Most people see Kraftwerk's music as machine music and came to them via "The Robots" or "Showroom Dummies" or if they think they are really cool "Autobahn" (one of the few non English big hit singles in the UK , the only others I can immediately recall are "Ca Plane Pour Moi" by Plastic Bertrand and "La Bamba" by Richie Valens & Los Lobos and incidentally Lou Diamond Phillips who played Richie Valens in the film "La Bamba" is rather excellent in "Prodigal Son" which also feature a brilliant scenery chewing Michael Sheen).
I came across Kraftwerk on a Vertigo sampler "Suck It And See" , with an almost vicious flute driven piece called "Ruckzuck" and it is still one of my favourite Kraftwerk pieces. Of course that was from their debut album and their sound became progressively less organic and more robotic / mechanical (and that is not a criticism , it is just the way they progressed) , to the point where they replaced themselves with robots on stage.
The reason Kraftwerk came to mind was because "Your Silent Face" by New Order (see last post) was based on "Europe Endless" by Kraftwerk the opener from "Trans Europe Express", which I have included her so you can listen to Kraftwerk where I found them and where they are now.
At the weekend was talking about my favourite New Order songs and my top two I thought were "Temptation" and "Love Vigilantes". Fiona pointed me towards the Guardian's Top 30 New Order songs and I checked out "Your Silent Face" from "Power Corruption and Lies" which is absolutely beautiful, so that has joined my other two favourites , it's apparently a homage to Kraftwerk's "Europe Endless" which I will now have to check out.
When I was listening I thought the synth strings were familiar and think they were lifted for "Sunchyme" by Dario G , which also samples "Memory of a Free Festival" the closer from "Space Oddity" by David Bowie.
I am tempted to track down a 12" vinyl copy of "Your Silent Face" but it was not initially a single so that may be a no go (like "Love Vigilantes").
So a very very short post but I will share both songs with you so you can check them out.
Last night I think I shook off the 'flu' , I've lost 9lb but think that this may be muscle wastage rather than losing fat. That may be not too good but means that I am still weak but it has put me in a good position weight wise.
This morning on Classic FM a version of the Christmas Carol came on that sounded like the choir was on speed, and though that "Ah, that's another UK hit single that wasn't in English. The ones I can think of are as follows:
I am sure there are at least two more , which I will add if I remember them, there are others with snippets of non English in them but I am just thinking of the ones with no English lyrics at all. I will leave you with the Steeleye Span take as I am feeling a little queasy, but at least I have done a Christmas Day post. Enjoy your Christmas my friends.
Well it is in my life. The final series of Game of Thrones comes with the Night King bringing Winter and turning the world to Ice. I'm currently revisiting Michael Moorcock's "The Prince With The Silver Hand" in which a "resurrected" Corum battles the Ice and Winter brought by the Fhoi Myore in a freezing Celtic world, and today started off extremely cold before a minor snow storm brought snow to Newcastle. It's still white and there is Ice on the paths.
I don't think I'll be walking to work tomorrow unless there is a major thaw.
This morning in the cold I was listening to Primal Scream's "Dirty Hits" and they are a truly awesome band taking on any style and making it theirs , from Rock and Roll to Gospel to Krautrock to Metal. While "Autobahn 66" has an obvious nod to Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" it's closer in type to Neu!'s Motorik beat, and that is the one I'll share with you tho their catalogue is a veritable cornucopia of brilliance. I particularly love "Kowalski" with it's reference to the film "Vanishing Point", one of my favourites, and I know how they stop him.
I was out tonight and someone had a very bright LED security light above their front door. It's amazing how quickly ubiquitous LED's have become especially at Christmas. I do have two at the rear of my house and they're solar powered so don't have any wiring and are excellent if you have to nip out in the dark but sometimes a bit annoying when the wind gets up.
My whole house is LED lit and it saves a hell of a lot of money. Basically incandescent lights are heaters that give off light, although some LED's now are incredibly bright while not consuming that much power. We have one at the front door that's on permanently and you can touch it with your hand and just feel the cold glass of the bulb.
Again when I was out the streets are brightly lit with Christmas decorative light, you don't need street lights to light your way. Some are lovely and some are tacky but all drive the darkness away.
I'm sharing a live take on one of my favourite Kraftwerk songs "Neon Lights" which sort of encapsulates the feeling although we have LED rather than neon.
It's Friday night so enjoy your weekend, the penultimate one before Christmas.
Yesterday started so warmI couldn't wear any jacket to go to work, resulting in me trying to fit things into not very deep pockets ad hanging thing things round my neck, and finished with an incredible deluge wich you can see a little of here, I always think I'm at the highest part of Newcastle therefore immune to any potential flooding but Lanercost is higher that my house and the West Road runs down to that, so although unlikely to be stuck in a final flood, I'm certainly in it's path.
Last night was another early night as I was absolutely shattered (again). I don't know if it's the weather, or I'm run down, or the left shoulder situation is taking it's toll, or my body is just about to give up the ghost. This Thursday I have a Liver Biopsy so that's a day in hospital courtesy of the NHS, meaning I'm going to miss meeting up with my friend Paul in Whitby / Robin Hood's Bay, and have a couple of days recuperation as the football season starts.
I think August may be difficult for walking as four out of the first five days need to be taken easily and I don't want to risk causing internal bleeding, especially with the ITP that is always lurking.
This morning we have blue skies, the grass on lawns is certainly recovering so at this moment in time things are looking good.
There's just been an Advert on 6Music for Nemone's "Electric Ladyland" supposedly drawing together every type of"electronic" music, I must check this out but expect it will just be disco or rock with synthesisers, citing Kraftwerk as the inventors of electronic music while anyone with any knowledge of music knows that the first fully electronic film soundtrack was "Forbidden Planet" by Louis and Bebe Barron, and electronic music has been produced since a very long time back.
So we'll go with my favourite Kraftwerk piece, "Ruczuk", though from this live version you can see where "Autobahn" came from.
I think my first exposure to Amon Duul II was hearing "Race From Here To Your Ears" on a UA compilation, "All Good Clean Fun". There was a lot of good stuff on there such as Man's "Daughter of The Fireplace" but this album made me want to hear the albums that the individual songs had come from and hearing "Race From Here To Your Ears" (Part of "Restless Skylight Transistor Child" that made up side two of th eoriginal albumthen seeing the cover of "Dance of the Lemmings" (or "Tanz Der Lemminge" which I think is the correct German original title)
The album also drew me into what was loosely termed Krautrock but also made me realisethat music could sound much different to our normal western blues and rock and roll concept of rock. From this I went on to Tangerine Dream, Can, Kraftwerk and Faust as well as other less well known bands and all these now how a place in my music collection.
These days people equate German Music with Kraftwerk, and while not wanting to diminish their importance there is far more to German rock and progressive music than them, but they deserve their success and recognition.
So with that I will look out on the very light night sky of the longest day.
Well I actually did get a lot done today. I have maintained the step level visiting Newcastle Central STation among other things and am getting the hang of Wordpress , though not as quickly as I'd like. I managed abouth fifteen minutes of "I Frankestein" but it was like everyone was reading from an autocue and while the CGI was excellent the story was so threadbare that I hit the delete button. There is too much good stuff to watch to waste time with things like that.
The new Song of The Salesman site is here but there's another weeks work to do. I want video embedded on the pages just to make things easier for people,
Anyway I am home now and listening to The FLK (yes that's right) , it is an interesting folk / techno / sample mix, an album so rare it's not even on Amazon so god knows how much it's worth, though it's going from £23 on Discogs whis seems to have replaces GEMM as the global record marketplace.
It's not often that you can't find stuff on Amazon.
Anyway the two albums that I have been listening to today are:
Airhead - Boing: Second division Britpop (in sales not quality) akin to another of my favourites , The Milltown Brothers, I think they went under the name Jefferson Airhead in the USA, but I this was their only album. "Funny How" was a brilliant single and it sounds as good today as it did then. They were on the excellent Korova label, just look it up and see how good company they were keeping.
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City:Almost a modern equivalent of AIrhead although Jit (African) influenced power pop, some amazing songs and a great follow up to their second album.
Anyway I am now listening to my favourite Kraftwerk song "Ruckzuck" but willshare a Vampire Weekend song for your delectation.
It's raining, but the sun is now out. Didn't get to see the Deputies last because I was too shattered and it was pouring down, so being a bit soft I decided to stay in. I slept ok but had a dream with included aggressive carnivorous zombies , story telling sessions , people outside the window in ambiguous black uniforms and Robert Redford being very ill in bed, analyze that ! I've forgotten most of it but some interesting images in there.
Anyway, again I feel good although the wound site is looking very bruised, but I've taken the plaster off. I could post a picture but I doubt anyone want's to see my exposed flesh.
TDF Wass
There seems to be a lot about the Tour De France starting in Yorkshire, which is great for the area but it does make the Tour of Yorkshire and France and they have the English Channel in between. The benefits are that people can see how lovely Yorkshire is, I'll be holidaying there again in October in Ampleforth, and noticed a few Tour De France displays while I was there a month or so back.
So I hope you all have good things happening this weekend , I hope the weathers good, and lots of fun and good stuff comes your way.
Almost a newspaper headline. First heard of Donna Summer when her record "Love To Love You Baby" was banned by the BBC . I was into metal and electronics like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk , so was totally knocked out when I heard "I Feel Love" . It was disco , but it was electronic , driven by Giorgio Moroder's almost Motorik , relentless synthesiser.
Almost everyone loved this record , my dad loved it , my mum loved it , the most metal of metalheads loved it . Great music , a gorgeous body , Donna Summer went on to make loads of great records although apart from "Loves Unkind", "I Feel Love" and "State of Independence" I wasnt to enamoured by the rest of her output. I believe the original version of "I Feel Love" stretched out to 17 minutes. How good is that.
Moroder continued ploughing his electronic furrow , notably with "From Here To Eternity" , "Together in Electric Dreams" and "Never Ending Story" . A sad day but we will be hearing "I Feel Love" a lot on the radio.........
Am quite impressed with Grooveshark , not sure how exactly it works , but thought I would try this playlist I put together in "Crimbo Limbo". Hope you enjoy it , I certainly do!
Just picked up this months Mojo and was surprised to learn two new facts.
Firstly Marilyn Manson is a fan of Gregg's Pasties !! The purported quote is "What's that place in England , Greggs. They make the best pasties" . Don't know if they get pastie in America , can you imagine Greggs getting Marilyn to advertise . Though the natural projection is Homer Simpson - "Mmmmm Pasties".
The second is that Giorgio Moroder is Italian!! Always assumed he was German with a surname like that, and the fact that he worked out of Munich and was far more influential than the oft namechecked Kraftwerk in the spread of electronic pop music. How influential was Donna Summer's "I Feel Love":
At the end of the sixties many bands had dabbled with non standard music, such as the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd who were not averse to producing extended soundscapes based on the actual sounds rather than standard song progressions.
Tracks like “Echoes” and “A Saucerful of Secrets” by the Floyd and “Dark Star” by the Dead were prime examples of this.
For one reason or another, this seemed to sow the seeds of musical revolution, in, of all places Germany, resulting a plethora of superb, totally original music which took elements from certain western bands a stretched them way beyond anything that had been heard before, bar maybe Jimi Hendrix. The generic term for this became, and now I’m going to use it, was “Krautrock”. The term became one of endearment and respect as some of the effects of the music produced is still with us today.
That is also the title of an excellent Julian Cope reference book on the subject, which is worth tracking down if you would like to know more.
Anyway what I’m going to do is list, in no particular order some of the most influential and interesting bands in the genre , and albums worth listening to…..as well as an essential single album for each band listed
Formed in 1968 in Munich from the Amon Düül commune, released their first album “Phallus Dei” in 1969 on Liberty records. Essentially guitar based using unusual, but accessible chord changes , featuring both standard rock formats such as “Archangels Thunderbird” from “Yeti”, and extended improvisational sound collages such as “Syntelmans March of The Roaring Seventies” from “Dance of The Lemmings”. However their next two albums (“Carnival In Babylon” and “Wolf City”) featured shorter pieces possibly in search of a wider audiences. Such innovation could not last an “Vive La Trance” saw the band drift into standard westernised bland rock. I believe they are still around today, but all the albums mentioned above are essential listening bar “the first and last ones.
Formed in Berlin 1967 by art student Edgar Froese who got the name from the lyrics of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. Froese was invited to play some classical improvisations by Salvador Dali at his Spanish Villa, Froese went through numerous musicians before teaming up with Klause Schulze, who worked on the bands debut “Electronic Meditation” released in 1969 on the Ohr label, home of many excellent German bands.. This was followed up by “Atem” , “Zeit” and “Alpha Centauri” the music being gothic, challenging and rhythmic. Through much airplay on John Peel’s show the band signed to Virgin and released their commercial breakthrough “Phaedra” featuring three pieces of music , produced entirely by electronic instruments (remember this was the seventies). Their music became more and more hypnotic and rhythmic, these avenues explored on “Rubycon”. However as with Amon Düül II, Tangerine Dream’s music drifted off into MOR vacuity. All albums listed are worth listening to.
Probably the most influential of all the German bands from this era, namechecked by anybody who is anybody on the dance and ambient scene. Formed in 1968 in Cologne , originally as “Inner Space” by Holger Czukay and Irmin Scmidt, who soon recruited bassist Jaki Leibezeit and guitarist Michael Karoli, all of whom , I believe are still active, individually and collectively today. Can are extremely rhythmic based music, influenced originally by the likes of the Velvet Underground, Terry Riley. Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage. Their first album “Monster Movie” featured black American singer Malcolm Mooney on vocals, featuring total improvisation such as the 20 minute “You Doo Right”. After this album Mooney suffered a breakdown and was replaced by Damo Suzuki for their next album “Soundtracks”. These line produced three superb albums “Tago Mago”, “Ege Bamyasi” and “Future Days”, before Suzuki went back to Japan to become a Jehovahs witness. Karoli and Schmidt took over vocal duties and released “Soon Over Babbaluma” in 1974. In 1976 they even scored a top 30 British single with “I Want More”, and continued to release albums up til 1989’s “Rite Time” which lacked their earlier inspiration. In 1997 a double CD compilation of dance remixes called “Sacrilege” was issued on the bands Spoon label.
Formed in Dusseldorf 1969 by Ralf Hutter and Florian Scneider as Organisation, their music has come to reflect their industrial background although on their first album “Ralf and Florian” they used traditional musical instruments (as exemplified by the flute led “Ruczuck”). Their commercial an influential breakthrough when they ditched traditional instruments, for the all electronic “Autobahn” the 22 minute title track being edited down to three minutes to spawn a hit single.
Kraftwerk have been a huge influence on dance music and the electronic scene produce several almost mechanical an soulless yet fascinating albums such as “Radioactivity”, “Trans Europe Express” and “Computer World”. There is also an excellent remix album called “The Mix”.
Formed in Hamburg 1970 by producer Uwe Nettlebeck, probably the most avant garde and least accessible of the bands
’ve mentioned. Their eponymous first album featured samples of Rolling Stones and Beatles songs on a clear vinyl album in a clear plastic sleeve featuring an X-Ray of a human hand. Their third album “The Faust Tapes” was a collage of sound cuttings featuring some beautiful music, and is highly recommended.
While I’ve only scratched the surface of this excellent musical genre and not delved into the likes of “Popol Vuh”, “Ash Ra Tempel” and probably a million others, hopefully this piece has whetted your appetite to at least investigate some of the most startling and innovative music ever made
