I am in a mood for deep relaxing trippy hypnotic melodies these days, if all these adjectives put together make anysense to you... If not, maybe one song will be enough.
Electric Orange, krautrock band from germany that produces compromise-less weird stuff, has probably a large repertoire of awesome inspiring tracks, but I didn't have time to explore it so far. Just this album, Platte, which is already quite a trip...
It's late at night, I have an unreasonable amount of unfinished work and a deadline tomorrow, how am I going to keep my mind awake through these lonely dark but busy hours? Listening to this:
Föllakzoid - II
The only risk, being taken to far into space by the trip...
"Krautrock" is just so rich, when you think you've dug enough, something new and incredibly crazy, like this album, pops out of nowhere... Well I am a bit ignorant about krautrock but Achim Reichel seems to be one of the big figures of krautrock.
(A light version of the krautrock encyclopedia "The Crack In The Cosmic Egg")
“ Because of his background, outside Germany, Achim Reichel is one of the most overlooked of key figures in Krautrock history. An original member of the Rattles in 1963, he decided to move on after touring as support to The Beatles in 1966, and formed his own beat group Wonderland. Nothing remarkable yet, as these were also a rather straight pop outfit. 1969 was the catalyst, first playing support to The Nice and Deep Purple, and then meeting Ravi Shankar, and there was a lot of new talent on the Hamburg scene.
Wonderland became Wonderland Band, in 1970, with a totally different concept, amounting to a most unique psychedelic album. I suggest you check the Wonderland Band entry for more info, though it was this album, and Achim's discovery of the echo guitar, that gave birth to a phenomenal series of albums under the working title of "Achim Reichel & Machines". Joining Achim was fellow Wonderland member, their lead singer Frank Dorstal as song writer, and a selection of some of the finest musicians on the Hamburg scene, for a series of albums that are nothing less than remarkable. Other projects from this era were Propeller and Libido.
After playing a major gig at Hamburg's Musikhalle in May 1970, Achim jamming with the likes of Ritchie Blackmore, Graham Bond and Pete Brown, first off was the unprecedented DIE GRÜNE REISE, with its off-beat rock 'n' roll and psychedelia, taking the listener on a sonic journey of dazzling diversity, textures and innovation unheard of in 1971, not least so the ending, which is amongst the weirdest, most fascinating, wildly tripped-out things I've ever heard! But, that was only the start, venturing further into the cosmos was the grand opus ECHO, a double album of echo trips, echoed echoes, spiralling guitars, rock and psychedelic trips beyond Ash Ra Tempel, again ending up in the realms of total weirdness! Simple description isn't possible. Being such a popular and successful musician had its advantages, though I doubt many Wonderland fans would have warmed to ECHO, and next Achim set up his own label Zebra. In fact this was the first of a series of ventures, later including Gorilla Musik and Ahorn Records. The next albums in this series were billed on the front covers as AR 3 and AR IV. AR 3 took the eccentric song format and guitar gymnastics of DIE GRÜNE REISE to more progressive realms, whereas AR IV amounted to huge side-long jam sessions. The later ERHOLUNG continued this style, but on a much more cosmic and jazzy level, where Achim's guitar notably becoming very Günter Schickert-like, with Jochen Petersen proving to be amongst the most cosmic of sax players around! AUTOVISION marked the end of this creative era which, for the most part, is actually a collection of solo guitar experiments, with a few group tracks.
After this, Achim returned to the pop world, disillusioned with the state of the progressive music scene in Germany. He has since proven to be a man of many talents, as singer, producer, and has also become quite a successful actor.
Achim Reichel, + Dicky Tarrach, Hans Lampe, Bernhard Zinngrebe
Je vous avais déjà présenté ce mot absurde "krautrock" avec le groupe Amon Düül II, mais il y a une tripotée d'autres groupes de rock underground allemands qui sont très intéressants également !
I already introduced this silly word "krautrock" with the band Amon Düül II, but there are far many other interesting german underground rock bands!
Neu!, Can, Malesh, Guru Guru, Faust, Harmonia, Cluster...
J'ai juste envie de faire bref et partager celle-ci avec vous : Guru Guru - Ooga Booga sur l'album Känguru.
I just wanna share this one with you: Guru Guru - Ooga Booga from the Känguru album.
Et puis il y a pleins de versions live sur youtube, je vous laisse explorer par vous-même ;)
There are many live versions on youtube, I let you explore this ;)
Le temps est venu d'aller explorer les territoires germaniques, et les expérimentations musicales d'après-guerre. Le "krautrock", c'est un nom générique donné par les anglais (quel allemand irait inventer le rock du chou ?) pour englober tous ces groupes très expérimentaux et plutôt underground d'une Allemagne en reconstruction. Un documentaire de la BBC développe très bien l'origine du nom et les différents groupes associés. On retiendra bien sûr Kraftwerk, qui avant de devenir ces pionniers de la musique électronique à l'esthétique si particulière, à commencé comme une formation aux influences plutôt rock.
Eh bien mon coup de coeur va sans hésiter à Amon Düül II, groupe complètement anti-conformiste et psychédélique au son très intéressant, même si parfois d'une étrangeté (vocale notamment) un peu déstabilisante.
Cette phrase de John Weinzierl, membre d'Amon Düül décrit à merveille leur esprit :
"We wanted to be international, and we tried very hard not to be anglophonic, and not to be german. So... space, was one solution."
V'là donc une petite piqûre de choucroute spatiale pour se mettre à l'aise :
It is time to explore germanic territories, and the musical experimentations post-WWII. "Krautrock" is a name given by the Brittish (what kind of German would invent the "cabbage rock"?) to embrace all these very experimental and rather underground bands in a recovering Germany. A documentary from the BBC explains very well the origin of the name and the multiple associated bands. We notice Kraftwerk of course, which, before becoming pioneer of electronic music with their singular esthetic, started with more rock influences.
So my favorite is definitely Amon Düül II, a totally nonconformist and psychedelic band whose sound is really interesting, even if sometimes quite strange (in particular the voice).
This quote from John Weinzierl, member of Amon Düül II wonderfully describes their state of mind:
"We wanted to be international, and we tried very hard not to be anglophonic, and not to be german. So... space, was one solution."
Now take this load of space sauerkraut and put yourself at ease:
