Das Wispern der Schatten: Roman (German Edition)
Their style was a basic heavy progressive, with some Cream, Man, Quicksilver influences, and some saving moments, but were largely uninspired, and of only marginal interest. Amongst the most obscure of Berlin bands, Blackwater Park's sole album was nothing remarkable, being mainstream Anglo-American styled heavy rock with blues touches, with no real individuality or experimentation. They were very basic Edgar Broughton Band type stuff really, nothing more. This said, the album only has one track of any real merit for Krautrock fans, which reflects Andreas Scholz's origins in Murphy Blend.
With them he served a long apprenticeship, and made friends with many international musicians, achieving fame as one of the most dazzling fusion guitarists in Europe. His work as a soloist, as group leader, and with his own experimental band Electric Circus, has indeed been most varied. Since then, Toto's ventured onto creating all sorts of fusions, from simple classical and jazz musics through to groundbreaking avant-garde, both as a multi-instrumental soloist and in collaboration with other musicians.
Sometimes Toto embraces technology and pushes it to the limits, and at other times he ignores it altogether. Such is his schizophrenic personality as a musician. Later releases however not listed here saw the rest of the band scarper, leaving Blonker as the vehicle for guitarist Dieter Geike with the aid of various session musicians Peter Franken, Dieter Horns, Jochen Petersen, etc. Really, these albums are so wet and pretty, that they are not musically within the scope of this book!
This was the project of one Rainer Degner ex-German Bonds and Rattles guitarist , creating a psychedelic rock and beat theme music all based on the song "Meister Jakob" note: Hardly "psychedelic underground", of minor curiosity interest only. An obscure band, fronted by singer Marcel L. Bongers, of whom we know virtually nothing historically. Comparable to many other fellow late's progressives: Second Movement, Rousseau, Pancake, et al. Bongers Project had a slightly different angle, in that they made that spacey type of progressive, often more akin to the French band Pulsar.
They were a lot better than most, with thick wedges of keyboards, guitars and lots of flute, especially the lengthy suite covering side 1 of the LP. Georg Kobeck keyboards , Marcel L. Later, wisely changing name and becoming Brainstorm, they still attempted to shock with their debut album SMILE A WHILE, which caused such a scandal due to its outrageous cover that it was apparently withdrawn from release! Highlighted by quality musicianship, notably a dizzying array of winds and keyboards, with complexly arranged instrumentals and, like the Dutch band Supersister, a penchant for eccentric tongue-in-cheek humour.
Brainstorm lived up to their name, and both albums are classics of the genre. Roland Schaefer later became a bastion of Guru Guru, and Joachim Koinzer has fronted numerous fusion bands since.
Adam J. Dalton
The history of Brainticket is virtually undocumented, and their origins are also very confused. And, although they are considered by many to be a Krautrock band, they were really a nomad troupe, going wherever the scene took them. Basically, Brainticket were born out of the 60's jazz and soul scenes, and a variety of groups featuring Belgian born keyboardist Joel Vandroogenbroeck. Their origins can be traced back to , as the nucleus of Dee Dee Barry And The Movements, with Joel Vandroogenbroeck organ, flute , Ron Bryer guitar , and Wolfgang Paap drums , though this was far away from the music they were later to create.
Joel, along with a few like-minded musicians active in the South of Germany, inevitably got caught up in the fertile Krautrock scene, and like many other bands from the area they formed an international combo that drew on a wide range of influences. All but for the two short dreamy surreal tracks that open side 1 of the album which hint at the later Brainticket sound , the majority of the album is a long repetitive funky groove opus, propelled along by chunky organ and percussion. It has the spirit of Can, the outrageousness of Funkadelic, and pre-empting Faust, and for it's certainly nothing less than revolutionary.
Over this musical mantra, Dawn Muir recants vividly the experience of an extraordinary LSD trip, acting it out for us, including all the paranoia, visions of ecstasy, power and confusion, the pure surreal buzz of the experience. This is topped off by extraordinary use of special effects, sound-collage and electronics. And, if that weren't enough, they also resort to all manner of trickery and surprising diversions. It all adds up to a strange and unique album that's still surprisingly startling and fresh over 25 years on, and as a result it's also been the subject of numerous homage's.
Moving base to Italy, some of the band split off and formed the Swiss hard-rock band Toad, and thus a new version of Brainticket evolved. It was more your typical trippy progressive, with actual songs and compositions, sometimes in the vein of early Hawkwind, yet often closer to Quintessence and Group There are many facets to the music here, especially when venturing on to trippy folk territory, with female lead vocals, akin to Emtidi or Pentangle a little.
It's an album that saw a diversion to weirder more electronic realms, with strong use of ethnic instruments and a wealth of surprises. Though very different to the original Brainticket, they were still proving to be innovators. This trio apparently existed for some time touring Germany, Switzerland and Italy in the mid's.
We know that Brainticket carried on through the late's, as concert tapes have been advertised by some dealers, though nothing was released again until For the first time, Brainticket were a totally instrumental combo, leaving the music to speak for itself. Apart from a proliferation of electronics, these albums strongly feature percussion and flute, and in the established tradition of Brainticket, these were groundbreaking stuff, again radical innovative albums, though far from the psychedelic realms of the 70's releases.
In parallel, during the late's and through on to the 90's, Joel Vandroogenbroeck has also fronted other projects, he had is own jazz-rock band Joel, and has also done much solo work, as well as travelling the world researching obscure ethnic music cultures. It seems that he is currently earning a living by recording music for film and TV. See Joel Vandroogenbroeck entry for more information.
Chris Braun lead vocals , Elmar Krohn guitars, flute, percussion, vocals , Horst Schreiber guitars, percussion, vocals , Jochen Bernstein bass , Bill Bakine drums, percussion. Brave New World's whole oeuvre was the concept of the Aldous Huxley science fiction novel. An unlikely "supergroup", and remarkably the music they created was unprecedented and original.
Virtually instrumental, blending medieval musics, electronics, jazz and rock in a dazzlingly complex fusion, a big step beyond early Between, with the Krautrock feel of Annexus Quam, Achim Reichel, Tomorrow's Gift, et al. And, dig that over-amplified stylophone! An all-time Krautrock classic. An obscure mid's rock band, of the more mainstream type with notable American influences. Their album had its moments, with hints of Thirsty Moon and Karthago. Only of marginal interest. The original band, who were inspired by Pentangle their quote, not ours and European folk musics, played a mixture of all sorts of cultures.
They wrapped vibrant songs in a hybrid of folk, Indian music, psychedelic rock and cosmic musics, all fused together to form a delicate spacious folk-fusion of great beauty. The later incarnation made a different type of music, and was less of a proper band and more a vehicle for Bursch's own ego, though Willi Kismer from the original band also carried on through. Peter Bursch had become celebrated, with books published on his guitar techniques and was eager to show the world, though really neither of these later albums amounted to much.
A really eccentric and bizarre political theatre troupe from we presume Hamburg. Bullfrog were a rather heavy-handed hard-rock and melodic progressive from the mid's, notable for their unusual Rod Stewart like gravel-voiced vocalist Gerd Hoch, but with little in the way of a distinctive style or originality. Really, they sounded British, not at all Krautrock, and only really of interest to hard-rock fans and Sky Records collectors! There was another band could Bullfrog who should not be confused with these.
Originally, as a bass guitarist, Michael Bundt started his career as the leader of the band Medusa, an obscure early's progressive who by a strange chain of events transmuted into the second incarnation of Nine Days Wonder. After leaving Nine Days Wonder, Michael tried on various occasions to get a new band together. One of these was Nerve, but without any success Nerve soon disbanded, and then Michael made a surprising career change into synth music, teaming up with ex-Tritonus keyboardist Peter K.
Seiler as the duo Sirius. Not content to stay still, his next album NEON was a dodgy diversion into electro-pop, no doubt inspired by the success of Kraftwerk. One of the most celebrated and influential of all Krautrock bands, Can dared to bring the avant-garde to the masses and succeeded. Can certainly had the credentials to do so too, with backgrounds in serious avant-garde studying with Stockhausen and in jazz.
Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt had known each other from their contemporary studies, though it was Holger meeting multi-instrumental talent Michael Karoli that set the formation of the band in motion. Being connected with the arts certainly had its advantages. A matter of days after getting a band together, then named "The Inner Space", they played their first concert at the Schloss Norvenich, near Cologne in June David Johnson an American jazz winds player who had also worked with Stockhausen was a member of the band at this time, and featured on some of the early Can sessions, he also acted as their engineer for a while.
After the addition of black American singer Malcolm Mooney came Can proper, moving to a more straight ahead rock, that many compare to the Velvet Underground. Due to his fascination with electronics as further evidenced on the Technical Space Composers Crew album and his ability to handle the recording equipment, Holger Czukay also became the bands recording engineer. But, this phase of Can was short-lived, as Malcolm Mooney was forced to leave the band due to ill health.
The next lead vocalist to front Can was an unlikely choice, a Japanese busker, one Kenji "Damo" Suzuki. His penchant for vocal experimentation led Can in a very different direction. Next was the greatest of Can albums, the monumental double album TAGO MAGO, which, although starting on safe ground, draws the listener in with a succession of even greater weirdness and invention, not least "Aumgn" with Jaki's manic drums and "Peking O.
Weird and radical innovation, that still sounds bizarre twenty odd years on! In contrast in fact in contrast with each other the other two albums to feature Damo were, on the whole, less extreme: This is the era that brought Can international success, with many tours in Britain and the continent. After Damo's departure, the famous four continued to forge on sometimes with a featured vocalist in concert: Here we can hear songs that hint at Holger Czukay's solo project MOVIES, one of Can's most dazzling rock extravaganza's in "Vernal Equinox", and lastly their most esoteric and brooding opus, the aptly entitled free-form avant-garde "Unfinished".
However, by the time of their eponymous 70's finale they'd created a formula that worked, all be it safe and easy going compared to the Can of yore. It's a shame that more of this excellent music isn't officially documented. After this, Can were put on ice for an unspecified period. But, not content to lay the ghost to rest however, a Can reunion was organised in with Malcolm Mooney. In it gained release as RITE TIME, a stylish yet emotionless throwback to the early Can era, understandably it was really "the wrong time" and it made little impact.
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Meanwhile the various Can members are still active on the scene, check elsewhere in this book! On the basis of their ROCK OFFERS contribution the only recording that we've heard , these were a typically Teutonic lightweight but majestic progressive, akin to Rousseau or Jane at their softest, a little Pink Floyd-like, with much use of keyboards to flesh-out the sound. An obscure heavy Swiss progressive blending British 60's styles with the typically Teutonic 70's hard-rock sound, notably inspired by Deep Purple, along with some more progressive touches.
Amateurishly produced, and with little in the way of originality, Cardeilhac are good, but really only of minor interest. A very English sounding folk-rock band, and largely acoustic, fronted by a talented female vocalist. They had little individual style of their own, recalling the likes of Pentangle or Mellow Candle, with a nice dreamy trippy feel.
Often akin to later Release Music Orchestra, and with some notable Return To Forever type stylisms, Chameleon chose an apt name considering the wide range of influences and moods their sole album contained. Note that the Berlin Chameleon are a different band entirely. Checkpoint Charlie named after the notorious checkpoint in the Berlin Wall have often been acclaimed as the first truly German rock band. They originated from Karlsruhe, and, as early as , they were performing their own uniquely groundbreaking "Terror Rock" music in German!
An extremely radical political rock band, especially so in their early days, Checkpoint Charlie were also innovators along with Floh De Cologne and Ton Steine Scherben of a unique German form of rock, blending all sorts of music into a complex and often aggressive rock music.
Their debut was very extreme, and very difficult to come to grips with, yet later albums saw more refinement instrumentally, with complex progressive rock styles akin to Oktober, Lokomotive Kreuzberg, et al. Throughout, even into the 80's, Checkpoint Charlie have proven to be amongst the most uncompromising of Krautrock bands.
These were amongst the most dismissably mainstream of "progressive" rock bands from Munich, typical of the mid's I suppose, with a light progressive edge, in the Audience cum Wishbone Ash type of vein. Andy Marx was previously with the similar but more folky styled Tanned Leather.
Their debut is only of marginal interest, having some enjoyable moments. We haven't heard the second! Take note of the interesting cast of guests on both of these. These were an obscure heavy progressive, who almost certainly had their roots in the late's, and were definitely inspired by Jimi Hendrix and early British bands, like Back Sabbath, Tractor, et al. Despite the title of their album, Chicken Bones were not at all mundane hard rock, but were highly creative and often moved very close to May Blitz, early UFO or Cargo, but with lots of nice moves and flowery guitar work-outs.
Basic, and gutsy admittedly, Chicken Bones were a lot better than the reputation that preceded them, and their album became quite a sought after obscurity. Chicken Bones existed in various forms for around a decade, afterwards ending up as the vastly inferior more metal oriented Revanche, then eventually disbanding in the 80's. Choice are ex-Epidaurus, in fact they were virtually the same band, though Choice played a much straighter type of rock music, starting progressive akin to Eloy and Epitaph, but becoming rather bland as the album progresses. Of very little interest really.
More recently they reformed and just to confuse things again as Epidaurus, but this time round with an even blander offering! From Basle, Switzerland, Circus had much success in Europe, with three studio albums and a document of them in concert which we presume to be a bootleg. Formed in , Circus took time to refine and hone their style, a complex rock with jazz and classical angles, and a rather unique instrumentation. Yes, remarkably, Circus played rock music without any electric guitars or keyboards, instead they used processed bass guitar and wind instruments.
Their debut was a promising first step, though it didn't quite reveal their potential, being a mite too lyrical. MOVIN' ON however, has become regarded as their classic, featuring lengthy tracks, with complex arrangements, dynamics, superb instrumentals and unusually crafted songs. Circus, later transmuted into Blue Motion. Marco Cerletti now makes jazz and ethnic fusion, playing the Chapman Stick. Fritz Hauser drums, vibes, percussion , Marco Cerletti bass, pedals, string guitar, vocals , Andreas Grieder flutes, tambourine, alto sax, vocals , Roland Frei lead vocals, acoustic guitar, tenor sax.
In their early days these were a very inventive and unique band. Refining their sound for some five years, it took until to be able to release anything. Their debut originally untitled was an interesting blend of hard-rock and folky sounds, notable for the esoteric violin fronted side-long suite "Am Fenster", of which an edited single version became a surprise hit in both East and West Germany! Avoiding the temptation to be controlled by the state or sell-out, the next album contained even more diverse elements, particularly notable is the lengthy "Bulgarian-Rock" which strangely recalls Guru Guru with its complex guitars and unusual rhythmic structures.
Later, Georgi left the ranks when the rest of the band wanted to follow a more commercial style, and thus the many subsequent albums not listed here lost the originality of his unique compositional style. In essence the later City without Georgi were a different band. Formerly as the trio Kluster see entry elsewhere , after the departure of Conrad Schnitzler, the duo of Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius carried on as Cluster. Actually, much touted as pioneers, Cluster are often quoted as innovators in ambient music, but in reality they were far more wide ranging, and have been important in the shaping all sorts of modern electronic music genres.
As the story goes, only armed with an organ, guitar and some electronic gadgets, Cluster approached Conny Plank with the idea to try and do something different. Both their debut and second albums are remarkable feats for featuring such basic instrumentation, and the results are as much down to the technical wizardry of Conny as Moebius and Roedelius' instrumental talents. What they came up with was highly original, devoid of standard musical structures or melody - atonal, floating, oozing and pulsing masses of processed sound - a dark menacing industrial music.
After an association with Neu! The next three albums all on the Sky label were much more ambient keyboard based music. An earlier session of Brian Eno with Harmonia lead to two of these albums being recorded together with him. Although these latter two are not purely Cluster albums, this was their most commercially successful era. Ever the surprising band, after this Cluster made the very different GROSSES WASSER produced by Peter Baumann which found them on more experimental footing again, with one side of shorter varied synthesizer and guitar based pieces each an island unto itself and the second side "Grosses Wasser" itself, a lengthy suite growing out of silence with atmospheric Florian Fricke like sustained piano tones, via bizarre crackling electronics onto almost tribal-industrial rock percussives.
After this, Cluster split for a while, with Moebius venturing on to other projects, and Roedelius pursuing a solo career. Momentarily, Cluster reappeared on the scene again in , with CURIOSUM, which is one of the most unusual and restrained of their output, whist being totally strange throughout.
Nowadays this is revered as an ambient classic. For such little output, Cobraa's history in fact goes back a long way! They were formed in originally as the beat group Q By the time of their debut single "Ride A Pony" they had changed name to Cobraa avoiding confusion with the Dutch band Q65 and they had moved on considerably, with a hard-edged psychedelic style. This single was their finest moment as the album never really delivered, being a mellow lightweight rock with few progressive touches.
Freidel Ahrens organ, synthesizer, piano, harmonica , Wolfgang Hausmann guitar, vocals , Bernd Kliemt drums, percussion, vocals , Klaus Sebastian vocals, guitar , Rolf Sondermann vocals, bass, flute. Code III were never a proper band, but were an impromptu group created for an album dedicated to showcasing the amazing sound characteristics of the Kunstkopf Artificial Head Recording System. A blend of atmospheric electronics with abstract use of voice and effects, via trippy folk and primeval percussives, onto a space-rock burn-out featuring Klaus Schulze at the drum stool, and returning to weird space music at the end.
It all adds up to a remarkable and unique album. On the more avant-garde end of jazz-rock, Contact Trio were an unusual combo, drawing on the new forms of jazz as developed by Wolfgang Dauner in the 60's and mixing in a bit of spaciness and ethnic flair, akin to Dzyan, Giger. Marron or Eberhard Weber. The live recording from presents them as a much more aggressive fusion combo. Quite an exceptional band, of whom we know little, except that they were discovered by Jochen Petersen.
Despite only releasing one album, Cornucopia a Latin term meaning "Horn of plenty" certainly lived up to their name, as FULL HORN is a wondrous cornucopia of delights, containing a dazzlingly complex rock and fusion, overflowing with invention. From the side-long "Day Of A Daydream Believer" onto the closing "And The Madness" Cornucopia ride from the weird psychedelic, via the absurd, onto raucous rock fusion with an ever-unpredictable surprise with each twist and turn. The very spirit of eccentric Krautrock - a delight! The Cosmic Jokers came into being by the whim of Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, out of impromptu studio sessions made at Dieter Dierks studio during spring , featuring musicians from Ash Ra Tempel and Wallenstein.
No such band as The Cosmic Jokers ever existed, and these recordings were never actually intended for release. They were the results of sketches for new ideas, extracts from wild LSD induced jams and the like. Fortunately for fans of Kosmische Musik, music from these sessions gained release by devious means, and the three albums that resulted are quite extraordinary examples of space-rock, fleshing out the Ash Ra Tempel type sound with dense wedges of keyboards and synthesizers. Here we have the freaky "Galactic Joke" on side 1 with its synthesizer overload and feast of wah-wah guitar, sounding like Ash Ra Tempel crossed with early Hawkwind.
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Rosi and Gille, and has a richer, more complex sound, closer to the earlier Wallenstein instrumentals with lots of Mellotron and heavy rocking passages, as well as the further ventures off into weird cosmic space-rock. In contrast the above two albums had one track per side the third instalment of the series PLANETEN SIT-IN amounts to a patchwork of lots of snippets from various sessions, edited and mixed to flow together, resulting in a disjointed, unpredictable yet fascinating album combining everything from twittering and bubbling electronics through to crazed drums and back to the realms of Ash Ra Tempel and Wallenstein.
It does however feature a novel extract of "Galactic Joke" with over-dubbed vocals courtesy of Rolf and Gille. The Cosmic Jokers' project eventually came to a sticky end, when the musicians realised that Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser was ripping them off. Reluctantly Klaus Schulze took the initiative and prosecuted Kaiser, and amidst much publicity the musicians eventually got the rights back. Naturally, as good taste prevails, and due to demand, CD's of all The Cosmic Jokers' and related releases are now widely available.
A very obscure mid's band who made at least one album under the guidance of Toby Robinson. These were unknown until recently rediscovered. They were a mysterious and lazy relaxed band, generally abstract and moody, often with the accent on Terry Riley styled organ, along with synthesizers and guitars.
Apart from some female German spoken text, the mood often reminds of some such avant-garde cosmic Italian acts like Pierrot Lunaire or Franco Leprino, though it does also bridge the realms from Cluster through to Emtidi, on a more esoteric level. Cravinkel, lead by one Gert Krawinkel, were odd for a German band in the early's, as their sound was often closer to Nordic bands of the era like Culpepper's Orchard, blending in country and folk musics into Anglo-American type rock.
We've heard their first album, which was deadly dull. Whether this is true, we're yet to find out! Formed in late , as The Bourbon Street Paraders, and inspired by the American rock-soul-jazz movement i. A couple of years on, and after numerous personnel changes, but still with a nucleus of original members, a demo tape sent to Metronome gained them a contract. Promptly, they changed name to Creative Rock - a misnomer as their music contained much more jazz!
Not unlike early Emergency, but with a good deal more invention and a powerful lead singer, their debut GORILLA was barely recognisable as German rock, yet despite this it was still rather good, full of complex brass arrangements and a most energetic rhythm section. The last we know of Creative Rock was that in they were touring with an adventurous rock ballet production called "Die Creative Rock-Dekadenz-Show". These, in a sense, were Curt Cress' attempt to front his own version of Passport. The idea was partly a success, partly not. The Curt Cress Clan were most notable for Volker Kreigel's guitar work, and lively keyboards from fellow Passport musician Kristian Schultze, all in a sophisticated and varied jazz-rock.
On the down-side, Ack van Rooyen's flugelhorn was no replacement for Doldinger's superb sax, and Dave King often tries to funk it up too much! The Passport albums released either side of this are infinitely superior. These were one of the earliest of German progressive rock bands formed in , and were the origins of what was to eventually become Grobschnitt.
What they sounded like at the outset, we've no idea, though later they played a kind of acid-space-rock and blues, betwixt early Ash Ra Tempel and The Groundhogs, hinting at the early Grobschnitt sound. Unfortunately, Crew Blues Session never released an album, and their only recorded output two tracks is to be found on Eroc's EROC 3 anthology album, along with other historical recordings from related bands Wutpickel and Grobschnitt.
These were originally an inventive fusion band, typical of the new lighter progressive fusion sound that was proliferating in Germany circa In essence, Cry Freedom mixed a wide range of musics into a style akin to Guru Guru of the era i. The later releases however, were gravely disappointing, being rather lame and uninspired, and saw the more commercial elements of the Cry Freedom sound take over, reducing them to a jazz-funk band of little merit.
Curly Curve originated in Berlin in the late's, as an underground psychedelic rock band, and they existed some four years before recording an album. Reputedly Alex Conti was at one time a member, though no recordings with him exist. By the time of their debut LP, their style had mellowed somewhat as a heavy blues rock, obviously inspired by the late's British scene of John Mayall, Steamhammer, Groundhogs, etc.
Although considered collectable nowadays, their album is admittedly one of the less exciting of the Brain catalogue rarities. Originally, when in his early twenties, circa , Holger Czukay earned the fame of being disqualified from a jazz festival, because the jury couldn't understand his music!
Naturally, being a radical and free thinker, fascinated with new possibilities in music, it was logical that he went on to study composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Cologne WDR studios. There he learned studio techniques, composition and other things. But, ever wanting to try out new ideas in music, he found that Stockhausen's academic approach left him unsatisfied, which lead to him exploring new-music himself on other levels. Holger was an essential part of the Can sound, being more than just a bassist, and he stayed with them until the mid's as both musician and engineer.
His editing techniques, use of sound effects, radio, and tape collage, within Can learnt from those Cologne WDR studio days , constantly added an air of the unexpected to their music. Holger's first solo album took several years to complete. A diligent work combining music with a complex and precisely edited selection of texts from film clips, MOVIES was musically almost like a continuation from the lighter parts of Can's LANDED album, whilst also venturing to new pastures.
Much lauded by the alternative music press, even before its completion, it was heralded as a critical success at the time, and has become a much quoted influence on sampling in music. All this lead to a much more diverse second solo album, not least so because of the cast of musicians involved. But, as a result of this move to more song based material, later albums ventured further into pop parody, a little towards The Flying Lizards or The Residents. As with Irmin Schmidt's later solos, these are very much an acquired taste.
And, even more so, Holger again proved his talent as both musician and engineer, on the two very strange experimental ambient albums made with ex-Japan member David Sylvian - these were a big surprise in that they went back to the realms of CANAXIS though on a much more esoteric and modern footing.
How Much Are They? Da Capo offered a light guitar based bluesy rock, with hints of country and a slightly trippy sound. Not of much interest really, until the second side of their LP, which ventures towards instrumental Quicksilver Messenger Service. Though the album DA CAPO gained the reputation of being a quality collectable rarity in the 80's, the reissue destroyed the myth revealing it as nothing special - at least not to the Krautrock or progressive fan that is!
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Despite general international apathy, Wolfgang Dauner should have been acclaimed as the most innovative force behind modern jazz and jazz-rock in Germany, in parallel to the pioneering work of Miles Davis in America. But no, Wolfgang Dauner never ever got the credit that he was due. Born way back in in Stuttgart, Wolfgang Dauner became an accomplished music student at an early age, he chose piano initially as his favoured instrument, although he was trained as a trumpeter. Working in various jazz bands during the early's Dauner could almost be considered a veteran of the scene before he formed his own band.
Such albums from or earlier should only be approached by real jazz fans. By , however, the psychedelic era had created new possibilities! They were doing to jazz what Faust would in turn do to rock a few years later! The cover notes explain how they had ideas for making the record even more novel, i. Of course, they decided that musical invention was much more important than novelties. Full of surprises, it even included a version of The Beatles' "A Day In The Life" alongside weird jazz, ethnic music, twisted pop and beat music. All these albums proved what an innovator he was.
Dauner's most exciting concept however, was the band Et Cetera check elsewhere in this book who were intentionally marketed as a new Krautrock band. In parallel to Et Cetera Wolfgang continued as a soloist and in sessions with other musicians. His later output has mellowed somewhat, though he's still an important figure on the German jazz and new-music scenes. Inevitably Dauner's stable group of helpers all went on to other projects, Eberhard Weber especially becoming famous, whilst others moved on to bands like Embryo, Exmagma, etc.
It's a shame though that not since the disbandment of Et Cetera has any classic Dauner made it on to record. Inevitably, the daring spirit of the early's was lost and Wolfgang went on to play it safe. An obscure Swiss combo, Deaf were formed by ex-members of Shiver: Pastorini in late , stepping on from Shiver, moving to heavy progressive rock. Unfortunately, Deaf recorded sessions for an album but never got to release anything. Taking blues and psychedelic elements, they had a very loose jamming style when live.
Their only surviving studio recording, based on Ravel's "Bolero", is a fine example of classical rock that blends Teutonic and Italian styles. Later, Mark Storace the singer with Tea and Krokus passed through the band. Conrad flute, vocals , Jelly M. An international Munich based band fronted by Tommy Fortman, Demon Thor produced a rather mainstream rock on the whole, very Anglo-American, and uninspired. Only of minor interest. In charge was Frumpy drummer Carsten Bohn.
It seems that Dennis were never a proper band, and thus their LP was a collection of jams and impromptu encounters, remixed and compiled at a later date. All the musicians in Dennis were also involved in various other bands at the time. Carsten also established the "Voll Bedienung" percussion project along with former Tomorrow's Gift drummer Zabba Lindner.
Various others also worked in Achim Reichel's "AR" series of sessions. All told, it's a little-known classic. An obscure supergroup of sorts, featuring ex-Guru Guru and Night Sun member Bruno Schaab and former Tomorrow's Gift and Novalis member Carlo Karges, and typical with such bands of the mid's, their music covered a wide range of styles. It doesn't seem as though Desperado existed long enough to make a studio album. Their sole LP documented them live in concert, fresh and energetic, and whilst a little patchy notably with a dodgy opening track , it had some astounding moments with excellent musical interplay.
The Desperado sound was the sum of many elements, a blend of British and German rock styles, but was mostly close to that boogie rocking Man style, with touches of Ton Steine Scherben rock 'n' roll spiced psych with German lyrics, and naturally some fiery Guru Guru inspired dual-guitar heavy jams and free-riffing. The Munich musician Georg Deuter was amongst the earliest of multi-instrumental soloists in Germany. Because of his talent for always embracing new musical forms, and especially combining the new and the old, Deuter was always at the pioneering forefront in new musical forms.
He started in rock music, but rock music with a difference that is, in that he created a new genre that fused ethnic musics, atmospherics tapes, sounds, etc. With an instrumentation including guitars, sitar, organ, harmonium, Asian and Oriental percussives, etc. AUM contrasted somewhat, in that much of the rock aspect was dropped, in favour of atmosphere, being a more mysterious collage of shorter pieces, with lots of percussion, sound effects and echo-guitar.
Sometimes akin to Achim Reichel, it had a magical quality, balancing melodic and more experimental musics. Also around this time, Deuter collaborated on the Maschine Nr. Naturally, there was a major change in Deuter's musical attitude, and he was now the creator of spiritual, harmonious, and deep meditational music. Hereon the Deuter of the late's played a softer more richly textured music, increasingly developing a preference for using synthesizers and flute alongside exotic instruments.
Though, more recently his focus has moved to relaxing melodies instead of the musical invention of his 70's work. They were pioneers of the more experimental edge of the Neue Deutsche Welle. Interconnected with the more eccentric Der Plan, D-A-F were the first German new-wave band to get noticed outside their homeland. Admittedly their most experimental album, and more in tune with the era, it was also a mite too schizophrenic.
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Thus, on subsequent albums which are much too crap to be listed here the duo version of D-A-F went on to do trendy Kraftwerk-like techno-electro and vocal music of little merit. Technically these were a British band, who, like Nektar, were established and based in Germany, and also coincidentally were signed up by Bellaphon. On their sole album which featured a German drummer , they played an inventive mixture of hard-rock and folk, in the realms of early Message and Nektar, with a touch of Jethro Tull notably because of the flute. John Hadfield guitars, vocals , Anthony Hadfield bass, vocals , Philip Howard flute, tenor sax, organ, piano, vocals , Ellwood von Siebold drums, percussion.
Very little is known about Dies Irae, except that it is rumoured that Manfred von Bohr started his career with them. They were hardly typical of bands on the Pilz label, with a heavy brand of Krautrock, blending in jazz, blues and psychedelic touches. Mostly they used straight rock structures, with much psychedelic spice, and good songs. All creatively and imaginatively played, and inter-cut with all sorts of surprising twists and turns. Maybe less distinctive than most Krautrock of the era, Dies Irae were nonetheless excellent!
Rainer Gerd Wahlmann harmonica, vocals , Robert J. Schiff bass , Harald H. Thomas guitar, vocals , Andreas F. The spiritual successor to Emergency in a sense, in that Peter Bischof became the front-man of Emergency on their later Brain releases. Also with the final Emergency was former Armaggedon guitarist Frank Diez. Nothing remarkable resulted however! The later releases were not really group albums, but were sessions of IC in-house musicians fronted by Marc Eins. A pioneering and multi-talented musician with a career that has run from MOR pop onto the leading edge of experimental jazz fusion.
Doldinger's history is confused. If you want to know all about his background via trad. His first rock group was Motherhood see entry later , which kind of transmuted into Passport the other Motherhood members split off forming Hallelujah , though also during this period Klaus Doldinger also kept working in jazz under his own name, as witnessed by the first three albums listed below, all which explore different aspects of modern jazz fusion. More recently, as a synthesist, Klaus has also become sought after as a film soundtrack composer, after his success with the soundtracks to "Das Boot" and "The Neverending Story".
There are no doubt numerous others we don't know of. Yet above all, Doldinger is an excellent and uniquely styled saxophonist, best remembered for several excellent albums in the early's with his groundbreaking jazz-rock band Passport, who paralleled the likes of Isotope or Mahavishnu Orchestra.
One of the legendary classics of the German underground. Little or nothing is known of their history, and as to how two Hungarian brothers, a Pole and a German got together. Yet the resultant music this international combo created resulted in some of the most inventive Krautrock. All this is the framework for a dreamy poetic semi-spoken song recanting the lyrics on the cover.
Enigmatic through and through. And, if that weren't enough, it all flows as if a grandiose conceptual opus, one which combines so many disparate elements that it becomes uncategorisable! Baksay percussion, vocals, flute , Reiner Puzalowski guitar, vocals, flute , Hans Georg Stopka organ, guitar, vocals. These were an obscure non-professional band who self-produced one album and then disappeared. Interestingly Dorian Gray can be seen as a very early example of a music that was later to be simplified and commercialised by innumerable female vocal fronted 80's new-wave bands.
But, it must be said, Dorian Gray were odd! They mixed in a lot of heavy guitar rocking and contrasting spacey folk, male and mostly female vocals, all creating a hybrid between the 60's psychedelic trippiness and slightly punky sounds. An interesting album, though hardly worthy of its reputation as a pricey collectable rarity. Out of the ashes of Yatha Sidhra, though quite a long while after, the nucleus of the band: Klaus Fichter vocals, pianos, string ensembles, synthesizer, computer, string guitar, drums, percussion , Rolf Fichter vocals, organ, clavinet, pianos, synthesizers, Mellotron, vibes, flute, mouth organ, guitars, bass.
An extremely obscure early Krautrock band, Drosselbart played a heavy psychedelic rock, with lots of weird touches, heavy wedges of organ and strange songs in German. We'd like to tell you more about them, but very little is known.
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Drawing influences from both American and British 60's styles, they steeped their music with lots of Teutonic strangeness, akin to early Tomorrow's Gift or Eulenspygel. Although admittedly dated, Drosselbart's music is still remarkably volatile and surprising, and is one of the earliest examples of the stranger side of Krautrock psychedelia. A rather straight hard-rock band fronted by a hyperactive and talented guitarist and a rough gravel-voiced vocalist. Admittedly, as a band they were rather unimaginative, and despite a rather promising opening track on their LP and its surreal cover art, Dschinn are one of the poorest from the original Bacillus roster.
Completing the Dschinn discography is the sampler track called "Rock n' Roll Dschinny", which would seem to be for an abandoned single. An obscure 80's Bavarian political-folk band, featuring former Sparifankal members. Their music was very introspective and eclectic and, because of the bizarre nature of the lyrics, very difficult to come to grips with!
It's very strange how some albums gain a reputation, as although Dull Knife could be quite extraordinary, they were also extremely patchy! Why it is so rated in collector's circles is beyond us. You see, Dull Knife didn't seem to know if they wanted to a tripped-out psychedelic blues band, or if they wanted to preach the gospel! Thus, their sole LP was a schizophrenic mish-mash, with some good moments of Hendrixy cum Cream like heaviness. Though, largely, the only reason any of it was at all good was because of the engineering talents of Dieter Dierks.
A surprisingly unknown diversion from Krokodil's drummer, often listed as a Krokodil album. It was in fact a completely different project using the Krokodil name as a selling point. An original drummer, he is joined by fellow Krokodil member: It's a remarkable drum-based opus, embellished by a wide variety of other instruments, with rock and fusion elements, featuring just two lengthy LP side-long instrumental suites.
Highly creative and unique, sitting somewhere between Niagara, Embryo and later Brainticket. It's not at all what one would expect! By the way, the vocals are wordless harmonies only. The guest winds player Jonas C. Terry Stevens bass, piano, percussion, vocals , Jonas C.
Much travelled on the Berlin underground scene since the 60's, Michael "Mickie" Duwe originated as the lead singer with early Agitation Free, joining Ash Ra Tempel, and establishing the supergroup Metropolis. He was not a brilliant vocalist mind you, but over the years he became quite a multi-instrumentalist.
Rumours abounded on the scene of Mickie being imprisoned for smuggling drugs. Though, later he resurfaced as the leader of his own session group project Mickie Duwe's Unicorn, playing an idiosyncratic concoction of rock, pop and psychedelia, with the aid of musicians from Kraan, then IC Records percussionist Michael Shrieve, and fellow ex-Metropolis Manfred Opitz.
Formed in Mannheim in , Dzyan were typically eclectic for a band from Southern Germany. In fact Dzyan were always a hard band to pin down, as each album they released was quite different. All this lead to a weird hotchpotch, punctuated by strange gothic songs and experimentation with electronic effects including some stolen from an obscure French electronic LP by Bruno Menny - yes, directly stolen!
When the band eventually disintegrated, Reinhard Karwatky was the only member remaining. By the time Giger returned, the Dzyan sound had changed considerably, as both Reinhard and Eddy had been experimenting with ethnic musics and a wider range of instruments. Mellotrons, sitar, and the mysterious "Super String" were added. Running from free-jazz through medieval cum raga-rock cf. Third Ear Band and intense rock improvisation it is indeed one of the landmarks in experimental rock.
After Dzyan split, Giger and Marron formed Giger. Reinhard Karwatky also played on the Galactic Explorers album. A huge band with a confused history, Eden drew on a wide range of musics in their complex progressive style, lots of folk references, adapted classical melodies, etc.
Aptly, in tune with their name, Eden were also very much a religious group, as virtually all of their songs use texts taken from the Bible, and amount to Teutonic rock-opera's in a sense. Eden are interconnected with various other bands on the Lord and Pila labels. Probably the best known of 70's Austrian progressive rock bands, surprisingly little is known about their early history. In fact, Eela Craig's first privately issued album is now a sought after rarity, but as to what it is like we've heard only rumours.
ONE NITER, their most symphonic, is a fine example of very high technical quality within the rock idiom that, apart from showing a touch of Pink Floyd influence and some jazzy diversions, is highly original. Harald Zuschrader acoustic guitar, organ, flute, saxes , Gerhard English bass , Heinz Gerstmair guitars, organ , Horst Waber drums, percussion , Hubert Bognermayr electric piano , Will Orthofer vocals, saxes. A short-lived hard-rock band featuring ex-Jane and ex-Rattles musicians as backing to singer Curtis Efendi. Musically bland, and only of historical note. Apparently, after this, the duo have been involved in other projects, and also went on to score theatre works and soundtracks.
One of the great, but little known, wonders of Krautrock, originating from Stuttgart we believe, Eiliff on their two LP's developed a most unique style of powerful rock fusion. Admittedly, Eiliff didn't get off to too good a start, and their debut single is best left forgotten, as although it's not bad for a pop record, it has nothing in common with the Eiliff album style. On their two predominantly instrumental albums, Eiliff destroyed barriers between rock, jazz and established progressive genres, with lengthy intensive compositions that twist and turn with startling complexity, or riff with amazing power and stability.
In their unique concoction songs were rarely used, and only then to counterpoint the instrumentals, and when necessary get over an idea that couldn't be achieved without words. Eiliff just seemed to do everything right. They had the power of Mahavishnu Orchestra, the invention of Guru Guru, the diversity of Out Of Focus, and really they were purely excessive, with diverse elements blended together as only experienced in Krautrock.
We don't know of any albums by Einhorn, but based on their festival recordings, they were typical of the jazz-rock bands on Schneeball, though maybe a might freakier than most. Einhorn had a sound that blended in a wide range of influences, but was uniquely German. One of those obscure lost privately produced relics from the early's, and not surprisingly so with such an odd name! Ejwuusl Wessahqqan existed on the Munich scene for several years before they plucked up the courage to release an album. By the mid's however, there was little chance of a major label record contract, so they decided to produce the record themselves, which was a mixed blessing in that they could do whatever music they liked, but it also meant that the recording quality wasn't up to professional standards.
Elsewhere influences from Embryo can be felt, and because of the raw edge to some of it, there are also hints of industrial music akin to German Oak or early Kraftwerk. Ejwuusl Wessahqqan apparently have a vast archive of tapes, of which two tracks are included as bonus material on the CD reissue. Obviously inspired by Embryo, Missus Beastly, Munju, et al. Unfortunately however, their sole album was too much of a mish-mash, and lacked any real direction or style of its own. One of the longest running of DDR progressives, and because of that they changed completely throughout their history.
Electra were unfortunate to be where they were. Established in the late's, and although quite popular, they were considered too radical to get an album released, instead they spent much of their time as backing band to various pop singers. Eventually they managed to gain permission to release an album in the mid's, but it seems that they were forced to play it safe, and the results were a patchy album that only occasionally hints at how talented a band they were. Like their debut, the third Electra album was also a retrospective, however this showed them on a more radical footing, capturing them as an inventive progressive band.
Originally, the international trio of Toto Blanke, with Dutchman Jasper van't Hof and Finnish Edward Vesala, Electric Circus attempted to take the more progressive elements of Toto and Jasper's former band Association PC, and turn them into a much more purely inventive fusion. The results were surprisingly original, especially so for what could have just been a jazz trio! With extensive use of electronics, combining rock, jazz and synth musics, they created a new genre bridging from the avant-garde through to Heldon-like synth-rock realms.
This era is documented by two very different LP's: This incarnation, originally centred on a more jazz-rock based music, was less radical, and quite derivative, especially in the use of ethnic elements. Really, it's just too plain odd and eccentric for its own good, as a hybrid of German accordion music, bluegrass and jazz, and doesn't relate at all to the earlier Electric Circus albums!
These were one of many impromptu session bands featuring Peter Hesslein of Lucifer's Friend. Who the actual band was is a mystery, as no musician credits are given. We've only come across the debut below, which takes a more commercial twist on the Lucifer's Friend sound, being deliberately derivative of late's heavy rock and psychedelia. Another Lucifer's Friend connected project was Pink Mice. Kaum jemand ist entsetzter als Jillan. Als Ketzer gejagt, flieht Jillan in die Wildnis, um sich dort ein neues Leben aufzubauen. Read more Read less. Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser.
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