
As mentioned, I bought a shit-ton of krautrock in the last few months, trying to dig into the genre deeper than the more obvious acts like Can, Neu!, and Faust. Surely I'm not done, though I may be ready for a little break. The number of 20-minute rock excursions I've added to my library in six months is too much! Not all of it has been memorable; some of it has been amazing. The Organisation: Tone Float (1970) Kraftwerk: s/t (1970) Kraftwerk: Kraftwerk 2 (1972) Kraftwerk: Ralf & Florian (1973) Kraftwerk has been one [...]
1. The more ambient stuff I've been getting into, coupled with the renewed desire for more krautrock and early electronica pioneers, has led me to finally giving Klaus Schulze a try. I've never really given Schulze much serious consideration before—a quick look at this 100+ album discography was enough to scare me off—but he's been on my periphery for a while. With no real sense of how to enter such a sprawling discography that spans 40 years, I figured the best thing to do was start at the beginning and pick up Irrlicht , from 1972—three tracks adding up [...]

You may recall my unexpected gift of 50 bonus downloads from eMusic a couple of weeks ago . I was 9 selections into my bonus downloads when I realized that I couldn't figure out what to download next. I'm constantly unimpressed with the indie rock selections eMusic suggests that I try, like all those bands with album covers featuring a folk-art painting of a sparrow perched on a branch. Man, that thumb-sucking, hushed-tones crap really needs to be banished to the same eternal $1 bins alongside discarded copies of Asylum Choir II [...]

It had for centuries been a wholly closed society. Extravagantly depraved and despairing, rejecting morality, politics, patriotism and even social intercourse with the outside world. The Thieve's World...Vorovskoy Mir...this is the name given to the direct predecessor of the Russian mafia. Born in a time when all property was owned in theory, by the Tsar, felonies were not only crimes, they were attacks on the state. Organized crime in Tsarist Russian developed into a highly ritualized secret society. A society complete with it's own complicated customs and traditions, strict rules and codes of honor. Members [...]

A couple of excellent Kraut features to draw your attention too: Last week BBC 4 ran a superb doc entitled 'Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany' featuring all your favourite German hero's. If you missed it head on over to the Iplayer sharpish. Rough Trade have also compiled a nifty box set featuring seminal releases from Can, Faust, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream & Neu! & tonight they host a launch for 'Krautrock' the book. Head over to RT for the deets . A couple of tunes then, first up is Can: [...]

this is from an amazing album recorded in 1976 and then lost for 20 years. after an initial release in 1997 its been recently remastered and re-issued again. it's called tracks and traces. it's brian eno alongside german band harmonia. harmonia had already broken up at the time eno approached them, but decided to reform and go back into the studio... harmonia brian eno 76 - sometimes In autumn Download audio file (harmonia brian eno 76 - Sometimes In Autumn.mp3) alongside the [...]
ZACH THAT: Devon Williams - "Sufferer" Roman Candle - "They Say" Richard Youngs - "Broke Up By Night" Volcano Choir - "Island, IS" Why? and Themselves - "Canada" Gronland and High Wire - "Vamos Companeros" Mount Eerie - "Stone's Ode"

Accused of being a "black-caped, black-garbed, death-worshipping church" with ranks of mindless "hooded snuffoids," they believed they were visionaries warning of the coming apocalypse. In the wake of the shootings at Columbine and with cult activity on the increase, this could have been ripped from the mainstream headlines throughout 1999. But at the end of the hippie dream, these were the charges levelled at one of the most controversial cults of the Sixties: the Process Church. In 1963, two people met at the L Ron Hubbard Institute of Scientology on Fitzroy Street, London. They were both studying [...]

A couple of years after the famed krautrock/electronic group Harmonia broke up, Brian Eno called them and asked if they wanted to do a collaboration. The trio couldn't pass up an opportunity like the one they were presented with, so they invited Eno to their Germany studio to start throwing around ideas. To quote Rother (one of the members of Harmonia), "Eno didn't come across like an aloof pop star at all; on the contrary, he was very pleasant and inquisitive. We worked as equal partners and were a collective that simply wanted to make music, with no thoughts of [...]

Earlier this week we told you about the upcoming release of Harmonia & Eno '76 's Tracks and Traces , which will finally see the light of day on October 6th almost 33 years after its creation. Harmonia, a sort of experimental electronic music supergroup — Michael Rother, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Dieter Moebius — were the leaders of their scene but called it quits after two albums. Then along came Brian Eno (who once jammed with Harmonia at a concert in the Fabrik in Hamburg, Germany in 1974) whose interest [...]
A happy Friday to you! If you're currently read this, there's a pretty good chance your not at Lollapalooza. Due to the depressing nature of this reality, we figured we'd up the ante for this week's Friday Mixtape. So, this edition is particularly jam-packed, complete with the week's best new singles, remixes, and covers, along with some mp3s from up-and-comers you just might want to check out. Enjoy... NEW Singles: "Ida Walked Away" by AU "Rats" by The Black Heart Procession [...]
A particularly stacked selection of free MP3s awaits your browsing and downloading pleasure this Friday....falsetto ripples from Wild Beasts, new hotness from Lou Barlow, Nick Diamonds goes electro for Islands' latest offering, Kyp Malone goes solo as Rain Machine, the Raveonettes follow up Siren with a macabre bit of "Suicide".....yes, there's lots to like here. So come on and click through the following selection of songs and compilations that have come our way in the past week with zero guilt - all are free, all are legal, and all are ready to be yours. As always, some are EAR FARM [...]

In 1997 Harmonia released the album Tracks & Traces , which included clips from the legendary 1976 recording sessions with Eno. The sessions will see a legitimate release for the first time on October 6th, via Gronland / High Wire Music. audio: Vamos Companeros tracklisting: 01 Welcome 02 Atmosphere 03 Vamos Companeros 04 By the Riverside 05 Luneberg Heath 06 Sometimes in Autumn 07 Weird Dream 08 Autumn 09 Les Demoiselles 10 When Shade Was [...]
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Brown Recluse : "Contour and Context" [mp3] from The Soft Skin EP (out September 8th) other Brown Recluse posts at Largehearted Boy Choo Choo La Rouge : "It's Gonna Happen Fast" [mp3] from Black Clouds (out August 18th) other Choo Choo La Rouge posts at Largehearted Boy [...]