Monday 23 January 2017

Log #17 - Jaki Liebezeit (1938 - 2017) and the Motorik Beat

Eddy Bamyasi


1. The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur
2. Holger Czukay - Movies
3. Klaus Schulze - Picture Music
4. Tangerine Dream - Encore
5. Can - Ege Bamyasi
6. Can - Sacrilege

Well with a pseudonym like Eddy Bamyasi it was inevitable there would be a "Krautrock" entry sooner or later in the blog. The term "Krautrock" in music seems to have been generally accepted without too many negative connotations. Perhaps that is because the purveyors are almost exclusively held in high esteem and are frequently name-checked as hugely influential by more modern artists. Krautrock doesn't literally mean all German rock - it refers to a particular genre arising in the early 70s through bands such as Can, Neu!, Faust, Kraftwerk, Amon Duul, and Tangerine Dream, characterised (very generally speaking) by experimental electronics, and repetitive heavy beats termed motorik.

Here we have three albums shared between Can and Tangerine Dream plus solo efforts from Holger Czukay (of Can) and Klaus Schulze (of Tangerine Dream).

Breaking News! Sadly I have just heard, literally mid post, that Can's drummer Jaki Liebezeit died this week (the music selection being entirely coincidental but subsequently appropriate and poignant). I was surprised to learn he was 78, and was due to play a concert at the Barbican, London, this spring with fellow Can member keyboardist Irmin Schmidt.

Can was one of those bands that blew my mind when I first heard them. I had not heard anything like them before and a huge characteristic of their sound was Jaki's drumming. From that moment on he became, and remained, my favourite drummer.

Jaki Liebezeit behind his minimal kit and singer Damo Suzuki

Ege Bamyasi is probably the best starting point for any new Can fans. Released in 1972 with its Andy Warhol inspired soup can cover it is the middle one of the celebrated "Damo" trilogy, offering more focused grooves than both the preceding avant garde epic Tago Mago, and the following more space-prog-rocky Future Days. Can covered a wide range of genres in their music over their core career (essentially 1969 - 1979) including heavy rock, funk, jazz, and electronic, and even classical avant garde and minimalism (founding members Czukay and Schmidt studied under Stockhausen). Well known for their extended jams and improvisations Ege Bamyasi efficiently covers most components of the Can sound across seven tracks of power and beauty, all underpinned by Jaki's metronomic drumming high in the mix as beautifully demonstrated here in Vitamin C.

As well as Jaki's drumming the bone crushing rhythms were augmented by the thump of Holger Czukay's deep bass. Czukay liked to experiment in the studio with other instruments and unusual sampling, and his full ambitions were realised on a number of experimental solo albums - some with collaborators including David Sylvian and Jah Wobble. Movies must be one of the earliest pop/rock albums (1980) to draw extensively upon samples. In particular Czukay would record voices he picked up on short wave radio. The album has two short poppy tunes and two extended experimental compositions. All four tracks have enough ideas for a whole musical career! There certainly wasn't anything else that sounded like this album when I first heard it, and I don't think there is even today. If you would like to delve into the bizarre mind of Holger Czukay start with the Persian Love tidbit and then progress to the soundbite rich Hollywood Symphony.

The Can Sacrilege album was aptly named as it is a double CD of remixes (by Brian Eno, System 7, Sonic Youth, and The Orb amongst others) of revered Can classics. But I don't think purists should be too precious. It's actually very good and the tracks are different enough to be interesting but at the same time retain a lot of what Can was all about. Befitting of the release date of 1997 (and the Can blueprint itself) most tracks are of the drum and bass persuasion giving off a massive sound!

Tangerine Dream, and former member Klaus Schulze, specialise in what I call pulse music. The tracks are all instrumental (I believe Tan Dream only released one album Cyclone with vocals which was panned by the fans, but I actually think is one of their best) and usually lengthy (these two albums for instance each have single LP side length tracks of around 20 minutes each). Unlike electronic contemporaries Kraftwerk the beat is usually provided by pulsing gated synths rather than drum machines.

There is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address.
 Edgar Froese

I guess with the emergence of popular music in the 1960s there will now continuously be artists reaching their 60s and 70s and becoming nearer to a change of cosmic address. While researching this piece I learnt that TD's founder Edgar Froese had passed away in 2015. With each passing a chance to see an iconic artist or band live for the first time passes too - a realisation that has resolved me to buy a ticket to see Damo Suzuki coming to Brighton this Spring. Damo is usually backed by a band of local (relatively unrehearsed I assume) musicians at each gig - an intriguing concept not entirely alien to the former Can front man. One can hope his random sonic journeys will lead to the resurrection of some familiar riffs in his sets.

German "Krautrock" pioneers Edgar Froese 1944-2015 and Jaki Liebezeit 1938-2017





To learn more about some key Krautrock artists have a look at this article http://observer.com/2015/07/8-krautrock-artists-you-need-to-hear-right-now/



About The Author

Eddy Bamyasi

Eddy is a music writer from Brighton, England, named after a Can record. Each Sunday he logs and reviews the albums that happen to be in his vintage Pioneer 6-CD magazine changer, amongst other things.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Powered by Blogger.

Leading Artists (by appearance)

neil young (26) van morrison (22) john martyn (18) tangerine dream (18) felice brothers (16) pink floyd (14) led zeppelin (13) black sabbath (12) brian eno (12) whitest boy alive (12) bonnie prince billy (11) can (11) david sylvian (11) radiohead (11) talk talk (11) beatles (10) cluster (10) cocteau twins (10) laura marling (10) nick cave (10) afro celts (9) beck (9) bob dylan (9) fennesz (9) genesis (9) iron and wine (8) loscil (8) midlake (8) paolo nutini (8) tom waits (8) autechre (7) foals (7) nucleus (7) richard hawley (7) stars of the lid (7) camel (6) david bowie (6) dj vadim (6) efterklang (6) elo (6) fairport convention (6) harmonia (6) holger czukay (6) kings of convenience (6) low (6) luke vibert (6) matthew e white (6) miles davis (6) sahb (6) the doobie brothers (6) tord gustavsen (6) war on drugs (6) william basinski (6) arovane (5) bear's den (5) black keys (5) boards of canada (5) bob marley (5) calexico (5) edgar froese (5) father john misty (5) hawkwind (5) jan jelinek (5) king crimson (5) mouse on mars (5) nils frahm (5) public service broadcasting (5) robert plant (5) sigur ros (5) takemitsu (5) arbouretum (4) badly drawn boy (4) budgie (4) carly simon (4) carole king (4) decemberists (4) emeralds (4) four tet (4) handsome family (4) hidden orchestra (4) jethro tull (4) jj cale (4) john legend (4) klaus schulze (4) kruder and dorfmeister (4) manuel gottsching (4) opeth (4) penguin cafe orchestra (4) ravi shankar (4) soft hair (4) steely dan (4) the unthanks (4) tim hecker (4) trees (4) ulrich schnauss (4) KLF (3) alan parsons project (3) alex harvey (3) alison krauss (3) alva noto (3) barclay james harvest (3) bon iver (3) bonobo (3) caitlin canty (3) caribou (3) chicago (3) coldplay (3) curtis mayfield (3) david crosby (3) deep purple (3) depeche mode (3) eilen jewell (3) enid (3) fleetwood mac (3) floating points (3) free (3) gorillaz (3) gram parsons (3) grateful dead (3) grobschnitt (3) incredible string band (3) james morrison (3) jill scott (3) john grant (3) john surman (3) keith jarrett (3) kraftwerk (3) lal waterson (3) last shadow puppets (3) lift to experience (3) lynyrd skynyrd (3) mahavishnu orchestra (3) manitoba (3) mike oldfield (3) mike waterson (3) monolake (3) neu! (3) palace brothers (3) philip glass (3) popol vuh (3) quantic (3) rodriguez (3) rokia traore (3) rolling stones (3) rory gallagher (3) roxy music (3) rush (3) simon and garfunkel (3) sly and the family stone (3) steve hillage (3) suede (3) sufjan stevens (3) the comet is coming (3) tim buckley (3) wagon christ (3) wilco (3) 4hero (2) abc (2) ac/dc (2) al stewart (2) amon duul II (2) aphex twin (2) arctic monkeys (2) baka beyond (2) band of horses (2) belle and sebastian (2) blue oyster cult (2) blue states (2) bonzo dog band (2) boris salchow (2) burial (2) cardigans (2) carlos barbosa-lima (2) charles mingus (2) chemical brothers (2) chris rea (2) cinematic orchestra (2) compilations (2) crosby stills nash (2) david darling (2) death in vegas (2) debussy (2) dj shadow (2) doors (2) earl sweatshirt (2) eloy (2) emilie simon (2) erik satie (2) farben (2) festivals (2) fleet foxes (2) francois and the atlas mountains (2) fripp and eno (2) gas (2) gong (2) granados (2) green on red (2) griffin anthony (2) jazzland (2) jean sibelius (2) jeff buckley (2) john coltrane (2) johnny flynn (2) josh t pearson (2) julian cope (2) kamasi washington (2) kanye west (2) kate bush (2) ketil bjornstad (2) la dusseldorf (2) lambchop (2) larkin poe (2) little feat (2) ludovico einaudi (2) magma (2) marianne faithfull (2) marvin gaye (2) mike lazarev (2) money mark (2) morton feldman (2) nektar (2) nightmares on wax (2) ninja (2) nirvana (2) nitin sawhney (2) peace (2) porya hatami (2) prefuse 73 (2) prem joshua (2) randy newman (2) robert fripp (2) ryan adams (2) scorpions (2) scott and maria (2) scott matthews (2) servants of science (2) soft machine (2) steve miller (2) susumu yokota (2) talvin singh (2) the who (2) thievery corporation (2) traffic (2) truckstop honeymoon (2) ufo (2) up bustle and out (2) weather report (2) wiley (2) willard grant conspiracy (2) wishbone ash (2) wyclef jean (2) yes (2) abba (1) acid mothers temple and the cosmic inferno (1) aimee mann (1) air (1) alabama 3 (1) alice coltrane (1) amadou and mariam (1) andy shauf (1) anthony hamilton (1) april wine (1) arcade fire (1) ashra (1) asia (1) badger (1) barber (1) beach boys (1) bee gees (1) beirut (1) bert jansch (1) beuno vista social club (1) bill laswell (1) biosphere (1) bjork (1) blow monkeys (1) bob geldof (1) bob holroyd (1) bob seger (1) bombay bicycle club (1) boubacar traore (1) broken social scene (1) bruce springsteen (1) bruch (1) byline (1) captain beefheart (1) cardi b (1) cast (1) cat stevens (1) catfish and the bottlemen (1) charles and eddie (1) chopin (1) chris child (1) christine and the queens (1) chuck prophet (1) climax blues band (1) cosmic jokers (1) crowded house (1) d'angelo (1) daft punk (1) david goodrich (1) davy graham (1) dexy's midnight runners (1) dolly collins (1) donald fagen (1) dreadzone (1) dub pistols (1) eagles (1) echo and the bunnymen (1) eden espinosa (1) eels (1) elbow (1) electric ape (1) emerson lake and palmer (1) erlend oye (1) erukah badu (1) essays (1) euphony in electronics (1) faust (1) feist (1) flaming lips (1) future days (1) gamma (1) gang of four (1) gentle giant (1) goat roper rodeo band (1) godspeed you black emperor (1) gorecki (1) groove armada (1) grover washington jr. (1) gun (1) guru guru (1) hatfield and the north (1) hats off gentlemen it's adequate (1) heron (1) hiss golden messenger (1) hozier (1) human league (1) idles (1) india arie (1) iron and wire (1) isaac hayes (1) james brown (1) james joys (1) jamie t (1) janelle monae (1) jayhawks (1) jean-michel jarre (1) jerry paper (1) jim croce (1) jimi hendrix (1) jjcale (1) john cale (1) john mclaughlin (1) jon hassell (1) jurassic 5 (1) kacey musgraves (1) keith berry (1) kid loco (1) king tubby (1) king's consort (1) kings of leon (1) kirk degiorgio (1) kodomo (1) lenny kravitz (1) lighthouse (1) love supreme (1) luc vanlaere (1) lumineers (1) mark pritchard (1) mark ronson (1) me'shell ndegeocello (1) messiaen (1) metallica (1) micah frank (1) michael hedges (1) michael jackson (1) mike west (1) mitski (1) modest mouse (1) moody blues (1) morte macabre (1) motorhead (1) national health (1) nick drake (1) nusrat fateh ali khan (1) oasis (1) omd (1) orb (1) orquesta reve (1) other lives (1) oval (1) paco pena (1) paladin (1) panda bear (1) pat metheny (1) paulo nutini (1) pentangle (1) pierre bensusan (1) portishead (1) proprio (1) protoje (1) purcell (1) pussy riot (1) queen (1) rainbow (1) ramsay midwood (1) rautavaara (1) rem (1) rhythm kings (1) richard strauss (1) robyn (1) roni size (1) ryuichi sakamoto (1) sada sat kaur (1) saga (1) sam jordan (1) sammy hagar (1) santana (1) scaramanga silk (1) shakti (1) shirley collins (1) shostakovich (1) snafu (1) snatam kaur (1) sparks (1) st germain (1) stanford (1) steeleye span (1) stereolab (1) steve reich (1) styx (1) supertramp (1) susumo yokota (1) t bone walker (1) terry riley (1) the band (1) the clash (1) the jayhawks (1) the streets (1) the wreks (1) tricky (1) tycho (1) uriah heep (1) velvet underground (1) venetian snares (1) vladislav delay (1) whiskeytown (1) whitesnake (1) william ackerman (1) yngwie j malmsteen (1) zhou yu (1) μ-Ziq (1)