| |
$22.99 CDx2
$25.99 LPx2 - Vol A
$25.99 LPx2 - Vol B
|
|
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Deutsche Elektronische Musik Vol 2
(Soul Jazz)
 "Sundance Chant" Gila
"China" Electric Sandwich
From their long-running Studio One series of classic and forgotten Jamaican sounds to the recent three-CD Voguing collection anthologizing the underground world of NYC's house ballroom era (complemented by a coffee table book), Soul Jazz treats the oft-benign music compilation as an art form. Granted, we were a little skeptical a few years back, when the British label ventured into the world of Krautrock, an expansive yet particular strain of German psychedelia and experimental rock that's been pretty well documented, but Deutsche Elektronische Musik did not disappoint, balancing purveyors such as Tangerine Dream, Ashra Tempel, Can, Neu!, Popoul Vuh, and Amon Duul II with more obscure cuts from the likes of Gila, Michael Bundt, Ibliss, E.M.A.K., and Between. Now comes volume two, covering the same era, 1972-83, while also adding a second generation of acts like Asmus Tietchens, D.A.F., and Reichmann, who turned the page on the often grandiose explorations of the '70s, greeting the new decade with a sense of restraint via the burgeoning minimal synth, post-punk and avant-garde scenes. While the return of Can, Neu!, Faust, Conrad Schnitzler, Roedelius, Amon Duul II, and Popol Vuh ensures that this installment will serve as another excellent primer, there's also greater focus on lesser known names. A.R. & Machines (a/k/a Achim Reichel) kicks off both discs with his spaced-out echo-guitar wizardry while the early-'70s psychedelia that Peter Bursch's Broselmaschine conjures during the eight-minute "Nossa Bova" is more earthbound as 12-string guitars are picked and strummed alongside hand percussion and a lilting female singer that trades pastoral melodies with a recorder flute. Perhaps one of the best examples of the kosmische sound comes from Sergius Golowin, whose blissful "Die Weisse Alm" from 1973 is taken from an album-length collaboration (Lord Krishna von Goloka) with a team of German musicians that included Klaus Schulze, and finds the Swiss writer chanting atop improvised synths and acoustic guitars, while Niagara's "Gibli" from the year before is a percussion-heavy bongo-Kraut workout that brings to mind Liquid Liquid if they had come up before NY's post-punk scene and focused on deconstructing jazz-fusion.
As mentioned earlier, there's a heavy concentration on the wave of music that followed what is usually associated as Krautrock. During "Himmelblau" we find Wolfgang Riechmann updating the motorik excursions of his good friend Michael Rother's bands Neu! and Harmonia into a chilly, early morning ride across the autobahn that Gary Numan fans might want to take. Elsewhere, one time Cosmic Joker and Klaus Schulze and Manuel Gottsching collaborator Harald Grosskopf (whose "Emphasis" is taken off of 1980's Synthesis reissued a few years back on RVNG), shakes off the excesses of the '70s with warm glowing synths and a lockstep groove, while You's "Electric Day" (which happens to be produced by Grosskopf) could be likened to E2-E4 played at 45rpm, with bubbling arpeggios pulsing atop some impressively tight, lightning speed jazz drumming. Add to the collection D.A.F.'s Neue Deutsche Welle classic "Coco Pino," "Base & Apex" by Brian Eno and Cluster's Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Agitation Free's "You Play Us for Today," two Gila tracks (featuring guitarist and one time Popul Vuh member Connny Veit with Popul Vuh bandmates Florian Fricke and Daniel Fichelscher, and vocalist Sabine Merbach), and Electric Sandwich's instrumental prog-rock monster "China" off their highly collectible self-titled LP, and you won't find a better selection of groundbreaking music from 1970s/early-'80s Germany in our racks. The big booklet featuring lots of photographs and liner notes written by Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and Its Legacy author David Stubbs makes this downright essential. [GH]
*Deutsche Elektronische Musik Vol 2 is available as a two-CD set or two separate double LPs. |
