Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.rock.progressive
Titolo: Kraut duepunti

Rifaccio domanda che già feci, che ci vedo un buon clima di sti tempi :-)
Il fatto è che stanno girando assai nel mio lettore il Faust IV e il Monster
Movie dei Can e mi chiedevo se si intenda per kraut rock questa branca, come
dire?, sperimentale?, pre-post-rock? :-D ...o invece se non comprenda pure i
sinfonici (Neuschwanstein...), il folk (Emtidi...), l'elettronica
(Schulze...)?, tanti cazzi (Falco... :-)?
Il punto è che mi interesserebbero i primi, quelli 'sperimentali', tanto da
chiedere una discografia fondamentale ai niusgruppari bendisposti :-)
cia.o

 (Schulze...)?, tanti cazzi (Falco... :-)?
A., il problema è che i Faust e Can sono stati "imitabili", quindi oggi esistono
per i cacciatori/creatori/inventori di trend, mentre gli Emtidi e gli stessi
Amon Duul (specie quelli II di Yeti) sono assolutamente refrattari a qualsiasi
logica di trendizzazione. Almeno questo fino all'avvento dei Gybe, ora le cose
stanno lievemente cambiando.
Ma non credo che i critici di oggi troveranno mai la voglia di ascoltarsi a modo
un "Saat", un Broeselmaschine, uno Yatha Sidhra, un Langsyne, dei Siloah, un
Holderlin's Traume e quel che è peggio, soprattutto certi Popol Vuh
dilatatissimi, minori e iper-religiosi. Questi dischi non saprebbero proprio
come valutarli, considerarli, in quanto "non inspiratori di nulla di attualmente
riconoscibile".
In un epoca che incensa le clonizzazioni, i non-clonabili hanno perso qualsiasi
possibilità di essere persino descritti.
ciao st.

stanz
il problema è che i Faust e Can sono stati "imitabili", quindi oggi esistono
| per i cacciatori/creatori/inventori di trend, mentre gli Emtidi e gli
stessi
| Amon Duul (specie quelli II di Yeti) sono assolutamente refrattari a
qualsiasi
| logica di trendizzazione. Almeno questo fino all'avvento dei Gybe, ora le
cose
| stanno lievemente cambiando.
| Ma non credo che i critici di oggi troveranno mai la voglia di ascoltarsi
a modo
| un "Saat", un Broeselmaschine, uno Yatha Sidhra, un Langsyne, dei Siloah,
un
| Holderlin's Traume e quel che è peggio, soprattutto certi Popol Vuh
| dilatatissimi, minori e iper-religiosi. Questi dischi non saprebbero
proprio
| come valutarli, considerarli, in quanto "non inspiratori di nulla di
attualmente
| riconoscibile".
| In un epoca che incensa le clonizzazioni, i non-clonabili hanno perso
qualsiasi
| possibilità di essere persino descritti.
Grazie intanto per la risposta. Di poi, sul discorso 'critici' mi pare di
poter convenire, alla luce di talune letture che mi passano di sotto al naso
ultimamente (oltre a Can e Faust ci avrei potuto mettere pure i Neu).
Fatto è che l'intento classificatorio non era il fulcro, casomai il
filtro... Cmq parlavo piuttosto di gusti miei, che ad un Saat oppure ad un
Hosianna Mantra, ferma restando la bellezza, al momento non vi si adeguano,
tutto
qui. Si adeguano piuttosto ad uno Yeti, ad un Hoelderlins Traum.
Gli altri nomi che fai mi sono, ahimè, il classico 'sì, già li ho sentiti
nominare'. Al che richiedo consiglio :-)
grazie ancora, un saluto
a.

 ad un Hoelderlins Traum.
Beh, vai anhe sugli Agitation Free dei primi dischi, in particolare sul lungo e
onirico "Live" (il terzo"). Prova anche i due Mythos, non sono affatto male; i
Pyramid, eccellenti e deliranti (un solo brano di mezz'ora!), ma anche e
soprattutto gli spaventosi GOLEM di "Orion Awakes", o anche il non descrivibile
disco dei DOM (una specie di Faust duulizzati)
squerez!
:-)) stanz

soprattutto gli spaventosi GOLEM di "Orion Awakes"
Spiacente di deluderti, ma i Golem altro non sono che uno scherzone di Gary
Ramon, leader dei Sun dial. Sono cioč una falsa ristampa (assieme ai vari
Galactic explorers, Cozmic corridors, etc. - cfr. Rockerilla n. 241, pag.
63).
LF
NP: Forza nove - Autoanalisi.

 63).
Ho trovato una fonte completamente diversa che sostiene che furono tutte bands
che suonarono negli studi Dierks ma non sotto l'engineering di Dierks, per cui
vennero fatti i nastri ma furono dimenticati.
La cosa mi sembra assai piů probabile di un hoax del Ramon: nemmeno nei suoi
dischi ufficiali sotto Sun Dial riusciva a fare cose alla Golem, figuriamoci
poi in perfetto anonimato...
http://www.supergraphics.demon.co.uk/soundprojector/exc_krautrock.html#pyramid2
(scorrere la pagina, vari stralci)
**********Records from the Pyramid Label
Some rare examples of fascinating electronic music reclaimed from a very
obscure time and place. Their release at this time chimes in with the current
high level of interest in German 1970s Kosmische music. It isn't immediately
obvious how to
connect these oddities to a defined sense of a 'Krautrock continuum', which is
good as this confounds lazy journalists who think they've got this scene all
figured out. Some Doubting Dans have even suggested in print that these records
must be
1990s hoaxes, which is absurd. Others have placed too much emphasis on their
obscureness, playing up the angle of 'not even the heavy-duty Krautrock
collectors have heard of this label', which is an indication of how the
specialists want to
appropriate everything for themselves. However, such specialisation and
selfishness is overturned by democratising releases like this which put the
music back in the public domain, where everyone with a CD player who's so
inclined can
share in these delights.
The facts are simple, the records were made in Cologne by Toby Robinson using
Dieter Dirks' studio. Some say the 1972-73 date is wrong and a couple of years
later would be more accurate. (I heard a rumour that the actual names of the
bands were
added on later, implying the records could have been made by studio session
players - but don't quote me on that one! ) The music is excellent. The context
in which these records were made suggests there was little concern for
commercial potential,
or even for audience appeal - it was just artists making the music they wanted
to make. If this be the case I'm delighted if there is now a slightly larger
audience for this material - or at least a more attentive one! Perhaps at last
the world is ready
for these sounds. To 1996 ears they sound excellent and not even especially
challenging, although heaven knows what a 1972 listener would have made of
them.
Pyramid, Pyramid
Psi-Fi, PSCD0004
The Nazgűl, The Nazgűl
Psi-Fi, PSCD0005
Temple, Temple
Psi-Fi, PSCD0006
Three more strange and exotic rarities from Tony Robinson's Pyramid label.
These are neglected 1970s art-gallery only releases, originally available in
limited runs of 100 copies.
I'm still cultivating my suspicion that none of these bands had much of a life
outside the studio. One envisages a series of projects emerging under
Robinson's direction, musicians drawn from a pool of talent, working in Dieter
Dierks Cologne studio
during down-time, with 'The Mad Twiddler' producing; once sufficient album
tracks had been gathered, sleeve art would be concocted and a name assigned to
the one-off item.
None of this really accounts for the stark horrors of The Nazgűl, though. Looks
like three serious acidheads escaped from their cell for long enough to make
this one record, then returned to re-read Lord of The Rings for the billionth
time. They call
themselves after Tolkien characters. The heart-stopping atmospheres conjured
from their doomy organ, synths, and slow percussion dirges would have been
achievement enough, but they add that killer touch with their mournful horn
blasts and
treated tubular bells. This record is so powerful, it's more than simply
depressing; it makes you feel your very soul is doomed.
Pyramid, though it could be situated in the Tangerine Dream pre-Ambient
drifty-wifty school, is still pretty insane. One track only, 35 minutes of
'Dawn Defender' played by persons unknown on guitar, moog, mellotron, hammond
organ, electric piano
and Tibetan bells. It occasionally reaches cosmic heights - mainly, one
suspects, due to the stirling efforts of the producer with his fade-out levers.
These tools can be your best friend when there's a crew of self-indulgent
long-haired people on the
other side of the glass, intent on laying their trip on the world. An
idealistic sleeve note from the original LP cover catalogues all that
superstitious baloney about Pyramid Power, probably long before it was as
commonplace amongst the Fortean Times
brigade as it is today.
Temple verges on being a progressive rock nightmare, with its ponderously sung
poetry lyrics from another stoned-out Hippie rejoicing in the name of
'Poseidon'. It would be nice to think of Poseidon performing wearing a large
fish-mask a la
Peter Gabriel (certainly his distorted voice sounds like that's how it was
recorded) but no such luck. 'Heathen' and 'Kingdom of Gabriel' are pretty manic
guitar-led chanting anthems, the latter in particular buried within myriad
layers of additional synth,
guitar and percussion solos; they genuinely don't make records as cluttered as
this any more. The mood is lightened by the welcome reappearance of vocals from
Pauline Fund (also on the Cosmic Corridors LP). From the name of their keyboard
player (Zeus B Held), the Trojan warrior helmet on the cover and the track
'Ship on Fire', you might be able to construct a prog-rock version of The Iliad
and the Fall of Troy from their work, but it's more likely just a grab-bag of
the sort of imagery
that fascinates these pseuds.
Krautrock one-upmanship is one thing - in fact any kind of boasting about rare
unheard 1970s LPs is pretty dumb, as they frequently turn out to be very boring
records. But not these; they are genuinely strange and beautiful musics all. As
I've said
before, probably best to ignore the Virgin Unknown Deutschland samplers (where
some of these tracks are compiled) and just get the raw uncut stuff right here.
Golem, Orion Awakes
PSCD0003
A powerful blast of more conventional cosmic rock, although less beguiling than
the two above, it works at loud volume. This features Willi Berghoff on guitar
and Manfred Hof on the Hammond and Mellotron, backed up by a wah-wah bass from
Mungo that beats John Wetton six ways from Sunday. Only the drummer lets them
down - 'Stellar Launch' is prevented from soaring into space by his leaden,
unimaginative bass drum. Skip to 'Jupiter and Beyond' for a truly unashamed
science-fiction spacerocket romp, built from a sharp organ figure doubled by by
the guitar line and enahnced by the sparing use of the phaser. Here, and on the
title track, the band summon up that sense of monumental scale, as of some
lumbering dinosaur, as only unreconstructed hippies can. 'Godhead Dance' is as
dismal an attempt at funkiness as you could imagine, with the possible
exception of Keith Emerson's Hammond riffs. Sound-wise at least, with the
wah-wah rhythm guitar,
bongoes and mega-heavy bass as its anchor, this track almost predicts the rise
of George Clinton and P-Funk - but Golem lack the soul, finally.
ciao stanz
PS: la recensione dei Golem cmq. č completamente fuori pista.

poi in perfetto anonimato...
Effettivamente i SD mi sono sempre sembrati carini e nulla più, poi certa
stampa (non solo italica) li ha iper-pompati...
LF
NP: Mediterranea - Ecce rock.