Show Date: Fri. April 21, 2000
Show #111
Germany 1970's - volume 4



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Playlist:
# Artist Song (click to play) Album Year CD label
1 Twenty Sixty Six and Then Butterking Reflections! 1972 Second Battle
A good hard-rock prog album with great keyboards, guitar and flute. I am not a big fan of the vocals, though. I am reminded of Deep Purple and maybe even the first 2 Rare Earth albums. The original master tapes of the original recording are lost, so for the CD release Second Battle used earlier recorded studio versions of the songs from the album for the CD release. I do not know how the CD compares to the original LP release, but, the CD sounds pretty damn good. According to the liner notes the CD versions are longer and more interesting. 2066 only released one album. Members went on to other German bands like Aera, Kin Ping Meh, Karthago, Emergency, Abacus.
 
2 Neu! Weissensee Jahresuberblick Neu! 1971 Germanofon (boot)
Simple but effective krautrock experimentalism. Reminds me of the early Kraftwerk albums (I've only heard the early ones). Perhaps a little like early Tangerine Dream as well. Features some very nice melancholic guitar. This group is considered to be one of the founders of Techno music, or at least, one of the biggest influences.
 
3 Rufus Zuphall Schnupfer Phallobst 1971 Spalax
Bluesy, jazzy rock progressive with lots of flute. They sound a lot like early Jethro Tull. The music sounds decent enough, is played well, and has no "bad" features, but, it does not seem to grab me. It has the potential to be a grower, though...
 
4 Can Paperhouse Tago Mago 1971 Spoon
This album is supposed to be some sort of holy-grail of Krautrock or something. Personally, I lean more towards the or something. With repeated listens, I find that I like certain aspects of them more, and also that I find some of it less appealing. I like the drummer's rhythmic shuffle, but, after almost 20 minutes of the same 2-bar pattern, like on Halleluhwah, it's not as interesting anymore. The thin trebly guitar does not have the most appealing sound, but, can be sometimes effective. Much of the album is very experimental and psychedelic with spacey effects and voice experiments. A highly regarded and influential album.
Can
 
5 Ash Ra Tempel Amboss (excerpt) Ash Ra Tempel 1971 Spalax
A great and important album in the history of Krautrock. The first side is a wild guitar-oriented rave-up that is often frentic, but, ebbs and flows into more introspective moments as well taking up the entire first side. The second side is another all-instrumental side-long track of moody improvisation. Much of it is very quiet, but, grows in intensity with some edgy almost bluesy guitar leads.
Manuel Göttsching - Ashra
 


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