21: The Cosmic Jokers - Planeten Sit-In

The key word there is "Hobby". 3 records in and already the Cosmic Jokers have given up on the Joke. What Dieter does on this is beyond me and presumably this record is the cutting room floor personified as the Kaiser scrapes the bottom of the barrel for the last few shreds of Cosmic goodness. The next two LPs are "samplers" so perhaps that cosmic jam session was just a regular Jam session which Dieter dressed up and stretched out to 3 LPs.

Anyway, gone are the side long tracks and in their place are 13 vignettes of cosmic weirdness which gets over the "going nowhere" issues of the last two LPs but not far enough over. It still feels like a weird cosmic mess - lots of noodling and too much drugs no doubt. The titles are like some great Library LP which doesn't deliver: "Intergalactic Nightclub", "Loving Frequencies", "Electronic News". Despite having listened to this several times over the last week I can't recall anything about it, and it ends up being a fairly hollow experience.

The ultimate problem is simply this: Not enough Gille. After her quality warbling on Galactic Supermarket, I was looking forward to some more bonkers insightfulness. Alas, though being last on the bill on the sleeve, she has little to say on this. A great cosmic record but ultimately unfulfilling. Great cover though.

20: Cosmic Jokers - Galactic Supermarket

So - the Cosmic Jokers round 2. Still I'm confused: is this a remixed cosmic jam session or a deliberately recorded piece of music? Are the cosmic jokers really worthy of repeated listens? What is this music - it is not really like any other Kraut record but then maybe that's the point.

One thing is clear, however: This is way better than the first record. It feels less (though not completely less) meandering. It has vocals and, for once, the vocals really give it some direction. Again two tracks Kinder des Alles and Galactic Supermarket. Kinder des Alles is all synths and wibbles but the drumming keeps things moving and gives it all a sense of urgency that is actually appreciated. The second part of the first track is that massive church like synth a la Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream.

But the key problem remains. This is clearly a cosmic jam session and even with added direction and vocals it can't disguise from the fact that they're all over the place - it all works and it's good but it's unsatisfying. And sometimes you can't get away with these types of things - if there's one vignette that really stands out that pushes it from okay to great then it works but there's nothing like that here.

Galactic Supermarket has less urgency but is pretty much more of the same. It has a bit more to say and veers off into a dub like space for some time. The last third is fantastic - Gilles is muttering with masses and masses of echo. "Galactic Supermarket presents Cosmic Raindrops". It's bonkers but it works and for a brief time I almost convinced myself that I need this record in my life. But I don't - it's good but it ain't that good.

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.

18: Tony Conrad - Outside The Dream Syndicate

Tony Conrad sounds like a barrel of laughs. Part of the Theatre of Eternal Music with laugh a minute chums La Monte Young and John Cale, according to Wikipedia his best known work is "Flicker", a film consisting of 5 frames, some completely black and some completely white that produces a flickering effect. The length of the film is not specified, but it does "end abruptly" and is soundtracked by Conrad on a synthesizer he built specially.

The Theatre of Eternal Music was also called The Dream Syndicate and hence this record where he performs with some of Faust "Outside the Dream Syndicate". It's a "difficult" record in that  not a great deal happens but it's surprisingly Faust like in sound but not perhaps in length.

So: two tracks, one called From The Side of Man and Womankind, the other called, From The Side of the Machine. Track one is a drum and cymbal one after the other, with Conrad playing the same note (though he wavers a bit) continuously. The track is 27 minutes long. There is not change in the description at any point. Despite this, however, it's really good and disturbingly listenable - the relenting beat gets into your head and you start noticing (or inventing) micro changes, thereby building the song up. Time passes and it never feels like 30 minutes. The final track turns the first on it's head - now it's a different drum beat, and a different violin drone. And bass guitar. The bass breaks the "only play one thing rule" and lifts the track up. It's also 27 minutes.

So Tony Conrad doesn't really add much to the affair, but you could think of this as a Faust record - albeit the mirror image of the Faust Tapes - stretching out time (ho ho) and making something that's not going to be on heavy rotation but is a really powerful record.

17: Cluster - Sowiesoso

Continuing both the Revolver records tape haul and my unashamed love of Cluster, comes their last entry under the Cluster name. Never purchased until now, this seems like a terrible oversight on my part - why did I chase the Neu's and Amon Duuls when these incredible records were available? On the cover Hans and Dieter are chilling by the lake, in the inside cover (of the CD version at least) they're hanging out at what appears to be a building site. Gone are the feverous drones and aggression of the last two albums and in their place is a contentment.

The title track is 8 minutes long and sounds a bit like Popol Vuh but with a rhythm and more synths. It's incredibly beautiful and for something which basically goes pretty much nowhere, feels a little on the short side. Halwa continues the trend of mixing guitars and synths in a twangly way and then Dem Wanderer ups the twang factor, including comedy twangs a plenty. Umfeitung is more rhythmic and more plinkety plonk. Zum Wohl is nice but Es War Einmal is stunning - sounding a bit like Boards of Canada but with much more clarity and vision, for me it's the masterpiece on the record. The last track In Ewigkeit is the most laidback of them all, Cluster manage to make so much out of so little.

And then it's gone. Cluster seem to be overlooked a little in Kraut round ups which seems a little unfair. They don't have the magisterial psych of Amon Duul, or the electronic influence of Kraftwerk. They are simply getting on with making stunning electronic music that is both ahead and behind it's time. As I've said before, I think Cluster, more than any other Kraut band, hang outside of any convention within the genre - they stand unique. I'm really glad I revisited these records, and took the effort to own them rather than having them on bootleg cassette.

16: Cluster - Zuckerzeit

Even my terrible German knows that this is Sugar Time. This continues the cassette haul from the legendary Revolver records in Bristol (Richard King writes way more eloquently than me here: http://caughtbytheriver.net/2012/04/original-rockers/) and this is a continuation of my Cluster love in. Basically Cluster are the Real Deal.

Zuckerzeit is the quintessential Krautrock / Electronic record - all about that mixture of warm synths and harsh drums. There's just something about Cluster though which, like Cluster 2, straddles any conventional music and hangs outside - not arch but pretty far out. Gone are the drones and hums of Cluster 2 and, in their, place is a more accomplished and more engaging electronic sound. Basically, Boards of Canada but recorded in 1974. It has tunes aplenty.

And, for a krautrock album, it has 10 tracks. They're all winners. Hollywood is all shuffled drums and synths but, unlike the previous record, had direction and impulse. And the motorik thing is in full effect - on the following track it's the same but taken further - at times touching on Neu territory. Rote Riki is more experimental but still retains some essence of the beat and Rosa sounds more contemporary than anything that's gone previously.

Caramba sounds like the Human League in the Future era, all synths and drums. James (skipping Fotschi Tong) takes them back to Cluster 2 times with drones and twangs, then Marzipan and Rotor continue the happy go lucky synth sound.

And then round to Heisse Lippen which Google turns into Hot Lips. This is the quintessential Krautrock sound - totally motorik, with a workmanlike electronic sound. Haven't heard Zuckerzeit for about 10 years or so but it still sounds as fresh and as terrifying as it did when I heard it way back when. There's just something astounding about a record which continues to sound contemporary despite being made nearly 30 years ago. Cluster are the winners of Krautrock.

15: Cluster - Cluster II

As a sweaty teenager, I used to spend my time between Replay and Revolver records in Bristol. Replay had a bigger stock and the chances of getting something good for cheap were pretty high. Revolver was way cooler and the very model of a classic british record store. Over time Revolver has been responsible for tipping me off to various records (most notably the Steven Jesse Bernstein LP) and a whole load of Bristol stuff that passed through the doors. At the height of kraut rock frenzy the topic of Kraut came up, and the owner duly offered me a copy of the Faust LP (more of that later) and also showed me the Harmonia and Cluster LPs. At the time these were like the Holy Grail and my childish mind was wondering how much they would be, and how high I was prepared to go to get them. They weren't for sale, however, but he offered to tape them all for me for a small donation. Thus a week later I drove home from Bristol with a tape of all the Cluster LPs and the Harmonia LP. At some point later I bought the Cluster II CD with it's gaudy cover listened to it once and filed it.

In contrast to Can who I like the idea of but the reality is too difficult to bear, Cluster are the real deal. Avant, Electronic and Fiercesome to the max with not a hint of compromise. Like a lot of great music, they hang outside of any attempts at categorisation - sounding of the future and the past at the same time. Out of all the groups in KRS, I think Cluster are the ones that I would defend to the last.

I've never heard the Kluster LP but each of the records are incredible. This one stands out as being the most arch and the most uncompromising. It's a fairly brutal listen - Plas is all sinister electro drones and humming. Then Im Suden with a trill of guitar and more heavy hum and crackle for 12 minutes. Fur Die Katz is then all wibbles and wobbles, swishes and drones. Like a lot of early electronic music it sounds like people with a whole bunch of equipment with not much clue how to shape sounds.

On the next side, Live in der Fabrik continues on the wibbly front, Georgel and Nabitte continuing the mixture of electronic and acoustic music. It's a difficult record to deal with overall because it is simply unrelenting and non-stop drone and fear. Outside of any kind of music I've heard before or since. For me, this is one of the best kraut LPs and despite being a tough listen, I can listen to it over and over and over.