OK, I'm back.
Harmonia - Musik Von Harmonia (1974)
The debut Harmonia album is at once a product of their source bands (Cluster & Neu) and a fine new twist on them, resulting in music that captures what for many is the Krautrock ideal, or more accurately, the motorik ideal. It's not Kraftwerk's all-synth, clean, clinical pulse, nor Neu!'s seemingly effortless glide, nor Can's stomping art world funk. Instead it's at once playful and murky, steady and mechanical, a supergroup of sorts who easily achieves and maintains such a seemingly overstated status by embracing a variety of approaches that work wonders. The players bring their usual multi-instrumental roles to the fore, ensuring that the end results achieve their own distinct sound -- this isn't simply Cluster with Rother's assistance or Rother trying for a solo record with Cluster's backing. For all that, there's a touch more Cluster in the end -- the spacier parts on Musik Von Harmonia have that duo's hushed chill, the electronic percussion of Rother meanwhile avoids his familiar crisp punch using real drums in Neu! outside of the perky "Dino." "Ohrwurm," meanwhile, has a strung-out guitar grind nicely offset by a far more restrained wail in the background, further backed by delicate keyboards and tones. When it comes to pure drift, the wonderful "Sehr Kosmisch" is the understandable winner, a nearly 11-minute-long piece that undeniably had to have been part of the attraction for Brian Eno in his later work with the band. A piano piece reminiscent of Eno collaborator Harold Budd drifts up and down through the mix of keyboard shimmers and electronic washes, resulting in a piece at once both meditative and gently rhythmic. Other songs, like "Veterano" and "Watussi," suggest the electro-pop approach, which Kraftwerk inadvertently founded, but with their own quirky edge, rhythmic distortion, and guitar parts playing with the expected formula. (Ned Raggett, All Music Guide)
Download
Debut album from this under-rated British progressive rock outfit featured the great Louis Cennamo, later of Steamhammer and Armageddon, on bass. He plays on just a few tracks, as the band had no bass player, the keyboardist playing the bass parts mostly. Stars of the show are Tim Hinkley on keyboards and vocals and an amazing guitarist named Ivan Zagni. Not to forget Berry Wilson on drums. Highlight is the eighteen-minute long title track which is a keyboard and guitar tour de force.
Download
The only album from Swiss group Shiver is, in all honesty, not one of the great albums of all time, no 'lost treasure' of psychedelia or anything. It is probably most notable for having the first album cover designed by H.R. Giger. A lot of it sounds terriby dated to my ears, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is, after all is said and done, a very interesting slice of late sixties bluesy psychedelia The first track is a respectful cover of Procol Harum's "Repent Walpurgis", there is also a cover of The Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" that is very, uh, dramatic! "Hey Mr. Holy Man" is a great little ballad that has "Late Sixties" written all over it, with a Hammond organ and choir, and some guy making an earnest narration on top of the music.
Download
Featuring Zoot Money and future Police guitarist Andy Summers, Dantalian's Chariot were responsible for one of the 1960's great obscure psychedelic songs from Britain, "Madman Running Through The Fields". This CD issue features all their known recordings, only 10 of them, and is probably a close approximation of what an album by them would have sounded like. While the material is interesting, none of the other tunes, with the exception of "This Island" maybe, come close to the greatness of "Madman". Well worth a listen, especially if you are a fan of British psychedelic pop/rock from this era.
Download
An obscure German group who put out this one album before changing their name to Tetragon. The keyboard player, Hendrik Schaper, later went on to play with Passport.Sounding like it was recorded live, the music on the album is mainly long keyboard improvisations, progressive with a touch of jazz/classical influence. Keith Emerson was undoubtedly an influence. The keyboards get a break just briefly during the first few minutes of "Trumpet For Example", and then the rest of the song becomes another keyboard freak-out. The whole affair is rather strange and dark sounding.
Download
Thanks to my friend Michael from France who uploaded this rare gem of a bootleg for me. The first two cuts are live recordings from Guru Guru, a 23 minute long version of "Der LSD March", and an 18 minute long "Bo Diddley". The next four cuts are from unreleased session recordings by Uli Trepte (Guru Guru bass player), "United Dish" "Sitting In The Sun" "White Line Fever" and "Ear Mike Song". This is all some real trippy stuff and should be downloaded by all fans of psychedelic music.
Download
The Old Man And The Sea - The Old Man And The Sea (1972)
Almost every collector of progressive rock familiar with Old Man & The Sea's eponymous album acknowledges it as one of the real masterworks from the Northern countries. Old Man & The Sea's music radiated youthful happiness and enthusiasm, comparable to the high-spirited double albums of Junipher Greene and Oddmen. None of them went on to move back the musical frontiers but are still widely regarded as key examples of progressive rock. Our Danish friends stuck to the formula of roaring Hammond organ and cleverly multi-tracked guitars most of the time. What always counts, however, is the ability to write good material and perform it well. "Living Dead" and "Princess" are among the most brilliant melodies from the era sung with passion by Ole Wedel, whose bright voice sounded much like Jon Anderson's. The instrumental breaks are restricted to solos prior to the last verses. The remaining four tracks weren't far behind either! Although there are evident influences from The Beatles, Traffic, CSN&Y, ELP, Atomic Rooster and Jethro Tull, Old Man & The Sea were second to none of these. A classic album from an era when rock musicians were allowed to be pretentious and some were even taken seriously. It didn't sell too well though, causing a sadly premature disintegration of the group.
Download
Kollektiv - SWF Sessions Vol. 5 (1973)
This is one of the true hidden gems of the 70's German underground scene. This album since I first heard it has moved into the ranks amongst my all time Krautrock favorites... and for good reason. I would rank this album on a par with the first two NEU ! albums and in fact can draw many similarities to their music. Kollektiv were a 4 piece band led by jazz and experimentalist musician Klaus Dapper (flute and sax). Musically this is a pure juxtaposition of "Ummagumma" era Pink Floyd with NEU. This all instrumental album really knows how to soar into the depths of space. One of those albums that you toss late at night into the stereo and just sit back and relax to. There is nothing too loud or musically complex here but rather seductive and transcendental. Kollektiv musically blends soft flute with flowing bass guitar and drum lines. This is one of those albums where all 4 instruments work together to perfection. Highly recommended. (loserboy, progarchives.com)
Download
Long John Baldry - Everything Stops For Tea (1972)
This is a great album, and has been one of my favorites for years. I was thrilled when it was reissued some months back with a few bonus tracks. Unfortunately Long John passed away a couple months before it came out. The title track is a funny 'music hall' type song from a British film of the 30's and there are a few straight blues songs like 'Seventh Son" and "You Can't Judge A Book". The rest of the material is folky/bluesy/gospel-y type stuff. Elton John produced one side of the original LP and I'm sure contributed musically as well, and Rod Stewart produced side two - the song "Mother Ain't Dead", a duet with Stewart who plays banjo on it, is just so damn pretty you could cry, and one of the bonus tracks, "I'm Just A Rake And Ramblin' Boy" with Long John & Joyce Everson is beautiful also. In fact all the tracks are great. This is a fantastic album like I said and needs to be heard by anyone who likes acousticy bluesy/folky stuff. Artwork was done by Ron Wood.
Part 1 Part 2
THE GREATEST PAPER AIRPLANES
This has jack-all to do with music, but I'll put it up here for anyone that might be interested. This nifty little program has been around since Windows 95! Formatted like a book, this will show you step-by-step, with animations, how to make 50 different paper airplanes, some fairly simple, some amazingly complex. You can print out the paper with fold lines and aircraft markings. It's a small download and a neat way to pass the time. Have fun!
Download
Epitaph - Outside The Law (1974)
Epitaph were a German band, well actually half German and half British, and this, their third album, was recorded in Chicago during a tour of the US. This is not krautrock, and the band abandoned any progressive leanings and put out what is a straightforward album of hard rock, possibly one of the best rock albums of the 70's. Heartbreakingly, the label that they recorded this for went bankrupt after the album was released, and the band lost everything they had. If you listen to this you will know that they were on the verge of the big-time, I mean it simply is a great rock album. However with no distribution and the tapes belonging to a bankrupt label, they were screwed, when they returned home to Germany they had to sell their gear just to survive. Check this out you won't be sorry. Oh and thanks to my friend Henri from Brazil for this one!
Download
Later!
Harmonia - Musik Von Harmonia (1974)
The debut Harmonia album is at once a product of their source bands (Cluster & Neu) and a fine new twist on them, resulting in music that captures what for many is the Krautrock ideal, or more accurately, the motorik ideal. It's not Kraftwerk's all-synth, clean, clinical pulse, nor Neu!'s seemingly effortless glide, nor Can's stomping art world funk. Instead it's at once playful and murky, steady and mechanical, a supergroup of sorts who easily achieves and maintains such a seemingly overstated status by embracing a variety of approaches that work wonders. The players bring their usual multi-instrumental roles to the fore, ensuring that the end results achieve their own distinct sound -- this isn't simply Cluster with Rother's assistance or Rother trying for a solo record with Cluster's backing. For all that, there's a touch more Cluster in the end -- the spacier parts on Musik Von Harmonia have that duo's hushed chill, the electronic percussion of Rother meanwhile avoids his familiar crisp punch using real drums in Neu! outside of the perky "Dino." "Ohrwurm," meanwhile, has a strung-out guitar grind nicely offset by a far more restrained wail in the background, further backed by delicate keyboards and tones. When it comes to pure drift, the wonderful "Sehr Kosmisch" is the understandable winner, a nearly 11-minute-long piece that undeniably had to have been part of the attraction for Brian Eno in his later work with the band. A piano piece reminiscent of Eno collaborator Harold Budd drifts up and down through the mix of keyboard shimmers and electronic washes, resulting in a piece at once both meditative and gently rhythmic. Other songs, like "Veterano" and "Watussi," suggest the electro-pop approach, which Kraftwerk inadvertently founded, but with their own quirky edge, rhythmic distortion, and guitar parts playing with the expected formula. (Ned Raggett, All Music Guide)Download
Jody Grind - One Step On (1969)
Debut album from this under-rated British progressive rock outfit featured the great Louis Cennamo, later of Steamhammer and Armageddon, on bass. He plays on just a few tracks, as the band had no bass player, the keyboardist playing the bass parts mostly. Stars of the show are Tim Hinkley on keyboards and vocals and an amazing guitarist named Ivan Zagni. Not to forget Berry Wilson on drums. Highlight is the eighteen-minute long title track which is a keyboard and guitar tour de force.Download
Shiver - Walpurgis (1969)
The only album from Swiss group Shiver is, in all honesty, not one of the great albums of all time, no 'lost treasure' of psychedelia or anything. It is probably most notable for having the first album cover designed by H.R. Giger. A lot of it sounds terriby dated to my ears, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is, after all is said and done, a very interesting slice of late sixties bluesy psychedelia The first track is a respectful cover of Procol Harum's "Repent Walpurgis", there is also a cover of The Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" that is very, uh, dramatic! "Hey Mr. Holy Man" is a great little ballad that has "Late Sixties" written all over it, with a Hammond organ and choir, and some guy making an earnest narration on top of the music.Download
Dantalian's Chariot - Chariot Rising (1967)
Featuring Zoot Money and future Police guitarist Andy Summers, Dantalian's Chariot were responsible for one of the 1960's great obscure psychedelic songs from Britain, "Madman Running Through The Fields". This CD issue features all their known recordings, only 10 of them, and is probably a close approximation of what an album by them would have sounded like. While the material is interesting, none of the other tunes, with the exception of "This Island" maybe, come close to the greatness of "Madman". Well worth a listen, especially if you are a fan of British psychedelic pop/rock from this era.Download
Trikolon - Cluster (1969)
An obscure German group who put out this one album before changing their name to Tetragon. The keyboard player, Hendrik Schaper, later went on to play with Passport.Sounding like it was recorded live, the music on the album is mainly long keyboard improvisations, progressive with a touch of jazz/classical influence. Keith Emerson was undoubtedly an influence. The keyboards get a break just briefly during the first few minutes of "Trumpet For Example", and then the rest of the song becomes another keyboard freak-out. The whole affair is rather strange and dark sounding.Download
Guru Guru + Uli Trepte - Live & Unreleased (1972-1974)
Thanks to my friend Michael from France who uploaded this rare gem of a bootleg for me. The first two cuts are live recordings from Guru Guru, a 23 minute long version of "Der LSD March", and an 18 minute long "Bo Diddley". The next four cuts are from unreleased session recordings by Uli Trepte (Guru Guru bass player), "United Dish" "Sitting In The Sun" "White Line Fever" and "Ear Mike Song". This is all some real trippy stuff and should be downloaded by all fans of psychedelic music.Download
The Old Man And The Sea - The Old Man And The Sea (1972)
Almost every collector of progressive rock familiar with Old Man & The Sea's eponymous album acknowledges it as one of the real masterworks from the Northern countries. Old Man & The Sea's music radiated youthful happiness and enthusiasm, comparable to the high-spirited double albums of Junipher Greene and Oddmen. None of them went on to move back the musical frontiers but are still widely regarded as key examples of progressive rock. Our Danish friends stuck to the formula of roaring Hammond organ and cleverly multi-tracked guitars most of the time. What always counts, however, is the ability to write good material and perform it well. "Living Dead" and "Princess" are among the most brilliant melodies from the era sung with passion by Ole Wedel, whose bright voice sounded much like Jon Anderson's. The instrumental breaks are restricted to solos prior to the last verses. The remaining four tracks weren't far behind either! Although there are evident influences from The Beatles, Traffic, CSN&Y, ELP, Atomic Rooster and Jethro Tull, Old Man & The Sea were second to none of these. A classic album from an era when rock musicians were allowed to be pretentious and some were even taken seriously. It didn't sell too well though, causing a sadly premature disintegration of the group.Download
Kollektiv - SWF Sessions Vol. 5 (1973)
This is one of the true hidden gems of the 70's German underground scene. This album since I first heard it has moved into the ranks amongst my all time Krautrock favorites... and for good reason. I would rank this album on a par with the first two NEU ! albums and in fact can draw many similarities to their music. Kollektiv were a 4 piece band led by jazz and experimentalist musician Klaus Dapper (flute and sax). Musically this is a pure juxtaposition of "Ummagumma" era Pink Floyd with NEU. This all instrumental album really knows how to soar into the depths of space. One of those albums that you toss late at night into the stereo and just sit back and relax to. There is nothing too loud or musically complex here but rather seductive and transcendental. Kollektiv musically blends soft flute with flowing bass guitar and drum lines. This is one of those albums where all 4 instruments work together to perfection. Highly recommended. (loserboy, progarchives.com)Download
Long John Baldry - Everything Stops For Tea (1972)
This is a great album, and has been one of my favorites for years. I was thrilled when it was reissued some months back with a few bonus tracks. Unfortunately Long John passed away a couple months before it came out. The title track is a funny 'music hall' type song from a British film of the 30's and there are a few straight blues songs like 'Seventh Son" and "You Can't Judge A Book". The rest of the material is folky/bluesy/gospel-y type stuff. Elton John produced one side of the original LP and I'm sure contributed musically as well, and Rod Stewart produced side two - the song "Mother Ain't Dead", a duet with Stewart who plays banjo on it, is just so damn pretty you could cry, and one of the bonus tracks, "I'm Just A Rake And Ramblin' Boy" with Long John & Joyce Everson is beautiful also. In fact all the tracks are great. This is a fantastic album like I said and needs to be heard by anyone who likes acousticy bluesy/folky stuff. Artwork was done by Ron Wood.Part 1 Part 2
THE GREATEST PAPER AIRPLANES
This has jack-all to do with music, but I'll put it up here for anyone that might be interested. This nifty little program has been around since Windows 95! Formatted like a book, this will show you step-by-step, with animations, how to make 50 different paper airplanes, some fairly simple, some amazingly complex. You can print out the paper with fold lines and aircraft markings. It's a small download and a neat way to pass the time. Have fun!
Download
Epitaph - Outside The Law (1974)
Epitaph were a German band, well actually half German and half British, and this, their third album, was recorded in Chicago during a tour of the US. This is not krautrock, and the band abandoned any progressive leanings and put out what is a straightforward album of hard rock, possibly one of the best rock albums of the 70's. Heartbreakingly, the label that they recorded this for went bankrupt after the album was released, and the band lost everything they had. If you listen to this you will know that they were on the verge of the big-time, I mean it simply is a great rock album. However with no distribution and the tapes belonging to a bankrupt label, they were screwed, when they returned home to Germany they had to sell their gear just to survive. Check this out you won't be sorry. Oh and thanks to my friend Henri from Brazil for this one!Download
Later!
posted by GarColga at 4:42 PM
27 Comments:
Bravo. Thanks a bunch!
Your blog is just Fantastic and I really appreciate to discover very good bands here and read your useful comments. But is there anyway to DL somewhere these tracks in audio lossless format (shn, flac) ? This would be really great maybe using www.quickdump.com, www.sendspace.com or any other more efficient sharing server ...
Long Live 8DaysInApril !!! ;-)
glad ta see yer back. i banged my head purty good awhile ago and i can't fer the life o' me remember who i am or what it is i came for.....anyway, great tunes man! you ROCK!!! so, Keep uppa god work n' stuff....yeah!!!
yaknow i useta live-in ideeho along time-a go and i used to go to the thrift stores up ther n' stuff and i once found and old isley brothers lp atta deseret shop in burley.....d'ya know what happenend to it? no?... cuz i think i left it at my grandma's house if i could get like, one of you guys to pick it up for me, that'd be really cool.
thanks for all the fine work, I'm gonna check those paper airplanes!!
Hi,
I must thank mainly for the Trikolon album, I'm a crazy hammond organ fun a this album I was missing a lot... By the way if anyone here has a simillar interest I´d be glad to share some of my Hammond obssessions...
Just writte to me: mam@cancer.dk
Mates
Thanks a lot! The Kollektiv album is awesome!
Alas, the Epitaph CD you ripped was skipping badly!
Thanks for the comments, everybody.
Thanks Christian for letting me know abot the bad rip. The CD plays fine, I'll try re-ripping it later!
ese disco de Harmonia es una verdadera JOYA
gracias
GarColga
Been some time since I last thanked you. Don't want to seem like a leecher, do I? No.... Thanks for these amazing albums Garcolga.
Cheers
Neil
The Harmonia album you posted is wonderful. Thanks so very much for turning me on to them. I owe you one.
Great set of posts as ever - But I'm not going to get any chance to play the music for a week or two as my 6 year old son has just seen the paper plane programme & is on his Easter Holidays so thats the next few days taken care of. He would like to say he thinks this is the greatest post on the internet ever!!! Cheers and thanks again
Thanks yet afain for so m,any nice rarities - the Amon Duul 2 especially :)
How was your little time off in the country? I wish you enjoyed as I enjoy your blog!
Obrigado GarColga! O seu blog é um dos melhores. No meu blog tem um álbum psicodelíssimo dos Mutantes. Pega lá! aplica aí.
( ... )
GarColga Debtor! Its blog is one of the best ones. In mine blog has an album psicodelíssimo of the Mutants. Handle there! it applies there.
Sandro Ostroski
http://pp_mundo.blig.ig.com.br/
http://entre-avessos.zip.net/
Special thanks for the Harmonia, and as always, a fantastic batch of stuff.
So, how did the harvesting...errr, I mean "digging, planting, seeding and whatnot' go? Find anything 'appropiate' to the music you post? ;-)
thanks for all the great music here.
really good stuff.....
does anyone know a workaround for rapidshare so you dont have to wait an hour in between downloading albums?
garcolga, do you use bittorrent? if so, let me know, i can invite you over to this great private site full of great music.
cheers,
gd
Hi
love the site. I know this goes back a ways but could you possibly reupload part 3 of the Bang s/t. The link has expired. thanks!
Thanks for the Long John Baldry album. Had the pleasure of seeing him in Glasgow not long before he died.
Have you any more?
Fatbhoyjim
Thanks for the Jody Grind album. If you want to hear Louis Cennamo really strut his stuff you need to listen to the Keith Relf's Renaissance album "Island".
Deep River
I'm from Italy. Until yesterday i was thought that you were from Deutschland. Today i discover that you're from U.S.A.
For me it's been surprising.
Where does your passion for Krautrock come from?
Thank you for you beautiful stuff.
It's great.
Hi anonymous, neil & Peecat - You're welcome!
Hi j.t. & Tangletwigs - You're welcome!
Hi De2nys - Thanks.
Hello Sandro Ostroski - Thanks. Never heard the Mutantes, maybe I'll download that one.
Hi Loopy C - Don't know what you are insinuating! I did find an old "Can" buried in the yard!
Hello greg davis - You're welcome. Any good warez site should have at least one post on beating the RS time limit, there's ways to do it for sure. Here's one page with some tips:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/internet_tips869.html
Yes I use BitTorrent! Interested in your site.
Hi anonymous, thanks. All the Bang links are good.
Hi Fatbhoyjim - I do have the reissue of "It Ain't Easy" and will probably rip it and post it sometime.
Hi Deep River - You're welcome & thanks for the tip on the Keith Relf album, I'll look for it!
Hi anonymous from Italy - I downloaded Hairy Chapter out of curiosity on a p2p program about 5 years ago, since then I have been a real nut for krautrock!
Could you post the 2 Sir Lord Baltimore albums? Thank you, this blog is awesome.
you can get the two sir lord baltimore albums at chrisgoesrock.blogspot.com, then click on his March 2006 archives. It's somewhere in there.
Hi friend - Great blog! Fantastic sharing stuff!!
Please look the blog http://www.rockinpeace666.blogspot.com
Because this brazilian guy cloned their posts and some stuff from the CrisGoesRock blog too, without mentioning the sources.
Excellent choices here - Thanks! Only problem is, I can't download anything you've linked to paylesssoft. I click on the download button, and all I ever get is porn advertisements. NOT good here in cubicleland ...
Any suggestions for a first-time user of paylesssoft?
Jody Grind is a great album.Thx a lot!!!
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