Category: Germany

Message – From Books And Dreams (1973)

“Originally born as a German-British band, the music of MESSAGE oscillates between a substantial heavy rock and a nice folk rock articulated around a range of keyboards arrangements. Their first album was recorded under the direction of the famous musical engineer Dieter Dierks. The result sounds remarkably as British progressive rock of the moment. Very melodic, with a ravishing and an accomplished lyrical sense of composition. Their following album is as great as the previous one, delivering impressive, extended, mainly instrumental heavy/ space rock tracks which can be compared (in some parts) to NEKTAR’s first effort.”

Camera – Radiate! (2012)

“Camera are a current krautrock outfit, apparently with predilection for performing impromptu shows in public locations, and this is their debut. A 3-piece based in Berlin, Camera are modern-day upholders of the krautrock aesthetic, heavily influenced by both Neu! and Harmonia especially. And in fact, they’ve earned the blessing of their heroes, having played live in collaboration with Michael Rother (Neu!, Harmonia, etc.) and Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia, etc.). This debut recording features eight tracks of live-in-the-studio, semi-improvised, mostly instrumental jams that indeed “radiate” the classic krautrock vibe. Krautrock fans will for sure hear echoes of a lot of the greats: Neu!, Can, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Harmonia, Agitation Free, La Dusseldorf, etc. And anyone into other kraut-loving bands of today, like Circle, Cave, Wooden Shjips, and Hills among ’em, should check this out forthwith.”

Yatha Sidhra – A Meditation Mass (1974)

“The first intention was to create a dreamy musical landscape where the Moog synth, the flute & traditional “percussive” instruments play an important part. Seen as a concept album, “A Meditation Mass” is almost exclusively instrumental. A long suite divided in two themes with two variations for each one. A beautiful and ecstatic musical journey. Their sound oscillates between “pastoral” folk music, spacey rock with the addition of discreet jazzy accents.”

Kollektiv – Live 1973 (2005)

“Our music has a structure which is simpler than it’s used to be in jazz, instead we pay more attention to tones and moods. It’s predominantly improvised music what we’re doing. Even most of the themes and determined parts are originally based on improvisation. We broaden the common range of tone colours by using sometimes a rather strong electronic alienation of guitar, flute or saxophone. According to our experience our music is well appreciated by both jazz and rock fans since each of them can find sufficient elements of their preferred style respectively.”

Sula Bassana – Dark Days (2012)

“Entire record is instrumental… Guitar is really psychedelic and the extended guitar improvisation is just awesome and reminds me a bit of older Bevis Frond, both catchy and psychedelic… Spaced out… Surrealistic Journey is just over 20 minutes long and begins slowly and features Pablo on the drums. It begins with some really spaced out organ playing and guitar that builds up slowly, a bit like Electric Orange… It starts off with a really freaked out guitar and bass before a riff starts to develop. This sounds a lot like the jams that Electric Moon play these days until the mellotron like sound kicks in and totally changes the mood. I love the way this track flows from the heavy to mellotron parts. Damn cool. Bright Nights is another 10min space out that starts with delay guitar, organ and a simple drum beat but develops into a heavy Electric Moon style psychedelic trip.”

Bandcamp

Erna Schmidt – Live 69–71 (2000)

“Erna Schmidt were living near the village of Wintrup in a country house even before it also became the home of Kraan. They were a very popular live band, well-known for their incredibly long improvisations in the Cream and Hendrix vein. Some tracks would last up to three quarters of an hour, for on stage they were usually stoned, jamming away in a frenzy, often together with guest musicians. Some good-quality recordings of these gigs survived and were used for putting together Live ‘69-71.”

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