Monday's Long Song

 

In 2013, one of krautrock's most underrated bands returned with a new album. Agitation Free was founded in Berlin in 1967 and their instrumental improvisations were unusually long for the time. With an independent mixture of improvised rock paired with electro, ethno and trance elements, they found a large fan base.

After splitting up in the seventies, they released a new album, Momentum, 24 years later. Even after these years, the album is characterised by guitars that shimmer through time and space. Momentum is no longer as experimental as it once was, but it is still powerful and full of rhythmic and melodic beauty. Sometimes the songs are reminiscent of the best times of Steve Hillage and Kraan, which can't be a bad thing.

Agitation Free - InDaJungle

Monday's Long Song

 

At the end of the 80s, the German music scene came to a standstill and many musicians were looking for new paths. Some of them turned to the jazz scene and, like Jazzkantine, experimented with a crossover between jazz, hip hop, rock and sometimes soul. 

By chance, the former bassist of avant-garde rockers Kraan and trumpeter Joo Kraus met in a pub in Ulm to start an unusual project. They obviously struck a chord with their own blend of acid jazz and trip-hop. 

I was able to experience that Tab Two (trumpet and bass) were particularly convincing live when they performed in my home town in our favourite pub before travelling to the annual jazz festival in Montreux (which was only possible because the owner was good friends with Hattler).  

Monday's Long Song

Kraan were a band that was very popular in the early 70's. Formed in 1970 in Ulm, Southern Germany by Hellmut Hattler and Peter Wolbrandt. They have their roots in late 60's krautrock scene and included pieces of rock and jazz/fusion to their sound. Dominated by Hattler's excessive bass lines that sometimes went to duel with Wolbrandt's guitar. All under a steady flowing rhythms. This song is from a double live album from 1973 that is still played sometimes at my home.

Kraan - Kraan Arabia

The Foreign Correspondent - Stories about German Rock Music # 8

Kraan was a German jazz-rock band and had a great influence to Krautrock. Formed in 1970 in Ulm by Helmut Hattler, Jan Fride and Peter Wolbrandt they recorded songs with a lot of different styles. The tried to combine oriental sounds with jazzy bass figures and hard beats. In this time it was a really new sound and most of the people couldn't categorize them. Them jazz purist was the music to much rock based and the Krautrock audience couldn't agree with them jazzy parts. On stage, the band was particularly impressed by their enthusiasm and musical professionalism. Other records followed and especially the third, recorded live in Berlin, received good reviews. During all the years the played with a different line-up and in the middle of the 1980 Joo Kraus a phenomenal jazz trumpeter joined the band. Kraan split and came together so often times that I didn't count them all. In the early 1990s Helmut Hattler and Joo Krauss formed a two man band called Tab Two (tab means trumoet and bass). Tab Two combined mainly acid jazz with hip-hop, trip hop, drum and bass and other styles, the result is sometimes referred to as hip jazz. I saw Kraan several times live because the were located in my greater era. Tab Two made a superb sound and I saw them also once live and it was fantastic. Helmut Hattler played the bass that well that his name should be spoken with other great bass players like Flea.

Kraan - Nam Nam
Kraan - Sarah's Ritt Durch Den Schwarzwald
Kraan - Vollgas Ahoi
Tab Two - No Flagman Ahead
Tab Two - zzzipp! Live in Ulm - extended medley (2013)