Soft Hair Soft Hair
Sly And The Family Stone Dynamite! The Collection
Popol Vuh In Den Garten Pharaos
Father John Misty God's Favourite Customer
Cluster Zuckerzeit
Various Neu Decade
It's a sharing week in the 6 CD changer this week with an equal showing from Krautrock and Soul Funk (plus a considerable helping of the brilliant Father John Misty which has trumped both camps to be almost certainly the most played CD in the slots).
In the blue Krautrock corner we have more from the very interesting Cluster, a Mojo magazine cover disc and a classic early album from German experimental group Popol Vuh. In the red Soul Funk corner we have a quick return for the sleazy disco of Soft Hair and an overdue one from Sly And The Family Stone (I've also been enjoying another classic album new to me - this one from Isaac Hayes - but that's not here today and will be saved for another time).
As I said in last week's post I thought I was pretty well acquainted with Krautrock but the Neu Decade compilation disc (touted as "modern European music from 1970-79) from Mojo would, again, indicate otherwise: There's only one track I'm familiar with on here and about ten of the actual bands I've not heard before at all;
Lots to absorb here but I was immediately intrigued by the Tangerine Dream track Ultima Thule Part 1 which sounds nothing like the Tangerine Dream I know. The track was recorded in 1971 around the time of their second album Alpha Centauri and released as a single. It's a heavy rock instrumental with drums and guitar and soaring keyboards. Rather like early Pink Floyd:
I don't have a copy of the band's first two albums but would be very surprised if they sounded anything like this.
We also have some solo works from the Cluster/Neu!/Harmonia personnel featured last week, and a piece by Hawkwind's keyboardist Tim Blake.
There's a nice quote from David Bowie's producer Tony Visconti on the CD cover:
The atmosphere really stimulated David. He loved it there. I think he spent less than two years in Berlin but it really gave him a new perspective and a new outlook on what to do.
It certainly did, as Low, Heroes and Lodger testify.
"A Mammoth Perfection" - In Den Garten Pharaos so described by Julian Cope.
Popol Vuh were a German electronic avant-garde band founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1969. In Den Gärten Pharaos (In The Garden Of Pharao) is Popol Vuh’s second album.
The first album Affenstunde (1970) is regarded as one of the earliest "space music" works, featuring the then brand new sounds of the Moog synthesizer together with ethnic percussion. German music guru Peter Cat tells me that Fricke was actually the very first musician to own a Moog in Germany. This continued to be used on In Den Gärten Pharaos, before Fricke largely abandoned electronic instruments, selling his Moog (to Klaus Schulze!), in favour of piano-led compositions from 1972's Hosianna Mantra forward. Check out this beautiful minimalist piano solo from Fricke for instance:
Eat your heart out Philip Glass.
Popol Vuh influenced many other European bands with their uniquely soft but elaborate instrumentation, which took inspiration from the music of Tibet, Africa, and South America (the original "Popol Vuh" was a sacred Mayan text - I love learning new stuff (and not just music) through this blog). With spiritual and introspective music sometimes described as "ethereal", they created dense immersive soundscapes through psychedelic walls of sound, and are regarded as precursors of contemporary world music, as well as of new age and ambient.
Popol Vuh went on to contribute soundtracks to the films of Werner Herzog, including Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Cobra Verde, Heart of Glass and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, in which Fricke appeared.
In Den Gärten Pharaos consists of two side long compositions with the later reissue also adding two bonus tracks. The opening title track begins with water sounds and a gentle drone which are joined by tabla drumming and jazzy electric piano which even reminds me a little of the sound on John Martyn's Solid Air album. This beautiful restful track fades away as it begins, on washes of water.
The church organ and choir drenched second track Vuh is described as "a near religious experience" by Peter Cat. Beginning on a swell of gongs and crashing cymbals a triumphant cathedral of sound is built on three monumental organ chords.
It's truly fascinating to hear these revolutionary sounds at the dawn of the synthesizer.
Eddy Bamyasi
The bonus tracks are two 10 minute pieces entitled Kha-White Structures (parts 1 and 2). These are a little more experimental. Part 1 has a very revolutionary off key synth loop which sounds just like some tracks from Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works II. Part 2 is a wavering drone with ghostly background most like a Stockhausen piece.
In Den Garten Pharaos is definitely in my top 3 Krautrock albums along with Tago Mago and Zeit.
Raphael Loubert
All in all a fascinating record of ambience much closer to Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno than the "traditional" rock-based Krautrock of contemporaries Faust, Can and Neu!.
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| Florian Fricke, 1944 -2001 |
