Manuel Göttsching – "E2-E4" (Inteam GmbH – ID 20.004) 1984

Look backwards from any point in time up to 1970,and some clever dick will always find a long lost Krautrock classic waiting to be hauled up the flag poll as the inventor of any number of Influential,Seminal, or any amount of flattering  superlatives applied to heavily lauded albums such as this,which obviously was Trance before Trance.

Then again, sift backwards trough the marshlands of Kraut,and we can find tracks like the nine adorning this, on most of those Gate-folded Kosmische classics, like Klaus Schulz, Tangerine Dream, ,and various Ex-members of Tangerine Dream, like Klaus Schulz. In fact TD  could and should also be extremely guilty for thousands of British Ravers idiot dancing the week away in some obscure Cow field in Essex,near an exit off the M25 (aka The Magic Roundabout), back in 1988 before the UK Government made it highly illegal. What the Cows did during this process is a mystery, but there was a rumour that a Frisian and an Aberdeen Angus were seen dancing to the moozic, E'd Up, in front of the DJ on one occasion at least .

The difference between Manuel Göttsching and Edgar Froese is that Manuel had a drum machine, and Eddie didn't. Therefore  Göttsching Göt the prize....he,by logical elimination, was guilty of being Trance before Trance.Whether that's anything to brag about is another matter altogether. 

Tracklist:

1.Ruhige Nervosität 13:00
2.Gemäßigter Aufbruch 10:00
3....Und Mittelspiel 7:00
4.Ansatz 1:00
5.Damen-Eleganza 5:00
6.Ehrenvoller Kampf 3:00
7.Hoheit Weicht (Nicht Ohne Schwung...) 9:00
8....Und Souveränität 3:00
9.Remis 3:00

DOWNLOAD this opening gambit for chess and house music HERE!

Ashra – "New Age Of Earth" (Virgin – V 2080) 1977

 Now that everybody has posted "E2-E4 as a tribute to the recently dead Krautrock guitar hero Manuel Gottsching,and claimed it as the year zero of Trance....whatever the fuck Trance is? Sounds like House music to me; the genres of which I have no clue or indeed interest. The chess referenced record in question,apart from being rather boring,is just standard Berlin-School type kosmiche with the swirly bits taken out,to a hypnotic drum box beat......is it the drum box that they think started the madness that remains virtually unchanged for the preceding thirty years.This was what happened to nature after the pre-cambrian period,fast evolution then stasis.The dinosaurs remained unchanged for 10's of millions of years,just like House music variants; Gottschings ambient musings are the pre-cambrian oceans of electronics,but "E2-E4" is the dinosaur.

Most of Gottching's pre-cambrian guitar virtuosity is already available elsewhere on this blog,so as my tribute I have selected this shimmering ambient rock flotation tank muzak outing by Manuel as Ashra, dropping the Tempel part,and also dropping the band. Which is fitting as now all the original line-up of Ash Ra Tempel have now departed consciousness.

The cover looks unerringly like one of the world trade centers relocated to the outskirts of Auschwitz,beaming its truth like an enormous obelisk created by the alien god figure who began this experiment billions of years ago to discover the answer to the ultimate question. This rather disappointed 'God' has just begun to realise that it was all just a complete waste of telly-time. It was all predicted in the BBC comedy series "Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy".......of course it's 42, innit....its the best answer I've ever heard.......and this LP is just north of 42 minutes long! If that ain't proof i dunno what is...

Anyway Manuel knows the answer, or lack of one, by now,if consciousness exists post-mortem for long enough to know this....probably something really boring like eternal nothing ,ness,more nothing than the nothing we think nothing is right now...ness. And the only way this big Nothing gets to actually BE Nothing, is if creatures like Homo-erectus part four have evolved to actually see and measure the nothing-ness before they blow themselves up;

Nothingness does indeed need defining boundaries before it can be defined....but, does that make it a something?

In fact even referring to nothing as nothing makes it a something.Even thinking about it proves it exists,as quantum reactions only happen when no-one's looking.

So is the only answer mankind can ever offer be 'God',the nothing that pretends its something,but only in the minds of men....homo-erectus.

Tracklist:

1.Sunrain 7:26

2.Ocean Of Tenderness 12:36

3.Deep Distance 5:46

4.Nightdust 21:52

DOWNLOAD this new age of death HERE!

Mark Shreeve – "No Holes Barred" (Church Road Records - MCCR6) 1986

 

From the less precious end of the recent deaths in music trophy cabinet, comes one of the more 'successful' prime movers in the UK Electronic Underground of the early eighties; as epitomised by such labels as Colin Potters Integrated Circuit Records.

Mark Shreeve left world stage around the end of August this year,but again no one told me!? He features quite extensively in these pages,mainly for his DIY cred rather than his late period plinky plonky electronic Space rock and Jean MIchel Jarre-isms.

This self-released cassette shows us Marks jauntier side,with some largely inadvisable Prog Rock humour risk of recording Farts and Belches;as Roger Waters and Ron Geesin had an annoying penchant for.

Yes, Mark had just bought an Emulator Mark 1 in 1986, and there were certainly No Holes Barred for the prog novelty title track, where Mr Shreeve's Digestive Tract gets an unwelcome credit. Yeah, we all did it as soon as we got our old skool samplers out of their box? The Burp was utilised intermediately,with that generous 0.8 seconds of sampling time at the lowest Bit-Rate ......oh how we laughed....but at least we didn't sample the Dog,as Simon Cowell did early in his career disguised as "Wonder Dog",and his 1982 hit "Ruff Mix"...geddit? 

Although Cowell had access to £20,000 quids worth of Fairlight Aampling System to totally waste.....unlike Paul Hardcastles N.N.N.N.N.Nineteen,not?

Sad to say that Shreeve's "No Holes Barred" never cracked the top ten,unlike the previously mentioned atrocities did.

Personally I had to make do with my Commodore 64,equipped with a jolly expensive Sampling module attached at the back for my first sampling experience,which was, you guessed it, sampling a Burp!

Who needed a Fairlight in 1984 when you had this?...notice how none of the kids on the cover are sampling Farts or Burps.....obviously Posh Kids.

 

This was repeated several years later with a purchase of an Ensonique Mirage.You can't beat the old ones can you?

Well, there was one more Hole for Mark to use, unbarred to everyone, and that was his Grave.In which he now rests his plinky plonky fingers,and has given us all some much deserved peace.

I do however notice, that quite a few of these tracks do seem to harbor an unhealthy obsession with,...gulp... Death, 'the proud brother' as Criswell of 'Plan Nine from Outer Space' fame used to call it....a lot.

Shreeves' early work is rather good actually,if you like Tangerine Dream that is.

Tracklist:

A1 M.A.D. 4:33
A2 Crash Head (Early Mix) 4:05
A3 High Frontier 4:52
A4 Edge Of Darkness (Early Mix) 5:35
A5 Bandit 3:38
B1 Widowmaker 3:51
B2 One Last Cold Kiss 3:52
B3 Angel Of Death (Live) 11:08
B4 No Holes Barred 1:47

DOWNLOAD through the hole of this HERE!

Wolfgang Riechmann – "Wunderbar" (Sky Records – sky 017) 1978

After encountering Harald Grosskopf's rather good "Synthesist" album,I noticed there was another German in full makeup with expertly groomed lacquered blue hair....also in the "Euro-Rock" section of Revolver Records.....This is not the image one had came to expect from Germans in pop. Terrible, long fly-away hair, afghan coats and unkempt handlebar mustaches were just a few of the minor indiscretions against fashion that I had noticed,particularly among members of CAN .This chap, Reichmann could have been in Duran Duran.

Expecting some disco Kosmiche mash-up, I wasn't put off by the BBC Testcard music of the opening and title track.....strictly not Wunderbar at all.

However,as I had just spent the best part of four quid for it I persevered, and ultimately found it riechly rewarding.Full of analogue wunders and sweeping seascapes to satisfy any disillusioned punk rockers into the realms of relaxation .

Dunno about the Blue Lipstick though....each to his own i guess?

There's always gotta be a downside to every story,and Wolfies' is no exception,as he got fatally stabbed by a  random nutjob shortly after this record was released. Destiny dictated that he would never make a follow-up,and due to his medical condition.....he was dead....he never did start that difficult second solo album;so there's no opportunity for my Third Riechmann LP joke...shame....Unless they have synth's in heaven,or in hell for that matter. 

Both places being purely fictional, I doubt it,but at least a lot of early twentieth century Germans got out of certain eternal torture and melted away into oblivion.

Tracklist:

1.Wunderbar 5:40
2.Abendlicht 4:21
3.Weltweit 7:00
4.Silberland 7:41
5.Himmelblau 8:38
6.Traumzeit 1:11

DOWNLOAD the first riech mann HERE!

Harald Grosskopf – "Synthesist" (Sky Records – Sky 043) 1980

 

Much in demand drummer of Wallenstein, Harald Grosskopf.......without using google translate,I'd like that to translate that as Fat Head?......indeed, Harald Fathead drummed for nearly everyone who did't matter during the Krautrock era ,and for some who used to matter,and,inexplicably, for similar ex-drumming 'synthesists' such as Klaus Schulz.

As with most 'drummer boys, they are all haunted by this need to prove themselves as overlooked musical genius's.Not having one of their songs accepted onto the band's playlist is a major cause of departing Drummers everywhere.They really are just guys who hang around with musicians...with the odd,or very odd exception.

The only other drummer who got painted silver story i know of, was when Tony, Geezer,and Ozzy, painted a drunkenly comatose Bill Ward,drummer of Black Sabbath, Silver;An alcohol and cocaine fueled stunt that ended in hospitalisation for the poor lad.Narrowly escaping death it seems. Boys will be boys as they say?

As for Harald, he had no such excuse for painting himself silver. I can't think of any Krautrock hell-raisers who would have done it to him,especially not in Wallenstein,so i can only guess that the silly sod did it to himself"!?

Were there any Krautrocking wild men? Would be interested if any of you lot know of any......and i don't mean any German's who deliberately failed their maths exams,like Krazy Klaus, or crossed a road without looking and listening.

Notorious German sensibleness is a hard thing to pin down.I guess its to do with all that American financed post war reconstruction, that led to the economic miracle.Whereas the British had to make do with living in bombed out shiteholes like Birmingham on rations,after the country was bankrupted by saving the planet from tyranny and having to pay back the massive loans to the USA....our allies?...who then preceded to give the repayments back to Germany!..but at least the British empire was destroyed,and that was the US's main objective.After all,a famous american order to their Air farce was NOT to bomb any Ford motor company property,as they were churning out trucks for the Third Reich at the time. Plenty American companies made it harder to defeat the Nazi's by continuing to do business with them.The best one was IBM's early mechanical office tools that helped them kill more Jews. (I assume thet Sandy Hook guy will take objection to this in the comments?)

So after being fucked over and left to fester in squalor by the Americans naturally the disaffected youth of Britain would go slightly over the top when it came to revelry.The result of a real repression that was only matched by The German Democratic Republic, who Germanically remained sensible due to being followed everywhere they congregated by the Stasi...i suppose that experience gave the world Rammstein,whether that's should be celebrated is another matter entirely.It did after all inspire the Columbine massacre......a very clever under handed form of revenge on an old enemy I suggest?

When Kraut rock was first becoming fashionable, I spied Harald's silver fizzog in the "Euro-Rock" section of Revolver Records,in the even more exotic,but grey, surroundings of Leicester Marketplace.

The distant cries of "Tater's 10p a pahnd"(pound/lb's)...come 'n' feel these tater's darlin,Onleh 8p a pahnd for you love!"...piercing through the thick odorous haze of rotting banana's made this album a must purchase,then back home on the bus.

It turned out to be better than that CAN album I got the week before (Soon Over Babaluma ,£3.99), full of all the thick Berlin school analogue sumptuousness of bubbling sequencers,melting mellotrons,and sweeping string synthesizers any young person could wish for,but with a commercial edge;and its still good today kids.

Never heard of him again,so I long suspected that he had again painted himself silver and this time succumbed to the call of the Boatman...or the Baumann ?

Tracklist:

1.So Weit, So Gut 5:24
2.B. Aldrian 4:51
3.Emphasis 4:55
4.Synthesist 7:34
5.1847 - Earth 6:43
6.Trauma 6:37
7.Transcendental Overdrive 5:03
8.Tai Ki 4:09

DOWNLOAD howling harald's attempt at being taken seriously HERE!

Rolf Trostel – "Inselmusik" (Rolf Trostel Records– RP 1098) 1981

Like most German musicians in the 1968 to1982 era, Rolf looks like he has someone else's hair. He would also like us to know which synthesisers he's using;boldly printed on the rear of the cover below the Track listing.He's got a PPG wave,which may or may not be the same PPG Wave that Midge Ure used to play the 'Bell Sequence on the Band Aid "Feed The World single.One of the many crimes against art and culture perpetrated by this short scottish monster..

However, having said that, if the charity single for the starving had been made by Rolf Trostel the Ethiopians would have probably gave all the money back and organised a concert for us poor bastards in the west to save us from life threatening rubbish like Kajagoogoo and their equivalentia.(just made that word up by the way).

I'm told that Rolf was, and probably still is, a Peter Baumann solo fan,and that this self-released LP sounds exactly like the least hippie looking one from Tangerine Dream.

On this evidence I may check out some Baumann....or maybe not.

Therefore, this qualifies as Berlin School,so if you dig this school type,you may wanna check out Rolf and his one man army keeping Baumann Berlin School alive.....well,as in  alive forty years ago.Good for chill-out rooms at some 'orrible dance auditorium in Ibiza, or  a moratorium actually in Berlin itself.

This album could feature in the intermission of my fantasy gig at a renovated Hitler's Bunker in an alternative reality.Supporting Joy Division and PiL mark one,...wait a minute, wasn't that the line-up for the Futurama Festival, September 1979 in Leeds UK?...obviously minus Rolf Trostel of course.We were so spoilt back then.

Nowadays you'd have to fight off Coldplay and Radiohead,desperate to get the opening night in the Bunker on there swollen CV's....only to find that The Arctic Monkeys had beaten them to the punch. These certainly are shit times brother!

DOWNLOAD rolf's schooldaze in berlin HERE!

Hardy Kukuk – "Atemnot" (Hardy Kukuk Self-released – 22758) 1981

Take the 'U's out of Hardy's family name, and you're left with 'KKK'......i'm sure that's just a coincidence, but this kind of searching for your own meaning in a seething cauldron of nonsense, finding faces on mars,and the refusal to accept that celebrities die of enything except murder,are a strictly human trait that will end in our own destruction.So if you have a conspiratorial mindset I recommend that you avoid such things for your own,and everyone else's, good.You have been warned.

Hardy,was also the electronic conspirator for Klaus Bloch of A La Ping Pong non-fame,and in return Klaus appears with guitar and space-echo on Hardy's solitary self-released album from 1981.

Tangerine Dream had been going for over a decade by the time Hardy put this note for note perfect rendition of every TD song ever recorded;but he managed to do it in the space of five tracks....then merged back into the wallpaper,which we all wished that Tangerine Dream would have done after "Phaedra"....

Nah, i didn't mean that, TD were great, at least up until "Tangram",which coincidentally was about the time Kukuk unleashed this respectful pastiche to fill that particular vacuum.

The synths are gorgeous,fulfilling all those analogue clichés that get bandied about, hither and yon, by silly sods like me...such as,warm,phat,....er warm.....and er.....phat!? Surfing the knob twiddling Sine wave in such satisfying ways.

These people made these records in the full knowledge that once the 1000 copies had been sold or given away that it would be forgotten,and the planet would move on...but no.....crate diggers find it,hail it as a new discovery of great magnitude,and it gets re-released.Then there's the inevitable come back,again for just one album,which will indeed be,justifiably this time, very  forgotten.You just can't recreate a time and place.The motivations are different,and the desperation factor creeps in along with the chains of experience(Mind forged manacles as William Blake so aptly put it) .The fearlessness,or innocence of youth cannot be salvaged like an old synthesizer. Once you're fucked you stay Fucked.

Tracklist:

A1 Takt Der Zeit 9:31
A2 Erdträumer 11:22
B1 Frühling '81 11:19
B2 So Mal 2:00
B3 .. .... So 3:41

DOWNLOAD electronic songs of innocence and experience HERE!

Laurie Spiegel ‎– "The Expanding Universe (Expanded)" (Philo ‎– PH9003) 1980/2018

Just as the universe is not only expanding but accelerating, electronic classic from the seventies are expanding too. Like this vastly expanded version of 'The Expanding Universe' by music software innovator and goddess of early electronic music , Laurie Spiegel. No matter how unimaginative the title of this album,plus extras, is;One cannot help but be charmed by its warm electronic splendor. If this was made by some long-haired Kraut in a waistcoat and flares from 1976 we'd all be raving about it as another lost vastly over-rated Krautrock classic;but as its by some spoilt american academic,and,oh no, a lady,it rarely features in those best one hundred electronic albums lists in those trainspotter magazines for middle aged men with existential problems.Personally thinking, this is Tangerine Dream but with cleaner hair.
Composed 1974-76 using a computer playing the actual sounds by controlling analog synthesis equipment using the GROOVE (Generating Realtime Operations On Voltage-controlled Equipment) hybrid system which was developed by Max Matthews and F.R. Moore at Bell labs. Interaction with the computer was through a keyboard, a drawing tablet, pushbuttons and knobs, as well as complex "algorhythms" written in FORTRAN.....it says in the notes...one especially likes the 'pushbuttons and knobs' bit.

Laurie's music is more along the minimalist framework i.e. Terry Riley etc but is always interesting and strangely melodic over dissonance. Interlocking rhythmic passages connect and disperse in the course of her compositions always creating a wandering dynamic. One can compare some fo her compositions to the Berlin School sequencer bland-outs of early K. Schulze,but with less equipment....and,of couse, much cleaner hair.

The Lovely Laurie at the controls.

Tracklist:

1 Patchwork
2 Old Wave
3 Pentachrome
4 A Folk Study
5 Drums
6 Appalachian Grove I
7 Appalachian Grove II
8 Appalachian Grove III
9 The Expanding Universe
10 The Orient Express
11 The Unquestioned Answer
12 Dirge Part I
13 Dirge Part II
14 Music For Dance Part I
15 Music For Dance Part II
16 Clockworks
17 East River Dawn
18 Kepler's Harmony Of The Worlds
19 Wandering In Our Times

DOWNLOAD some illegal spiegel HERE!

Pond ‎– "Planetenwind" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 049) 1984

Scientists from behind the Iron Curtain undoubtedly did some human cloning experiments. Not only to create an army of expendable super-soldiers,but musicians also.A couple of these experiments involved cloning Vangelis from some of Demis Roussos's back hair and an alternate Georgio Moroder extracted from a casually disguarded pair of Donna Summers  Tena lady absorbant underpants. The two resultant dopplegangers were placed in Berlin School wanna be's, but from the very wrong side of the wall, 'Pond'.The evidence of their existence on this recording, although not credited of course, can be found on tracks 2 and 3, "Cassiopeia" and "Zeitmaschine",where Vangelis's double Helix's genetic memory insists that they play the 'Theme to Blade Runner' note for note and Moroder's disco chromosome assumes its dominance by unleashing a previously unreleased moroder track upon a disbelieving world.
Nope, not a smidgen of a credit offered forth for either of these blatant rip-offs;but in a communist state, intellectual property is very much ,the property of the state.Anything otherwise is Theft,and subject to the greater crime of egregious capitalism.
Founded in East Berlin by a couple of Fuchs (pronounced 'Fucks'),Wolfgang and Frank Fuchs, 'Pond', were one of the earliest of few Electronic combo's from the German Democratic Republic,but they lacked the darkness of your Klaus Schulze's and your Tangerine Dreams, vearing unerringly on a collison course with the Vangelis's and Jean MIchel Jarre's of this world.Another couple of Fuchs in my opinion.
I suspect the state officials in attendance would have issued instructions to portray East Germany as a 'happy' place,where the musicians wanted to produce uplifting melodies for the endlessly ecstatic workforce to play in their downtime in front of their one channel black and white state provided TV's after a long smoky journey back to their allocated residemnce in their state provided Trabant.This album is a state provided Trabant,but like the Trabant, it has its uncertain charms.

Tracklist:

1 Planetenwind 18:30
2 Zeitmaschine 3:00
3 Cassiopeia 3:55
4 Jumbo 4:35
5 Sturmglocke 3:45
6 Supernova 3:00

DOWNLOAD and fuch off HERE!

Reinhard Lakomy & Rainer Oleak ‎– "Zeiten" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 111) 1985

It's 1985, and the German Democratic Republic,rather undemocratically as it seems, is still in the grips of the most thorough Police State that has ever been.But at least everyone had a job,somewhere to live,and a crap car. The Stasi probably made a recording of Lakomy making this recording,which likely still exists in the Stasi HQ,waiting for the deluxe reissue of this album in the west.
On this one, Lakomy, and buddy Oleak,get more experimental with their imported DX-7....never one of my favourite synths, but they seem to make it sound electronic rather than emulating a bank of digital horns as most of the chart-bound sounds of 1985 preferred.
The cover references several Hammershøi style open doorways which pass through several walls,almost daring those trapped in that drab communist existence to pass through these symbolic walls into the mysterious room at the end where the slavery is much more subtle...'The West', and so-called freedom.
In the west we are our own personal Stasi,voluntarily existing in a prison with no walls.
To quote W.S.Borroughs, "An efficient Police State doesn't need Police".In some ways that makes the DDR a more honest form of oppression,and a victim of its own sucess.
Oppression aside, Lakomy's previous "electronics" albums are fairly accessible outings typical of the era, much of this album belongs in the experimental category. The first three minutes of "Gleichzeit" and much of "Klangzeit" resemble the abstract 60s/70s computer music of academia: atonal and sparse, dissonant,whereas "Ruhezeit" wouldn't sound out of place on an early '80s Tangerine Dream album.

This was not at all endorsed by Erich Honecker of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany,but the fact that you could make a record like this in the DDR,seems to suggest it weren't all shite.You could curl up with your alloted Stasi tail,and listen to some pretty cool electronica of an evening.Leaving all the paranoia behind for forty minutes.....then back to the normal recorded conversations and video taped sex.Even spys need a time-out every now and again.

Tracklist:

A1 Gleichzeit 10:02
A2 Raumzeit 6:15
A3 Ruhezeit 5:14
B1 Klangzeit 9:30
B2 Hochzeit 8:52

DOWNLOAD to your prison with open doors HERE!

Reinhard Lakomy ‎– "Das Geheime Leben" (AMIGA ‎– 8 55 893) 1982

The Handsome ,yet ,Modern Young Gentleman that was Reinhard Lakomy

Lakomy was well known in the DDR for releasing all sorts of projects,such as nursery rhymes, books for children and,more significantly, records in such various styles as Jazz,Schlager ,disco,and euro-pop,among many other atrocities. So it wasn't astonishing that he made the first release of Berlin School style  electronic music in East Germany,of which "Das Geheime Leben" was it .Only about a dozen years after Tangerine Dream's debut in the western part of this subjucated country, followed closely by Pond and others later.

Rumour has it that he heard a Jean Michel Jarre album(Which is one more than I've ever managed!?) and away he went.After such a traumatic experience most of us never regained our mental faculties again, but somehow Reinhard managed to retain his perchant for such progressive electronics until the wall came down and ruined everything.It was Illegal to be unemployed in the Soviet Bloc, so I suppose he had to say he was doing.... something?...it was either that or Jail.Now that's what I call artistic motivation.

Tracklist:

A Das Geheime Leben 21:15
B1 Es Wächst Das Gras Nicht Über Alles 11:24
B2 Begierde Und Hoffnung 5:40
B3 Das Unendliche Rätsel 3:30

DOWNLOAD the communist Jean Michel Jarre HERE!

Reinhard Lakomy ‎– "Der Traum Von Asgard" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 021) 1983

From the East Berlin school of electronics,on DDR state label, Amiga. Reinhard Lakomy provides us with some Tangerine Dream inspired electronica with fine socialist morals.
Its full of gorgeous analogue electronics that never escaped until the wall came down and piles of cheap Amiga vinyl was snapped up up by rich westerners. Most East German music was, of course, pure shite.But a few nuggets lay amongst the squalor...this being one of them.Active in various genres, Reinhard was the most published musician in the DDR,but didn't discover his true mojo until he made this couple of electronic Kosmischer albums.Truly worthy enough to be awarded the 'Karl Marx Order for exceptional merit in relation to ideology, culture, economy, and other designations'?

The Karl Marx Order Medal that Reinhard Lakomy was never awarded!

....good cover art too. 

Tracklist:

Der Traum Von Asgard 11:45
Die Gotischen Narren 9:20
Möglichkeit Einer Ouvertüre 3:27
Orakel 6:04
Sodom 11:32

DOWNLOAD 'cus a reinhard's gonna fall HERE!

Kosmischer Läufer ‎– "The Secret Cosmic Music Of The East German Olympic Program 1972-83 - Volume One" (Unknown Capability Recordings ‎– UCKL001) 2013

The myth spoiling music Stasi have suggested that this is an elaborate hoax.The same bastards who unveiled the identity of the Residents, and that Captain Beefheart made nearly everything up.
This should be ignored, and I truly believe that this music was comissioned by the DDR government,and those drug fuelled monsters in the DDR olympic squad used this to train to.
As Hoaxes go, this one is impressivly watertight,which is reason enough to put that aside and enjoy the georgeous analogue beauty of the Kosmiche Musick trapped in these grooves, and imagine Heike Drechler downing gallons of performance enhancing substances to those classic warm synth sounds.
Here's an amusing interview with the, alleged, composer of these pieces, Martin Zeichnette:

An Interview with Martin Zeichnete. Berlin. February 2013:
Q: Hello Martin, we'll start at the beginning I suppose. Where did you grow up?
I was born in Pesterwitz, which is near Dresden, in 1951. Before the war my parents had been teachers. Afterwards my father worked for the FDGB and my mother sometimes gave music lessons.
Q: Where did you begin your music career?
My first job was as an apprentice sound editor for DEFA, (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), in the Trickfilme (Animation) department in Dresden. I learned techniques in tape editing and 'special effects' which I would put to good use later on in my 'invisible' career. Perhaps because we provided music for animated film we managed to sneak in some avant garde ideas that would not be tolerated elsewhere. Some of us saw it as a game. Between us and the state censors.
Q: Tell me about the music that inspired Kosmischer Läufer?
Although we were of course aware of popular Western music at the time, very little was available to us. Our primary source came from radio stations broadcasting from the West. Due to the geography of the area this proved difficult in Dresden! There was a station I could get from Düsseldorf that played Kosmische Musik , you know, Kraftwerk and Cluster and Neu! and so on. To me, sitting in the attic tuning the radio dial, searching for anything, hearing these beautiful new electronic sounds, it did seem like music from the cosmos. I would record it and pass tapes on to my friends. We did have people in the East doing electronic music, such as Paul-Heinz Dittrich, but I found their version of it all too studious. The music from the West was fun. It had energy.
Q: How did the idea come about?
I was a keen amateur runner and when out I would play these motorik, repetitive songs in my head. I thought somehow it could be used as a training aid for athletes. The electric pulse sort of thing. I thought it could benefit the athletes mind as well as body, the music would be hypnotic, it would bring focus. Then at work I was shown a prototype design of Andreas Pavel's 'Stereobelt' and I knew this could be possible.
Q: So how does it go from an idea to a reality?
It was not in a good way! I shared my ideas with colleagues at work but as was often the case in those times I perhaps spoke in front of the wrong person. One day at the studio two SED members arrived and took me away in an official car.
Q: What did you think was happening?
Well. I didn't know, you think of everything you have said, everyone you have said it to, but I think I knew it would be about the music. I feared I would lose my job, at the very least. It would be very bad for someone who worked on party films to be seen to be influenced by the enemy, you know, Western culture.
Q:Where were you taken?
We drove in silence to the outskirts of Berlin to what I later found out was an athletics camp. They knew all about me and my idea. They questioned me about the concept for hours then left me alone in the room. Later an official from the Nationales Olympisches Komitee came in and told me I would begin to work on the project immediately.
Q: Just like that! It seems very matter of fact?
Yes, I was stunned, but sometimes that is how things happened then. We know now that the athletic directors were trying anything to gain an advantage in those times. At least my idea did not harm the athletes. I was in a studio in Berlin the next day.
Q: Did you work alone or with other musicians?
To begin with it was just myself, the engineer and always a state official who would sit in the corner observing. The first things I tried were basically electronic metronomes at various paces with very little melody. These were tested but the athletes didn't respond very well so I began writing more 'musical' pieces. Sometimes I would be joined by a drummer and a guitarist. It was incredible, when I would explain to the musicians what we were going to do, you could tell immediately the ones who 'got' what the music was. We would be in the live room doing 20 minute space rock pieces while a government official sat bored on the other side of the glass. It was surreal.
Q: What equipment did you have access to?
It varied. We had some Western technology in effect units and such but the synthesizers were mostly Soviet in origin and could be very temperamental. The studio in Dresden had a Subharchord which I had used before on animation soundtracks, it was a great machine. I filled in many claim forms for equipment. Sometimes it came, sometimes it didn't. The Moog didn't. I do know that the athletes in the program were probably the first people in the East to have Walkmen as I saw the order for 300 units.
Q: Did you ever meet the athletes?
Not really at the time, always there was a minder there when I met with them and the coaches to discuss what they needed. It was a shame, they were my only audience. Years later, after reunification, one former Olympian I met confessed to me that he would try and swap the training cassettes supplied to him for Western music at international meets.
Q: How long did the project continue?
I would be summoned to Berlin generally in the winter to produce tracks for the upcoming athletics season. The last work I did was in 1983 doing pieces for the gymnastic team's floor performances. The project stopped as suddenly as it had started. I was given no explanation. I think it may have been due to the boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics.
Q: How did you retain the music?
Well, I was not supposed to take the music from the studio as it was state property but I did manage to sneak a lot out. I thought the master tapes had been destroyed or lost in the chaos after the wall came down but one of the engineers, who 'got' it, had rescued a lot of them. We transferred them to digital in the early 90s.
Q: Why release this now?
I made this music for people to train to. Because of the time and place I did it only a select few got to use it. I would like for more people to finally use and enjoy it. It is as simple as that."

Liner Notes:
This program should allow the average runner to complete a 5 kilometre run at a reasonable pace. Included are 3 minute warmup and warm down pieces.
This program was used by the East German Olympians in the 1970s.
Tracklist:

1 Zeit Zum Laufen 156 2:56
2 Sandtrommel 6:26
3 Die Lange Gerade 13:07
4 Tonband Laufspur 6:32
5 Ein Merkwürdiger Anschlag 2:49

DOWNLOAD secretly HERE!

Mark Shreeve ‎– "Firemusic" (Agitasjon ‎– AGI 004) 1981

One of my favourite Jazz albums is Archie Shepp's "Fire Music".....ain't I sofisticated (sic)???......which positively bristles with channeled energy(fire) among the abused sax noises, but it does have its smooth bubbly moments,Like the whole of this cassette.

Mark 'Big in Norway' Shreeve's version of "Firemusic" seems to be a much more pleasant evening in front of a log burner than the controlled Napalm of Shepp's wailing horn. Its a soundtrack to witnessing something burning rather than using the energy of the fire in the creative process.Then extinguishing it with gallons of analogue foam.

This limited edition cassette for a Norwegian fanzine label is,for me, Mark's best album. It could easily fit into Tangerine Dreams' back catalogue from the classic period of 73-76.Plenty of gorgeous, warm analogue synth sounds, and hypnotic spacious melodies that could make burning to death a pleasurable experience.  

Tracklist:

A1 Blitz 8:47
A2 Firestorm 9:05
A3 Fireball 8:45
B1 Black Candles 3:45
B2 Firepower 16:37
B3 Heatwave 7:40

DOWNLOAD some warm analogue fire HERE!

Mark Shreeve ‎– "Thoughts Of War" (Uniton Records ‎– Uniton 001) 1981

Mark even had vinyl out in 1981, courtesy of a Norwegian label, as you do.

Here, our Mark ruminates on the sticky subject of 'War'.Pretty nasty stuff is 'War'......lots of killing, mass executions, maimed children, Genocide, its no fun at all......or so I was led to believe.

Listening to Mr Shreeves' 'Thoughts' on the subject one would be inclined to think that these unwelcome violent episodes were quite relaxing, floaty escapades.As if mass destruction was an open gateway to paradise. 

This is a concept of 'war' more akin to that imagined by those stone-age morons in the Islamic State.Of course to get round the fact that it is written in their holy book that they should not kill,they call themselves 'Martyrs'rather than muderers.A fast track to the side of God,and rewarded with, and I quote, "A Sensual Paradise". This consists of being wed to 72(?!) 'perpetual Virgins' called the 'Houri'......women, of course, don't get 72 musculus blokes in paradise, only one,"...and they will be satisfied with him"!!!!???....Have you ever heard such a pile of misogynistic neanderthal bullshit in your life before......well, yes if you're a devout Muslim.......I could go on, but might risk some kind of Fatwa from some suicide-bearded nutjob modern caveman in Birmingham.

I digress.

As pictured on the rear of the Shreeve sleeve, one will notice that Mark could have easily been pictured in 1971 rather than 1981, but his beard is absolutely NOT that of a radical Muslim; so his vision of War is probably not that perverted skidmark of anti-intellectualism that is radical Islam......don't worry the American Taliban are just as fucking bad to balance it up.

These 'Thoughts' on War ironically, or maybe purposefully turn out to be great stuff for Meditations for Peace.Like those Buddhist chaps do.....now wait.....isn't it those Buddhist chaps who are currently performing Genocide on the Rohingya (muslims) people in Myanmar? And wasn't it Buddhists who invented Suicide Bombing in WW2?.....the kamikaze.

So no-one is innocent is the conclusion to this digression.

But Mark Shreeve is innocent of taking the obvious route in this beautifully warm analogue, Berlin School of Electronics style, portrayal of War......this record is really 'Thoughts On Peace', and who could possibly disagree with that?.......yeah yeah I know, there's a huge list, topped by our chums from the three main monotheistic religions.

Good album by the way, even if a conceptually vague one.

Tracklist:

Thoughts Of War - Part One (15:15)
A1.1 Escalation
A1.2 Cold Emotion
A2 Nightmare Of Reality 14:25
B1 Dream Sequence 11:01
Thoughts Of War - Part Two (18:41)
B2.1 Funeral In Desolation
B2.2 Remembrance
B2.3 "...Ashes To Dust..."

DOWNLOAD some relaxing war sounds HERE!

Mark Shreeve ‎– "Phantom" (Mirage) 1980

Seems 1980 was a prolific year for Mark Shreeve, a year we've already established was the high point of this modern renaissance for art and music that some of us were privileged to have lived through.
It's all finished now of course, with the stragglers having to reinvent the wheel again and again, like landscape painters have had to do for the last 500 years or so; that's the future we have to look towards......the same things but done again,masquerading  as something new.
I suppose this rehashing trend started in the seventies, with stuff like 'the Mod Revival' and the resurrection of 'Ska'.
The UK electronic underground of the early eighties was basically a revival of the German Kosmiche music of the early Seventies, repackaged as DIY Electronica, and set in small town provincial England......well no-one else was doing it were they.Very unfashionable in 1980, so if you wanted to hear music like this then you jolly well had to go and 'Do It Yourself', as the Post Punk manifesto would have stated if it had ever existed.
So, here we get a tape of Electronic Space Symphonies recorded in a bedroom in such an exotic location as the dying English seaside resort of Great Yarmouth rather than West Berlin. 
It wasn't always like this for Mark however. He did get to work with a member of Tangerine Dream later on, his obvious inspiration. And, less impressive, infact downright criminal, he wrote several hit tunes for page three bimbo Samantha Fox in the mid-eighties!.....I assume those tunes weren't exploratory electronic odysseys like those on 'Phantom'.....would have been fun though to have Sam vocalising to something like this instead of whatever crud she inflicted upon our innocent discotheques?  

DOWNLOAD this phantom to your machine HERE!

Mark Shreeve ‎– "Ursa Major" (Mirage) 1980

The constellation Ursa Major, aka The Great Bear, containing, as the tail section of the Bear, a familiar pattern of stars commonly known in the USA as 'The Big Dipper', in France as 'Le Casserole' and in the UK, as 'The Plough'.
Thankfully this Cassette only has one title, but its contents are a bubbling 'casserole' of electronic star stuff that ploughs through your sub-consciousness until your thirst has been quenched without double dipping in the well of the Berlin school of synth twiddling.
That's about all I can think of to say without referring directly to the music too much, like modern music reviewers seem to do a lot????.Think, Tangerine Dream as Ursa Major, and Mark Shreeve as Ursa Minor......the poor chap only had one synthesiser, as opposed to about ten thousand under the auspices of TD,yet there's almost no difference in the finished product except for the budget;theirs was massive and Mark's was zero.......they did have better haircuts though.

DOWNLOAD the great bear(d) HERE!

Mark Shreeve ‎– "Embryo" (Mirage) 1980

They came with Beards,with bunches of unkempt long hair tied back in unsightly pony-tails, and carried keyboards as their weapons.......no i'm not talking about the Viking Invasion of Northern England!? The Vikings had weaponry at least equal in lethal effect as a Korg Monopoly or Moog Prodigy, but these later invaders were better known as The UK Electronic Underground. An unsubscribed terrorist organisation from the late seventies and early eighties.
Just as those naughty Punk Rockers, with their spitting and their habits, thought we were free forever from a Klaus Schulz hypnotic sequencer driven electronic symphony, or a Tangerine Dream Live album.There appeared, bubbling below the surface, in the very 'Punky',and certainly not Funky, world of DIY Cassette culture, grew a rebellious,or more accurately,Oblivious,infiltration of unrepentant progressive music fans with a spare few quid to spend on the latest polyphonic synthesisers.
One of these bearded invaders was none other than Mark Shreeve,who spread fear throughout the post-punk legions with his hypnotic keyboard sequences,effected electronic dream-scapes,and meandering melodies.Wielding his Prophet 5 like a sword in the hands of a disenchanted east-London born benefit cheat in Islamic State, with a captured Saudi-Arabian Fighter Pilot kneeling in an orange boiler-suit before him.
I exaggerate of course......no-one had the slightest clue this stuff existed in 1980.They were all too busy moonstomping in that bloody awful Two-Tone cult, where everyone dressed like they were in the Specials and had 'Fun' forced down their throats like geese at christmas......Skin'ead Fois Gras anyone?....no thanks!
That stuff makes Mark Shreeve, music and image, look like real rebellion against any kind of Status Quo,new or old (not the band of course!...ps, R.I.P. Rick Parfitt 😭).....(and as of 31/08/2022 R.I.P. Mark Shreeve too!?

Tracklist:
A1 The Keeper
A2 Alive!
B1 Embryo
B2 Iceflakes

DOWNLOAD some embryonic shreeve HERE!

Carl Matthews ‎– "Iridescence" (Mirage ‎– M609) 1983

Another cassette of proggy space synth hypnotic meanderings from the Edger Froese of Cumbria, Mr Carl Matthews.
More of the same electronic background music to accompany a video of a deep space probe scooping up space dust for analysis.
My Analysis is that this is very good for navel gazing in the bath surrounded by scented candles.
A pastime I can't indulge in because I only have two en-suite showers, and no bath, at my gaff, so I just play at being Voyager 3 in my mind, (yes, I have a mind and I know there were only two voyager probes!!!?).
As Voyager one had a golden record bolted to its side showcasing the 'sounds of Earth' as selected by the great Carl Sagan and chums back in 1977, maybe my imaginary Voyager 3 could have some golden cassettes stapled to it's hull? 
I'm sorry to say that Carl Matthews, good as he is, would not probably make the final cut. I'd obviously select Danny and the Dressmakers "39 Golden Grates", Solid Spaces' "Space Museum" and 5XOD's "Dada Computer" tapes as my suggestions. At least if a malevolent Alien race would discover the probe, and by some miracle have a vintage cassette deck available in the junk shops on their planet.They could listen to these tapes and would be profoundly 'put off' the idea of invading Earth to steal 'our women', as the Martians often did in the fifties. Some women to this day still insist they have been abducted and fondled by randy space aliens. One listen to Danny and The Dressmakers and Earth's women would be more than safe from any Groping Greys with ungentlemanly urges. Earth women are in far more danger from the indigenous aliens of our own planet......we call them 'Men'. Those dirty little bleeders with their barely under control sexual urges'n'all! The leader of whom is a creature who looks like Jabba the Hutt in an ill fitting business suit, sometimes described as resembling a chewed piece of gum rolled in cat hair.....yes.....Harvey Wankstain himself. Beam him up Scottie!

Tracklist:

Side 1
A1 Give Love
A2 Trinity
A3 Day Of Forgiveness
A4 Silent Watcher
Side 2
B1 Elemental Moon
B2 Nexus
B3 Iridescence

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Carl Matthews ‎– "East/West" (Mirage M606) 1982

Another mixture of Berlin School, via Cumbia, synth noodlings, ambient, proto-New Age introspection and minimal analogue repetition from my new favourite of the UK Electronic Underground of the early 80's.
I was always familiar with the other chief protagonists in the seedy underpants of the prog dissenters in post-punk Britain, like Dave Jones,Rick Crane George Garside and the ICR crowd; but only recently have I indulged my ears with the swirling beauty of Carl Matthews' obscure canon.
Dull John Q. Public name aside, it's without doubt music for flotation tanks and astral travelling from the comfort of an armchair, but it does have more meat than most new-age or ambient musics. Something to grasp onto outside of your personal sensory deprivation chamber. All, naturally, full of gorgeous analoginous (made up word?) guano regurgitated by Doves and spread on toast made from ethically recycled cassette tape........Christ! I've spent far too long in that Flotation Tank again!

Tracklist:

A1 Lamb And Lion 8:10
A2 Cause And Effect 11:10
A3 Bridge 5:00
A4 Gura Ma 5:30
B1 East/West 11:40
B2 Aeon 4:30
B3 Cities Of Shan 5:30
B4 Motion 6:10
B5 Nomad 1:10

DOWNLOAD from the east, the west, home's best HERE!