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Soon over Babaluma
With Suzuki departed, vocal responsibilities were now split between Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt. Wisely, neither try to clone Mooney or Suzuki, instead aiming for their own low-key way around things. The guitarist half speaks/half whispers his lines on the opening groover, "Dizzy Dizzy," while on "Come Sta, La Luna" Schmidt uses a higher pitch that is mostly buried in the background. Holger Czukay sounds like he's throwing in some odd movie samples on that particular track, though perhaps i…
Delay 1968
Although recorded in the late '60s, the material included on Can's Delay...1968 did not appear commercially until 1981. A collection of cuts featuring early vocalist Malcolm Mooney, these seven songs are among the very first Can tunes ever recorded; while nowhere near as intricate or assured as the group's later work, the visceral energy of tracks like the deranged "Uphill" and "Butterfly" is undeniable."Along with a handful of tracks featured on Unlimited Edition, Delay represents some of Can’…
Unlimited Edition
Most bands stick out a 'unreleased and bonus bollocks' album when they're bereft of new ideas and need some filthy lucre to keep the country estate fully stocked with coy carp. You get the feeling this was the last thing on Can's mind. Having amassed a serious quantity of recordings between 1969 and '74, 'Unlimited Edition' (now giving a thorough spring-clean for this remastered release) was put out on a 15,000 only run to proceed 'Soon Over Babaluma', portraying a much rougher Can that tended n…
Dedicato A ...
Psychedelia, avant-garde, improvisation, underground. 'Dedicato A...' (Dedicated to) is without a single doubt a unique record, and it's really surprising to know that its authors were Italian, from Rome, and that it was released in 1967, the same year of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Sgt. Pepper's! Mario Schifano was not a musician but a visionary exponent of Pop Art, a sort of Italian Andy Warhol, who wanted to integrate his work with a group, providing the psychedelics visuals in support…
Planet of Man
Brothers Manfred and Wolfgang Schunke were pioneers of the Kunstkopf Stereophonie (artificial head, dummy head) binaural recording system. This recording technique was created in the Technical University of Berlin in 1974 with the aim to reproduce real stereo sound as the human ears perceive it. Human ears listen to the sounds in a concrete way that is affected not only by the sound frequencies themselves but also by the position of the listener in respect to the different sound sources. The Sch…
Ege Bamyasi
**Green Vinyl** The group's fourth album, from 1972, originally issued by United Artists. "The follow-up to Tago Mago is only lesser in terms of being shorter; otherwise the Can collective delivers its expected musical recombination act with the usual power and ability. Liebezeit, at once minimalist and utterly funky, provides another base of key beat action for everyone to go off on -- from the buried, lengthy solos by Karoli on 'Pinch' to the rhythm box/keyboard action on 'Spoon'. Liebezeit an…
Monster Movie
Are we there yet? After 25 years of critical reappraisal and at least 15 years of indie and post-rock bands flaunting their influence, has Can finally gotten their just desserts? I don't think so. Not just yet. Can still seem just a little bit ahead of the curve. They really were "post-rock," as opposed to just futuristic. Can's music anticipated both the musical trend toward decontextualization via electronics, post-production, and editing, and the cultural trend toward collective experience an…
Tago Mago
Black vinyl edition You couldn't do much better than beginning with 1971's Tago Mago, freshly reissued in vinyl format. It's a colossus of an album, the product of a band that was thinking huge, pushing itself to its limits, and devoted to breaking open its own understanding of what rock music could be. The core of Can was four German musicians from wildly different backgrounds-- when they initially came together in 1968, two of them had studied with composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, one had play…
Arachnoid
This 1979 record is the unique album from the french band Arachnoid, architects of a dark progressive and psychedelic masterpiece, with a King Crimson and Heldon distictive flavor. "Arachnoid" is not only one of the best classic symphonic rock albums of the second half of the 70's, but also the most complicated and intriguing. This one-off is an impressive effort that rides the line between Magma’s brutalist zeuhl-ishness and the more conventional (if you can call it that!) dramatic prog of band…
Les trois Fou's perdegagnent
Second album by Etron Fou Leloublan, the mythic avant-rock / rock-in-opposition incredible trio, that happily destroys all rock structures and performs a delirious music, full of humour and rhythm. Etron Fou Leloublan had definitely moved up a notch with this release and things would actually get even better with the next release! Still, this album, originally published in 1979 is quite a juicy steak that will take quite some time to devour with the end results exceeding beyong the initial anti…
Batelages
Ferdinand Richard, strings, vocals. Chris Chanet (alias Eulalie Ruynat), horns, vocals. Guigou 'Samba Scout' Chenevier, percussions, choir. A French avant-rock band founded in 1973 by actor and saxophonist Chris Chanet. They were best known as one of the original Rock in Opposition (RIO) bands. Etron Fou Leloublan's music has been described as a blend of punk rock, jazz, French music hall, comedy satire and 'avant-garde mayhem'. Batelages was recorded in November 1976, and its centered around Gu…
Love Is Here to Stay
CD version, housed in a digipack sleeve including a booklet with in-depth, informative liner-notes and pictures. Subtitled 'The Early Works by Bo Anders Persson 1965-1967"' these works by Bo Anders Persson presented on this record were written between 1965 and 1967, before he started the experimental rock band Pärson Sound. All but one track is previously-unreleased. What is the origin of this strange, un-place-able music? What is its place in history, in the unfolding of important conceptual id…
Mandalas
One of the first albums released on Ohr records, Limbus 4 'Mandalas' ranks with the Kluster LP's as one of the most challenging krautrock albums. This is the 2nd Limbus album (their even more obscure debut from 1969, under the name Limbus 3) , which was originally issued by OHR in 1970. A fantastic dose of early 70s German freeform weirdness and an essential reissue for the tuned-out community. "Formed in 1968, Limbus were a most unusual band who grew a unique music out of jazz, folk and a…
Neu! 2
2024 Repress. A striking gatefold reissue of Neu!'s hugely influential second album, originally released in 1973, supplied by the Gronland label. The A-side's main feature, 'Fur Immer' feels like a counterpart - or even an update - of the opener on their debut, 'Hallogallo', projecting a single, disciplined musical idea across eleven minutes of soaring propulsive precision. One of the most important features of Neu! 2 is the album's second side: having run out of money to record a second side of…
Neu! 75
2024 Repress. Another finely turned out gatefold Neu! edition from the Gronland camp, Neu! '75 is widely regarded as the band's last truly seminal recording together, and was committed to tape after the group reconvened following Michael Rother's time playing as part of Harmonia (the krautrock super-group that also included Cluster). In addition to the more ambient inclinations of the two previous albums (which can still be heard on the concrete sound interactions of 'Leb Wohl'), a newfound rock…
Neu!
2024 Repress. Neu! were formed by Kraftwerk members Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger who took the sparse early Kraftwerk electronic sound and utilized many effects like lock-groove rhythms and minimalist melodies currently used by today's electronic artists. Neu! created a new kind of rhythm that bridged the gap between rock n roll's syncopation and dance music's four-to-the-floor beats. Stereolab's Tim Gane says "Neu!'s longer tracks are far closer to the future of house and techno than guitar r…
Live 1974
The problem with Harmonia is that words simply don't do the band justice. A super-group made up of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius (of Cluster) and Michael Rother (of Neu!) they re-defined not only the Krautrock genre but also electronic music in general with a mere two full-length albums ('Musik von Harmonia' and 'Deluxe') so saying that they are an important act, especially on the pages of this particular website just doesn't do them justice. With a flawless blend of electronic and e…
Nachtstucke
LP version. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Nachtstücke owed its publication to former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann, who was asked by the French label Barclay/EGG to produce three albums focusing specifically on German electronic music. He was working with Hans-Joachim Roedelius at the time, who had been given a few Tietchens tracks on cassette. When Baumann heard Roedelius play them in the studio during a break in proceedings, they sparked his interest and he met up with Tietchens some time …
Der Funfte Himmel
LP version. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Between 1981 and 1983 Asmus Tietchens released four albums on the Sky Records label, fusing rhythmic set pieces and off-kilter sounds into gaudy escapades of saccharine artificiality. The "pseudo-pop" epithet reflected their frequently ironic air. All four records have been reissued by Bureau B in their original form. What remained may be found on this collection. Der fünfte Himmel ("The Fifth Sky") retrieves those pieces which were denied a place on the or…
In die Nacht
Bureau B reissues Asmus Tietchens' third solo album on Sky Records, originally released in 1982. It stands to reason that any musical journey undertaken by a skeptic like Asmus Tietchens is destined to head into the night (In die Nacht) rather than into the day. In die Nacht, the third album in the so-called time signal ("Zeitzeichen") phase, continuing in the same vein as Biotop (BB 141CD/LP) and Spät-Europa (BB 142CD/LP), while laying down its own stylistic markers, no doubt attributable to th…