Mission Statement: to do very little, for very few, for not very long. Disappointing the easily pleased since 1819. Not as good as it used to be from Day One. History is Bunk - PT Barnum. Artificially Intelligent before it was fashionable. Fat camp for the mind! Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost. The Shock of the Old! Often bettered, never imitated.
Yes, subscribers, let these swell long-playing L.P.s with their homeopathic doses of melody over mystic washes of sound be your soundtrack to the upcoming global apocalypse!
And if you needed further sales talk, everybody's favorite drummer, "Maestro of Motorik" Jaki Liebezeit is on th' trap stool for both albums, paradiddlin' yer synapses!
Any youse bums want these? Simply share in a comment the little things in life that absolutely break your zen. Me: my local Immigration Department Dept.
ReplyDelete1. Rudeness/bad manners
ReplyDelete2. Bullying
3. Self-aggrandisement
4. You get the idea
These are two lovely dates IIRC though it has been a while. Jaki 'Organic Cyborg' Liebezeit helps. The 2nd's cover pic goes well with the gorgeous soaring quality of the German Idealism expressed therein via "The Shadows On An Autobahn", whilst the first shows what a fine-looking specimen MR was and likely still is.
Those are certainly unattractive human traits (exemplified by a recent POTUS), but they don't make me lose my cool. Bureaucracy, with its self-serving complexity, bone-headed inefficiency, and contempt for the person on the other side of the counter does. I really have to struggle, but I've learned to burn up inside while maintaining a masked smile.
DeleteI can't complain. That's it.
ReplyDeleteFortunately or unfortunately the medication I consume each day engenders a philosophical vista of my world - in other words, who gives a fuck.
ReplyDeleteAlthough airport Customs officials have a tendency to evoke a faint glimmering of vexation, as they can be extremely pernickety & intentionally vindictive.
Paradoxically, on my numerous trips overseas I have in possession 100s of pills, including amphetamines I have not once been questioned about them nor asked to show the covering letter from my Alienist.
Praise The Lord & Pass The Medication - The Reverend Dr Baz
Since you ask, what really gets my goat, nukes my nanny and bollixes my billy is when people – who, Farq, shall remain nameless – tag a pair of albums released over the 1977-79 period as “Krautrock”, when everybody knows - or certainly should - that anything dating from 1977 or later missed das Boot completely, being approximately 37 months too late for such a classification credibly to be made. There are seven and only seven acts in the authentik Krautrock kanon, namelywise: Amon Düül I/II/Utopia (different names, same people), Can, Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream (pre-Virgin, obvz), Neu!, Faust and Ash Ra Tempel. Aksept no substitüts! Now that we've cleared that up, and having now listened to some of die Werke of Herr Rother here, I am prepared to admit him under the somewhat broader umbrella of what this genre is niftily known in Germany: kosmische Musik. So should the casual reader Bother with Rother? Make that a definite Ja wohl - cosmic we got it.
ReplyDeleteHey! What about FoamFeatured© antecedently The Cosmic Jokers?
Delete("Das Boot" was very good, Arch.)
Cosmic Jokers are kinda yes but kinda no, coming at the tail end of the KR phenomenon. To qualify, a band really needed to be up and running by 1971-1972 at the latest. It's a bit like punk: no matter however ragged a band may have sounded, if they only got going in 1979-80 you'd call them "post-punk" - or, hell, I would. I stick by my seven pillars of krautdom.
DeleteI just looked it up on Wiki, so I now know as much as anyone on the subject. I think you'll find eleven (not seven) bands qualify:
DeleteCan, Neu!, Amon Düül II, Faust, Harmonia, Ash Ra Tempel, Agitation Free, Guru Guru, early Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Cluster.
I agree with the slightly expanded canon; those extra four definitely seem to fit in with the other seven Kraut Rockers. Not sure I'd draw the line for "Punk/Post-Punk" quite so early since the 1979-80 releases of Black Flag, Germs, Circle Jerks, X, etc certainly seem more Punk than "Post-Punk" (maybe release dates aren't the same as "got going"?). But I get what you're saying; after 1980 it dissolved into a parody of itself with the more creative bands going in completely different directions. And certainly there were an initial wave of innovators and subsequent waves of followers (and important geographic differences) but I think of "Post-Punk" a little differently (certainly later releases of BF, X and others on that 1980 cusp would qualify as Post-Punk but their early work? No, sir! (removes glove and slaps Archie's face)
Deleteall just labels anyway
Delete... so is "label".
DeleteMrDave, yes, I agree with most of that, but I still think punk-proper was dead and post-punk in full flow by the end of the decade. That's what I was getting at with Krautrock: when the Düüls left UA (see Psychfan's post today) and the Tangs were picked up by Virgin, KR was pretty much done as a discrete genre or phenomenon.
DeleteWhat doesn't break my Zen these days? Buick drivers for one! And Chryslers too for that matter! Haven't seen a considerate driver of practically any GM brand on the road in the past decade at least (some Chevy owners excepted).
ReplyDeleteI could go on (and on) with my pent up grievances against humanity but I'd rather rejuvenate by chakra with some mat levitation work to the soundtrack of Rother and Liebezeit please. (pass the meds, Rev!)
The link will be available soon as I finish imanentizing the eschaton - maybe four or five© hours?
DeleteOld School Stealth Link© embedded in this comment for your peace of mind and inner cleanliness!
ReplyDelete