Im Stollwerk

Cologne rules! I am a big fan of Dunkelziffer / Unknown Cases and especially of Dominik von Senger. Guess what my face looked like when I turned the cover of this LP to have a look at the back.... If you're a fan too - download immediately. If not - give 'em a try anyway.

Download expired in 2011. After I posted this in 2009 this post got only 1 (ONE!) comment in 2 years. Maybe some of you have snapped by now that these guys rule ; ) New link follows

Cheers,

Basso

Don't forget the sunglasses

Michael Bundt is a well known name among fans of obscure electronics. Here's his third solo album released in 1980 on Blubber Lips . It's a good bit more experimental than the predecessor, the lovely cosmic ether-pop record "Neon" - in fact even weirder than his first. Be prepared and grab your shades....

PS. maybe someone remembers the c64 game "Maniac Mansion"? I have always thought "The Tower Of Osc" would have been a nice addition to the soundtrack of that game. The tentacle song maybe? Chow chow!

Click!

Here's more Cogwheel, even if it's spelled wrong. This 7" used to be a commercial gift for customers (or future customers) of famous Rollei Cameras and it even sounds like them.... 

Cheers, Basso

Relax and you'll be out of that damn thing in no time

Guitar and vibraphone. I'm listening to that combination a lot lately so I thought sharing some of it would be the thing to do. I'm a total sucker for Florian Poser's vibes so there was no need to playcheck the record when I found it in a shop some time ago. I do remember that at home it was the first one on the deck. Some blissed out 40 minutes later I "woke up" and listened to some more records, but none of those was half as nice as this here LP. But beware! The whole record is really relaxed and - of course - acoustic, no drums, no synths etc. Just some good old handmade music!

Cheers!

The joy of cooking KRAUT

Hi folks, tuesday october 19th at 10pm Central European Time (2 pm eastern, 11am western) my second show on Deepfrequency.com will be aired. It's a "Kraut" special this time. A bit of good old krautrock as well as some jazz and obscure 80s stuff... but no Kraftwerk, no Cluster, no Can, almost none of the big names featured but you know them already anyway ; )
Hope you'll enjoy it!! Cheers, Basso

the show is archived now. you can stream or download it here

Starting with a very short track (=no track) by hobby musician group Thotes Schwein and their 1981 hit "Schwuler Frosch". Sounds like there's some good old german beerspirit involved too.
Next up is Alex Oriental Experience. A dealer who showed me that fantastic double album lately called the guy "Türken-Alex". The decision of having a turkish influenced track as the "first" track in a Kraut-Mix is a political one!
Alex is followed by Agitation Free, one of my favourite krautrock bands - ever! This one here called "First Communication" is the opener to their second LP.
"Öffnen Sie Mal Ihre Tasche" comes from a private press 80s LP called Subtanz.
It's followed by Moebius and Rentzihausen's opener of ther Ersatz LP.
Next up my favourite Richard Schneider Jr. tune "Regine's Dance".
"Wereld World" has been edited by Tako and you'll find it on one of the ESP Concentration Vol. 1 12"s.
Off to some more folky vibes we have Gadzho with "Manege" followed by the International Geräuschorchester.
Next is a collaboration of Kraan and Guru Guru called "Leopardenkästchen" unfortunately only to be found on a pretty rare Promo LP from a southern german radiostation. Hugest thanks to Paul at the Plattenrille for that one : )
Next we have Ceddo's mastermind Jochen Schlumpf. Must admit that I forgot the title and can't find the damn record in the chaos right now....
Off to another gifted guitarrero - Martin Müller - accompanied by Hakim Ludin and Michael Höfler with the title track of the truly wonderful Avenida Atlantica LP. Mos definitely one of my favourite finds of the last years.
Voodooish vibes from Frankfurt in "Sister Magic" by Iviron. A strange story about a guy who goes home with a fifteen year old girl and then finds out that girl's got balls ; )
The joy of cooking kraut closes with Janus' "Gravedigger" a perfect neverending kraut hymn from the UK.

Strings Attached . . .

Strings? All over this record. Heinz Fröhling's guitars are very prominent in this late release which dropped in 1979. Gerd Führs is covering drums and synths per usual. 3 drummers on this release and yet another string player. Credits. A few of the tracks have a symphonic edge, but all the tracks have a cosmic shimmer; loads of synths. Well worth adding to your collection.


Strings

Sequential Echos

Überfällig is Günter Schickert's second solo lp. This one was released on the Sky label in 1979. Schickert is a guitarist and uses a looping system with echo, along the same lines as Reichel, Göttsching and Bloch. Charles M. Heuer is playing drums on a few tracks, also with an echo or delay technique. Brigitta Nabucet is providing the vocals on the second track, In Der Zeit. While this lp has similarities with other recordings in the same vein, to my ears it is still uniquely Günter Schickert.

Überfällig

Madness is different....

Here's some more private german jazzrock from the early 80s. Glatter Wahnsinn's self titled LP on Anvil Records from 1980. In big demand because of Samba La Bamba. The rest of the tracks are really great too and if you can take a little fusion you'll have lotsa fun with it. I'm having fun with the keyboard work especially. It makes up for the sax (can't stand saxophones....)

cheers,
Basso

PS. Glatter Wahnsinn roughly translates Total Madness

the old man's journey into the unknown

Here's one of those disco LPs that never gets boring. Good sign for a true classic.
Methusalem's "Journey into the unknown" also released as Empire "Self Titled".
Ralf Nowy, who played and produced a bunch of great & partially funky progressive Kraut LPs, is to be held responsible for this nugget. Trevor Bastow pleases us with some fantastic spatial Keyboard work! And the rhythm section - PURE BUST. Enjoy!

here

Cheers,
Basso

Rolf Trostel - Der Prophet

This is my first contribution to The Growing Bin. I hope you enjoy it.
Der Prophet was Rolf Trostel's 3rd lp and was released in 1982 on the Norwegian Uniton Records label. 6 tracks:
Side 1:
1. Der Prophet
2. Digital Track
3. Individual Destiny

Side 2:
1. New Age of Intelligence
2. Town Dreamer
3. Sehnsucht

Der Prophet

Oh Nandu, What Have We Done?

Promise is promise. Here's the Zenamon self titled LP from 1984. As you see in the image above it was released on Polydor.... so it's not mad rare but at the same time not easy to find. Though you will find a copy at a decent price maybe even before the recent run for it (caused by the appearance of one song of this LP in a Harvey mix) is over. The whole LP has really not much to do with dance music (imho) as some may want to think. It's actually pretty mellow and also "folky" at times. Music lovers into Balearic will find reasons to call parts of it balearic as well. Anyway - when I listen to music I don't mind too much about categories - I just listen and I'm happy when the music touches me and that 's how I got to appreciate this LP. Bought it because of the fancy cover and didn't expect a bit when listening to it for the first time. Some years ago I didn't really listen to a lot of that kinda "esoteric" ; ) stuff but I somehow liked it instantly and to my surprise it got better and better. I hope I'm not ruining your first time listening by these here words. I just want to add: Don't expect too much, take your time - maybe it works.

cheers,
Basso

ps. I hope it will be reissued sometime soon

einzelgänger

I was uploading a zip already when I thought about checking if this has been posted before. And of course it has! That's almost 3 years ago now, but the link seems to be working still ..... so I'd like to lead you to a great blog À bientôt j'espère.

I really like this LP. It's a bit different from Giorgio Moroder's later output...... you will enjoy it!

Ja! Ja! Ja!

Ja Ja Ja is Frank Samba, Julie Jigsaw and Wietn Wito. Their first and only LP was produced by Pyrolator back in 1982. In opposition to a lot of young german bands of that time the vocals are english mostly. If you want them categorized - Ja Ja Ja sounds like something between the B52s and The Dance or Tom Tom Club plus a little bit of rapping on Graffitti Artists International. And they sound fresh! Check out I am an animal and you know what I mean.

Cheers,
Basso

WHAM BANG!!

ES (it) is Bernd Kiefer on Bass and Vocals; Zabba Lindner on Drums, Xylophone and Vocals; and Georg Kochbeck on Keyboards [Fender Piano, Solina, Hohner Clavinet D6, Micro Moog, Multi Moog] and Lead Vocals. With the help of some friends like Alto Pappert from Kraan and Alex Conti (Atlantis) they produced a very nice and jazzy "Kraut" LP that I deeply love for those spatial and atmospheric tracks like Dream and Earth And Space. Nevertheless the rest of the album is really worth a nice listening session. Maybe two.... Enjoy!!

Cheers,
Basso

Finally a Fata Morgana!

There have been a couple of requests for this nugget and I finally found the time to dig my rip out of the sanddunes of my hard disk. Unlike the first album which I think is good from beginning to end this one has two HUGE hits. Regina's Dance and the title track that covers almost the complete B-Side. The lineup is quite the same as on Dreamlike Land: Liebezeit, von Senger, Heilhecker, Zerlett, and Krachten (if you don't know 'em already, check out everything Dunkelziffer or Dominik von Senger ever recorded because that's them guys and they rule!)
Have fun and Dance with Regina!
Cheers,
Basso

Dreamlike Land

Richard Schneider Jr.' s "Dreamlike Land" is my favourite LP for quite a while now.
Please excuse that I won't say anything about the style of this goody. Just imagine Jaki Liebezeit on Drums, a guy called Jumpy (Helmut Zerlett) on keys & synths, almighty Wolfgang Maus on Bass and an ironic Mr. Schneider on Glockenspiel, Acoustic 12 String guitar, Synthesizer, Tubelar Bells, Tambourine & Cowbells ........ See you at the beach!

Cheers,
Basso

Funky Four Corners

I really believed I'd never find the original. But I did and it's yours now.
Indeed a very groovy (maybe even a little spiritual) LP on the small Trend label recorded in 1976. Very listenable all the way through. Heavenly if you're into flutes and synths. There used to be a reissue in the late nineties - I hope it's still available. If so: go out and buy it.

cheers,
Basso

Wutt wutt

May I present Supersempfft's 2nd LP called "Metaluna" released on the private Wunderwerke Label in 1981. Other than the Roboterwerke and Futurist LPs released on CBS and RCA this album does not feature discoid pre techno tracks but reaggae, calypso and soca influenced electronics unlike anything else in the world of music. Performed by mastermind Dieter Kolb and the drummachine's inventor Franz Knüttel with the help of Franz Aumüller's creative genius (he's responsible for the incredible cover art).
This is freaked out shit!
Anyone interested in this?

Cheerz,
Basso

Xynn - Dreams about reality (1980 Vertigo)

Most of the tracks of the LP are pretty spacy pop songs. If someone told me they were influenced by David Bowie, i'd nod. If i say "I think Jean-Benoît Dunckel was influenced by Xynn", what would you respond? Listen to "Space (Dreaming again)" and tell me,
how does it feel? HERE


Tracks:

01. Dreams About Reality 07:18
02. A Brand New Day 05:35
03. Struggle Of Life 05:03
04. Xynnthetic Lady 06:56

05. White Violence 04:20
06. C'est Comme Moi 04:18
07. Join The Party 04:57
08. Space / Dreaming Again 09:22


The Xynnphonic Orchestra:

Xynn - keyboards, acoustic guitar, vocals
Evert Van Der Wal - drums, percussion
Wally Warning - bass
Kristian Schultze / Thomas Molin - keyboards
Guiseppe Solera / Bobby Stern - flutes, saxophones
Billy Lang / Wesley Pass - electric guitars

Words and Music by Xynn, Arranged by Kristian Schultze
Produced by Thomas Molin and Xynn
Recorded @ Fun Studios Munich October 79