Review: It doesn't take long to pick up on Harold GroBkopf's progressive and krautrock roots. Born in Hildesheim as his homeland began picking up the charred postwar ruins, his oeuvre to date includes a stint in a 1960s beat group, The Stuntmen, and then a spell playing with then-unknown heavy rockers, Scorpions, before joining Wallenstein and Ashra as drummer, and getting in on several of Klaus Schulze's solo efforts. Strom betrays much of that heritage, straddling the fine line between electronica and rock, setting out its stall in a hinterland sound that's really neither nor. At times it glitters, in other moments it grinds, sometimes its beguiling, then it's more charming, in a strange, well-left-of-the-middle kind of way. An enigmatic collection of work from a true musical enigma.
Review: Kreidler return to Bureau B and not without good reason. Their seventh outing on the highly respected label follows suit on previous exploits, exploring some outer limits of cosmic-leaning, guitar-led, electronically augmented stuff. Tracks that feel made for the hidden dancefloors of weird basements as much as the soundtracks to avant garde science fiction. And if that's too much of a stretch, let's just say 'mesmerising' and have done with it. Comparing and contrasting the warm bleeps and filtered hooks of 'Diver', for example, with 'Tanger Telex' and its strange, smoky brass trip into downtempo smoky heaven serves as a quick example of just how broad yet coherent Twists is. As does 'Arthmetique', a strange, patient thing of rhythmic licks and spoken word, when considered next to the fuzzy, dub-tech-meets-math rock of 'Mount Mason'.
Review: Influential Hamburg band Palais Schaumburg's self-titled 1981 album takes some beating. It is one of German alternative music's most accomplished and critically acclaimed works, with hardcore prasie from those who know. Fusing rock, new wave and experimental across 10 timeless track, it mixes tight post punk rhythms with dubbed out vibes and avant-garde ideas. This deluxe reissue of Holger Hiller, Thomas Fehlmann, Ralf Hertwig and Timo Blunck's best record includes all tracks from the original album on a nice red slab of wax with a new insert
Review: Bureau B present the very latest full-length LP from art-synth auteurs Propaganda, aka. Ralf Dorper and Michael Mertens. Emerging almost two decades on from their last release, this record is nonetheless remarkable as it is their first and only self-titled record, suggesting a sense of culmination and timeliness - in Bureau B's words, Propaganda (the LP) explores "fresh sounds and styles, and (reflects) personal and societal changes since their last outing". The excesses and lacks of boom-bust capital exhaustion and planetary-systemic fatigue are heard in full sway here; both themes alloy themselves starkly against the understated EBM and dark synth influence that permeates the record, a sound otherwise distinctly connoted as 80s and retroistic. Through their crystal-clear productions - their techno-Arcadian visions in composition, and passionate lyrical musings on machinic desire by way of collaborators Thunder Bae and Hauschka - Propaganda synthesise a yet new subliminal message, one that charts a line out of the past and into the present.
Die Rebellen Haben Sich In Den Bergen Versteckt (18:32)
Jupiter (18:57)
Review: 'Conny' Schnitzler's name needs to be remembered by more people. Born on the cusp of World War II, he would prove instrumental in the post-war surge of sonic experimentation that took Germany by storm from the 1960s onwards, playing an integral part in West Germany's krautrock movement having already been an early member of seminal band Tangerine Dream and founding father of Kluster. But it's his solo work that really needs more attention. A proponent of the Dusseldorf school - arguably Germany's most important city for popular music in the late-mid-20th Century - in 1974 he released Blau, a bold record comprising two extended tracks, 'Die Rebellion Haben Sich In Den Bergen Versteckt' and 'Jupiter'. One feels like the late night synth soundtrack to rain-soaked city streets. The other as though we've opened the hatch and stepped out into retro outer space. Take from that what you will.
Review: Club scene doyen, dance music veteran, and rave culture hero Johannes Auvinen opts to depart from the dance floor, at least for the time being, and deliver Arles - an ode to the other side of the electronic-acid scene, those sounds that make most sense after the chaos and carnage of a party have subsided and you're safely home on the couch with you and yours and all dearest.
And it works as well as it should, with the experience both of living in that world and making anthems for it clearly evident in the overall production quality and ideas. Arles is a warm blanket, that friendly therapist, an album that understands where you've been because it was there too. Remarkably, despite what that may suggest, this is not ambient or particularly leftfield stuff. Instead, it's rhythmic, pop-infused electronica goodness, for want of a more succinct, less awkward turn of phrase.
Review: Detlef Weinrich is back with his fifth full-length album under the Tolouse Low Trax moniker. Now based in Paris after leaving Dussledorf, he heads in something of a new direction and brings heavy yet velvet sounds which replace the rawness of his earlier work. Tracks on Leave Me Alone bring razor-sharp rhythms to drifting cosmic melodies, there are slow and industrial drones and haunting pads, a signature sense of drum funk and much more besides. This is a great new sound for an artist always on the move.
Review: Paris-based Detlef Weinrich aka Tolouse Low Trax is back with a new collection, Kiosque Versions, that he has assembled himself and which takes in seven edits of his work (some big hits, some lesser known or overlooked tunes) by friends and treasured artists. Things kick off with his own edit of 'Subghosts' which is a dubby swagger, and the Grim Lusk dub version of 'Mik In Water' is also filled with delayed stabs and warm, dubby undercurrents. 'Rushing Into Water' (Joakim Elemental edit) has a tropical dub feel and liquid rhythm, 'Tristeros Empire' (Ido Plumes Blazer Quest mix) has train track-like percussion over jittery experimental beats and there are many more freaky delights besides.
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