Two things. First a confession - after moaning about seven up it finally arrived and you know what? It's not that bad. The "right-hand lover" parts still grate and my opinion that it's way better without the vocals than with still stand. But it's a good record and the cover art and story warrant further attention than I gave it.
Secondly to move to the ninth entry on the list - this is by far the best Ash Ra Tempel album on there. I don't recall buying it but my ever reliable database tells me that it was bought for me, presumably by my parents, for Christmas 1998. This would have been about the time of the Traummaschine radio show and so it figures that my Ash Ra Tempel detectors were firing all guns blazing at the time. The cover is pretty crappy - Hartmut, Manuel and Rosi sitting in a line, with a (presumably) laughing Klaus Schulze poorly drafted in at the bottom. Klaus also comes off badly on the back cover, appearing to do his best Les Dawson impression.
Like the first album this is a two track affair - in a similar mold too. The first is Freak 'n' Roll and actually gets close to being a heavy psychedelic freak out sort of affair. All noodly guitar and fairly urgent drumming. It does well to hold it together over the 20 minutes but does it well does.
The second side is similar to the Traummaschine - ambient with bass and bowed guitar. The thing that wins it is the pictured Rosi who (according to Cope) intones the story of the meeting of Cosmic Couriers and Timothy Leary. God knows if this is true as even if you could speak the language you can barely hear a word she says. Either way it succeeds and the synth additions work and everything swirls around being quite nice in general.
Anyway - thus endeth the Ash Ra Tempel-athon. If you were pushed I would say get this, Seven Up and then Schwingungen, then if you care get a copy of the first one. This is enjoyable but not really my cup of tea, but unfortunately we have to revisit this lot when we get the Cosmic Couriers section...
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