Showing posts with label Amon Duul II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amon Duul II. Show all posts

Friday 5 June 2020

The Titles of Budgie


I was originally going to title this "Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman" which is one of the many startling titles from the Welsh Heavy Metallers Budgie. Other titles are "It The Grip of A Tyre Fitters Hand" and "Breadfan" the latter covered by Metallica here among other places.

Their titles also vaguely remind me of the titles that Amon Duul II had on their albums which only just about made sense.

This morning I awoke from a dream it which lots happened but most has melted away now although one thing I remember was going back to the office except walking in was more like a packed church, withe everyone at their desks , then I realised I had forgotten my laptop so had to go back home , but it was pointless going back to the office because there was no place to sit anyway.

My mind is empty tonight (as usual) so I will leave you to enjoy the Welsh metal.

Saturday 12 January 2019

I Won't Watch Black and White Films, Films With Subtitles or Read Books


Obviously not me, but over the years I continually hear this from people, and variations on the same. Anything out of the blinkered area that they see means you (that's me) are a total weirdo. You don't like "Top Gear"? You're weird. You like classical music? You must be retarded. You don't watch X-Factor or Britain's Got Talent? You have no taste in music. You watch Asian language film? You're strange. You listen to German and French bands who sing in German and French? You are mad.

I've had all these reactions from people, and maybe it's why people seldom speak with me, but that's their loss. The fact they are cutting out of their life the films:


  • Downfall
  • Amelie
  • The Seven Samurai
  • Casablanca
  • It's A Wonderful Life
  • Young Frankenstein
....and more

and then the music of:


  • Beethoven
  • Mozart
  • Philip Glass
  • Can
  • Amon Duul II
  • Jacques Brel
  • Alan Stivell
  • Gong

..... and more

And the fact that people refuse to read for the flimsiest of reasons, missing out on the joy of hooking up your own imagination as someone's words take you on a journey that no film could ever do, I list the music I listen to and the books I read on here. I have finished "There Is No Map In Hell" which I bought just for the title and I discovered what it is like to run 214 Wainwright Peaks in seven days. which you can read about on Steve Birkinshaw's blog here, You might not be able to judge a book by the cover but it was the title that hooked me and though I have zero interest in Fell Running it did hook me.

So I should include a song that is not sung in English, so I'll go with Los Lobos take on Richie Valens' "La Bamba" from the soundtrack of the eponymous film

Tuesday 26 June 2018

A Wolf In Babylon


God it's hot, but I'm not complaining , it keeps the power bills down and makes walking into work pleasurable. Unfortunately I have to remain fully clothed so as not to frighten any living creature in my vicinity, so I am enjoying mytime at home where I can be on my own and therefore don't have to concentrate too much on my appearance.

After listening to Edgar Froese's "Aqua" I decided to put on "Wolf City" by Amon Duul II complete with it's winged sphinx cover (see here)designed by Falk U-Rogner, the band's keyboard player ,  From the opener "Surrounded By Stars" this album does not have a dud moment. The lyrics my be a little out at times but English is not their primary language and when they sing in german on "Deutsch Nepal" they sound supremely confident. I played it through twice and could have kept going, but I do realise that I can put it on whenever I want.

I then put on it's predecessor, "Carnival In Babylon" and at first I wasn't too taken with it. It's more pastoral in feel and while I think all the songs are in roghly 4/4 time the introduction of tablas and eastern percussion draws you into it. On the second play I was rehooked all the songs just held me and I could just listen to both these albums for a very very long time.

These are just two albums from the excellent Amon Duul back catalog and after "Vive LA Trance" they seemed to lose their way, but hit back remarkably with their last release "Duulirium"

So I've gone for "Deutsch Nepal" with some Ralph Bakshi animation which may be from his "Lord of The Rings", powerful stuff.

Sleep well.


Thursday 21 June 2018

Dancing With Lemmings #TenAlbumsInTenDays #3 - #2


I think my first exposure to Amon Duul II was hearing "Race From Here To Your Ears" on a UA compilation, "All Good Clean Fun". There was a lot of good stuff on there such as Man's "Daughter of The Fireplace" but this album made me want to hear the albums that the individual songs had come from and hearing "Race From Here To Your Ears" (Part of "Restless Skylight Transistor Child" that made up side two of th eoriginal albumthen seeing the cover of "Dance of the Lemmings" (or "Tanz Der Lemminge" which I think is the correct German original title)

 The album also drew me into what was loosely termed Krautrock but also made me realisethat music could sound much different to our normal western blues and rock and roll concept of rock. From this I went on to Tangerine Dream, Can, Kraftwerk and Faust as well as other less well known bands and all these now how a place in my music collection.

These days people equate German Music with Kraftwerk, and while not wanting to diminish their importance there is far more to German rock and progressive music than them, but they deserve their success and recognition.

So with that I will look out on the very light night sky of the longest day.

Sleep well, tomorrow is Friday.



Tuesday 16 January 2018

Is This A Dream Week?


I woke this morting and the lasting image from my dreams was interpretive dance versions of  Terry Pratchett's novels "Mort" and "Cardiff City vs Preston North End". Yest I know the second one is a football match and not a novel but this is one of my dreams and it wouldn't be a dream if it made any sense would it. This is the first time I mentioned Terry Pratchett on this blog although I' never got into him , though I enjoyed "Mort", that was it, but I know I was in a minority the

Last night I was feeling wrecked, I was heading towards another Diabetic hypo (3.8) and was in bed for nine. Today I am not really looking forward to work as I have an annual donkey work task that I will be lucky to finish today, but I will do it, so maybe that was on my mind.

Last night I watched Ben Wheatley's take on JG Ballard's "High Rise"  which is a flawed masterpiece in my opinion, very 1970s and the buildings look simply monstrously awesome from a distance, but the soundtrack featuseds both Can and Amon Duul II and an awesome take on Abba's "SOS" by Portishead. I can't find this officially available anywhere but found this wonderful Youtube montage from the film soundtracked by the Portishead take.

Thursday 18 April 2013

Facebook Wants To Own The Internet



A short post this which may eventually cause be to close my Facebook account. The very fact that I'm writing this is giving more publicity to Facebook, and it's two instances of something that may eventually damage other products.

The first was Deezer. Luckily I had signed up before the current requirement that you had to sign up with your Facebook account. I dont like be told I HAVE to use Facebook.

This morning I used Babelfish because my German is a little rusty , being mostly gleaned from Amon Duul and Faust titles and lyrics, but it wouldn't translate unless I signed into to Facebook.

Again it's something I see happening more and more , you can't have access to this unless you sign up for that. It's pathetic really.  The thing is eventiually you give in , then you start getting junk email, texts and phone calls all because you couldn't speak a forign language.

I dont mind using Facebook but along with Google and lots of other things they just want complete contril you. No thanks , I'm not going to take it anymore


Tuesday 27 December 2011

A Playlist For Christmas

Am quite impressed with Grooveshark , not sure how exactly it works , but thought I would try this playlist I put together in "Crimbo Limbo". Hope you enjoy it , I certainly do!

If You Dont Listen To This , You Won't Ever Hear These Songs #1 by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark

Monday 19 February 2007

Seven Days In Krautrockland


At the end of the sixties many bands had dabbled with non standard music, such as the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd who were not averse to producing extended soundscapes based on the actual sounds rather than standard song progressions. 

Tracks like “Echoes” and “A Saucerful of Secrets” by the Floyd and “Dark Star” by the Dead were prime examples of this. For one reason or another, this seemed to sow the seeds of musical revolution, in, of all places Germany, resulting a plethora of superb, totally original music which took elements from certain western bands a stretched them way beyond anything that had been heard before, bar maybe Jimi Hendrix. The generic term for this became, and now I’m going to use it, was “Krautrock”. The term became one of endearment and respect as some of the effects of the music produced is still with us today. 

That is also the title of an excellent Julian Cope reference book on the subject, which is worth tracking down if you would like to know more. 

Anyway what I’m going to do is list, in no particular order some of the most influential and interesting bands in the genre , and albums worth listening to…..as well as an essential single album for each band listed


 Formed in 1968 in Munich from the Amon Düül commune, released their first album “Phallus Dei” in 1969 on Liberty records. Essentially guitar based using unusual, but accessible chord changes , featuring both standard rock formats such as “Archangels Thunderbird” from “Yeti”, and extended improvisational sound collages such as “Syntelmans March of The Roaring Seventies” from “Dance of The Lemmings”. However their next two albums (“Carnival In Babylon” and “Wolf City”) featured shorter pieces possibly in search of a wider audiences. Such innovation could not last an “Vive La Trance” saw the band drift into standard westernised bland rock. I believe they are still around today, but all the albums mentioned above are essential listening bar “the first and last ones. 

 Essential Single Album: “Dance of the Lemmings” 

Tangerine Dream: 

Formed in Berlin 1967 by art student Edgar Froese who got the name from the lyrics of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. Froese was invited to play some classical improvisations by Salvador Dali at his Spanish Villa, Froese went through numerous musicians before teaming up with Klause Schulze, who worked on the bands debut “Electronic Meditation” released in 1969 on the Ohr label, home of many excellent German bands.. This was followed up by “Atem” , “Zeit” and “Alpha Centauri” the music being gothic, challenging and rhythmic. Through much airplay on John Peel’s show the band signed to Virgin and released their commercial breakthrough “Phaedra” featuring three pieces of music , produced entirely by electronic instruments (remember this was the seventies). Their music became more and more hypnotic and rhythmic, these avenues explored on “Rubycon”. However as with Amon Düül II, Tangerine Dream’s music drifted off into MOR vacuity. All albums listed are worth listening to. 

 Essential Single Album: “Phaedra” 

Can: 

Probably the most influential of all the German bands from this era, namechecked by anybody who is anybody on the dance and ambient scene. Formed in 1968 in Cologne , originally as “Inner Space” by Holger Czukay and Irmin Scmidt, who soon recruited bassist Jaki Leibezeit and guitarist Michael Karoli, all of whom , I believe are still active, individually and collectively today. Can are extremely rhythmic based music, influenced originally by the likes of the Velvet Underground, Terry Riley. Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage. Their first album “Monster Movie” featured black American singer Malcolm Mooney on vocals, featuring total improvisation such as the 20 minute “You Doo Right”. After this album Mooney suffered a breakdown and was replaced by Damo Suzuki for their next album “Soundtracks”. These line produced three superb albums “Tago Mago”, “Ege Bamyasi” and “Future Days”, before Suzuki went back to Japan to become a Jehovahs witness. Karoli and Schmidt took over vocal duties and released “Soon Over Babbaluma” in 1974. In 1976 they even scored a top 30 British single with “I Want More”, and continued to release albums up til 1989’s “Rite Time” which lacked their earlier inspiration. In 1997 a double CD compilation of dance remixes called “Sacrilege” was issued on the bands Spoon label. 

 Essential Single Album: “Anthology” (compilation) 

Kraftwerk: 

Formed in Dusseldorf 1969 by Ralf Hutter and Florian Scneider as Organisation, their music has come to reflect their industrial background although on their first album “Ralf and Florian” they used traditional musical instruments (as exemplified by the flute led “Ruczuck”). Their commercial an influential breakthrough when they ditched traditional instruments, for the all electronic “Autobahn” the 22 minute title track being edited down to three minutes to spawn a hit single.

Kraftwerk have been a huge influence on dance music and the electronic scene produce several almost mechanical an soulless yet fascinating albums such as “Radioactivity”, “Trans Europe Express” and “Computer World”. There is also an excellent remix album called “The Mix”

 Essential Single Album: “Autobahn” 

 Faust: 

Formed in Hamburg 1970 by producer Uwe Nettlebeck, probably the most avant garde and least accessible of the bands 

’ve mentioned. Their eponymous first album featured samples of Rolling Stones and Beatles songs on a clear vinyl album in a clear plastic sleeve featuring an X-Ray of a human hand. Their third album “The Faust Tapes” was a collage of sound cuttings featuring some beautiful music, and is highly recommended. 

Essential Single Album: “The Faust Tapes” 

 While I’ve only scratched the surface of this excellent musical genre and not delved into the likes of “Popol Vuh”, “Ash Ra Tempel” and probably a million others, hopefully this piece has whetted your appetite to at least investigate some of the most startling and innovative music ever made