Monday's Long Song

 

Another obscure sound for this series. Tolerance was a short living band from Japan in the late 70's. Formed by Junko Tange and Masami Yoshikawa in Tokyo to make only two albums. Both are re-released during the last days. They made a sound that was inspired by German bands like Neu!, Can and Amon Düül and the free music theories of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Not everything by them is easy to listen but Pulse Static (Tranquilla) is outstanding because the combine motorik rhythms from a drum machine with analog instruments to something I would name pre-techno because this kind of music was made three decades later by European electronic artists.

Monday's Long Song

 

There are bands you can trust to their sound for years. One of those are Bardo Pond, a psychedelic rock band from Philadelphia in 1991. Their earliest root lay with avant-garde noisemakers and New York's no wave movement. During the years they developed their sound into space rock but added their Hawkwind inspired sound with early krautrock like Amon Düül and experimental giants like My Bloody Valentine and Spaceman 3. Since 2000 they've released a numerically titled series of improvisation sessions in addition to their studio albums. Before is from their album Volume 1 and this song could be played on every live show by Mogwai.

Bardo Pond - Before

Monday's Long Song

In 1974 Kraftwerk released the groundbreaking album Autobahn. Groundbreaking because it marked the end of Krautrock as we knew it. Since then electronic music was just a part of the sound by Can, Amon Düül or Birth Control. Now Kraftwerk's guitarist Klaus Roeder was just a small part of the sound any more. No more conventional instruments were used in the future and Kraftwerk made the blueprint of many other artists working with synthesizers and electronic equipment. It was also these days a lot of my friends had to decide which road they will follow. Some of them found themself in electronic music or in the jazz-fusion thing and the most turned into the upcoming guitar sound of punk and new wave. Anyway - this is a classic song and it's flow still grabs me.


Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Retro! Retro! Retro!

Listening to the sound of Hawkwind, Amon Düül and other kraurock bands brought me back to my younger days. A lot of bands were influenced to the sounds of the late 60's/early 70's and tried to make their very own of this. It makes me smile when some bands from nowadays were raised in this sounds. It is a heavy-psyche band from Philadelphia and they stuck in the sound of the late 60's. I hear a lot of MC5, early Hawkwind and the spirit of Motörhead. Good to have a band that transports this spirit to nowadays. A spaced out sound and the right one if you are in the mood for stepping backwards in music.