Psychedelia & Kraut / Krautrock

Distilling the insane sprawl of the "Yeti" and "Tanz" into a more concise, song-based affair, Amon Duul refine their sound without watering it down and turn out one of their best albums (they began this process on the previous quite good in its own right transitional album "Carnival In Babylon". The new formula is clear from the opening bars of "Surrounded By The Stars". Chugging guitars build to ecstatic organ swells. The first side continues in solid form with the appropriately bubbly "Green B…

Originally released in 1974, 'Lemmingmania' is a compilation made up of, mostly rare AD II singles. Vocalist Renate Knaup's vocals are  astounding, especially when guitarist Chris Karrer jumps in and shares the vocal duties with her. Brings to mind [sort of] like Germany's reply to Jefferson Airplane

There aren't many double art-rock albums from the early '70s that have stood the test of time, but then again, there aren't many albums like Tanz, and there certainly aren't many groups like Amon Düül II. While exact agreement over which of their classic albums is the absolute standout may never be reached, in terms of ambition combined with good musicianship and good humor, the group's third album, is probably the best candidate still. The musical emphasis is more on expansive arrangements and …

Recorded at the same time (July 1972) at the same studio (Bavaria Studios, Munich) as Amon Düül II`s well known and of their best efforts 'Wolf City', Utopia was a common project by Amon Düül II producer and musician Olaf Kübler (saxophone, moog) and Düül bass player Lothar Meid. Using the synergy of the parallel sessions with the Wolf City recordings, Olaf Kübler appreciated Düüls singer Renate Knaup-Krötenschwanz as singer of 2 of the album tracks and Düül heads Weinzierl and Karrer on guitar …

Sold out at the label, few copies in stock. Originally released in 1972, Zeit would be Tangerine Dream's third full length album, and the first to feature the main trio of Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, and Chris Fanke. The German electronic group pioneered the entire dark ambient genre with this work, whose title translates to "time," and was based on the philosophy that "time was in fact motionless and only existed in our own minds." Also worth noting is that Popol Vuh's Florian Fricke plays Moo…

**Remastered from the original master tapes, 180 gram reissue of the original vinyl release with gatefold cover** 1972s Psychonaut, by the Swiss-based Brainticket, is early seventies space rock at its finest. While the bands debut album, 1971s Cottonwoodhill, was a heavily acid-laden affair dominated by droning organ, disturbing vocals and a collection of cacophonic sound effects (causing it to carry a warning label and be banned in several countries) for their second effort, band-founder Joël V…

Some artists like Cluster, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze have become quite popular and synonymous with the Kosmische Electronic music that rode the wave alongside the Krautrock explosion, but also nestled within the explosion of creative electronic music emerging from Germany in the early 70s, others have been left in the vaults of obscurity and discovered only by those jumping into their time capsules and searching high and low for some of the less heard acts. And obscure does not mean for …

Remastered reissue of German prog rock band Grobschnitt's 1978 live masterpiece "Solar Music-Live" is without a doubt one of the most intense, and downright mindblowing German Acid Krautrock live album of the 70s. Ranging from blistering guitar solos to intricate jazz patterns weaved into subtle spacey keyboard dynamics coupled with vocals that range from beautiful melody to monstrous freak out vocals straight from the void, "Solar Music-Live" has everything acidhead/space rock fans, prog…

, volume 1 of 2. Artists: A.R. & Machines, Can Roedelius, Michael Rother, Popol Vuh, Michael Hoenig, Agitation Free, D.A.F. Harald Grosskopf, Amon Duul II, Conrad Schnitzler & Wolf Sequenza, Broselmaschine, Eno/Moebius/Roedelius, Gila and Wolfgang Riechmann. The first seeds of German rock and experimental electronic music were planted in 1968, as students and workers in Paris, Prague, Mexico and throughout the world demonstrated against mainstream society, the war in Vietnam, imperialism …

Siloah were re-formed by Thom Argauer in late 1971 after their Munich hippie community had split following the release of the band’s first record. Although "Sukram Gurk" was recorded under the same elementary conditions as its predecessor and had a similar psychedelic touch, it fails a bit to achieve the sort of charisma evident in the first record. Thom now played the keyboards instead of the guitar. Re-issue from the master …

‘Agape-Love’ was one of Florian Fricke's favorites, at a point in his life where he was inspired by 13th century Persian poet Rumi. Still utilizing a choir for Gregorian chant-like ethereal intensity -- though they sing in Byzantine scales – the band delves deeply into the drone world of Fricke’s sacred music muse. This is an album of many moods/feelings & is a worthy, devastatingly beautiful outing (both introspective & intense at the same time).Out of print since 1983 and never released outsid…

*300 copies white vinyl, sold-out at sorce* Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music pioneer, composer and musician that needs very little introduction. In the late sixties & early seventies he was a member of several iconic bands such as ‘Tangerine Dream’, ‘The Cosmic Jokers’ & ‘Ash Ra Tempel’ before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades. Collaborations were numerous and highlights include working with Steve Winwood, Brian Eno & Alphaville… jus…

2016 repress of this 2014 reissue, the first authorized release of Hintensince its original 1971 release. German krautrock band Guru Guru was formed in 1968 as The Guru Guru Groove by Mani Neumeier (drums),Uli Trepte (bass), and Eddy Naegeli (guitar) (later replaced by AmericanJim Kennedy (guitar)). By the time of Guru Guru's debut in 1970, Ax Genrich had replaced Kennedy to solidify the classic Guru Guru line up. Guru Guru were related to the free jazz scene both through their work with Swiss p…

"After their ultimate acid folk classic "Trips & traum", the duo is back with an other surprising effort whose concept is to convince (within a satirical dimension) that the bible is all about drugs. However it doesn't matter for those who don't speak German, let's be focuse on the music with its one more time brilliant and gorgeously pastoral, delicate and trippy. The introduction part (Liturgie) is a humorous little composition written in a very folkish vibe. "Schöpfung" is among my favour…

"Still with their black singer James Rhodes. A concert from spring 1970 in the lovely town of Altena. The cover shows sax player Tim Belbe in Charles Manson style. Good quality."

This unique document is the first time Can's singles have been presented together and shows the breadth of their influential career, from well loved tracks like Halleluwah, Vitamin C and I Want More to more obscure singles such as Silent Night and Turtles Have Short Legs. "Turtles Have Short Legs," was the band's third single released in 1971 and never appeared on a studio album. This was recorded around the time of the Tago Mago sessions with the line up of Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, J…

This latest instalment in Soul Jazz Records successful Deutsche Elektronische Musik series delves deeper into the German nation s vaults to bring a fascinating new collection that again brings together a selection of classic German electronic and rock groups, including Neu!, Cluster, Popol Vuh, La Düsseldorf, Agitation Free, alongside a host of rare tracks by lesser known artists which includes Michael Bundt, Bröselmaschine, Dronsz, Achim Reichel and others. The music of Deutsche Elektronische M…

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…

Reproduction of a rather odd, late 70s upstate New York “Electronic Music for Healing” lineage LP, credited only to the corporation "Pythagoron Inc. 1977;” about whom we know very little - and maybe it’s best it stays that way. Explaining the music enclosed - encased within, really, without resorting to euphemism is rather hard to do here; so I’ll just give you a rundown of what I hear:The A-side starts out with a surge of White Noise, then suddenly out of nowhere an out of time Echoplexed Dru…

A superb collection of rare early tracks from electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream! Features 2 tracks from the ’60s psych-rock band that preceded Tangerine Dream, The Ones, plus rare tracks from the early ’70s era of the band when they were at their most adventurous, composing epic pieces that clocked in at over 10 minutes each such as “”Asteroid Agenda”" and “”Overture. Amazing floating space cosmic psychedelia

CD Edition. Mental Experience present first ever reissue of AK Musick, originally released in 1972. Radical, freaked-out sound with hints of free-jazz, improv and avant-garde, AK Musick was an improv collective assembled by clarinetist Hans Kumpf to "make music in a very democratic way". The five players had a classical education but they were also influenced by avant-garde composers like Helmut Lachenmann and Johannes Fritsch. Their only album, AK Musick, was recorded at the famous Bauer Stud…

Ultra-rare lost psychedelic Kraut-Folk from 1979. First time on CD and LP! Taken from the original mastertapes! Gulaab means “rose” in Nepalese language. Gulaab is a German virtuoso on the acoustic guitar who has served three years as an after dinner musician in a luxury restaurant in Nepal to play for an amazing number of well known personalities of the 20th century during the early 70s. A strongly influential experience that shaped his musical expression big time but also let him become an ope…

During the month of January in 2013 Bitchin Bajas held residency at the Hideout in Chicago, IL. Performing every Tuesday of the month, playing two different sets each week. Collaborating with friends, playing with films in quadraphonic, using the Bitchitronics set up live and changing where the performance took place in the bar helped vary each set. Using several recording devices, all rehearsals and performances of each week were documented. Later it was all edited and mixed making these six si…

Faust reactivated. 'Something Dirty' pairs founding members with new collaborators for grinding, groove-driven experiments: raw guitars, motorik pulse and studio mischief, the old subversive spirit alive and unbowed.

The self-titled debut of Jaki Liebezeit's post-Can group. Motorik pulse meets echo, dub and electronic haze: loose, driving and deeply hypnotic. Krautrock's rhythmic genius stretching out on his own terms.

Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit's own vehicle. Phantom Band ride his inexhaustible groove into dubwise, hypnotic krautrock: spacious, propulsive and endlessly funky. Rhythm as pure hypnosis, from one of the great German drummers.

The master of the echo-guitar, alone in the wilderness. Schickert layers cascading, delay-drenched guitar into trance-inducing krautrock ritual: hypnotic, psychedelic and deeply cosmic. Solitary genius from the Berlin underground.

The lost album. Recorded in 1974 and shelved for decades, 'Punkt' captures Faust between anarchy and melody: brooding, expansive and strange. A missing chapter of krautrock history, finally heard.

The fourth trove of Faust rarities. Studio sketches, false starts and sudden brilliance from rock's great disruptors, proof that even the offcuts of this collective crackle with fearless, unrepeatable invention.

Volume three of Faust's archival 'snapshots'. More unheard fragments from the krautrock legends' vaults: collage, groove and glorious chaos, the sound of a band that treated the studio as both demolition site and playground.

Snapshots from the Faust vaults, unheard studio moments from krautrock's most anarchic band. Tape collage, motorik grooves and pure sonic sabotage sit side by side, a document of the collective's fearless early-'70s experimentation.

There’s something perversely fabulous about the thought of this warped masterwork wandering into 60,000 unsuspecting British homes in 1973. Faust’s second-and-a-half album hit the shops to celebrate their signing to the nascent Virgin Records, who were looking to take advantage of the zeitgeist for German music at that time. Undeterred by the fact the band’s unwillingness to engage with the commercial landscape had seen them dropped from Polydor, Branson and co cooked up a suitably spectacular m…

Few debut albums arrive with the kind of self-contained logic and radical spirit found on the self titled ‘Faust’. Released in 1971, it marked the beginning of a project that would sidestep genre and expectation, offering a fractured, exploratory take on rock music, blending tape experiments, improvised structures, and surreal collage. This Bureau B reissue offers a fresh opportunity to engage with one of the most curious and uncompromising records of its time.

A reissue of Emtidi's Saat, originally released in 1972 as the 14th release on the legendary label PILZ. Producer Dieter Dierks prescribed the folk duo a good portion of cosmic electronic chords. The remaster sounds better than all issues before.

CD version. Zwei Osterei is the second half of a recording session which took place on a single day in November 1970. Klopfzeichen is the first part. Yet the uncompromising Zwei Osterei surpasses the earlier Klopfzeichen album by some distance in terms of its harsh noisiness and near brutal sonic attacks. Everything that was left of the revolutionary verve of the late 1960s seems to have been distilled into this music with a burning glass: aesthetic destruction to liberate the mind and ears for …

Günter Schickert's debut Samtvogel (1975) was one of the most significant guitar albums of the krautrock era. Points of comparison from today's perspective are Syd Barrett or Pink Floyd's more adventurous early recordings. Schickert's follow-up, Überfällig (1980) was released on the legendary Sky label. Once again a milestone recording, it showcased Schickert's hypnotic echo guitar which developed into one of the hallmarks of the krautrock sound. Schickert's new album Nachtfalter, translating as…

CD version. Bureau B presents a reissue of Bernard Xolotl's fifth album Last Wave, originally released only on cassette in 1982. This is French electronic music from California. He named himself after the Aztec god of lightning and death; his music is influenced by the Berlin school of electronic music. As a teen, Xolotl (b. 1951) was introduced to electronic music through the works of Musique Concrete composers like Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, although he found the early recordings of Pi…

The third album from Wallenstein, originally released in 1973, stands as the band's definitive statement and one of the peak achievements of the entire Kosmische Musik movement. Led by keyboardist Jürgen Dollase and guitarist Bill Barone, the group had evolved from their earlier heavy progressive sound into something far more expansive and cosmic in scope. Cosmic Century is exactly what its title promises - a journey through infinite space rendered in swirling synthesizers, celestial guitar work…

One of Germany's longer lasting bands had first started as Blitzkrieg (until they found out a British band used the name as well) and changed their name to Wallenstein and kept their former name for the album, gracing it with a war-themed gatefold cover. Produced by the unavoidable Dieter Dierks and released on the ultra collectible Pilz label in early 72, this debut album is stunning effort that transformed the 200 MPH speed notion into music. Keyboardist Jurgen Dollasse's very international gr…

Seventh entry in the essential Can live series, and one of the great ones. A hot August night in 1975, the Roman Théâtre Antique in Arles, the core four locked in: Irmin Schmidt, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay. No safety net, just the band stretching out in real time. For decades this concert lived only in the stories of the people who were there, the recording buried in the Spoon Records vaults. Unearthed at last for its first ever release, with sleeve notes drawn from first-h…