Wir sind auf Deutchland abgefahren 'cos...SAUERKRAUT'S ROCK!!!

Hi there "Pop Pickers"! So you want some Krautrock now, huh? Not since the late seventies to early eighties has it been so fashionable to dip your toe here. I suppose it was inevitable though with one side of Western culture (America) championing the guitar and the other (Europe) samples and electronica, the place they would both meet was going to be here where minimalism took on excess and gave it a good kicking before punk killed it off.

One moment though, first off let me tell you a story. Around the time of the last issue, Henry tells me that he dislikes record reviews and as such, no more shall appear in his tome. I, however, want some REVIEWS!! [okay, so I had a change of heart, sue me!-ed.] I guess that there's quite a few of you out there who feel the same as me so via the back door he's going to get some fat to go along with his lean. Uncle Jezz is going to help guide you, the helpless and needy with some reviews and comment on the wonderful world of "Krautrock & Kosmische Musik auf Deutschland," when untethered expertimentation met its S&M mistress and had a few revered children on the way. So if he wants this article there ain't nothing he can do about it!! Zieg Heil!!

Achtung! Let's roll. A precis on the rise of the New Kosmische Musik. LSD breaks out of it's CIA safe house mind control experiments into their garages and the kids of North America Punk up while wigging out. Fashion spreads across the ocean colliding with the beat scene and pop music explosion in the UK. A Hippy, Punk, Mod, Rocker, Sex, Drugs, VietPopMelt spawning "Psychedelia," most of Europe simply watched and waited for it to go away, to them music was art or 50's chic, the Germans however had an edge. To them not only was it art, but experiment driven by Karl Heinz Stockhausen and his protogees. It was politically militant squeezed between The Eastern Bloc and Western culture and it had a catalyst in the form of Allied forces in permanent residence, the result was a Psychedelic Timebomb. A Psychedelic Timebomb set to go off sometime after the US/UK axis had left it all behind to start rock music careers in the dull confines of FM, AOR, HM Stadium Rock, (God bless Punk and all who sailed with her in '76). A Psychedelic Timebomb that had a potential market large enough to sustain it without having to cross its borders. A Psychedelic Timebomb that would give a "Youth" the ability to vent its spleen on its father's past and create an identity in the face of an Anglo-American pop culture onslaught............ Jetz the Donner und Blitzen! Mmmmmm!

Or was it Donner Und Blitzen? Sadly not!! This Psychedelic Timebomb had an Albatross that hung around it's neck so tightly that it was eventually asphyxiated by it. The Albatross was called "Progressive Rock"! Sheeeeeet! Prog Rock was dull dull dull and don't let anybody try and persuade you otherwise. A time when musos tried to wrestle back control from pop wizards and acid casualties, when A & R men wanted album sales and not the sublime 7". A time of the strangulation of musical creativity that finally produced Punk as the the Hippy's revenge. Consequently, 95% of all Krautrock and supposedly Kosmische Musik is unadulterated shite!!!! However, it is that 5% that we are interested in. If only Prog Rock had followed the path of the 5%, then Can, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Faust and Neu would have been a generation's guiding light instead of Yes, Genesis and E.L.P. In other words Boys and Girls, beware the one who only sells CD's and tells you that vinyl's dead for he definitely speaks with forked tongue!

Of Die Schalspielplatten and the labels, Ohr, Pilz, Brain, Kosmische Musik, which ones are recommended and which ones aren't? The bands. Where do we start? Germany is a large geographical area, local scenes developed in isolation with little camaraderie towards each other yet exploded together. Cross fertilization only seemed to take place within those scenes. So initially, let's fahr fahr fahr auf die Autobahn nach Munchen and we'll start with Amon Düül, and not Amon Düül II who split from their Munich commune in 1968.

AMON DÜÜL I & II
Now I've heard Disaster (BASF DLP 1969) and Collapsing (Metronome 1970) culled from their 1969 Psychedelic Underground (Metronome 1969) sessions a couple of times, but frankly after a while they start to grate. There's little form, just massive freak out albums that I would personally align with the Hapsash & the Coloured Coat LP that supposedly acted as a catalyst for the whole scene. Now skip along to 1971 and Paradieswarts Düül (Ohr 1971) and you have a whole different ball game. I just love the single coil pick-up guitar sound epitomized in Fender Guitars. I piss myself when I hear them played like bells chiming and I'm a sucker for cyclic repetitive playing of any instrument especially guitar and drums. Blissed out states of mind usually ensue. Well, what do you think you get here my friends? The whole forking shooting match no less, and all in the initial moments of the opening track of "Love is Peace." I'm in seventh heaven throughout all its glorious 17 minutes. "Snow Your Thirst And Sun Your Open Mouth" follows in a somewhat somber VU mood before it's back to the cyclic flow of "Paramechanische Welt." Grab yourself a copy of the CD reissue and get their impossible to find 7" of "Paramechanical World/ Eternal Flow" included which, for me, is one of the lost Kosmische treasures. Cyclic, drifting, chiming, it's all there, bloody marvellous Pop Pickers. Kosmische Krautrock Top 20 no worries!!

Amon DüüL II explode into our minds with the wonderful Phallus Dei (Liberty 1969). West Coast influences abound, especially in "Den Guten Schonen Wahren," alongside droning violin creating the trance-like eastern feel of "Kanaan" that's stomped all over by the teutonic, don't-mess-with-us vocals in "Lucifers Ghilom." It's this use of Deutsch that gives the Krautrock Kosmische Bands an edge, an extra dimension in the ears of English speaking fans that their US/UK contemparies couldn't match. In fact, as a general rule approach English singing Krautrock bands with a great deal of skepticism, the majority of them end up in that 95% of Krautrock is Prog Rock bag. Back to "God's Cock" for that is its English translation.

After the psychedelic feel of side one with its bizzare, not quite song like structures, it's off on the almighty moodfreak of the title track "Phallus Dei" and IT IS WONDERFUL! Jeez, I hear Beefheartian fiddle, acidic belltone guitars, rallying cries from the Munich communes, clanging of industrial percussion, and Wagnerian choral work. A true Kosmische Krautrock Top 20 classic. After this, we were sent Yeti (Liberty DLP 1970) and this starts a descent into Prog Rock territory, but don't let that detract you from getting into and enjoying this album. The first LP has its moments of shear Kosmische brilliance. In particular, "Cerberus" with its dueling acoustic guitars driven along by "Shrats" tablas which eventually metamorphosize into fuzzed out electric riffmaschinen and the guitar solo in the middle of "Eye Shaking King" that slides in as a real headphone treat after the off key teutonic devil voice has scared you shitless. The real treat, however, is yet to come. Unsurprisingly, it comes in the form of an improvisation that eventually rolls in with pounding floor toms, driving bass and screeching acid-fuzz guitar and we're off on another freeform trip called "Yeti." It has to be heard to be believed in the Kosmische Church that wears lots of its West Coast hearts on its sleeve while chewing it up and spitting out on the other side of the Cosmos as "Yeti Talks To Yogi" in a place many bands said by design they would go, but I point my finger in the direction of Detroit.

Dance of the Lemmings (Liberty 1971) that followed continued the descent started in the first part of "Yeti" full of stop start pompous rock structures, drawn out pieces that never get underway and never gel, over arranged misconceptions rather closer to Dave Gilmour's Floyd with some jazz masquerading as freedom. In a word, it's crap! Carnival in Babylon (United Artists 1972) that followed wasn't much better. More open, relaxed and folky than its predecessor, but still Prog Rock without a shadow of a doubt.

Now if a band had produced two crap albums on the trot, you would have probably have given up on them and just cherish the Kosmische moments that they had left behind. But hold on there my little Kosmische Kouriers. There's one treat left in store called Wolf City (United Artists 1972). Opening with a song so bloody brilliant with Renate Knaup-Krotenschwanz at her vocal best, "Surrounded by the Stars" consistently gives me that hair standing on end all over body experience. You just know something is good for you, Sex, Drugs or Rock and Roll and you know that this is Kosmische Rock and Roll par excellence!! It ebbs and flows taking you along with it all the way on the back of the up-front bass. Just as you think it's gone "blam!" and your hairs are off again, you don't come down until the end of "Jailhouse Frog"!!!. At this point, we are suddenly treated to those chiming guitars again that we've not really heard played the same repetitive way since Paradieswarts Düül and "Green Bubble Raincoated Man" is out of the blocks with vocals that have a David Bowie/Brian Ferry/Steve Harley feel to them that are cool smooth and lazy. Side two continues the Kosmische song structures with "Wolf City" before slipping into the Neu!-like ragga of "Wie der Wind am ende einer Strasse," then it goes ubermensch on us with the guttural Fuhrer style vocals through "Deutsch Nepal," still humming, still singing Amon Düül II style. If ever a Krautrock Kosmische band could lay claim to a Greatest Hits LP then this could be it. Only Can would have anything to say about that.

That's it on the Amon Düül I & II front. Paradieswarts Düül, Phallus Dei, Yeti and Wolf City the rest are nowhere in the Kosmische stakes with the exception of one item. If you ever buy an LP for its sleeve then Amon Düül II: Live in London (United Artists 1974) and its Mars Attack Stormtrooper ripping up the London Post Office Tower is one for the clip-frame.

So while Amon Düül were setting the pace in Munich, what else was brewing away? In Dusseldorf, The Organisation, later to be known as Kraftwerk were developing their "Kling Klang." In Berlin, Tangerine Dream were laying the foundations for "The Great Rush to the Kosmische Musik." And in Cologne, the heaviest, funkiest, most cyclic repetitive minimalists were sowing their seeds in readiness to influence musicians for the next three decades and probably beyond...

CAN
Can. Most powerful. Most timeless. Most sexy. Most ethereal and funky as f*ck! Although just like Julian Cope, I have to admit that Ege Bamyasi (United Artists 1972) was the first Can LP that I bought and is undoubtedly my favourite. An album of Kosmische Pop Musik throughout. It all started with Monster Movie (Private Press 1969) a Kosmische Funkmonster of an album. Karoli takes the Albert Lee rhythm work of Loves' first LP to the stars while Liebezeit and Czukay pin everything down. Schmidt points his Organlaser at the Milky Way while Mooney careers all over the place sketching here and there in his own linear wanderspeak. Off the first side, my personal fave is "Mary Mary, So Contrary" a true Kosmische Pop Hit. When you think it's about to finish that solo is one of the all time greats. So flowing yet concise before disappearing out of the Universe onto "Outside My Door" from whence the line "Any Colour is Bad" comes from. This was the rule that they seemed to live by for the first four albums, and were able to revisit with the release of Delay '68 (Spoon 1981), but back to Monster Movie. You want cyclic, monotone, minimal funk mantra then look no further than "Yoo Doo Right." Definitely recorded live at Schloss Norvenich, it's improvised but still as tight as Ike was with Tina. Fifteen minutes in, Czukay and Liebezeit underpin the thing to the hilt, Karoli gets all funky spiky and I bet James Brown wishes he'd done time there. F*ckin' A! The close of this LP saw the end of Mooney's involvement with Can until 1988 with the reformed Monster Movie line-up and the end of Chapter One in their history. Chapter Two was to be just as spectacular.

As legend has it, four months after Malcolm Mooney departs, Damo Suzuki joins after being found busking in Cologne. The initial result is seen in Soundtracks (Liberty 1970) consisting of real headmovie soundtracks for films by Roland Klick, Leonidas Capitanos, Roger Fritz, Jercy Skolimovsky and Thomas Schamoni. Can always claimed this was not "The Can Album #2" probably because we get two tracks featuring Malcolm Mooney recorded in '69, and in their own opinion unrepresentative of what they were then doing with Suzuki. The Mooney pieces are on the edge straight from Monster Movie while Suzuki is much more drifting, melodic, ethereal as heard on "Tango Whiskeyman." A chartbound sound! Even when the band gets absolutely shit-faced acidic, the guitar solos in "Mother Sky" coupled with those thunderous cyclic drums, allows Suzuki to sing while we trance out held there by minimal funky bass. Listen and learn.

The official second album, Tago Mago (United Artists DLP 1971), was finally unleashed and it starts with one of the greatest first sides of any sprawling double album ever. "Paperhouse" kicks off the proceedings with a lilting melody of guitars, keyboards and voice for us all to float along with before Karoli is allowed to take off in euro-acidic fashion above the pulsing, chugging, engine like rhythm. Bells go off in your head, the engine is brought to a halt and we get a sample of Czukay's quite exquisite editing skill into the funkiest, most laid back single repeat shuffle you've ever heard that the Meters never played. Suzuki becomes Mooney for four minutes in "Mushroom" before it rudely ends in a cloud of fallout to segue into "Oh Yeah" and Damos' backwards vocals. The second coda has the vocals apparently running in the right direction but in what tongue? Japanese? Whatever. It's smoothly done at what Czukay was going to be the supreme master of, the tapedeck and the mixing desk. Side two is one eighteen minute track of Liebezeit funky steamtrain blitzkrieg and Czukay editing skills. It's a little over halfway before "Hallelujah" starts to get remotely Kosmische when Karoli breaks away from funky chops to West Coast acid, rolling into interstellar Schmidt, a bit of a chill-out zone after that ripping first side. Drift along with the drums to enjoy. The third side is a Czukay collage that never works for me titled "Augmn." The undisputed highlight is the barking dog sample long before samples became fashionable and doubtless the track that became an overwhelming influence on This Heat when studio bound in "Cold Storage." Just sat NO to the second and third sides and leap straight into the fourth and final side. "Peking O" is mostly Suzuki and Schmidt wigging out and severely edited down into some vocal nightmare with weird and cheesy casio keyboard style rhythms before "Bring me Coffee or Tea" pulls the album back together again. Starting folky with high end tabla style bass, this floats until Liebezeits' toms move towards cyclic mode and Damo takes off and is then mixed out to leave these mighty drums driving an acid-folk implosion. For many, this is the finest Can LP, my serving suggestion is to practice Czukay's editing skills by recording the first and fourth sides onto one half of a C90. The purists will probably call this sacrilege, I say sod it. There's stacks more to listen to, and what's more, the next port of call is Ege Bamyasi (United Artists 1972).

Thus we are greeted as we slide the inner bag from the "Can" of Okra and your most Kosmische Pop Reise begins. After the hours I have spent contemplating this is unknown, time is a conception that ceases to exist when listening to this album. "Pinch" is the sexy percussive opener, pure Sly funk over drone keyboards while Suzuki licks your lobes. The percussive funky nature of the track I always reckoned to be a massive influence on what 23 Skidoo attempted to do in 1979/80. It's funny though, I can never tell a word of what is being sung until "Pinch" is spoken at its very precipitous conclusion and then there's running water. Yeah, years before ambient new agers started taping mountain streams to help themselves relax, Can had gone all liquid with the beginning of "Sing Swan Song." The melodies just float in the middle of a mist-laden atmosphere created by Schmidt's keyboards and Czukay's three note bass. Wonderful! The Meters circa Rejuvenation rhythms return of for "One More Night." What's more, it's a sexy Saturday night seduction groove with guitar harmonics that build and build towards its severe edit of a conclusion. I often wonder just how long this groove went on for, but "Vitamin C" kicks off the second side and prompts another question: If Damo Suzuki could sing this sweetly, how come every other Japanese singer I've ever heard sounds like Akira Mind Blast or Bubblegum Sweet? Fill me in Japan, what is his legacy back home? I digress, n ée I don't as "Soup" languidly slides into earshot only to start strutting around with hands on hips. This seems to be their take on the Stones before colliding with the tape splice into the aforementioned mind blast collage territory just as you thought they were going all soft on you. Then it's back to the Kosmische Pop as the album closes with "I'm So Green" and their greatest hit "Spoon." Yup pop pickers, "Spoon" originally written as the main theme of a TV series, was released as a single in Germany during December 1971 sold 200,000+ copies and went to number one with a bullet! An acid folk cha-cha-cha of a song full of melody, but still after two decades of listening to it, the only discernable words to my ears are "afternoon," "spoon," "fork," "knife" and "alive." Is "Spoon" a song about cutlery? Bollocks! An unadulterated Kosmische Krautrock Gem!

What always strikes me most about this album is it's keyboard driven, all relaxed atmosphere, melody and funky shuffling drumming with a complete absence of those acidic guitars that I am so fond of!! Yet it is without doubt their finest and my favourite. Guess I'm just a Kosmische Pop Kid! All good things must come to an end and the next album Future Days (United Artists 1973) came to be the beginning of that end. The taughtness had gone, as had the editing knife. Suzuki was mixed so far back for much of the record and worst of all the musos started to colour in the pictures. The title track sets things off in reasonable fashion, a sexy vocal over a bossa nova rhythm but the whole thing rather overstays its welcome. "Spray" follows and is complete bollocks. After all these years and all those wonderous Kosmische soundscapes we get Keith Emerson keyboards and the classical and jazz training that Schmidt, Czukay and Liebezeit had in their years preceeding Can. What follows is the highlight when the Kosmische Pop returns for "Moonshake." Iit's straight out of the Ege Bamyasi mould lasting three minutes, M.O.R. backbeat, it's there and then it's gone. In contrast, the final track "Bel Air" arrives and will not go away. Twenty minutes in Can's presence has never felt so long and obviously the band felt this as well. Jaki Leibezeit said "It really went off with Future Days, I think it became too symphonic." Perhaps the acid guitar missing from Ege Bamyasi was a portent of things to come? Whatever. It was the last time we would hear Damo Suzuki. End of Chapter Two.

Soon Over Babaluma (United Artists 1974) saw Can record as a four piece with Schmidt and Karoli sharing vocal duties and a return to some sort of form. The symphonic approach is pretty well entrenched as we see their academic training shining through as heard on "Splash," an indication of the way they would have been but for the presence of Malcolm Mooney and subsequently Damo Suzuki. Perhaps Future Days was the indicator of Suzuki's inability to force and shape the sound, to prevent the colour and consequently the source of his dissatisfaction and cause of his departure. Yet through his departure, the remaining members regained a sense of fun and playfulness apparent in Soon Over Babaluma as it is this album that they come up with their most perverted, M.O.R., ballroom dance number ever-the most lethal cup of exotica that is "Come Sta, La Luna." Tango extraordinaire! The ability to press the "cheesy button" on the rhythm box and to turn it into a winner was never lost on these boys. Beyond this though, it was very obvious that the Kosmische days had gone.

After this Landed (1975), Flow Motion (1976) and Saw Delight (1977) saw them descend into rockist mode and I can't recommend any of them. There are, however, two or three albums that do enable us to go back in time and revisit their Kosmische days. Limited Edition (United Artists 1974) of which only 15,000 copies were pressed contained previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1968 and 1974 with both Mooney and Suzuki. This eventually saw the light of day again as Unlimited Edition (Virgin DLP 1976), a double album now, sides three and four offering even more unreleased cuts and outtakes. The very nature of the album being edits from previous incarnations means that it doesn't quite flow, and at times can be somewhat irritating. What it does give us is more of Can when they recorded lo-fi and invariably improvised live when they were undoubtedly at their best. It provides an almost filmic insight into the way they worked rather than an artistic statement especially on the 1969 piece "Cutaway" with examples of Mooney controlling and directing all edited together by Czukay. "I'm Too Liese," an acid folk muse from their Ege Bamyasi period, and "Fall of Another Year" circa Monster Movie/Soundtracks are the only pieces that could have been considered for inclusion in any of those albums. As a bolt out of the blue, Delay 1968 (Spoon 1981) is rumoured to be partially compiled from tapes circulated to various record companies pre-Monster Movie with its fuzz belltone guitars, true cyclic drumming, minimal bass and droning Manzarek style keyboards. Mooney seems far more together (mixed up front and not freaked out) than all the previously material he'd been on. The band plays direct and punky on "Nineteen Century Man" and "Uphill," beautiful melancholic on "Thief" and funky acidic on "Little Star of Bethlehem." Once more, all colour was bad!

ORGANISATION & KRAFTWERK
In Dusseldorf, the Kling Klang set was thrashing away creating some frightening noises. Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider started their road to world domination-a road that would throw out some marvellous Kosmische Krautrock bands as Neu!, Harmonia and La Dusseldorf. Everything began in Kosmische terms with their five member band Organisation and the percussive experimentation of Tonefloat (RCA 1970). The title track takes some sixteen minutes to become remotely listenable. No melody, just percussion driven noise. Side two is far more approachable. "Milk Rock" opens the Klanger sound that so many Kosmische bands would fondly utilize as a basic fuel rod to the stars. (NB. a Klanger was an animated creature from a kids TV programme that communicated by whistling. The sound was commercially sold to the fledgling pop kids as a pipe whistle with plunger that could slide up and down changing the pitch of the whistle accordingly. [aka a penny whistle...duh.-ed.]). On the whole though this album is bang, bang, klang, thud, thwak, bash uneasylistening. This same basic uncompromising approach transformed into Kraftwerk and gave us two additional percussive albums of uneasylistening Kraftwerk (Phillips 1970) and Kraftwerk 2 (Phillips 1971). This Kosmische Pop Acid Belltone Drone Kid can only cope with them in small doses, approach these in No Wave mode if any semblance of listening pleasure is to be derived from the experience. In spite of the experimental non-melodic venting of their initial musical ideals, they became the stepping stone to their journey down the Autobahn becoming The Godfathers of Techno and the sires of Neu!. They released Ralf and Florian (Phillips 1973), Autobahn (Phillips 1974) and went onto world domination, 'nuff said. Klaus Dinger had been a percussionist on the first Kraftwerk album while Michael Rother was occasionally used as guitarist for live performances. Around the same time, a grand friendship formed whilst Kraftwerk recorded the second LP as a duo. Dinger and Rother were invited back into the band in the period between Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf und Florian and immediately started to mess with the Kling Klang and add some proto punk to the sound. Willful and confident, their strength of character was forcing the Kraftwerk sound somewhere, Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider didn't want to go. The blue touch paper was lit in readiness for the band to turn supernova on us. It didn't take too long to happen and when it did, it occurred in public on TV at The Beatclub. Hutter split from the band yet Kraftwerk were committed. The performance had to go ahead with Florian, Dinger and Rother, and after an eleven minute number called "Truckstop Gondolero," Neu! was born. Now I have never heard a recording of this important Krautrock moment so will not attempt to describe it. However, I will make a plea to anyone out there who can help me in this matter. Suffice to say, it really was the first Neu! performance and the last of the old Kraftwerk.

NEU!
Ahh Neu!, sweet Neu!. Without a doubt the closest all Krautrock Kosmische bands came to Can. Although you hear no black funk or bass, what you get is an absolute hypnolovewheel auf der Autobahn propulsion that follows the Kosmische rule of restriction that "All Colour is Bad." Four nights in December 1971 saw the recording of their first album Neu! (Brain 1972) an unmitigated Kosmische Klassic. Born of Dinger's simplistic, pulsing drumming in 8/4 time that seems unstoppable, a melodic, metronomic rhythm picked out on the guitars bass strings and Rother's radiating textures of chiming guitar in "Hallogallo" starts Neu! and at once sends the entire Kosmische melting pot off in a new direction that would leave the rest of rock scrambling around wondering where its beloved child had disappeared to. "Sonderangebot" is one great vacuous space that we halt in for a while during this Kosmische journey. Then it's on into "Wiessensee," a slow haunting number that is so simple and sparse, yet so totally complete. Someone coined the phrase "Wa-Guitar" to describe Rother's playing which is the most controlled Cry Baby on the planet if you ask me. Whatever the guitar melody is, it closes the first side and we're floating almost in Ash Ra Tempel territory. This Kosmische floatation tank treatment continues with "Jahresubersicht im Gluck" then ends the mantra with a bleedin' jackhammer! This point has never failed to make me jump, even when I know it's coming. The anticipation just builds waiting for the moment that never seems to arrive until it does. That's the affect that "Negativland" has on you. This is Neu! at their most f*cking excellent. The guitars howl and screech, dominant and drifting, the drums veer from walking pace to amphetamine fueled. You can hear the birthplace of P.I.L. and Sonic Youth and the sound of a thousand musicians screaming and falling into some Black Hole wile the ubermensch laugh as they apply another Kosmische Krautrock trick of the severe edit bringing us to a precipitous halt and catapulting us off the edge of their world back into the floatation tank of "Lieber Honig." This was Neu!, a wonderful Kosmische Klassic, but it's success heralded their dissolution!

The push for success, probably from quarters other than Neu! forced them back into the studio somewhat too soon to begin recording Neu! 2 (Brain 1973). It starts off in fine fettle with "Fur Immer." Eleven minutes of Klaus Dinger propulsion, full throttle pedal-to-the-metal wonderfully coloured by Michael Rother's wa-guitar. It's an absolute whizz that's quickly followed by "Spitzenqualitat" which is a dub version, or that Krautrock speciality "the Kosmische Treatment Version," of it's predecessor. It then opens right out onto the windswept silence of "Gedenkminute" (trans. Minute For Thought) to ponder on your journey thus far. Then the real payoff, a true Kosmische Bubblegum Pop Mantra that is "Lila Engel." Never has repetition been so blindingly good. If I could put it out as a single today, I'd do it with no hesitation. True Kosmische dreamers at play. What's more, it rocks like stink!!! So there the band are half way through an album that seemingly is going to be as bleedin' good as it's predecessor when the record company tells them that the recording budget has been used up....Say what?!? Short sighted, stupid or what?! All they had to do was listen to what they already had. Jeez, it was shaping up to be another best seller. Their label, Brain, could have found the money somewhere surely! United Artists, Metronome, Rolf Ulrich Kaiser, or the Bundes Bank? Instead they decided to take the piss, so Neu! reacted the only way they could and returned the compliment. What do we get then? Well, a complete abomination of a second side to this album that totally annoys which is precisely what they wanted. A side filled with those experiments you used to attempt with your old Dansette playing your faves at 78 and 16 rpm consequently you'll find the A & B sides of their first single "Neuschnee" and "Super" played at 45, 16 and 78rpm with the odd finger put in the works to slow things down and the occasional scratch, pop and jump to complete the annoyance. I mean "Neuschnee" is pretty cheesy at the best of times while "Super" is far more fun. Another piece of Krautrock Bubblegum, vocals and all, while the only redesigned number that appears to work is "Hallo Excentrico." I shall comment no more other than to say that perhaps it should have more accurately been titled Neu! 1.5. Anyway, the whole debacle was to prove to be the end for this incarnation of Neu! and Michael Rother split to start Harmonia with Moebius and Roedelius otherwise known as Cluster. I'll cover these later, at least we had the first side of Neu! 2 to truly enjoy and three out of four sides of music as Kosmische Klassics is pretty good going in my book.

The final chapter in the Neu! story and influence on what would turn rock upside down would appear after Michael Rother recorded Musik von Harmonia with Hans Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius. Klaus Dinger had been attempting to get a label off the ground called "Dingerland" when destiny had already earmarked him to hammer the nails into the coffin of Krautrock and become the Godfather of Punk. This destiny became fulfilled when they decided to reform and record their final definitive work Neu! 75. Neu! 75 (Brain 1975) takes but three open piano chords to get going as Klaus Dinger crashes straight into that simplistic, pulsing, Neu! motorik drum sound and we are off on a journey through a sequel that actually works. Side one seems to have been directed predominantly by Rother. The lyrical side to his playing had come to the fore whilst playing with Harmonia as the first side is dominated by Rother at the piano and synthesiser instead of the chiming slashes and sliding licks of guitar that had come to dominate tracks like "Hallogallo," "Negativland" and "Fur Immer." In between we are treated to "Seeland" which is kinda like "Wiesensee" revisited where melodic guitar washes repeatedly all over the soundscape. In fact the entire first side is back to the floatation tank. But rather than catapult us there to leave us frantically thrashing around wondering how we are going to get out-scaring us shitless in the process-you feel relaxed and at peace with the experience. This is just gorgeous music for the chill out and seduction zone. Just drift along, feel the water wash over your body and love it to pieces. Beware, though, because this state of mind is ephemeral. You still have to turn the record over.....

....mmmm the second side. Whereas its Neu! 2 predecessor had been so infuriating, this one delivers itself in exquisite form as the harbinger of punk. Whereas side one had belonged to Rother, side two was Klaus Dinger's moment of destiny. Unbeknownst to him, he killed off Krautrock and provided a generation with the means to express itself.

Neu! had teamed up with Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe for this album and for Dinger's side they played double drums. Although I prefer the German word of Schlagzeug or in this case "Doppel Schlagzeug," it sounds far more solid and threatening. Schlag has some meaning-like thump and this is what you get as "Hero" opens up, the most solid thumping upfront underpinning of any Neu! song ever. What does this do? Well it gives Klaus Dinger the opportunity to sing, n ée scythe through the vocals. He's not too pretty but he pitches well and the style would be kopped by a well known North Londoner and transformed to channel the bile and anger of a dissillusioned and dissaffected youth in Thatcherite Britain through The Sex Pistols. Both "Hero" and "After Eight" are as punk as f*ck! They are "Anarchy in the UK," "God Save the Queen" and "Holidays in the Sun." Accept it or sod off!! That was their parting shot and it killed off Prog Rock, Pub Rock, Glam Rock, Krautrock, EMI, A&M, a host of other major labels, bloated A&R men, beards, flares and Bill Grundy. Now that's what I call a legacy and Neu! 75 is a Krautrock Klassic.

HARMONIA, CLUSTER & LA DUSSELDORF
After this, Michael Rother departed to produce Zuckerzeit for Cluster and to reform Harmonia. Klaus Dinger, Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe formed La Dusseldorf creating something unique that could only be described as a take on Kosmische Beirkeller Musik. They kept the Doppel Schlagzeug line-up from Neu! 75 which enabled Klaus Dinger to concentrate on guitar which I understand was his first love. Their first album La Dusseldorf (Decca 1976) is more of a pop-hook take on Neu! 75, as evident with their mega-instrumental hit "Silver Cloud." Pure Kosmische Eurocheese. More importantly, check out Dinger's vocals in the song "La Dusseldorf." Listen to him roll those "R's" and then try to convince me that Johnny Rotten didn't kop it from him! Listen, and then tell me that you can't hear Rotten shout "RRRRRRight!!!!!"

Their second album Viva (Radar 1978) was even better. Punk, pop and Kosmische confidence just oozes though it. It blasts straight into your heart with a bullet and buzzes out fuzzed out guitar with the Kosmische Pop gem "Viva" thumpingly driven by their Glitterband style schlagzeug. It's a simple singalong anthem, and a statement of intent positioning everything you are about to hear on the first side. It then segues straight into its even catchier pop partner "White Overalls" concluding with a few bars from "Viva"! What follows this illustrates how easy it is to misinterpret this album. What you get is "Rheinita," an eight minute synthesiser driven instrumental that could quite easily be taken for an Olympic TV show theme tune. My wife upon hearing "Rheinita" said "I know this track....it's Jean Michele Jarre...it's Oxygene!" Therein lies the rub as she approach-ed this in isolation with no conception of its past, but if you add the history, you hear another Kosmische Krautrock habit of revisiting previous sublime moments to rework and reinvent them, forcing them down some new music tunnel to explode into our lives at the other end. Iin this case as a Kosmische take on Europop with a direct line of descendency from Neu! and their 1972 hit "Neuschnee." Now she could have argued that it's me that has got it wrong, in fact she did. So as all's fair in love and war, I gave her a good kicking and banished her to the bedroom with her Disney movies!! The logical conclusion to the first side is "Geld," the synthesis of all the preceeding tracks and one too many sessions down at the bierkeller doing the "Birdie Song." Hell, it's as catchy as f*ck.

"Cha Cha 2000" is the sole track on the flip and is twenty minutes of pure Kosmische Musik whose heart shines brightly. Coming from where the whole journey started some 10 years before, it's a plea from Klaus Dinger to take the whole trip to its logical conclusion and in his words "Dance to the future with me...Cha Cha 2000"

La Dusseldorf went on to record one more album titled Individuellos (Teldec 1980). Sadly, I can make no comment as it's one of those records that have slipped out of my grasp. Again, if anyone out there can help me in this matter I'd appreciate it.

So here endeth the first part of "Sauerkraut's Rock." Regarding my requests for assistance in obtaining recordings of Kraftwerk's legendary Beatclub performance (unofficially the first by Neu!) and the album Individuellos by La Dusseldorf, please write to me and we'll sort something out.