tune in. turn on. and: drop kraut! - german underground music 1969 - 1975.

and the german kraut underground garage zweifamilienreihenhauskeller strikes again! extrapoilating the tradition of kraut!demons!kraut!, kraut-bloody-rageous, obscured by krauts, kraut mask replica and hungry krauts daddy here is an other online-only compilation of rare-rare teutonic noise created in the no-time between 1969 and 1975. kraut! tune in. turn on. and: drop kraut!

20 tracks of most suspicious provenance intermissioned by / with 21 very short volte-faces and limping claudatiocations: informabstract german poetry foiled with creeping terror: yes: (sorry:) if you can survive german culturrism: you can survive any culture in an oxygen-respirating universe. but you probably will not like it.

aaaaaahhhh!!! coum on!!!! here is the tracklist. and then the linernotes. and the downloadlinks. we will keep you inspired and we will not recontaminate you.

listen to this:

01 - earschplittenloudenboomer (intro) – john kay (0'15)

02 - going straight – beatique in-corporation (3'30)

03 - große scheiße – otto muehl (0'42)

04 - confessions (priv. rel. 1. single) – virus (3'15)

05 - dies irae – h.c. artmann & gerhard ruehm (0'23)

06 - der 4. kuss – ash ra tempel (6'21)

07 - von zeiten – ernst jandl & manfred schoof (1'27)

08 - tamaurasset – krohn & micus (2'21)

09 - radiating fantasy – sternenmaedchen (0'23)

10 - deep sea soundings 2 – walt rockman (2'05)

11 - mantra yoga in hamburg – a.c. bativedanda swami prabhupada (0'42)

12 - endless music 73 – albrecht/d. (1'12)

13 - mozart –gerhard polt (0'07)

14 - burnin' fire –ex ovo (3'10)

15 - krautpreisung 1 – die stimme seines herrn (j. goebbels) (0'40)

16 - miscarriage of human thinking, part 3 – action (6'29)

17 - tonbandstimmenphänomene: herzraub – ernst knirschnig (hrsg.) (0'26)

18 - asvini mudra – okko bekker (1'46)

19 - martin luther originalzitat 2 – die schmetterlinge (0'48)

20 - holy holy – multi-media group (4'19)

21 - das kreuz – billy graham (0'41)

22 - bring back the love - creepy john thomas (3'22)

23 - lach-couplet, 1. strophe – karl valentin (1'00)

24 - blind – proud flesh (3'12)

25 - jet-lag – staatsdada (ein lübcke) (0'27)

26 - mirrored dimensions – association p.c. (2'31)

27 - eine gute komposition – king shepard pinsel (0'45)

28 - dan – rock machine (2'26)

29 - klopfgeister: spukfall pursuck – originalopfer (0'35)

30 - out blues - chil (2'18)

31 - krautpreisung 2 –gröfaz (a. schicklgruber) (0'43)

32 - spuren – talix (3'56)

33 - er ist nicht – oskar sala (0'22)

34 - westberliner stadtmusik 69, 1 (excerpt) – m.n.d. (3'13)

35 - tonbandstimmenforschung – renate scheller (0'37)

36 - come on in on in – wolfgang dauner quintet (3'32)

37 - schluesselloch – hans moser (0'45)

38 - love song – corporal gander's firedog brigade (3'16)

39 - der mai ist gekommen – anonyme taschenfaltenstimme (0'21)

40 - freies stueck – hotzenplotz (2'54)

41 - isi faellt und geht – zk (0'32)

and what do they want?

tune in. turn on. and drop kraut!

here we go again with another volume of kraut rarities, this time interrupted after each track by short messages from celebrities, some of them infamous for very ugly reasons, some of them highly estimated for their contributions to german culture, and some others are here for the sheer lunacy of the twisted usage of our native tongue. draw your own conclusions...

beatique in-corporation obviously was a loose jam-formation of german musicians at the hamburg pop & blues festival 1970. about 30 % of the announced big name-bands (mostly british) didn't show up (some of them didn't even know they were on the bill; common practice in these days), and there was time enough to jam a bit as a filler in between other acts' performances. german bands at the festival were sphinx tush, thrice mice, tomorrow's gift and frumpy. going straight, sounding like a frumpy/spinx tush co-laboration with jochen petersen on sax (but that's just guess work) was released on an mca double-lp named after the event, which only featured german bands, probably due to contractual reasons.

bielefeld's virus had one of the bigger names in kraut and don't need much introduction. before they released albums for basf and pilz, they debuted with a privately pressed single on their own papersun label in '70, of which confession is the better side, though facts of death is certainly worth a spin as well, if you can find it.

even more famous are berlin's ash ra tempel of course, and i guess everyone is familiar with the first 5 albums at least. before they signed with ohr though they recorded a couple of unreleased demos in autumn 1970. the 4th kiss is one of those and features the trio of klaus schulze, hartmut enke and manuel goettsching in a heavy riffing jam.

hans-peter krohn & stephan micus recorded a very rare eponymous lp (that didn't sound too far from kluster and limbus) in '72 for the munich based label german blues & underground, which is best remembered for the releases of the siloah-albums. krohn had been in pentagon, whose lp for that label only reached acetate-status, and micus went on to make a name of his own as a musical globetrotter in the bermuda triangle between world music, new age and neo-euro-jazz with at least 14 albums between '76 and '94 on japo and ecm.

walt rockman stays a mystery. like robert kovac, joel vandroogenbroeck or gerhard trede, he recorded for one of these german library labels, which produced film music for movies yet to come. in this case the lp is called underwater vol. 1 and was released in munich on sonoton probably in '74.

albrecht/d. was born in 1944, lives in stuttgart/germany since 1958 and acts like an artist since 1966. he worked and performed with beuys, throbbing gristle, vostell, paik, saree and many more. he invented permanent instant performance. he saved raoul hausmann from being forgotten. his work includes: mail art: endless music: processed copies: exhibitions: installations: concerts: stamps: art into society: instant life / love / death: kinky beaux arts: abstract energy: violence permanent: albrecht/d.

after they had changed their from inspiration to ex ovo, this band from koblenz (not to be confused with ex ovo pro) had a contract with polydor, and reportedly recorded a whole album, which is still unreleased. all that ever had shown up was a single in '71 for that label. the a-side, crazy nature, is quite common among followers of the kraut, as it was included in polydor's double-album compilation deutsch rock. here is the hard rocking flip.

totally unreleased until the late 90s was the action's astonishing album for kerston rec., recorded in 1972. why this fine record by a 5-piece from zweibruecken was shelved is hard to tell, it definitely was much better than some of kerston's later productions like the tyll-lp or the proton-compilation. action obviously had great admiration for bands like deep purple, but put in enough kraut spirit to create that typical german sound. very good records in dortmund found out about this lost nugget and contacted the band with the result of a 500 vinyl copies limited edition by the turn of the millennium. long sold out, of course, and as rare as many of these 70s private pressings meanwhile.

okko bekker is one of the sitar virtuosos of the kraut scene, and played on a lot of relevant albums as a studio musician. his best known own release was the basf album sitar & electronics, which had very fine moments, but also a couple of schlock muzak tracks, that didn't really help to boost his reputation. his best and most serious work was hidden on an lp for the cheapo-label maritim called yoga fuer millionen (71). trouble with this record is that the goddamn yoga teacher won't shut up for a second except for a short while at the end of each side. more than half an hour of great meditation music gets spoilt that way, and we have to be thankful for a couple of minutes that demonstrate what a tremendous record this could have been without the fake indian drill instructor.

the multi-media group was made up of 2 bands, but we only know that members of the (post-joy) joy unlimited were involved. this project, called morgen nach dem feuer-hymnus 2 was part of the cultural frame program of the olympic games 72 in munich, a combination of music, poetry reading and acting on a theatre stage. the only item handed down to posterity was a polydor 7“ with 2 allen ginsberg poems (holy holy b/w racks), set to music by the multi-media group. weird, but wonderful.

creepy john thomas usually doesn't get filed under kraut, but as we'll see, on the first album it was in 2 thirds a german band, and the albums were aimed at the german market. john thomas came from australia, where he had recorded in the mid-60s with the flies. his first euro station was cologne, where he made the lp come with me with the band rust. this record was only released in germany on hör zu/black label. in '69 he settled down in germany and formed a band with andy marx (later in tanned leather and cherubin) and helmut pohl (gomorrha). this line-up recorded the selftitled first lp for the german branch of rca in '69, but when it came out of the pressing plant, the picture of the band on the cover showed 3 british musicians alongside john, and – even worse – their names were printed as being the real members of the creepy band (rumour has it, that the agreed name of the group should just have been creepy.) this one also had a uk release a year later, but sank tracelessly. marx was not amused, and pohl quit immediately, but after some excuses marx stayed with thomas long enough to play on the follow-up brother bat bone, a german-only lp for telefunken. by the mid-70s john thomas was in the last incarnation of the edgar broughton band, and a little later he went to berlin, where he played for years with johnny & the drivers.

proud flesh from the cologne-bonn area have their 3rd appearence in our little series here. blind is the b-side of their 2nd single for resono (devil flight, 71)

due to serious ambitions of being considered as a jazz band, association p.c.'s 5 albums from '70 to '74 are still extremely underrated in kraut circles. sure, they produced strictly what we call kopfmusik, (and that's quite exactly the opposite of head music), jazz based stuff in tricky rhythms, but that's about what later versions of, say, embryo or missus beastly did as well, but not as good. they started as association, but had to add the p.c. (for pierre courbois, founder and drummer), when they found out, that they could be mistaken for the us soft rock group of the same name (windy etc.). the other members on the last album rock around the cock were toto blanke (g), siggi busch (b), karl heinz wiberny (sax) and joachim kuehn, who had replaced jasper van't hof (keyb.). the jazz pope joachim-ernst berendt wrote in his liner notes something like: with mirrored dimensions these studied virtuosos show all the overrated new kraut bands, how this kind of music should be handled. well, i mean, err..., he probably hasn't heard 10 % of the relevant acts, but still, the band does a remarkable job, though they don't seem to like the idea too much. or why are they through with it in 151 seconds? but honestly, you'll find some mindboggling music on each of the group's records.

rock machine had an lp in '72 on the cheapo label sonic (hamburg) called plays the best of deep purple. between decently executed versions of all the hits from hush to fireball, they had thrown in 3 own titles for good measure. the slightly hendrix-inspired dan is the only one that doesn't sound like the poor man's purple. credits for these tracks go to one l. mueller.

chil (not chill) most probably were a swiss group. their only lp was rhubarby feeling on sun ('70). it was subtitled musik zu p. felix straesslers film, a flick we've never seen, but judging by the soundtrack, it can't have been an action movie. all in all the album doesn't live up to its reputation and the € 300 minimum you have to bid these days, but it has wonderful moments like the melancholic out blues.

the spuren lp by talix on vogue (71) seems to be on top of everyone's want list these days, although it's a rather weird collection of mostly harmless beatschlagers with uncommon instrumentation and clumsy german lyrics, dealing with everyday life as well as with the joys of necrophilia. indigestible mixture indeed, but taken in smaller portions you'll recognize, that there are 2 or 3 standouts like the title track. talix changed name to pinguin after this predictable flop and recorded the similar in concept, but much better lp der grosse rote vogel on zebra by the end of the year.

m.n.d. stands for moderne nordeuropäische dorfmusik (modern north-european village music). in '69 norbert eisbrenner, werner goetz and sven ake johansson recorded 4 long tracks for their own independent label (later on re-released on the now-defunct leiterwagen records), produced by martin gellrich and released as westberliner stadtmusik 69. this was as free form as it gets, and even in old germany you had hardly found a more over the top record of improvised sound attacks this side of brötzmann's machine gun. (oops, reminds me... johansson was the drummer there, if my memory serves me well.) this kind of pseudo-dilettantism - by people who exactly know what they do - never had much commercial impact, but it has survived for decades in the underground. m.n.d. sound a lot like sturclub does these days, for instance. (well, sometimes at least...)

the wolfgang dauner quintet on the oimels (69) is nearly identical with the classic first et cetera line-up. (2nd drummer fred braceful is missing, while 2nd guitarist pierre cavalli is added.) this record is more song-orientated, but every bit as good as the highly rated first et cetera album. come on in on in is just a taster. go get the whole album. i just found out that that's not as impossible now as it was for years.

the rather silly name corporal gander's firedog brigade was made up by hamburg's most prominent cheapo label europa, and they may have had a bubble gum audience in mind, when they stamped it over the lp on the rocks in 1970. the incredibly ugly cover didn't help either, and so a pretty good hard rock record went down unnoticed. while this genre on europa usually was the domain of lucifer's friend, who recorded there as electric food, air mail, pink mice etc., in this case an embryonic version of wind, originally from erlangen, but very active on the hamburg scene, was behind this neat little exploitation project.

hotzenplotz from stuttgart (partly from the suburb leinfelden) was a radical leftwing agit-prop band in the tradition of floh de cologne. the lp songs aus der show on pläne ( a label spezialized in all things anti-capitalistic) was, like mostly in such cases, a rather uncomfortable mish-mash of spoken words, fighting songs and a bit of rock music. but while comparable bands usually fucked up the musical parts with grandeur, hotzenplotz, with local luminaries like peter schick and wolf kallert involved, were a great bunch when it came to improvisation, which, alas, didn't happen very often. front- or spokesman of the band was albrecht metzger, the infamous rockpalast host of the first hour. (dschoermen telewischen praudlie prissenz...)

and that's it for today. stay tuned, turned on and krautdropping.

yours truly, the lolly pope (andofcourse: rvd)

download:

42 tracks / mp3 / 256 kbps / 150 mb / .rar-file includes cover and a raw version of the linernotes (minor corrections will only appear online)

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