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.