Ash Ra Tempel ‎– "The Private Tapes Vol. 4" (Manikin Records ‎– MRCD 7014) 1996

They all do it at some point don't they?
Get ideas beyond their station and Go Jazz Fusion!?.......but not the good Jazz Fusion like Miles Davis etc,this is awful Pat Methany style Jazz Rock fusion.Krautrock Legends, Guru Guru also befell this same fate on their 1974 "Dance Of The Flames" album,terrible stuff.Even Zoot Horn Rollo went 'Jazz' on his sole solo album a few years ago, but he's a better guitarist than Göttsching,so he got away with it.Basically, Jazz and electric guitar shouldn't be said in the same sentence.....ever!
I suppose there are some Pat Methany fans who will take offence at my use of their hero as the comparison point for 'awful' on the Jazz Fusion barometer of shite; but thats how it is on these pages.Heaven knows the pain just a few notes of any Methany tunes have caused the boredom sector of my delicate frontal lobe,so he deserves it.
As terrible the first three tracks are, its more than made up for by  repetitive sequencer driven proto-trance number "Niemand Lacht Rückwärts".
Finishing off this episode we have a rather below par Ash Ra Tempel freak out.....sounding...dare I say....a bit Jazzy(!?)in places....not good.

Tracklist:

1 –Ashra - Club Cannibal (1979) 14:48
2 –Ashra - Sausalito (1979) 3:40
3 –Ashra - Ain't No Time For Tears (1979) 7:12
4 –Manuel Göttsching - Niemand Lacht Rückwärts (1979) 11:56
5 –Ash Ra Tempel - Dédié à Hartmut (1973) 39:59

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Ash Ra Tempel ‎– "The Private Tapes Vol. 3" (Manikin Records ‎– MRCD 7013) 1996

Some say that these private tapes should have remained private......and they may have a point.
The high point for me on Volume three has to be the Free Rock of Ash Ra Tempel.Turn the volume from 3 to 11 to enjoy it to the maximum.
Tracks 2&4 are, however, superior trancey numbers to keep you company in your flotation tank of an evening,after a hard days grovelling.

Tracklist:

1 –Manuel Göttsching - Whoopee (1973) 3:17
2 –Manuel Göttsching - Der Lauf Der Giraffen (1973) 3:17
3 –Ashra - Schwerer Dino (1974) 27:27
4 –Manuel Göttsching - Halensee (1973) 12:21
5 –Ash Ra Tempel - Le Bruit Des Origines (1971) 32:04

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Ash Ra Tempel - "The Private Tapes Vol. 2" (Manikin Records ‎– MRCD 7012) 1996

Manuel Göttsching is often credited with inventing 'House'(shame on you!), with the mind numbingly boring "E2-E4" album.Its repetative synth lines were hardly original,and the terrible drum machine in the background wasn't either;but that LP and "Trans-europe Express" seem to put this mind-controling genre firmly in the land that gave us MK Ultra.Maybe Göttsching was a fourth Reich Nazi drone,programed to infiltrate the counter-culture and stealthily introduce this form of fake decadant marching musick to the masses...very sucessfully I may add.
Personally,I place the blame at the feet of the minimal composers of the sixties and seventies,Glass, Reich, Riley etc, plus Kraftwerk...maybe?
The first three tracks on volume two wouldn't be out of place at some drugged up chill-out area at a late eighties illegal rave party somewhere near Basildon (Essex?)
For me, the live Ash Ra Tempel track is the reason to have this in your collection. Live improvised electric freak outs are my favorite background music. You can read to it, take drugs to it, invite the neighbours round for a Fondue,its perfect music...even if it is done by a bunch of West German hippies who would have loved to be Pink Floyd in 1967......in fact I would have loved to be Pink Floyd in 1967 too!?...Who in their right mind wouldn't? 

Tracklist:

1 –Manuel Göttsching - Deep Distance (1976) 21:11
2 –Manuel Göttsching - Shuttle Cock (1976) 18:12
3 –Manuel Göttsching - Wall Of Sound (1979) 12:03
4 –Ash Ra Tempel - Soirée Académique (1971) 24:17
5 –Ash Ra Tempel - Interview (1970) (KS) 0:22

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Ash Ra Tempel - "The Private Tapes Vol. 1" (Manikin Records ‎– MRCD 7011) 1996

So, we've established that 'Krautrock' was a rougher form of prog rock by German groups who wanted to be Pink Floyd,with splashes of Zappa,Soft Machine, and The Velvet Underground.They weren't gonna be doing world tours or hiring jumbo jets or anything like ELP or Led Zeppelin anytime soon, so they could get a bit more unpalatable for the stinking masses than any Anglo-American group were allowed to.

Firmly in the Pink Floyd-a-like camp are the various incarnations of Ash Ra Tempel supremo, Manuel Gottsching.

This is the first volume in a series of six CDs of unreleased historic recordings from the seventies by Manuel and his groups Ash Ra Tempel & Ashra.

The first track from 1979 is an insipid new age foray into the unforgiving world of bland medatative neck pick-up guitar noodling.

Next up we get a Berlin School influenced proto ambient trance seqencer piece,think Tangerine Dream but crapper.
The catchily titled,"Begleitmusik Zu Einem Hörspiel"is classic, get yer echo boxes out Pink Floyd mimickry, then back to new age beige for "Bois De La Lune"

Track 5 is a truly terrible sixties German high school blues band atrocity.....it can only get better...and it does.... on volume 2.

Tracklist:

1 –Manuel Göttsching -  Bois De Soleil (1979) 3:14
2 –Manuel Göttsching - Eloquentes Wiesel (1979) 28:47
3 –Manuel Göttsching - Begleitmusik Zu Einem Hörspiel (1974) 24:41
4 –Manuel Göttsching - Bois De La Lune (1979) 7:26
5 –Steeple Chase Bluesband -Chicken Maladie (1970) 9:52

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Sympathy Nervous ‎– "Polaroid" (Vanity Records ‎– VA-S1) 1980

There have been aspersions cast on the authenticity of the date that Sympathy Nervous made his prescient recordings.This single, especially the a-side, sounds very,almost too modern era techno.
There is absolutely no doubt as to when 'Polaroid' was set to tape in Yoshifumi Niiuma's living room.....1980.No  sophisticated sequencing required, just controlled voltage,and ,or, tape syncing. Not just ground breaking, he made the whole mine shaft to the mother-lode.
The other two tracks are a bit weirder, "D.B.TV" (Directed by TV) especially, sounding like  the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet being transformed into a fruit smoothie.

Tracklist:

A Polaroid
B1 Polyester 35 Micron
B2 D.B.TV

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Sympathy Nervous ‎– "No More Expo" (Negative Emission ‎– NE-1002T) 1980

Japanese cassette only proto-rave electronica from the year zero of 'popular' synth music. This could easily have been recorded yesterday,and as far as some modern musical forms are concerned, it sounds like tomorrow.
Inspired by the electronic German groups,why Yoshifumi Niinuma isn't mentioned in the same breath as Manuel Göttsching in regards to making the first House/Techno record, i really don't know; as this was released four years before "E2-E4".Maybe because no-one gave a shit about Japanese music in Europe,and no-one had even heard of Sympathy Nervous even in Japan?Blame obscurity?
This is better than "E2-E4" anyway, that particular landmark was more Trance-y than this tape I suppose,so it has that guilt to bear at least.

Tracklist:

A1 No More Expo
A2 Music Of The S.N. Phase-1
A3 Lace Master
A4 Khahi Cloud
A5 My Favorite Patch
B1 Money Crisis
B2 Heart Of The Sun (Roger Waters)
B3 Pale Port
B4 Spirit Of The Bomb
B5 Mescal

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