Log #131 - A Cluster Of Faustian Harmonia

I've considered myself a relatively knowledgeable fan of Krautrock for many years - ever since I stumbled across my first Can album in a second hand store in Chichester one school lunch hour nearly 40 years ago (it was the spanner in the sky one which was how it was known, or aka simply Can, or Inner Space) (it was an interesting record pretty unlike anything else I had in my collection at the time (I was unaccustomed to the monotonic singing, the fluttery jazzy drumming and the in-your-face synths) but my life didn't really change until I heard Tago Mago a few months later from whence I was launched into Krautrock space: My rocket ship taking me to planets Neu! Grobschnitt, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Nektar, and Klaus Schulze).

The caveat being of course that the much maligned (including by the artists themselves) term Krautrock has varied and wide meanings. For me I think it covers a particular genre of rock music that was coming out of Germany in the early to mid 70s. This is music characterised by repetitive "motorik" beats - it certainly wasn't the blues based rock or progrock prevalent in the UK and US at the time although there was a small degree of overlap. It wasn't all the German rock music either - I don't think a band like Scorpions is a Krautrock band for instance.

It is also arguable whether the synth bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream were really Krautrock. Their music is more often associated with the terms Kosmische (cosmic) or Berlin School (although the latter term didn't gain much traction until Eno and Bowie, heavily influenced by German electronic music, rocked up in that city in the mid 70s).

The origins of the more generic term Krautrock are disputed but seem to derive from use by some music journalists and radio DJ John Peel was an early adopter in the early 70s. German band Faust even recorded a track entitled Krautrock as early as 1974 but would later, like most of their contemporaries, distance themselves from the term explaining that "when the English people started talking about Krautrock, we thought they were just taking the piss".  Nevertheless the term gained more credence especially as the bands became retrospectively influential and revered reaching a critical mass through Julian Cope's legendary 1995 Krautrocksampler book. Cope would explain though that the term was merely a subjective British word based on the way the music was received in the UK rather than on the actual West German music scene out of which it grew.

The point of the lengthy preamble is new (to me) Krautrock music is still coming to my ears for the first time pretty much proving I was not as knowledgeable or well-listened (well-listened should be a word too like well-read) on the subject as I had thought. This week I've been enjoying a diet of Faust, Cluster, Popul Vuh and Harmonia. All bands I've not studied before. In coming weeks I'll delve deeper into Krautrock outer space and hope to take trips to Planets Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru, and Amon Duul.

This week's selection in the magazine centres on a family of overlapping artists - personnel was shared throughout the bands Neu!, Harmonia and Cluster (also called Kluster and Qluster at different times).

The Neu!/Harmonia/Cluster cast list:

Klaus Dinger - Kraftwerk, Neu!, La Dusseldorf
Michael Rother - Kraftwerk, Neu!, Cluster
Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Kluster, Cluster, Harmonia, Qluster
Dieter Moebius - Cluster, Harmonia
Conny Plank - producer for Can, Harmonia, Cluster, Kraftwerk, Scorpions
Brian Eno - Cluster, Harmonia

The world's most important rock band.

Did Brian Eno really say that about the short lived collaboration of Cluster and Neu! musicians otherwise known as Harmonia? It is indeed a crying shame the band were so short lived and produced only 3 albums as they sound excellent. In fact one of the best Krautrock bands I've come across.

Their first two albums Music Von Harmonia and Deluxe are both superb - containing a hybrid mix of beats and ambience / a sort of half way house between the electro synth styles of Tangerine Dream say, and the rock of Neu!. The synth pads are thick and bassy like the sound on Kraftwerk's Autobahn. The rhythms are hypnotic and ravey. Watussi and Walky Talky are orgasmic tunes. The third album Tracks and Traces featured Eno (forming a bona fide "supergroup") and had an unaccountably delayed release of some 20 years eventually seeing the light of day in 1997. This one is a little more ambient.

Not surprisingly Cluster are similarly excellent. Across a much longer lifespan (13 albums) they started off experimental, before moving more into the mainstream of motorik beat led Krautrock, and then ambience. Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso both from the mid 70s tend to be the go-to albums for the group.

Last in the Krautrock series this week is Faust and their classic IV album. I like the cover which with its empty music staves takes minimalism to an extreme. I get the impression Faust didn't take their art too seriously. The album is much more psychedelic heavy rock (even punky) than most Krautrock. The distorted guitars and synth effects remind me very much of Hawkwind. There's whimsy with an amateur sounding The Sad Skinhead:

Apart from all the bad times you gave me
I always felt good with you
Going places, smashing faces
what else could we do?

... and the Gong/Zappa like Giggy Smile with its jaunty singing and saxophone breaks. This track sounds very familiar. It is either very similar to something else or I've heard this track before never knowing it was Faust.

The best tracks are more traditionally Krautrock like Jennifer which for the first half is Ege Bamyasi style rumbling bass and distant vocals before it descends into weirdness (in this case massive noise and saloon piano). Lauft... is another song of two halves. The first half is 60s Love-like acoustic guitar, and the second half consists of a slow organ solo. Final track maintains the 60s feel with a Syd Barrett like song interspersed with rude blasts of distorted organ and guitar.

Not much time for the other albums this week (but note the Father John Misty is brilliant - a cross between Elton John and John Grant and certainly one to watch) but for the record they are:

Band Of Horses Infinite Arms  

Harmonia Deluxe

Faust IV

Father John Misty God's Favourite Customer

Cluster Zuckerzeit

Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother