What might have been simply seen as an agreeable enough debut album has since become something of a notorious legend because Kraftwerk, or more accurately the core Hütter/Schneider duo at the heart of the band, simply refuses to acknowledge its existence any more. What's clearly missing from Kraftwerk is the predominance of clipped keyboard melodies that later versions of the band would make their own. Instead, Kraftwerk is an exploratory art rock album with psych roots first and foremost, with Conny Plank's brilliant co-production and engineering skills as important as the band performances. Still, Hütter and Schneider play organ and "electric percussion" — Hütter's work on the former can especially be appreciated with the extended opening drone moan of the all-over-the-place "Stratovarius," combined with Schneider's eerie violin work. But it's a different kind of combination and exploration, with the key pop sugar (and vocal work) of later years absent in favor of sudden jump cuts of musique concrète noise and circular jamming as prone to sprawl as it is to tight focus. Having never been given an authorized CD re-release, and long since out of print on vinyl, Kraftwerk only came to wider notice again in 1993 as part of the bootleg series that also resulted in the appearance of the early Neu! albums. The connection is important, given that Neu!'s Klaus Dinger is one of the two drummers; the roots of the motorik trance and tripped-out ambient wash of the later band can clearly be heard throughout. "Ruckzuck," with its repetitive flute mantra from Schneider and the initial groove suddenly turned into a stuttering, nervous freakout, is merely one demonstration, as is the steady rise-and-fall of feedback and flute at the end of "Megaherz." As a smart reference, there's an actual picture of a "kraftwerk" — a power station — in the gatefold art.
Kraftwerk - Kraftwerk I (1971)
Boston Spaceships - Camera Found The Raygun EP (2010)
Featuring the skilled popcraft of Bob Pollard (Guided By Voices), Chris Slusarenko (Guided By Voices), John Moen (The Decemberists) , this four-song offering follows the bands three full-length albums and gives us a new window into what powerful pressure-cooker pop can mean in the modern age.
Taking a page from the Rough Trade catalog, and echoing the sneery bombast of the Fall or mid-period Wire, there's an undercurrent of new wave washing through the catchiness. The stumbling basement/paranoid fantasy world glow of Guided By Voices carries over, as is to be expected from any band Bob Pollard is involved with, but there's something setting these tunes apart from some of the others in the overflowing song suitcases.
While even the most rabid GBV completest would have a hard time sifting through all of the Pollard-related titles that flood out on a regular basis, this EP shines brighter. The songs call to mind the manic energy of earlier Guided By Voices and meld it with an art-rock take on power pop, ending up in a strange place that doesn't give you all the answers the first time around. By the time final track "Aquarian Hovercraft" comes up, mashing "Alien Lanes"-esque song collage with masterfully recorded and constantly shifting instrumentation, one gets the sense of just how hooky, special and legitimately epic these songs are. Best when played loud and on repeat.
All Tomorrow's Parties NY 2010 Recap
My pals Max Burke and Tim Bugbee have put together an excellent 3 part recap for Prefix Mag covering the All Tomorrow's Parties event that occurred over Labor Day weekend in Catskills, NY. You can check it out here
Be sure to also check out Tim's website for some absolutely stunning photography
Howdy
7 months and 10,000 broken promises later this blog is finally back up and running. I know it's probably been frustrating but please understand that other "real life" obligations have kept me from being able to keep up with this blog. I am now in a much more stable situation so you can expect this blog to be updated with the same regularity that it used to be. New podcasts and other surprises will be happening down the road so stay tuned for that as well. Hopefully you all can forgive me for being extra flaky and we can go back to enjoying and sharing some awesome tunes!
Sebadoh - In Tokyo (1994)
The official bootleg In Tokyo documents a surprisingly tight July 1994 show which offers an intriguing mix of favorites ("Rebound," "Soul and Fire," "The Freed Pig"), new material ("Beauty of the Ride" and "On Fire," which appeared two years later on Harmacy), relative obscurities ("Plate o' Hatred," "Sing Something," "Soulmate"), and telling covers (Flipper's "No Tears," Pussy Galore's "Kill Yourself," and Hüsker Dü's "What's Going On").
Outer Spacist - I Don't Care About Love, Baby 7" (2010)
The TV-obsessed, acid-casualty intergalactic Mormons known to all as the Outer Spacist return for another dose of Black Randy-fronting-the Alice Cooper Band bubblegum psychedelic punk. This is a more polished recording than their previous single, but it's clear the band is still turning out punk rock in the vein of Simply Saucer by taking cues from "Before the Golden Age" type pulp sci-fi, soul records from the 60's and citation needed Wikipedia entries on Midwestern turn of the century cults. These 3-songs were taken from the same session as their upcoming LP, which will see release later this year.
The Shadow Ring - Lighthouse (1999)
To enter the world of the Shadow Ring is to enter a surreal anti-world of bizarre song structure. Lighthouse will rank with Trout Mask Replica and Tago Mago as both one of the most avant garde and the most eccentric double LP's of all time. Unlike those two records, Lighthouse features no instrumental pyrotechnics, instead relying on odd sonic combinations, startling lyrics, and a very painterly use of minimal studio technology. Absolutely essential listening if you are interested in modernist stretching of song form with extraordinary results.
Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa 70 - Open & Close (1971)
Another long-thought-lost gem from the Fela Anikulapo Kuti archives, Open & Close was originally released in 1971 and, in the manner of He Miss Road and Fela's London Scene, is a total groove-fest loaded to the gills with raucous horn blowing, ferocious percussion (once again, Tony Allen take a bow), and song lengths over ten minutes. By this point, Fela could do no wrong when it came to recording; Afro-beat dissenters will claim that there is a trance-inducing similarity to much of Fela's '70s recorded output, that the grooves aren't enough to make the songs distinctive enough on their own. That's true of some of his later recordings (like in the mid- to late '80s), but at this point he was still breathing fire and the band was in top form. Perhaps the distinguishing factors of records like Open & Close and some of Fela's other '70s releases are that as much as he liked to ride a groove, he also liked to disrupt it, twist it and turn it, reshape it, only to bring it back to its original shape. There was less of that later in his career.
The Index - S/T (1967)
A haunting psychedelic oddity that's sort of a timewarp meeting place between the Byrds, Dick Dale, Hendrix, and the Velvet Underground. With their raw garage attack and over-the-top enthusiasm for feedback and wah-wah, the Index were very much of their time; with their brooding minimalism and savage, almost experimental electric guitar electronics, they sound oddly contemporary. Highlighted by the greatest cover of "Eight Miles High" ever attempted, and the closing instrumental bash of "Feedback," which is fierce psychedelic guitar distortion pushed to its white-noise limit. Look for the 1984 Voxx reissue, which, although itself hard to find these days, is still much easier to locate than the rarer-than-rare original (only two copies of which are known to exist).
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley's Beach Party (1963)
A blistering live album, especially in genuine mono (the re-channeled stereo is barely passable) -- and quite simply the finest live rock & roll album of its era, cut live by Diddley and band at Myrtle Beach, SC, on July 5 and 6, 1963. From the opening track (erroneously listed as "Memphis" and credited to Chuck Berry as composer) to the final note, this is some of the loudest, raunchiest guitar-based rock & roll ever preserved. It also bears an uncanny resemblance to the sound that the Rolling Stones achieved on their own Got Live If You Want It, which only shows how much the Stones learned from Diddley. Highlights include "Gunslinger," "Hey Bo Diddley," "Road Runner," and "I'm All Right." The sound doesn't necessarily translate ideally to compact disc, but that shouldn't dissuade anyone. Currently out of print but well worth the search.