus brings in a dark chord sequence which builds with suspense. The panning effect as well as the shrieking background noises used towards the end of the movement add further intensity until it's all washed away by loud gong-like crash.

The crash begins the short second movement, "Gewitter". While it sounds like there is a primitive synthesizer being used on this track, it actually is Klaus using a broken-down amplifier and a rewired organ. The intense organ theme of the first movement is pushed to the backround while strange sound effects as well as various percussive sounds (which sound like cymbals, gongs and trash cans being hit while being drenched with echo) come to the forefront.

The last movement, "Exil Sils Maria", is probably the most experimental movement of the three. It begins with a dark orchestral/organ theme similar to the first movement only more forboding. This leads into an extremely avant-garde section consisting of a droning collage of backward-sounding noises and what sounds like a car motor being amplified. This section is a real treat to be heard with headphones. Afterwards, the movement shifts back to how it began with its dark organ theme.

The newly remastered edition includes a highly informative essay from Klaus Schulze himself as well as a never before released bonus track. "Dungeon" was supossedly recorded in 1976 (although there is speculation that it could have been recorded earlier in the liner notes) but is very much in the same style as the original "Irrlicht" album with its long held chords and drones.

With this said, if you've never heard Klaus Schulze's "Irrlicht" before, now's the time to do so especially since it has been given pristine treatment on this reissue. The sound is amazing and so is the music. This is definitely music that was way ahead of its time when it was first released in 1972. Now, three decades later, it's an influential classic!!!

Klaus Schulze-Galactic Supermarket

Galactic Supermarket

Without a question one of the all time greatest examples of space travel without the water wings! If "Galactic Supermarket" does not absolutely blow your lips off then I'll eat my spacesuit! COSMIC JOKERS take ASH RA TEMPEL to the next dimension tossing in the sound-bites of classic psychedelia along the way. The COSMIC JOKERS were a short lived German offshoot band who clearly had creative improvisation aspirations while writing and recording. This all star lineup includes Klaus Schulze, Harald Grosskoff, Manuel Gottsching, Dieter Dierks and Jorgen Dollase so this should sort of give a idea already as to the direction and sound of the band. Essentially "Galactic Supermarket" is 2 overly long but scrumptious epic space jams which are given pure unconditional space to explore space in a space like way. Musically this album blends acid laced guitar solos over Schulze's analog space bedding with zainy soundbites and forboding atmospheres. "Galactic Supermarket" will certainly freak you and your grandma out while sitting on the couch. An original and masterful piece of space prog !

Galactic Supermarket" is very spacey to open and it's building as guitar and drums join in. It settles as whispered words come in then guitar. It turns spacey with organ and drums come in. Very experimental to end this first part.The second part is calm to begin with as percussion and a beat starts. Sounds like flute too.The guitar is making some noise. Synths before 4 minutes as drums pound. Organ late.The last part opens with Klause and Female vocals that echo. Very psychedelic. Drums are joined by the guitar which starts to lead with spacey synths joining in as well. Crazy out of control stuff here as spoken words are heard. A wall of sound after 7 minutes to the end.

Deep Purple-Deep Purple

Deep Purple

What artwork! On this the 3rd album by Deep Purple, Rod Evans, Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice and Nick Simper produced another gem. Nice opening track "Chasing Shadows", the psychedelic-pop of "Blind", really like the modern jazz playing by Jon Lord, Blackmore also gives a stand up job too. Donovan's "Lalena", Rod Evans vocals are fantastic, nice cover. "Fault Line/The Painter", one of my favorites from early Deep Purple, Blackmore's guitar work is freakin' great, Lord's organ and Ian Paice's drumming is tops. this should be played on every classic rock station! "Bird Has Flown", with that funky beginning, almost reminds me of Evans' Captain Beyond. Another solid effort here, after this album bassist Nick Simper and vocalist Rod Evans would be fired, months later in came Ian Gillan and Roger Glover from Episode Six. Next studio album would be "In Rock", for 1970. A big change in direction for the band. I own this CD and probably heard it first (Vinyl) around '70/'71. I loved it right away and did my early trippin' to it. What memories! As the other reviewer said, this stuff beats out the following more commercial material. The sound quality is the best you're gonna get. It amazes me how the original tapes have held up after 35/40 years. If you like acid rock with a few twists (the Donovan song "Lalena") you will be glad you made this purchase. Go for it!

Klaus Schulze- Cosmic Jokers & Galactic Supermarket

Cosmic Jokers and Galactice Super Market

 

 

COSMIC JOKERS
This is the first of the (in)famous Cosmic Jokers releases, culled from master tapes of jams by members of Ash Ra Tempel, Wallenstein, et al that Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser surreptitiously released on his Cosmic Couriers label...eventually resulting in the demise of that and the Ohr label, as well as R-U Kaiser's career! Seems that these jams came out without the permission (or compensation!) of the artists involved, and at the time those circumstances were highly controversial. Controversy aside, though, this initial Cosmic Jokers release is a wonderful thing, a pair of truly psychedelic (supposedly the sessions were highly LSD-drenched affairs) and flowing jams reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, and then-current efforts of Tangerine Dream (viz their "Electronic Meditiation" album). A very trippy landmark of space-rock, to be sure.

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GALACTIC SUPERMARKET
Here is a truly amazing spacy Krautrock album worth looking in to. Cosmic Jokers was an unintended gathering of some of the biggest names to record for the Ohr, Pilz, and Kosmische Musik labels. This was the project that killed the career of Rolf Ulrich Kaiser and the labels he ran: Ohr, Pilz, and Kosmische Musik, because of lawsuits against him. This was the big reason why the likes of Klaus Schulze moved to Brain and Tangerine Dream moved to Virgin, and many others to other labels (often Brainm who were founded by ex-Ohr employees who didn't feel all was right at Ohr). Musicians involved were Manuel Göttsching, Klaus Schulze, Harald Großkopf, Jürgen Dollase, Dieter Dierks, Rosi Müller, and Gille Lettmann, names familiar to all who are in to this type of music. With associations with the likes of Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, Wallenstein, etc., you know what to expect with the Cosmic Jokers. Galactic Supermarket was the second in a series of Cosmic Jokers albums, all released in 1974, and is one tripped-out jam, ranging from guitar-oriented jams that sound like they came off Ash Ra Tempel's Join Inn, to percussion experiments, heavy on synthesizers, lots of electronic effects, the occasional female spoken dialog from Rosi and Gille, and so much more. The music is certain to keep you glued from start to finish. There's even a passage on the first cut, "Kinder des Alls" where the Mellotron rears its head.

It seems that Klaus Schulze was most angered. He calls these recordings an embarrassment and he wished they never existed. Manuel Göttsching thought better of these recordings and had a much better opinion of Kaiser than did Schulze. Plus he did think highly of the music, and for good reason. There seems to be too many stories regarding Kaiser (as well as Gille Lettmann, his girlfriend), but apparently they were not driven out of Germany. They simply gave up on the music industry altogether and went into seclusion (which lead to rumors of mental illness not unlike Syd Barrett).

Regardless what's the real truth behind the story of the Cosmic Jokers and Kaiser, I have to still say that Galactic Supermarket (as well as their other releases) is a complete must have for those who enjoy Krautrock, particularly Schulze and Ash Ra Tempel fans.





Quick Silver Messenger Service

Quick Silver Messenger Service

This album was released in the spring of 1968, a year that produced a great deal of music that's now very hard to listen to. Even the Grateful Dead didn't hit their stride until the "Live/Dead" album of 1969. The Doors were in a slump, the Beatles were at each other's throats, and even the Rolling Stones wouldn't break their British Invasion mold and come into their own until the next year, with "Let It Bleed."
There's a gleeful sloppiness to this album. At this time, many garage bands were producing material of their own (remember the Strangeloves' "I Want Candy"?), but there's something different about Quicksilver Messenger Service. Though this sounds like a garage album, it's a garage album by a band of extraordinary talent and discipline.
From the opening notes of "Pride of Man," a grossly overlooked anti-war anthem that more peace advocates today should utilize, we're bowled over by the skill and quality of the band. In particular, the guitar majesty of the late John Cippollina leaves any number of current lesser imitators in the dust. The songwriting leaves something to be desired on most tracks, but Quicksilver Messenger Service was never a songwriters' band. They have the chops to cover shaky lyrics, and it's difficult to weary of listening to them.
In a day when studio tricks have washed out the human qualities of most rock bands, this album sounds like there's real human beings, playing in concert, right here. The very elements that make it dated make it desirable from a music lover's point of view. Not everyone will like it--ir represents values that have now gone out of date--but for those who appreciate solid playing and honest artistry in their rock, this is an album to be treasured.

 



Klaus Schulze- Dark Side of the Moog 5 & 6

Dark Side of the Moog 5 & 6

In Dark Side of the Moog Volume VI (6) -- Peter Namlook, Klaus Schulze, and Bill Laswell nail it again. Great synthesizer work, very old-skool sounding pads, wonderful, spacious drum work, the list goes on and on!

The CD opens with a track that never fails to make me squirm in my seat, simple, some would say plain, synth pads played while people speak into vocoders. The CD then turns into warm, smooth drum rhythms, giving the CD a bit of a lonely, chilling feel.

 

I won't give any more of this wonderful CD away! This is a MUST for the cd player, overnight. Something to tease your subconcious with when its defenses are down. This is the sort of music that absolutely magical nightmares are made of! This was my first DSOM CD, and is one of my favorites. So far, second only to DSOM V, though what I've heard of VIII is very impressive- I can't wait until it arrives!

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In Dark Side of the Moog Volume V (5)
If you are looking for good solid electronic music - ambient space music - this is one of a superb series of albums Klaus Schulz and Pete Namlook put together through the years. Enter in Bill Laswell on a few tracks (the liveliest of the psychedelic brunch) and you have a solid album. The special part of this album is a brief introduction by Bob Moog. Unfortunately, not the easiest disc to find but there are places you can find this.....

 



Jethro Tull - Passion Play

A Passion Play

Well let me start by saying that if you're sick of the music that's popular, uninspired, predictable, overplayed, and safely within the skill level of any old musician, then A Passion Play is your cure! It is the opposite of all these things. On the other hand, if you are perfectly happy just hearing "Honky Tonk Women" 5 times a day on the radio then stay AWAY from A Passion Play.
As a continuation of their parody of concept albums, Ian A. and Co. created this piece with the obvious intent of challenging themselves and their listeners to the utmost extent. It is brilliant and ridiculous, triumphant and melancholy, satisfying and disappointing. The music will lead up to what you hope will be a thrilling climax, and then completely die. It is easily one of the most densely inaccessible albums ever recorded. However, it is also ingenious. Another reviewer was right in saying that basically all the other rock & roll innovators combined could never have concocted such a ludicrously awesome creative masterpiece as this. The playing here is completely off the hook; the best you'll ever hear on a rock album, especially considering the extreme difficulty of the music. The lineup of Anderson, Barre, Hammond, Evans, and Barlow was, in my opinion, the best in Tull history. Ian's singing is so rich and full that his vocals on earlier albums just seem thin and tinny in comparison. The saxes and tastefully utilized synths are a nice addition, giving it a very distinctly different flavor from Thick as a Brick. In fact, I would say that the segment subtitled "The Overseer Overture" contains one of the saxophone's defining moments in rock music (not to mention that's the best part of the album too).
You won't find a lot of long instrumental solos here, as one might expect from more quintessential prog like ELP's Tarkus. It's all very tight and well thought-out. There are virtually none of the trippy, boring organ solos and white noise stuff often found in prog, which is a testament to Ian's strict no-drugs policy with band members. The lyrics are just nuts. Don't even try to make sense of them on the first time listening. I've listened to it like 20 times and I'd still be in the dark if not for the helpful online forums dedicated to deciphering its meaning.
I also find APP to be very funny. The music sounds like it would be perfectly at home during some kind of deranged circus act, and the lyrics contain endless oddities and wordplays. Everyone complains about the pointlessness of Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond's The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles. It's just a bit of fun, really, and it is pretty funny in a Monty Python sort of way. All in all, I'd say that this should not be your first Tull album, but fans should have it. Just remember: if you don't end up liking it at first, don't write it off as shit. Give it some time and you may just find it to be a very rewarding piece of music after all.

Doors- Soft Parade

Soft Parade

"The Soft Parade", The Doors' fourth album, struggles to be musically inventive. What made the first two albums so wonderfully successful is their very unique sound, and that sound encapsulated the growing, revolutionary thought processes that were spreading throughout America's youth at the time of the 1960s. The Doors were both original and very much of their time, although those first two records never feel dated. Then The Doors released "Waiting for the Sun", which has several good songs, but only approaches the quality of the first two records in isolated moments. After the wake of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and all the psychedelic music that was coming out at the time, The Doors decided to do their own version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". By this, I mean they decided to totally reinvent their sound and style and popular music in general, giving the world a radical look how high rock and roll can really climb on the artistic ladder. Unfortunately, The Doors were never as consistently good as The Beatles, and instead of turning in an amazing LP, we end up with the weakest set of songs The Doors ever put to tape.

To understand the state of "The Soft Parade", it helps to look at the album before that, "Waitng for the Sun". The Doors seem to operate in twos, with their first two records brilliant, their middle two rather mediocre, their last two good blues albums, and then there's the two (out of print) records The Doors made after Morrison's death ("Other Voices" and ""Full Circle"). "Waiting for the Sun" was little more than a holding action, product put out because they had to, although there are some great songs on it. At least on "The Soft Parade" they were trying to do something different, even though it ends up being just as mediocre an album as its predecessor.

The Doors talk about the `third album syndrome' effecting "Waiting for the Sun". They had handpicked their best material for their debut, then the rest went onto "Strange Days". At the third album, they were in a quandry, because all their best material had already been issued. The Doors found it difficult to write compelling, commercial songs, and so turned in their rather lackluster third album. What really hurt "Waiting for the Sun" was the decision to cut "Celebration of the Lizard," which would have been a very long opus taking up the majority of the second side of the song. So when it came time to record "The Soft Parade", The Doors wanted to strike out in a different direction.

While not wholly a failure, "The Soft Parade" turns out to be, along with "Waiting for the Sun", The Doors' weakest album. By this time, Morrison was so out of control Kreiger wrote half the tracks on the album, and it shows. (Also, Morrison didn't want to be credited with calling people to get their guns on the first track). Because the third album didn't have a real tangible identity as far as sound goes, The Doors wisely decided to reinvent themselves and broaden their musical horizons.

While we must admire them for this ambition, the end results are very mixed. Taking over eight months to record, the album proved a difficult record to make. In the end, Morrison described the album the band trying to do something new but that it got bogged down. How true.

Trading in their psychedelic sound they so successfully displayed on their first two records, we get a big band sound instead. The reason they turned from this sound was by the third album the well was clearly running dry. On several of the songs this new sound works, especially the first three tracks. If the rest of the songwriting had been as strong as it was on the first three, then "The Soft Parade" would stand proudly among The Doors' best work. Unfortunately, this is not the case. "The Soft Parade", quite simply, boasts the weakest set of the original six albums. "Do It," "Easy Ride," and "Running Blue," simply don't gel, though "Running Blue" is a very funny song. The title track I really like for about the first four minutes. I find the last (and longest) musical section gets rather monotonous as the song [goes on for over eight minutes] [ploughs onward,] lurches toward its closing eight minute running time. And where is "Who Scared You?" Had "Do It" been deleted and that included in the running order, the album would be much stronger. "Shaman's Blues" is a masterpiece, and "Wild Child" harkens back to that dark, careening undercurrent of their first two albums. Very good song. "Wishful Sinful" is nice as well.

By this point in their career, The Doors were rather falling apart artistically, no thanks to Morrison's increasingly difficult behaviour. After turning in two rather lackluster LPs after two great albums, The Doors seemed headed on a downward spiral. Fortunately, The Doors went into the blues after this album, producing two good albums (even though they couldn't touch the first two's quality) before Morrison died.

Overall, I admire The Doors for their ambition in trying to come up with a highly artistic, progressive record. I just wish they had done a better job at it.

 



Kraftwerk -The man machine

The Man Machine

 

1978's 'The Man Machine' is Kraftwerk's most focused, and strongest album to date. Although short, clocking in at just over thirty minutes, the six tracks that comprise 'The Man Machine' are of high quality and filler-free. The album can easily be listened to straight through several times without boring the listener.
The album kicks off powerfully with 'The Robots'. It's pulsating bassline, machine-like rhythms and heavily processed vocals set the tone for the rest of the album. I actually prefer this version of 'The Robots' to the one on Kraftwerk's 1991 release 'The Mix'. I find 'The Man Machine' version to be a lot more robotic than 'The Mix''s more human, organic reworking.

Next is the first of the two almost completely instrumental tracks on `The Man Machine', `Spacelab'. `Spacelab''s weightless, dreamy synth lines say more to the listener than any vocals could ever describe. The only vocals that enter the mix are the vocoded words "Space-lab". A very relaxing, beautiful track.

Third up is the other vocally minimal track on the album, the dystopian `Metropolis'. This track is the most ominous of all of the tracks on `The Man Machine', perhaps the most ominous of all of Kraftwerk's songs (`Radioactivity' would be a close second). Likely drawing from Fritz Lang's 1926 masterpiece of the same title, `Metropolis' invokes the listener with the feeling that this futuristic city may not be the utopia we would all like it to be.

`The Model', the album's fourth track is a strange, somewhat poppy, but very catchy song. The lyrics are very simple and the synth sounds are very dated, but that is what is so charming about this song. "Charming" could very easily describe the appeal of all of Kraftwerk's work, as a matter of fact.