The Adventures of Moebius -- Part III: Trading Places

As you know, Moebius and Roedelius were the dynamic duo of the glimmerlight. They protected us from the progbarian hordes, but mostly just dwelled peacefully amongst the crystal streams and blue fjords.

Each had his own style: Moebius was the skronk genius, just skronking endlessly around the block on his lightcycle. Roedelius, on the other hand, was the melodic one, creating his beautiful Farfisa melodies deep in the glimmerlight near the Ash Ra Temple. Consider them the glimmerlight's Lennon and McCartney.

In 1983, inspired by the American comedy Trading Places, they decided to do just that. Aided by the mechanical genius Klaus Schulze, they would swap subroutines. Moebius would then produce his melodic masterpices, while Roedelius would do the skronky chicken. And they did just that; Moebius invented the wonderfully melodic Tonspuren, while Roedelius skronked it up with Offene Türen. Today, I give you a slice of Moebius' (modified with Roedelius subroutines) work. This beautiful track (click on the title of this post) is called "Contramio." 

The next post will feature part II of this interesting experiment, and a skronky cut from Roedelius' (modified with Moebius subroutines) Offene Türen. So stay tuned for more adventures from these electrobolical androids.

Rauf und runter!

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut--Part XXXII: Robots of Leisure

In our continuing look at the glimmerlight's last days we move on to the saga of Ralf Tohde. Tohde was another of the later models signed to Sky Records in the mid-80s. The advent of the yellow crystals brought about a time of great relaxation. It was not uncommon to find the 'droids taking naps, or watching a football match on a Saturday afternoon, sipping on an ice cold beer.

As the yellow crystals began to be the driving force behind these later models (we called them "chicken jobs"), the music they created became less icy, more soaring, but ultimately no less beautiful. Check out Tohde's "Hour of Leisure" from his LP Silent Departure by clicking on the title of this post. The LP is another classic from the late-glimmerlight era. This tune makes me feel like I'm flying through the clouds, or driving my light cycle convertible, with the hood up, through the forest of yellow crystals back to the Ash Ra Temple.