08: Ash Ra Tempel / Timothy Leary - 7 Up

What to say about this curio? Never bought it at the time, tried to buy it for this blog but it never showed up. Decided to download it as well (perhaps the CD will turn up next week some time) and hence I've listened to it all the previous week.

7 Up was the bottle of drink spiked by Leary that lead to the recordings that make up the record. Cope indicates that it's composed of different tracks, but the copy I have has two tracks: Time and Space. This is yer actual psychedelic record - i.e. a record made by people taking drugs. Unfortunately this is a somewhat tedious classification as it turns out that it's far more interesting to listen to records of people pretending that they're on drugs than it is to listen to people who are actually on drugs.

This isn't a terrible record, but in the context of the preceding might of Ash Ra Tempel, then the contemplative beauty of Schwingungen, this seems a little crude. This is probably the influence of the Leary mob whose humour stretches to the "right hand lover" track on the first side of the record. It all becomes psychedelia in terms of too free form jamming and hilarious in jokes. The cover's beautiful though and there's another one with Leary at the controls which isn't as good but still pretty good.

Like a good trip it lacks direction and never reaches that point where you think that it's really locked into something awesome. The second side fares better, mainly on account of the lack of vocals and lack of too much larking about. Is it better than Traummaschine though? Not nearly close unfortunately and it's all a bit too Kaiser ish to really recommend. Though I imagine this record will be relived upon reaching the Cosmic Jokers section...

07: Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen

Like life, Schwingungen is an indication that things have changed. No more the fierceness of artwork but now a more contemplative scene of two lovers watching the sun rise. No more the fevered two side long tracks but a more than ample four (though the CD joins the final two tracks together). No more the unrelenting drive for raw noise, but a more thoughtful and hippy like affair.

I bought this CD in 2004, seemingly from ebay during one of those "I must own all the krautrocksampler CDs" drives that I appear to have lived through multiple times in my life. I think I listened to it once, thought it was okay and put it back on the shelves. According to the database, I last listened to this in 2004.

It's much less of a beast than the prior record but somehow it's superior. Look at Your Sun (6 minutes) is laid back and relatively mellow, Flowers Must Die is heavy and driving. Unlike the previous record this has vocals all over it - John L. declaring in the latter that he wants to be adored. Don't we all.

The last track (Schwingungen: Suche & Liebe) is more like a cross between Amon Duul 2 and Traummaschine from the previous record. It starts off all ambient and melancholic and then goes off into a spacey far out bass heavy thing which is actually pretty good.

Not much to say about this one - it's pretty far out which is good but it's somewhat unrewarding. Despite all the promise it never goes bonkers like Ash Ra Tempel and turns out to be somewhat of a letdown. But a letdown in krautrock terms.

06: Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel

The first Ash Ra Tempel record I bought. Purchased from the legendary Revolver records in Bristol - this is a vinyl reissue on Spalex. So you don't get the lovely fold out  sleeve of the original, but the folded out parts are recreated in a CD booklet. I can recall buying this, going down from Revolver to wait for the bus back to Wrington, inspecting the record only to see the message about the booklet on the back. Mine did not have a booklet. So I ran back to Revolver, asked for my booklet, got the booklet, and ran back to the bus station. I don't think I made it so had to endure the 2 hour wait for the next bus, with only the meagre 8 page booklet for company. The booklet has no text beyond that which is on the record.

Anyway - this is the first Ash Ra Tempel LP, them being a trio of Hartmut Enke, Manuel Gotsching and Klaus Schulze. Bass, Guitar and Drums. Two tracks - Amboss at 20 minutes and Traummaschine at 25 minutes. Quite hard to pin down - Amboss is all haze and guitar and heavy drumming. Fairly relentless and non-stop once it gets going and it genuinely sounds like nothing else on earth, like Heavy Metal gone all thinking. About 17 minutes it all breaks down and goes axe crazy before the drums come back in and it goes mental again. All ends on feedback and a crash of the drums.

When I did a student radio show, I named the show "Traummaschine"which is pretty much as close to ambient as Ash Ra got - all bowed strings and cymbals. It's fairly laid back for a 25 minute songs and there's bits of hammered guitar and more haze in there.

Cope describes it as one of the greatest rock n roll records ever made and I'm not sure that's true. It's way way out there and totally unique but not something I find myself returning to that often. Though I'll never get rid of it.

05: Amon Duul 2 - Wolf City

I think this was my first krautrock record purchase, pulled from a weirdo record shop in Weston Super Mare which I seemed to have a periodic relationship with. My copy is on the venerable Base records straight out of the bootlegging heart of Italy and it came in one of those classic thick plastic sleeves which were all over certain record shops and still are.

This continues the path started in Carnival in Babylon towards a more traditional and less far out sound. Nonetheless it, like CIB, is a really good record and Renate sings a lot. And Peter doesn't sing as much - Renate on this sounds way better than Carnival in Babylon, one of those rare moments where the germanic twinge in her voice really works. Loads of great contrast and violin frenzies. I remember buying it and not quite knowing what to expect from it and not even knowing what it was when it was over. Cope nails it by saying that this is the first AD2 record of real songs - it's just a solid collection.

Surrounded by The Stars is beautiful and Renate has never sounded better. Green Bubble Raincoated Man is a bit of a mouthful and I have no idea what it's all about but it has this amazing wig out section near the end with loads of fuzz and drums. Cope goes all guns for Jail House Frog but I find it a bit stupid - too much Peter singing. Once the vocals disappear then it gets a bit better.

The title track on the flip is heavy with lots of organ effects and whirring noises. But again with the crappy vocals. Then there's a track which sounds like a bongo version of raincoated man, with some of the time noodling added over the top. It's pleasant but meanders a bit too much. Deutsch Nepal is stupid: all bravado and pointless talking. Then it all ends with an outtake from the end of Labyrinth but fortunately it's the good labyrinth and you don't have to see what Bowie's packing.  Then it all goes stupid of course and turns into T-Rex.

So that's the end of the Amon Duul 2 train. I like Carnival in Babylon best, Yeti is fantastic but can be a struggle, this is fun but ultimately forgettable. I like Amon Duul 2.