34: La Dusseldorf - Viva

That back cover makes it all clear. La Dusseldorf are the funningist Krautrock group ever - completely able to humour themselves and those around them. This lot are having FUN and they want you to know all about it. And like the one before this record is ludicrously optimistic and utterly non-pretentious despite potentially being pretentious. Again it's like the best bits of Neu! pushed down and injected with humour. I listened to this record twice a day over the past week - it would settle me into the day at PARC and then I would start it up again getting the train back from Palo Alto. Racing towards San Francisco, reading Sweet Thursday and the clouds rolling over south San Francisco, the fog slowly clearing to reveal the most gorgeous sunsets I've ever seen. It would also join me on walks to the Oakland Whole Foods where the beer selection is better than Beer Ritz, Utobeer and the Dram Shop combined and they even have an Olive Bar in the store than you can pitch up a stool and eat until the store closes*.

And like how Neu!'s Heroes almost pre-defines punk, this record has a lot of the characteristics of the punk sound but without the sneer, and without the fear. The first four tracks slide by in a crescendo of durms and synths. Then Geld with steady drums and wavering lyrics - god knows what they're on about - no doubt Money but I don't really know what their stance is. Then Cha Cha 2000, so good it spawned a band (which is also good: http://www.discogs.com/Cha-Cha-2000-Autobahn/release/159839). And it is good - great in fact. All that great uplifting Neu! piano and drums, and the repetition of Cha Cha Zwei Tousand! It's cheesy as hell but I fucking love it and the line "dance to the future" makes me beam from ear to ear. I am so glad that they could go to this place that no-one else would - no-one sings about paradise anymore and that's something of a shame as this really works.

What a great blissful joy of a record.

*This is a lie.

33: La Dusseldorf - La Dusseldorf

Another great record on the Cluster/Neu/Harmonia axis of krautrock. La Dusseldorf was Klaus Dinger of Neu! and some other boneheads (Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe). I like Neu! a great deal but they can come across a little dry sometimes, ditto for Cluster and you know what - sometimes it's nice to talk things seriously but sometimes you just want to have fun. This is that but with a kraut bent. It's fantastic, uplifting and invigorating music that has (eeek) a sense of humor but isn't stupid. I listened to this walking back from the 24th street Mission BART stop to my place on the Mission. The sun was shining, I was in a ridiculously good mood having spent the better part of the day trading Simpsons quotes back and forth. The optimism washed over me and I cried for at least the better part of one block.

The opener, Dusseldorf, is bonkers - Dinger plays right from the book of Neu! but someone (one of the Dingers) keeps saying "Dusseldorf" over and over in a fairly stupid voice. Following that it's right into "La Dusseldorf" which is pretty much the same thing but with the stupid voice turned up to 11. Silver Cloud is then the most optimistic Kraut song, all plinky synths and low tempo chugging riffs. Then a lower tempo song which is classic slow Neu! with someone wittering on. Presumably about time.

So, I don't want to call this since I haven't revisited Neu! in some time, but this could out-Neu! Neu!. It's like the best part of Neu! - the drums and relentless riffing with the addition of stupid vocals and german male wailing. It's pretty incredible and I will be putting in my order once I get home.

32: Kraftwerk - Kraftwerk

This is a tricky one. So Kraftwerk was a double album on Vertigo which collated the two Traffic Cone LPs which pre-date most of the Kraftwerk that is known and loved. I have something of a confession to make: I don't really care for Kraftwerk. I like the idea of them but in practice they leave me wanting. But this is not the Kraftwerk of synthesisers, robots and drum machines - this is Avant Kraftwerk, all ambience, drones and hums. In theory there's not much not to like but in practice it's Bad Avant rather than good Avant.

The double-albumness of the whole thing doesn't do much to help meaning that even though there's a mixture of short and long tracks everything drags on and at the end of it, you come away with not much. Klingklang is okay but sounds more like Neu! than anything else. Atem is typical of the other tracks, with not much rhythm and a lot of sound effects - like someone breathing for 3 minutes.

The only reason that this album is worth thinking about, however, is Ruckzuck. 8 minutes of frantic flute staccato accompanied by synthesizer tinkling - it's really good but not outstanding. It does, however, stand out amongst the drier parts of the record. I tried this record everywhere - to and from Palo Alto, around SF on the BART, over to my favourite stop: 19th Street in Oakland. Once, on the train, the timing of the train pulling up and the record slowing down ending of one of the tracks was in perfect synchronicity. Even this did not lift the record up above where I had thought it was. It's just quite boring.

31: Harmonia - Deluxe

If Musik Von Harmonia was the glorious sound of the future, then Deluxe is unashamedly the sound of the present wrought bare: the hope made real and the vision realised in frightening technicolour. Gone is the mild hesitation of the previous record, and in it's place is (bizarrely for krautrock) humour. Here are one and half groups at the peak of their powers and they're having a really good time.

And so, how MVH was all about the fear of the future, and the realisation that the future can be wondrous and inspiring, Deluxe is about the realisation of that future. And Deluxe also represents infatuation and admiration - that one's perspective can be radically altered through something as simple as a smile, a touch of hands or a laugh. This record has largely accompanied me on trips from Palo Alto to Millbrae - a buffety American beast of a train that careers at breakneck speed through the Bay Area towards San Francisco. Whereas MVH accompanied these types of clattering journeys, Deluxe plays off them - it races ahead of the train and off into the future, laughing as it goes.

It's wondrous and I'm besotted and more so than before, it combines the best of Cluster with the best of Neu! The tracks are generally long, but have a purpose and have a sense that they've reached their destination rather than trying endlessly to get to where they want to go. The opener is all synths and guitars, with repeated lyrics (in German) which I dare not translate but Immer Wieder means again and again according to Google. The long track on side 1has lots of wobbles and drums. Then, just when you think they've gone all ambient on us, they kick in to a revisitation of the first track. It's start with some delayed guitar noise then breaks into a great Neu like rhythm with (someone) chuckling away. Then we're off into more traditional territory of plinking synths and guitar strumming for the remaining tracks.

This record, and my feelings about it, are utterly bound to my present situation of course. I feel the uncertainty and the fear in it of course, but my present bounds me to optimism and of course I treat the record as such. I just bought an iPad, the whole experience being a fearful realisation that the future is now and I spoke to my niece yesterday over Skype and she was (rarely) struck dumb by the experience, coming alive only to ask me if there was as fun fair in San Francisco, and then telling me all the details about her recent swimming party. Harmonia, for me, will always be great because of the Cluster connection but the humour inherent in the record lifts it above  and beyond for me and turns it into something that dazzles.