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.
I've always felt the Neu!/La Dusseldorf/Harmonia axis was this whole other, cleanly futurist aesthetic that stood in direct opposition to the hairy LSD/hippie earthiness of the Guru Guru/Cosmic Jokers/Amon Duul jamnations. Me, I generally side with the jams, though can appreciate both. But I completely understand why some folks can dig one set and totally hate the other.
ReplyDeleteHmm - I've not really though of it like that, though I'd not heard any of La Dusseldorf before this year. I like them both, but I think the electronic futurist axis is generally more successful than the jam axis. i.e. I would much rather listen to a bad electronic motorik piece than a tedio-jam a la Cosmic Jokers.
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