Share a song

I'd really like to begin a thread here specifically to share this kind of music (krautrock, space rock, berlin minimalist ambient &c) and limit it to the years between 1977 and 1988, but I'm not sure if anyone else would be posting nor if there exists any real interest with anybody else but myself, so I'll just post some songs in this thread and hope to reach somebody that does not know about the genre and lead them in the appropriate direction that I've followed to discover such beautiful and psychedelic music that changed my life like no other style.

I'll start off with one of my all-time favorite 'bands', Germany's Software, a two-man operation introduced and initially largely produced by the relatively well known pioneer of the Berlin School sound, Klaus Schulze (formerly of Tangerine Dream, Ashra Tempel fame). For those unfamiliar with the style, Berlin School is subgenre within the reach of the broader and very loosely defined Krautrock school, which emerged in Germany in the late sixties, an experimental and unconventional approach to music which yielded such famous artists and bands as Kraftwerk (formerly Organisation), Can, Amon Düül II, Neu! (and later, La Düsseldorf), Guru Guru, Tangerine Dream, Popol Vuh, Embyro, and some lesser known such as Birth Control, Brainticket (brainchild of Belgian born Joel Vandroogenbroeck, who would later go on to produce countless albums which are cataloged under the 'library music' title, music made specifically for nature, space or industrial documentaries, commercials, New Age atmospheric ambiance and television programs; under various pseudonyms such as Eric Vann, V.D.B. Joel, Joël Van Drogenbroek, Joel Vanroogerbroek, &c he released an immense body of work for the lovely Coloursound library label in various styles such as space disco, ambient meditative -both organic and synthetic- drone, proto-industrial, electro, soft jazz and experimental electronic in genera), Agitation Free, plus the more prog-oriented grandiose lesser known's such as Frumpy, Kraan (slightly more on the fusion end of the spectrum), Eloy, Stern-Combo Meißen (who occasionally tread into fantastic disco musings), Nektar, Mythos, Grobschnitt and Floh de Cologne.

These are all lumped into the Krautrock category by default in association, but Krautrock itself can be broken down even further into many different sub-schools, many of which would go on to deeply influence Techno and House (specifically Detroit Techno, which in turn was inspired by the likes of early hip-hop breakbeat dj's like Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force), Neue Deutsche Welle (a sort of new wave / electro-postpunk / industrial type of music, often theatrical and highly aggressive, among my favorites in this category are the Swiss based Grauzone, Palais Schaumburg, and the trio of associated artists responsible for the 'bands' Pyrolator, Der Plan and Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft or D.A.F. for short, collectively now referred to as synthpunk), Space Disco and Italo Disco (for example, a personal favorite, Ganymed, although this genre would see far greater success and merit as a viably emotional and complex style primarily within France and Italy, and in limited quality but not quantity, Russia 'i.e. Space, the band'; in Italy the list is far too long to include here but, in France, through the Barclay label with leading artists Yves Hayat and his work with Droids - Star Peace - which also included the founder of the mind-blowing Egg label, Fabrice Cuitad, and the Carrere label which released a broader variety of disco variance but included such space classics as D.I.X.O by Brain, Somewhere In The Night by Stereo, Disco Project by Pink Project, a single by the brilliant Sparks from their album No. 1 In Heaven, and my very absolute favorite in the prog-disco genre, Dominique Perrier Roger Rizzitelli's Space Art, whose second and third - and first - albums are *must hear* material if you enjoy anything from Pink Floyd to Giorgio Moroder).

Then you have the more 'serious' sides, like the Kosmische school largely born by the Kosmische Musik, or Kuriere (Cosmic Couriers) label which had it's inception in the labels Ohr (which itself was divided by disagreements and two members went on to create quite possibly Krautrocks most recognizable label, Brain) and Pilz (which is the record label with the beautiful and instantly recognizable vinyl stamp label of a big amanita mushroom against a blue background) and gave very early expression and distribution to artists like Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, Popul Vuh (which at the time was, although electronic, primarily an ethnic folk / tribal affair), and Wallenstein. This core roster included the people who were directly responsible for the establishment of the Berlin School sub-genre, namely Klaus Schulze and Manuel Göttsching, both of whom released music of a tremendously wide variety which had it's roots in experimental music so free and psychedelic that it can only be described properly as 'harsh ambient' and 'drone', but more on Berlin School below. Proper recognition for what is in my opinion the most important school to have the farthest reaching higher-art influences has it's source in the awe-inspiring Sky Records label, established by Günter Körber formerly of Metronome Musik, which in turn was the parent company of the aforementioned label Brain, which saw the majority of releases by the bands Cluster (including it's members solo material and associated side projects, by Roedelius, Moebius, producer Conrad 'Conny' Plank, former-member and originator Conrad Schnitzler, friend Asmus Tietchens, Phantom Band and the one-time super group Liliental), Günter Schickert, Michael Rother (of Neu!), Earthstar, Tyndall, Adelbert Von Deyen, Dieter Schütz, Serge Blenner, Wolfgang Riechmann's solo album (his only, as he was stabbed to death days before it's release) and the band he formerly played keyboards and synths for, Streetmark, which also included the brilliant Dorothea Raukes who released her only solo album, the self-titled Deutsche Wertarbeit in 1981 also through Sky Records and this remains one of the most sought-after and amazing works in the genre, and last but absolutely not least, my favorite German musician across this entire board, Harald Grosskopf (who played with Klaus Schulze and Ashra Tempel, as well as formed the N.D.W. band Lilli Berlin) whose 1980 record Synthesist remains my favorite record from the entire genre and associated styles and is, in my opinion, the pinnacle and most definitive of what electronic German music is.

Sky Records, again, was home to the Berlin-based legends Cluster, a band so far ahead of it's time, so immensely influential and talented, inventive and creative, that they deserve an entire thread of recognition and discussion in order to truly attempt to do justice to their importance, but I'll touch on the basics for those curious. Cluster was initially founded by the trio of Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler while establishing the improvisational performance art and experimental music community based in an avant-garde multimedia venue known as the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, a rented back room in a political theatre along a canal in West Berlin. Established toward the end of the sixties, the Zodiak was reminiscent of what was occurring simultaneously across the seas in America with the Grateful Dead and the Acid Tests, in that Tangerine Dream was primarily the 'house band' and during it's initial stages it was rather a revolving door type of 'band' with no official members beyond Edgar Froese and founded primarily on the principles of improvisation, experimentation and incorporating electronics (this was pre-synthesizer, and the electronic sound and effect was produced by numerous prototypes like circuit bent or rewired Hammond Organs and Rhodes Pianos, electric guitars fed through multiple layers of processed effects boards and intentionally damaged amplifiers, similar designed destruction to microphones and the like, and Klaus Schulze made his first appearance on this specific scene as drummer, with Conrad Schnitzler providing cello, violin and an early calculator called an Addiator, and Edgar Froese providing magnetic tape loops, twelve string guitar, organ, broken glass shattering, fire burning and altogether wild rampage to force 'found sound' effects to the first Tangerine Dream album, Electronic Meditation.

After this release the trio dissolved and Tangerine Dream went on to establish a new trio with Edgar Froese remaining the bands only constant, while Conrad Schnitzler, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius created the band then known as Kluster, which released three of the most psychedelic noise based experimental albums that the scene has ever produced. After these three albums, Conrad Schniztler parted ways and went on to produce a seriously staggering number of solo records and records produced with his son, using primarily homemade synthesizers and equipment, walking around the streets of Berlin with machines strapped to his body and wearing a helmet fitted with a megaphone to produce moving, live improvisational sound experiments for the public to be astounded (and likely frightened) by, whereas Roedelius and Moebius saw Kluster reduced to a duo, then known by it's anglicized reformation, Cluster. The duo as Cluster released two early albums of profoundly discordant, disorienting 'space ambient music' with the help of legendary German producer, Conrad 'Conny' Plank (who developed both Kraftwerk and former Kraftwerk / Organisation members, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger's band, Neu! and later went on to produce anybody who was anybody within the scene as well as several giants outside such as John Foxx, Ultravox!, Can, Holger Czukay, Eurythmics and many others) before having some sort of divine intervention of inspiration after moving away from the city and out into the countryside, during which period they got together with Neu!'s Michael Rother to release the first of two albums under the group name of Harmonia, which in turn directly influenced what they released next, arguably their most influential and beautiful works, Zuckerzeit in 1974 and Sowiesoso in 1976. It was these two albums that changed the world and made ambient music a 'thing' respectable, and this led to collaborations with British artist and producer Brian Eno, formerly of Roxy Music and in large part bear responsibility for what Eno was then to become famous for: Creating "ambient" music (beginning with Discreet Music and then becoming solidified as a trademark and expected style with Before and After Science which featured both Roedelius and Moebius extensively, and ultimately taking proper shape Music for Films and the four-part Ambient series beginning with Ambient 1: Music for Airports, all of which were released after the Cluster collaborations). It was not Brian Eno who created ambient music at all, despite his claim to fame with inventing this title and offering in album liner notes stories recounting how he discovered the merits and joys of the style, meanwhile it had been going on as a fully established and perfected form in Germany since at least 1969 and Cluster's Sowiesoso anticipated Eno's work and indeed even greatly surpassed it in quality and inventiveness.

After Sowiesoso, Cluster began to turn more toward purely electronic music, in a sense; the follow up was my personal favorite album Grosses Wasser, a minimalistic ambient / folk / prog affair that captures the essence of everything Cluster tried to attain throughout their career and which contains the foresight to anticipate the kind of music contemporary to us today, which was curiously not produced by Conny Plank but rather by Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann. This album marked Cluster's turning point and thus it is pivotal and teeters on the brink of experimental electronic music between folk-oriented melodic pieces and a 20+ minute psychedelic romp through noise and chaos not seen since the release of Cluster II from 1972. After Grosses Wasser came Curiosum in 1981, which saw the group turn almost exclusively electronic, highly discordant and truly abstract, and thus they have remained ever since, balancing strange synthesizer noises with romantic and baroque piano styling.

I could go on forever linking the endless connections that exist among these artists, styles and labels, but I will be posting songs which largely fall under the Berlin School style, pioneered by Klaus Schulze, perfected by Harald Grosskopf and Michale Hoenig, and catalogued by Schulze's own record label, I.C. or Innovative Communications. It is this label which released hundreds of early electronic music, ranging from dance-oriented to psychedelic ambient, and includes some of my favorite artists, the aforementioned Software (and their other group named after the duo, Peter Mergener & Michael Weisser, also involved in the I.C. based groups PCM and Megabyte) and Robert Schroeder, another Berlin School cum synthfunk artists who created his music entirely with self made, homemade synthesizers and equipment. This music was released between 1979 and 1988 and is very dated, nostalgic eighties video game space sci-fi stuff but is epic, dramatic, occasionally danceable and more often than not profoundly tripped out and trance inducing. Enjoy!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lUMP1W140s"]Richard Pinhas - Iceland - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wk501WNBtA"]Software - Add space to Time (1985) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBW4hogVNSY"]Galaxie Cygnus-A, Teil 2 - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLJ7LH6w-10"]Brain - D.I.X.O. (1982) - YouTube

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPL7WJgSir0"]Tupac - Open Fire - YouTube

 

Shit's deep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXiMl_UqLC4"]2pac - When Thugz Cry (HQ) - YouTube

 

tl;dr

Jeez!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z6dxQVhE8o"]Jesus Jones - Right Here Right Now - YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waacof2saZw"]EMF - Unbelievable - YouTube

 

I love this live version. I listened to this song 3 times in a row tonight while prancing around and singing into my hairbrush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTrCDZgdD80"]Lionel Richie - All Night Long Live 1984 Can't Slown Down Tour - YouTube

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWdYMuo3_B4"]Final Six Minutes of the Six Feet Under Series Finale - YouTube

Can music and images be put together any better?

 

Do you find him sexually attractive? I hear that women throw all sorts at him. I've never seen it myself. I look better than him, but have never had that experience. Do I need to write hit records?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky4uYnsF3kc"]The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, the Drug of the Nation - YouTube

 

I don't find him sexually attractive personally, but he has really sexy moves. If that makes sense.

This group is like a street band, a group of buskers. The song title translates "brown, the colour of love" and it's about beer (or love being really shitty?) The video is funneh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B61pW6LXAvw"]Bernard Adamus || Brun (la couleur de l'amour) [vidéoclip officiel] - YouTube

 

Not really, no. Sorry. Or I don't quite appreciate his sexy moves.

 

The decisiveness of this song appeals to me when I'm thinking of myself as a very weak person. It doesn't speak of relatoinships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGwCP2hX2FM"]REO Speedwagon - Time for Me to Fly (with video lyrics).wmv - YouTube

 

I'll share some psychédélique, one of my favourites from the 70s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhWtmOJk_j0"]Harmonium - Vert (Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison) - YouTube

Title translates "Green: If we needed a fifth season"

 

I like that raw shit:devil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubER_ubRfCA"]Mizfit Tha Menace - Psychosis - YouTube

 

Something guerillabedlam and I put together. I wrote the lyrics. GB produced the track. I think it sounds pretty good, considering we put it together in only a couple of days:

"put a blunt in rotation
drop some 4aces
let the beat take my mind to a higher elevation
crazy thoughts in my brain as I look up at the sky
staring at the world through kaleidoscopic eyes
a chaotic kind of peace with no barriers in place
I look like a madman when you see my trippin' face
dosing psychedelic chemicals with no specific mission
but to drop out of reality and decorate my vision
hyperspatial bliss as I leave the world behind
just to see what I can find in the depths of my mind
on a journey through the universe
take me through the cosmos
lying on my back, in the dark with my eyes closed
I travel really far but I never move an inch
my body's in reality, my mind is on the fringe
behind my eyelids I see geometric visuals
my thoughts are analytical
thinkin' about some things and I'm feelin' kinda mystical
light is emanating from the top of my cranium
I don't feel human, so I must be an alien
down the rabbit hole, now I'm in wonderland
my ego fades away and I begin to understand
everything is nothing, and nothing everythang
I travel back in time and I see the big bang
the knowledge that I gain is kinda hard to explain
but moreso than that, it's even harder to retain"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXP-lbJppQk"]Hyperspatial Bliss(Lyrics by TNS and Production by GB) - YouTube

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nrUyL7zpkY"]The Black Angels, "Better Off Alone" music video - YouTube

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8CnurLcxRY"]Dick Dale - Medley: Surfin' & Swingin' / Misirlou / Wedge - Live on TV! - 1963 - YouTube

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgShIx49n_w"]Robert Johnson "Crossroads" - YouTube

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhSUrg88ZC0"]Charles Manson - Cease To Exist (with lyrics) - YouTube

 

Well.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iiS6JoGDpA"]The Fleetwoods - Mr Blue (Midnight Special - May 17, 1974) - YouTube