19: The Cosmic Jokers - The Cosmic Jokers

This record was purchased (I think) as part of my pre-university krautrock stock up. I always had high hopes for the Cosmic Jokers, thinking them brilliantly conceived as the ultimate art rock joke. The krautrock super group - the Dieter Dierks organised mashed jam session gone crazy. The Jokers themselves gone cosmic, the cosmic gone jokers. How could this fail? A big messy kraut jam session blended down into 4 or 5 LPs and on Cosmic Couriers too. My teenage brain probably boggled at the potential in this record.

This was the time of Spalax so my Cosmic Jokers experience was broken up from two side long "jam sessions" into 5 littles slices of Cosmic Joy. Never having been a musician, I have no understanding how jam sessions come to pass and no comprehension of how or if Dieter took the cosmic jams and cut them up into something comprehensible. On the back of the sleeve there's a photo of the band and they're not pretty. It screamed possibility.

How, now then in 2012 - I've probably listened to this CD maybe 5 times. I just don't get it, it doesn't work, it's all over the place and feels probably more indulgent than it actually is. Unlike the great side long tracks which feel short, this feels like a lifetime. Like the Van Horne Pneumatic Transit it just goes on and on forever. The first side is somewhat frantic, drums and synths - not far from Ash Ra Tempel but with a bit more synth emphasis, and less of a groove. After 20 minutes or so Brian Barritt says "Galaxy of Fallons to Telepath 1". Bonkers.

The second side is more laid back - much more cosmic and less jokey. Maybe that's the critical problem with the Cosmic Jokers - it's not funny and the jokes on the listener. Given that this is the first of five - on of which is a "hilarious" compilation of the the other records. I don't know what I'm missing but I'm tired and this record does very little for me. I don't hate it, because all the ingredients are there and it's pretty far out but it comes and it goes and then it's gone, and it'll be another 7 years before I listen to it again. For the duration of listening to this whilst writing this, the rain was making a noise outside. I thought it was part of the record. It was not.