An Evening With Krautrock

It is very rare that a band which is known about our town borders away for a concert comes to my town to play. All the more I have been glad to see Birth Control after more than 40 years once again live. I was also curious as it has created the band to substitute for the soul the voice and drums of 'Nossi' which has passed away five years ago. So I went again to to a venue that is rare in Germany. It is a cellar room 20 meters below a 500 years old town wall and is totally filled with 120 persons and many of them I know for decades. So it was fun talking to them before the concert started. The concert started at the time it was announced and from the beginning the band has pulled the audience in his spell while old classics with new songs played alternately. The sound was fantastic and also the new and young players on guitar and bass were fantastic. After all it was an evening with long songs played straight with a lot of space for improvisation. I have to admit that after all my expectations were more than fulfilled listening to songs that I have almost forgotten.

Gamma Ray

I was out yesterday with an old friend of mine for some drinks and we talked about this and that all over the evening when he finally told me that Birth Control will come to our town a few weeks ahead. We remembered when we were out to one of our fist live concerts in 1974 watching them in our town. It was in a venue that was ragged down almost 40 years ago but I remember that it was fantastic. An old cinema with a gallery and comfortable seats (I was too young to know that you should stand and watch the band) and a water basin close to the entrance filled with gold fishes. Anyway, we decided to get tickets for the gig and fall back down to our memories. Another friend of mine saw them live during last summer and he told me that they are still able to play a great gig even if the band members are close to the seventies. Looking forward to the concert and let you know how it was.

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

Held It

When I came home from my walk in the wood I made me another cup of coffee and checked out some e-mails. In one of them an old friend of mine informed me that he got the latest album by Zeus B. Held and supplied me some tracks. So I went to listen to them songs that was released decades ago.

Zeus B. Held is a German producer and musician known for his work from the 70s to the 90s. He was a long time member of the successful Krautrock band Birth Control playing keybords in these days. I remember seeing them live in my hometown playing in an old cinema when I was 14 or 15. I was impressed by the leading keybords that made this sound so unique. After he left the band he worked as a producer, session-musician, programmer and engineer in several German and French studios. He was also involved in the new wave as a producer for Nina Hagen and Spear Of Destiny. I think, he is always on the search of new sounds. So he experimentated with organ and vocoder sounds. This record contains selected tracks from his three albums released under his name. Some are sound still fresh but always unique. No music fore everyone but one for me (even if it was a nostalgia mood).

Zeus B. Held - Held it
Zeus B. Held - Sound trigger

The Foreign Correspondent - Stories about German Rock Music # 10

Let's get back to the days of Krautrock and Progressive Rock. Birth Control were formed in Berlin in 1968 according to the student revolution against traditions which based in the early decades of this century. Students tried to give them lifes a few more opportunities like free love or living in communes. In this era German musicians tried to figure out what' possible in music - not only to copy band from the United States or Great Britain. In this new culture the seed of progressive rock began to grow. Birth Control got real popular with this new kind of sound and played as a support act for Jimi Hendrix in Düsseldorf in 1970. One year later they were invited for several concert in England and they were the first German band played in The Marquee Club in London. Their sound was dominated by synthesizer added with a heavy guitar. Because their songs were long they had not the airplay for a hit. But their well  known song Gamma Ray was remixed years later in various Techno versions.

Birth Control - Gamma Ray
Birth Control - Titanic
Birth Control - Preacher Man

PS: An additional information for the German readers. Forming member of the band was Hugo Egon Balder on drums. Yes exactly the one who got famous with Tutti Frutti