36: Neu! - Neu!

The band that defined the sound. Dinger and Rother together at last. Speedfreak clean as Cope says. I had my Neu! spiel all ready to go. Oh yeah, Hallogallo's great but the rest of the album is all those stupid noise experiments. But, as usual, I'm dead dead wrong and I've completly underestimated how good Neu! are in their totality.

So Hallogallo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItXUqk_eIE8), Dinger's drums, that wikky-wikky sound and the rest. 10 minutes of pure joy and non stop fury. It's as incredible as you remember and it's way better than the last time you listened to it. They could retire on that and go down as one of the greatest bands in the world. But then they go off into "experimental" territory and do things that most groups would completely fail at. BUT. And it's a big BUT. They do it really really well. Between Hallogallo and Negativland are three beautiful meandering tracks that drift in and out of your consciousness and are just stunning. Negativland is slower than hallogallo and adds some aggressiveness to the mix, but the pattern of drums and bass is the same. Then it rounds off with Lieber Honig which is more drifty but with strange child like horror vocals.

I was never sure if they were trying to re-create music or if that was just something that people made up. But this is just a really fantastic record and the best thing is that it's a record that you can listen to from start to finish and every track is an eye opener. Maybe they weren't trying but they sure achieved something.

35: Moebius and Plank - Rastakraut Pasta

So Labour Day (or Labor Day) caught me out. Labour Day is like bank holiday monday but for the US, and seemingly has some link with May Day but the specifics escape me. I spent my Labour Day Day on a foggy beach watching crabs, eating burgers and drinking beer. So pretty much a typical bank holiday affair.

The week prior had been spent in the company of the oldball entry in the list. Except that, now that I've heard it, I don't think it's particularly oddball any more. The Moebius is Dieter from Cluster and the Plank is Conny from everywhere. It's all a bit worthy but has moments of excellence. This was a funny one as it seemed like a crappy record from the cover and I seem to recall that all the purists hated it's inclusion, though I don't really know why.

It has the fun elements of Harmonia and Cluster but with a bit of an arch overtone. The first track is all grates and cluster drums. The title track veers slightly towards reggae but is quite listenable - it's weird how takes on reggae often turn out all right. There's a bit of a noise break and then the best song on the record Missi Cacadou. Over reggae-ish drums and guitars Plank (presumably) puts down tons of electronic squiggles and bleeps and some bonkers processed vocals. I have doubly no idea what whoever it is is going on about but it's a fun journey nonetheless. The album then rounds off with some noodling.

So, overall, this is pretty good - not amazing, or as good as the cluster axis and not as fun as the La Dusseldorf things but better than the cosmic jokers at their worst.

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.

30: Harmonia - Musik Von Harmonia

I think this might be the first record on Brain that's been covered. Not that it's in any way significant but, to me, Brain represents the Motorik end of the kraut spectrum rather than the cosmic and way out Ohr type stuff. This was one of the great Revolver records tape sets, and I can remember the guy waving this record round in the shop, saying how great it was. At the time I thought the cover was stupid but now it seems utterly radical - a ridiculously bold statement and totally within the Neu/Cluster framework.

Honestly a record featuring Cluster and Neu was never going to bad but pondering the future and having the space to muse on context over the past week has made me realise that this is one of the best records on the list. And it's a record of its time and of its context and my appreciation of it has been shaped by my context. Firstly, its the sound of a growing metropolis - the clanks of whirrs of commuting, and the electronically processed sounds of the city. I've listened to this on my morning commute, across one subway, one train and one bus - each track resonating with each mode of transport. I listened to it on the T-Train, from South San Francisco, up to the Baseball and Tourists of Embarcadero and then down into the depths of the city underneath Market Street. Then on the way into SF MOMA, wondering what my future holds and being totally enlightened by Buckminster Fuller's dazzling vision of a positive future. Technologically the late 70s had the same promise of the now - that anything will be achievable, and the record drips of the future both in terms of its sound and its overall vision. It's both of its time and completely outside of its time.

Watussi kicks things off and is all scrapes and synth whoops, to be swiftly followed by Sehr Kosmisch which acts as the title suggests. Then Sonnenschein goes back to the Watussi mold, combining synths, drones and drum machines to create its whole. Dino is the most Neu! like of the tracks, and with a more analog drum sound could probably have passed itself off as Neu!. Then the huge drone of Ohrwurm and the plinky plonk of Ahoi!. Cluster/Neu combines for Veterano before some avant tinkling on Hausmusik.

There's a sense of humour throughout, like Roedielius and Moebius are having a laugh at the future and maybe it's all a massive piss take but the music is so glorious that I can't help but think that this vision aligns with my own, a stunning technological utopian view. Or maybe it's the seratonin messing with my head.