Another eclectic piece of German electronic music at the end of the month. Schlammpeiziger is the pseudonym that Cologne-based musician Jo Zimmermann has adopted. He has been tinkering with electronic sounds, mostly based on a Casio and beatboxes, since the 80's.
In the meantime, he has expanded his spectrum and added guitars and effects to his sound. Most of the tracks on his new album Meine Unterkunft ist die Unvernunft (my accommodation is unreason) have the charm of late Krautrock and remind me of the best moments of Ash Ra Temple. A beautiful and calm album that convinces even on second listen.
It is often said that 1979 is a golden year for music and it is true. There was a new band to discover almost every week and I found it difficult to make the right choice from the plethora of new releases in my favorite record shop.
So it was clever that the B52's debut album stood out from the crowd visually. The cover shows the group in an edited photograph against a bright yellow background; faces, hands and feet are photographed, while the clothing is printed on. The beehive hairstyles of the two singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, who also gave the band its name, were also striking.
The band's music, which moves between pop, rock, dance, surf, punk, new wave and retro, was exceptional. Rocky guitar riffs on a low-tuned Rickenbacker, reminiscent of a science fiction film from the 60s, a keyboard mixed in and the alternately melodic and shrill vocals of the singers created a unique sound that has lost none of its appeal even after 45 years.
A few weeks ago, Mogwai announced the release of their new album for the end of January. Two songs were released in advance, which I listened to several times and which left me with an ambivalent feeling.
On God Gets You Back they need almost three minutes to find their sound. Until then, flutes, cymbals and an ethereal voice pave the way for a dominant bass and guitars. Not a bad song, but overambitious and not of the class I'm used to from Mogwai.
Lion Rumpus makes up for this, who clearly reproduces what I love about Mogwai: a wall of guitars, feedback and a forward-driving drum kit.
I'll probably have to listen to the whole album before I can make a final judgement. But again, the question is, which version? The double or triple LP or the CD or perhaps the cassette? Today's marketing strategy leaves the fan in despair.
Towards the end of October, a friend recommended I listen to Spectre's latest album AM-DRAM, as he thought it was one of their most exciting releases. It took me a while to find the time to do this.
Spectres are one of the many bands from Bristol who have been in the alternative/experimental scene for 14 years. Their songs are all based on massive droning guitars, joined by a dirty bass and driving drums. The fact that they can also integrate great melodies into their songs makes the record even better. It looks like bands like this are springing up all over the UK. And that's certainly no mistake. Obviously this is the band's last album and that would be a shame, because they certainly have potential.
I have relatively few singles in my collection. This is partly because I thought they were too expensive for the time and partly because LPs were easier to get hold of. That only changed when the first 12-inches were released.
I bought one of my first singles when I was 14, when some local DJs were selling off parts of their collection. I can't say why I bought Rubber Bullets by 10cc, probably because I liked the song and still like it today.
10cc were founded in 1972 and had their first chart successes as Hotlegs with Neandertal Man, a simple stomper. Years later, Abwärts, one of the first German punk bands, recorded the ultimate version of this song.
The defining members of 10cc were songwriters Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, whose talent for classic pop songs set the band apart from the crowd before punk changed everything.
In 1976 Godley and Creme left the band to concentrate on the development of an electronic music device, ‘The Gizmo’, and to enter video production and music as Godley & Creme. The device, which was supposed to imitate strings, was rather unsuccessful, as synthesizers were soon to do a better job.
Musically, they both wrote a few hits and good songs, but then quickly disappeared from the stage. What remains is probably one of the most impressive videos ever produced.
The year is drawing to a close and over the last few days I've been looking back on my musical life. I can't explain why various albums have come to mind in this context that were released several years ago but gave me a lot of pleasure at the time.
So I came across the debut of The Long Champs Straight To Audio again. Welsh producer Lloyd Jones made it into my review of the year with this album.
The album has everything that electronic music expressed at the time: forward driving beats, clever electronic parts, a little synths and guitars and everything put together in an absolutely listenable way. In retrospect, another overlooked album.
Anja Plaschg aka Soap&Skin is currently one of the most interesting musicians from Austria. Two years ago, she played at a festival in Austria where she exclusively performed cover versions. This gave rise to the idea of recording a complete album with versions by other artists. Instead of just re-recording popular hits, she dug deep into music history to find the right songs for her.
Plaschg knows how to give her songs/interpretations a dark, minimalist and melancholic flavor that gives you goosebumps in the best moments. It takes a lot of self-confidence to cover a song from David Bowie's last album and recreate it with monotonous beats, horns and a combination of industrial and folk elements. However, the respect for the original is not lost at any point. The song was also excellently realized in their self-designed video. In short, one of the most beautiful cover versions of this year.
As a bonus one of the best versions of a classic Velvet Underground tune.
Some new electronic music to start into the weekend. These days Exeter's Mighty Force label released a record by Reverb Delay, a band I never heard before. Searching for the band in the internet I could only find links to an electronic module that reproduces sounds with a time delay to improve the spatial sound of music. On the one hand, this is used for live performances in order to better balance the loudspeakers and, on the other hand, it is a popular product for mixing recordings in the studio.
The Storm Has Passed is an almost nine minute long journey to dubby spaces with a steady flow. Someone called this music ballacid and this describes the music best.
After two years Cari Cari, one of my favorite bands from Austria, released a new song. Since 12 years Stephanie Widmer and Alexander Köck are running their vintage project. I saw them several times during the last years and always was astonished how a two-piece band could make room-filling sound. Only some drums and Köck's guitar that sounds like escaped from an Morricone soundtrack are their trademark.
And they show again that you don't need much more than some great guitar chords, a steady rhythm and good vocals to make one of the finest songs since a couple of weeks.
It happens that I occasionally run out of inspiration for this little blog. I usually grab my external hard drive and scroll through the individual files (which I should have reorganized a long time ago). This is how I came across an album that I haven't listened to for a long time and has never been mentioned here.
After working together on and off for years, Brian Eno and John Cale released their only album Wrong Way Up in 1990 and concentrated on songwriting. After a good decade of pushing himself musically to the limits of the esoteric, it seems to have done him good to record a semi-electronic album with Cale.
Nothing and nobody sounded like this back then. Eno makes the synths shimmer and twitch, Cale plays a funky guitar and shows that a viola can only be beneficial to the music. Ultimately, it is a forgotten masterpiece that set the standard for pop songs.
Sometimes it only takes a little note to remember a band that you have already forgotten. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have reunited and will be playing several concerts in Spain and Portugal early next year.
TPOBPAH released their debut album in 2009 and set new standards with their version of indie-pop. Although they are from New York, they sound very British. On the one hand, they fuse the melancholy lyricism of The Smiths with the pop of My Bloody Valentine hidden behind powerful walls of guitars.
What remains of them are softly noisy, incredibly catchy three-minute songs with their boy-girl vocals about the worries of young people. And still worth playing again from time to time.
When Spiritflesh's first full album with the same title came out in 2018, I had never heard anything like it and still haven't. This is a unique piece of British electronic music that blurs the boundaries between club music and doom with its radicalism.
In Bristol, two DJ's, Julian Raymond-Smith and Boris English have locked themselves in a basement with gritty dub techniques that spread across post-punk, drone, doom metal and techno shards to open up new worlds. All songs are based on tribal rhythms over which they lay bleebs and spherical sounds.
A dark journey into a world of dangerous sounds that will make you shudder with pleasure. Another piece of experimental music that made it into my annual review, but was unfortunately overlooked by most people.
Like every Friday, my digital inbox is overflowing with promotions for new releases. I follow a few artists and record labels on Bandcamp but over the last few weeks more and more bands have been contacting me directly asking for a review on my blog. I usually delete them completely but occasionally I do them a favour and listen to their releases. Again, the mail is usually deleted because the music doesn't appeal to me.
One exception this week was Bravo Johnson, the pseudonym of Spaniard Ricardo Amurrio, who, according to my information, now lives in Los Angeles. He describes his music as a sound that combines beat poetry with folk, blues and American guitar music.
And he's not even wrong about that. Original rock ‘n’ roll with good guitar parts that also feels at home in Americana. Nothing really new, but songs that are best enjoyed live on a Saturday night in a smoky pub.
Justin Robertson is back with his new project Five Green Moons. With Moon 1, Robertson moves away from acid house and takes a different path. Much is reminiscent of the best times of PIL, On-U-Sound and post-punk. Powerful bass lines characterize the sound, everything flows and enchanted voices appear from somewhere in the cosmos.
The songs have a dark undertone in common, but they emanate a fascination all of their own. You have to listen to the album several times to understand why it is one of this year's highlights.
One of my favorite albums in 2022 was Change by French electronic trio Société Etrange. It captivated me with it's dark and hypnotic sounds. Now they re-released their debut Au Revoir again. The roots of their music are even more clearly expressed on this album.
Mostly recorded when Antoine Bellini and Romain Hervault worked as a duo in Lyon combining drum machines, electronic post-punk with the robotic grooves of Cluster and Neu! The result was a dark industrial sound, far away from many things I listened to this genre. An album that combines the spirit of krautrock with dub with its electronic minimalism.
Another release that will be overlooked this year.
Yesterday's post has tempted me to once again Urgh! A Music War, a film from the eighties. Director Derek Burbridge's concept is simple in principle: go to concerts in London, New York and elsewhere and film the current punk, wave and reggae scene.
The result is a fantastic overview of this music from both sides of the Atlantic. I can still remember having to drive to the next bigger city with some friends to see this film. Some of the artists were known to us by name, but very few of them performed in southern Germany at the time.
After this film, each of the three of us had a band that we particularly liked and bought a record from them as quickly as possible. For me, it was Echo and the Bunnymen and Gang of Four, who I have followed faithfully ever since.
What also makes the compilation of concert recordings special is that it features musicians who were far removed from the normal clichés of punk, such as John Cooper Clarke and Klaus Nomi.
While the British bands are still holding back, The Cramps and Dead Kennedys show us the true and raw energy that characterized punk.
And finally, some film documents of bands that have unfortunately been forgotten, such as Au Pairs and Alley Cats and bands like Magazine and XTC, who played a major role in shaping new wave and punk.
It was in 1982 when me and a couple of friends made a break from work to take a five-week round trip through the western United States. It was a great experience for us to explore the country in a motorhome to get to know all the sights that the country has to offer.
The last days of our journey we spent in Los Angeles and I couldn't resist to go downtown in a record shop to buy me some albums. I found a little shop away from the main road and and it looked a little threatening from the outside with the visitors. Nevertheless, I entered and was greeted by a concentrated load of garage rock.
I was overwhelmed by the power this band had and asked the owner for their name. He told me that they played Roman Gods, the debut album by The Fleshtones and recommended it to me, not only because he saw them live a couple of days ago. And indeed, it is one of those albums that stamped garage rock. The Fleshtones are deeply rooted in Rock 'n' Roll with the power of punk. Sharp guitars, a bit of organ and the voice of Peter Zaremba made them worth listening to.
They proved that they can also impress live at their performance in Urgh! A Music War and also years later when I was able to see them live in Germany.
Serge Gainsbourg has always been an artist who knew no boundaries and knew how to provoke with his music and lyrics. He achieved his masterpiece in 1971 when he released his concept album Histoire De Melody Nelson.
It is basically a setting of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, which tells the story of the paedophile relationship between literary scholar Humbert Humbert and 12-year-old. Gainbourg's story begins in a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, the man at the wheel daydreaming in his luxury vehicle until he loses control of the car and hits a cyclist. His gaze falls on the spinning tyre and the rolled-up blouse of the girl lying on the ground. Melody Nelson has red hair, Serge Gainsbourg whispers to the audience, red is her natural colour. Serge Gainsbourg has just described his Lolita experience.
So far, so good, but what does the album have to offer musically? The orchestral arrangements and the constant changes in dynamics mean that the listener is absorbed by the songs, most of which are only spoken or whispered. The interplay of floating bass, dry drums and a few guitar chords in Melody anticipates trip hop to a certain extent.
I haven't found many new songs this week that are worth talking about. What has fascinated me, however, is the debut album by Nick Höppner, owner of the Ostgut Ton label and Berlin Berghain DJ and Alex Kassian. The two met during the pandemic and developed plans for an album, which has now been released under the name H.A.R.D.
It is an album away from their club activities and convinces with songs that have clear references to krautrock, ambient and guitar-driven music. With its slowly building and effects-laden dreamscape, Circles could be from the better days of Tangerine Dream.
On No Harm, the two manage to approach the sound of Neu! and Can without it becoming embarrassing for them. The whole album is actually recommended, but will be overlooked by the masses
As almost every year, Andy Bell presents us with a new album and a new collaboration. This time it's Timothy Clerkin, a record boss and producer who reworked a GLOK song years ago. The two allegedly first met at Andrew Weatherall's funeral and have stayed in touch ever since.
It was to be expected that an album would come out that once again shows the spectrum that Andy Bell can integrate into his music. From a tribute to Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized on The Witching Hour with fuzzbox and an acid-house-rock, this song stands out.
At the same time, he managed to record another hypnotic track on Empyrean, reminiscent of an Andrew Weatherall remix with its slow but constantly driving structure, ethereal voice and electronic modulations. An album that offers plenty of room for new discoveries even after repeated listens.
What a day it was yesterday. America has decided to entrust a convicted criminal and ultra-right populist with the leadership of a nation. In Germany, the governing coalition that has been in place for three years has finally failed after they couldn't really agree on how to solve our current problems and Stuttgart deservedly lost in the Champions League.
In order not to have to think about these topics all the time and before I sink into depression, I listened to a piece of electronic house that was released a few days ago at the end of the day yesterday. Laghi is the project of Ribeirao Prato, a Brazilian producer who takes the listener on a spherical journey with his electric beats and hypnotic groove.
A few months ago Transmission Towers, a two piece band from Liverpool released their first album Transmission One. I liked the outstanding track Everything, a mixture of tribal rhythms, some acoustic guitar and synths in the background and the hypnotic singing of Eleanor Mante but sadly this song went off my radar.
I got aware of this album again when Sheffield based producer Richard Barratt aka Crooked Man remixed the whole debut. He transforms the post-punk inspired original into a percussive hypnotic piece of electronica by replacing the guitars with drums and buzzing synth lines. Anyway, another overlooked song from this year.
When I retired a few months ago, I never thought I would end up back at school. The fact that it turned out that way was down to a friend who told me that the local primary and secondary school was looking for reading mentors.
Around 400 pupils from 30 nations are taught at the school, which is just round the corner, and the proportion of pupils with a migrant background is 90%. So it comes as no surprise to me that many pupils have problems with the difficult German language. The aim is for selected children to read to me for 15 minutes from a book they have chosen themselves and for me to talk to them about the content and, if necessary, explain words that they are not familiar with.
Today is my first day and I'm already a little excited. Beforehand, I thought of a few songs that deal with teaching and teachers. Most of the songs have been around for 50 years or more, but have lost none of their lustre or bring back memories of that time.
The film Shaft was released in 1971 and for the first time the main character was a black private detective who behaved as naturally as his white colleagues: self-confident, not believing in any authority. The character and the film did the black community a lot of good and ensured that they were able to display a new self-confidence.
The soundtrack was provided by Isaak Hayes, who climbed to the top of the charts with the title song. An anticipated blueprint for the disco wave to come. But the accompanying double album has much more to offer. Perfectly arranged soul songs that seamlessly follow on from his classic Hot Buttered Soul.
Hayes has always been someone who could stretch his songs to almost 20 minutes without them being boring. Do Your Thing is one of them. It begins with a fantastic bass line, brass instruments are added and Hayes' baritone ennobles this soul piece. After about 10 minutes, the guitar and drums take over. The wah-wah guitar wails and the drums roll over and take the bass with them. This turns a soul song into an almost endless jam. Really hot and a masterpiece even after more than 50 years.
Military Genius is the project of Canadian singer-songwriter and producer Bryce Cloghesy, who released his second album earlier this month. I became aware of him when he released his debut two years ago, which was filled with intimate and introverted songs.
Now he's back with a record on which he largely deals with his near-death experience after falling through a window. Many of the songs have a depressive touch and the music is somewhere between Talk Talk and The Cure (could it be that many artists are currently referencing their album Disintegration?).
But there are also plenty of other songs that convince with a mixture of dark and dubby soundscapes and minimal psychedelic synthwave. Twisted Root is the outstanding track of the album with a looped hip-hop bassline, some guitar licks and almost spoken words.
When punk started, The Only Ones were at the start and even had a hit with their debut album and Another Girl, Another Planet. The band was founded by Peter Perrett, who also fronted the band as guitarist and singer.
After the Only Ones broke up, he was only heard from sporadically as a guest musician in other bands, which may have been due to the fact that he was focusing more on drug use. I only became aware of him again when he released his first and good solo album in 2017.
Now, at the age of 72, he has released his third album The Cleansing. With 20 songs, the work seems very ambitious, but even with the help of Johnny Marr, he manages to deliver work on some tracks that is based on classic rock tracks and hardly gets boring. It looks like he is following in the footsteps of Johnny Cash, who is still on top form even in his old age.
Another month has passed and the end of the year is fast approaching. The first Christmas decorations are already being put up in the cities and sweets are being draped in the supermarkets. For me, however, it means that my annual holiday is not too far away.
A song with the month of November in the title was not difficult, as Andres A song with the month of November in the title was not difficult, as Andres Trentemøller quickly came to mind. The Danish musician and producer released Fixion in 2016, his fifth album on which he indulges his passion for the post-punk and new wave of the 80's. Instead of intelligent bass lines, organic band sounds take centre stage here.
November sounds as if The Cure had rediscovered a piece from their early days. A song that could easily have been released on Disintegration and is more a further development of The Cure than a copy.
On Sinus, he changes the sound by starting with a powerful bass and then creating a dystopian sound that is strongly inspired by Vangelis and Blade Runner and conveys a retrofuturistic metropolitan atmosphere.
Phoenicia is a song that builds up a hypnotic tension with psychedelic organ loops, which are fulminantly released at the end. Spacemen 3 may have been the inspiration here.
