Intence - Triade - Part VII: The Glimmerlight

As the droids sang our weary farewell...

"Do you remember me long ago

Used to wear my heart on my sleeve

I guess it still shows

We watched the sun fall down and

I hop on my bike; still that night

You're my first glimmer of light

You were my, you was my first

Glimmer of light!"

The last track of Intence's LP is called "Train." You know the drill.

Rauf und runter!

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut--Part XXIX: Klaus Dinger und Richard Simmons

At the end of the '70s, Klaus Dinger tired of making music in groups. He longed to go solo, and try new things. He decided to take a trip out of the glimmerlight and see the world beyond our pale blue borders.

Klaus travelled the world for 6 months, from Finland to Hollywood and back again. Upon his return he was all amped up. Inspired by a television program he had seen, The Richard Simmons Show, Klaus wanted to bring personal fitness to all the androids in the glimmerlight. He took himself into his workroom, modified many of his subroutines and personal apparatus, and emerged as Néondian, the glimmerlight's own fitness guru. Néondian led us in all sorts of movements and exercises that we all found quite foreign. We would rather have been drinking the blue liquid from our frisbees, taking a resurrection bath, or riding around in our light cycles.

However, the music he made for his exercise sessions was quite profound, and many of us showed up to do the crunches just so we could hear his new tunes. Click on the title of this post to hear "Mon Amour" -- one of my favorite Dinger tracks, it played during the opening credits of The Néondian Exercise Hour. 

Remember to do your stretches before listening to this track, because it will make you move.

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XVIII: Tyndall

In the late 70s, West Berlin had a major transit problem. The city enlisted my synthesist brethren to construct a modern transit system that could transport the people to and fro. 

The first passenger car to emerge from the glimmerlight was called the Tyndall. It rode through the Berlin skies like a flaming light. Like all of us, it was a thinking maschine. Like the cars and automobiles of PKD, it could converse with its passengers, sometimes reprimanding them if they did not pay their fares.

This train could also make some sweet music. My favorite Tyndall record was Reflexionen. Chock full of amazing songs, including an ode to the West Berlin transit system of which it was an integral part, called "Transit West Berlin." Check it out by clicking on the title of this post.

Immer wieder! 

Dynamotron: Android Pain Medicine, or The Missing Defender of The Universe?

As the 80s wore on, Rother visited us in the glimmerlight less and less. He spent more time on Glitzerglanz with his maschines. He began to abandon his analog synths, becoming more digital in the process. This gave his old android synthesist creations from the glimmerlight great pain, so Rother attempted to create a kind of android pain medicine. He called it "Dynamotron" (from the album Lust), and you can hear it by clicking on the title of this post.

We heard "Dynamotron" beamed down  to us via Rother's bröselmaschine. We never knew if it was some new cybernetic creation that would defend our universe from the hydrogen breathing races, or if it was, indeed, simply a pain medication for Rother's army of mechanized synthesists, depressed over his digital excursions.

Either way, these were some of the last sweet sounds he created, before we lost all contact.

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XVI: Danz Die Sternzeit

As I mentioned earlier, Adelbert Von Deyen also travelled the sternzeit before joining us in the glimmerlight. 

Some claim that Adelbert actually wanted to be Klaus Schulze, but he messed up the programming. They've got it all wrong! They were never there with us, basking in the blue depths of the inner-hinterhüffer. Just click on the title of this post to hear what I'm talking about. Adelbert wrote this track, "Mars," as an homage to the planet he visited in late-79. I'm afraid that Klaus could probably never come up with such a funky synth masterpiece. Immer wieder!

Indeed, Adelbert had spent much of '79 touring the planets of the galaxy, and the trip formed the basis of his masterpiece LP -- Planetary. An album that takes me right back to the glimmerlights of my youth.

Adelbert would soon team up with Dieter Schütz to form one of the most underrated krautrock duos of all time. Tune in tomorrow for that tale...

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XV: Dieter Schütz in Miracle World

Dieter Schütz was born hundreds of years ago, on the planet Aries near Mount Eternal. After Dieter trained in the Shellcore technique (the use of which enables one to shatter rocks with his bare fists), Janken the Great captured Prince Egle, and his fiancée Princess Lora.

Dieter spent many years battling Janken, and came close to death many times. Like Luke Skywalker, and his father before him, Dieter became more than human along the way. Missing limbs replaced with mechanical parts, such that when he arrived in Düsseldorf in the late 70s,  you could not tell what was man, and what was machine.

Dieter took up residence in the glimmerlight, and studied the Oberheim technique with Schulze and the others. Only then was he able to vanquish Janken. Check out Dieter Schütz's "Spacelab" by clicking on the title of this post.

Dieter left the glimmerlight too soon. He took off with Adelbert Von Deyen, presumably to return to Aries. In the mid-80s, a Japanese video game company, Sega, based its video game Alex Kidd in Miracle World on the life and times of Dieter Schütz (he was big in Japan). If you're out there my brother, we miss you.

Rauf und runter!

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XIV: The Ivory Tower

Then there were those days when we jumped on our Luck Dragons, departed the glimmerlight, and headed south to the Ivory Tower, the home of Giorgio Moroder. 

Giorgio lived at the pinnacle of the tower, his epic Moustache dripping sweat as pounded away on his Oberheim Four-Voice. We'd sit at his feet, basking in the glow of his other-worldly sounds, while the Luck Dragons would hunt for squirrels in the forest below. He'd give us cassettes of his newest compositions so we could listen to them on our Walkmans during the long flight home.

One Giorgio's best tracks was an ode to his mystic palace, "The Ivory Tower." Click on the title of this post, and hear what we heard in our headphones, as we flew, via The Southern Oracle, back to the glimmerlight.

Droids in the Glimmerlight

Occasionally foreigners would join us in the glimmerlight, Bowie, Eno & Iggy being some of our more well known guests. They would plug in, and we would take it from there. What many boxers may not know is that we had some French guests in the heyday as well; a sweet group of guys who loved chocolate and wanted to be machines. They called themselves Droids, and in '78, on Riechmann's offworld colony, they made an album called Star Peace. 

The album has some sick Oberheim, and consistently wunderbar songs. It really brings it all back home. Check out my favorite track, "(Do You Have) The Force -- Part I"  by clicking on the title of this post.

Do you have the force?

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XII: The Unicorn's Prophecy

... And then there were those rare weekends when we left the glimmerlights and headed for the country, the Black Forest to be specific. Roedelius and Rother would head off to Forst with Moebius, but the rest of us would journey deep into the forest's dark heart.

One weekend, late in the Spring of '76, Peter Baumann decided to stay behind with the Elves. He had fallen in love with one in particular, Silvara. While she knew he was an android, and that his servosytem would corrode long before she entered the Halls of Mandos, she fell in love with him as well. Indeed, the Unicorn's prophecy had told of the union of an Elven woman and synthetic man. So, Peter lived out his days in the trees with his Elven bride and his Oberheim Matrix-12. We sadly left him behind, but he would bring us joy every couple of years or so by releasing his synthesist sounds. 

Romance '76 is the soundtrack to his love affair. More "earthy" than some of the sounds abounding in the glimmerlight, but no less enchanting. Click on the title of this post to hear one of my favorite tracks.

We visited Peter late in '76 and were shocked by his transformation. His severe, cybernetic appearance had softened, his metallic appearance had taken on a more golden, less silvery, hue. His once sharply styled euro-hair had become flowing locks, that flew behind him as he ran though the forest with his loyal Brownies. He runs in the Black Forest still, our android cousin amongst the Elves, singing in the Elven tongue -- "Cormamin lindua ele lle!"

On a side note, in the early-80s Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman would loosely base the Dragonlance character Gilthanas on Peter Baumann.

Transmissions From Glizterglanz: Süssherz Und Tiefenschärfe

Recently, I've been listening to the sounds of Michael Rother's early to mid 80s work. His final masterpieces before leaving for Glitzerglanz. There would be more Rother releases, but they would be pale copies of his former work, created by mindless androids he left behind to do his bidding.

His final masterwork was Süssherz Und Tiefenschärfe. The LP boasted one of the worst, yet most strangely compelling covers of the krautrock era. I found this photo of it on a shag carpet with my bröselmaschine. To get a better look you'll have to find your own copy, or come dwell with me in Blaues Licht.

On Süssherz, Rother created his own language with which to communicate with his minions. For example, he would play the song "Rapido" when he wanted his servants to hurry the frak up. You can hear it by clicking on the title of this post.

Why do I love this song so much? Maybe because it came out in the 80s, yet hearkened back to an earlier time, when Kraftwerk were still among us. It seems to be a loving farewell to all he had created. 

Despite its cover, this LP is super rad, and should not be neglected. It is one of the hidden masterpieces of the krautrock era. 

Rauf und runter!

Dimitri Endorphin: The Return

Rumors are abounding in the glimmerlight that Dimitri Endorphin is retuning to the studio. Some of you synthesists out there may remember his self-titled debut from back in 2002. It debuted in Paris, and made its way back to the streets of Berlin via Patrick Brunken.

Well Patrick, I spoke with Dimitri yesterday and he sends his regards. It was a faint connection as he has spent these past years on Rother's offworld colony, Glitzerglanz.

More on Endorphin and Glitzerglanz in upcoming posts.

Rauf und runter!

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XI: Metropolis

For the most part, my Synthesist brethren were self-aware that they were androids. However, long ago, Klaus built a cyborg that did not know its own nature. Like some of  Battlestar Galactica's Cylons, Edgar Froese grew up playing in the Black Forest, believing he was the same as all the other kinder in their Lederhosen. 

Then, one evening while we were all dancing in the glimmerlights, Klaus pulled out a shining object and turned a switch. A few days later, Edgar showed up in Düsseldorf with an ARP 2600 and everything changed. Klaus had a new sidekick, and we all had some new sounds to groove to.

Klaus and Edgar dreamt of greater things though, and would soon construct, and emigrate to their own offworld-colony, Metropolis -- its anthem can be accessed by clicking on the title of this post.

Immer wieder rauf und runter!

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part XI: Die Justiz-League

In the Autumn of '74 the barbarian hordes of Amon Duul the 2nd and Ash Ra Tempel were quickly approaching the high iron gates of Wolfgang Riechmann's Silberland. 

Silberland was the dreamy enclave that Riechmann founded as a kind of home away from home for cyborgs who spent their energy in the glimmerlights. You may remember that scene from Tron where the three dudes sip from the electronic pond with their frisbees. Well that was basically what Silberland was like; a bunch of androids lounging by a neon blue pool. But our peaceful haven was now being threatened by the prog-krautrockian tribes led by Amon Duul II. Wolfgang decided we needed a special force to protect us, so he called upon Moebius, Roedelius, and Rother to be the heroes that would defend our electronic sanctuary.

They christened themselves Harmonia. They were the first krautrock supergroup, our very own Justice League. And they promptly drove the progbarian hordes from our gates with their ghostly bröselmaschine sounds. Rother would eventually don the mantle of Flaming Hawk when he went solo and got his own series, but his powers arguably never equaled the heights he achieved in this group of heroes.  Check out one of their most potent powers by clicking on the title of this post.

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part VIII: Wannabe Android

Before Michael Rother became the Blazing Heartbreaker, he was a member of Krautrock legends Neu! Along with Klaus Dinger (the Godfather of Punk & New Wave) and Thomas Dinger (the Cross-Dressing Android), Michael created a sound truly unique to man and robot-kind; music that never made the mainstream here on Planet Earth, but that consistently tops the charts on the Offworld Colony.

Neu did have significant influence outside of Germany. Indeed, OMD tried to emulate their sound and even composed a B-side called "4-Neu." However, what OMD does not understand is that they are not German! They are just two wannabe synthesists from The Wirral! Only Germans can truly become one with the cyborg and create the ghost in the machine! Sting tried it and failed miserably. OMD tried it and came close, but they are British! I had to remind them over and over again, "you are not German!!! You can never truly become a bröselmaschine! No matter how many wires you stick in yourself, or how much make-up you put on your face!"

!

They just didn't understand that to create such a sound one had to truly become a robot, something an English lad playing a Casiotone on the banks of the Mersey simply cannot accomplish.

Anyway, for one of my favorite Neu songs, click on the title of this post. The track is called "Seeland." As fate would have it, OMD composed a song called "Sealand" on their seminal Architecture & Morality. Similar title, similar sound.

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part VII: Deutsche Wertarbeit

Dorothea Raukes was Krautrock's Stevie Nicks. Kind of always at zie parties, dansing in zie glimmerlight. As was mentioned earlier, she dated such luminaries as Wolfgang Riechmann and Michael Rother. After Rother she moved on to resident Synthesist, Harald Grosskopf.

But as the 70s transitioned into the 80s, Dorothea grew weary of robot love. Nearly every "man" she had been with in the past decade was at least partially cybernetik. The Germans have a saying that goes "wenn Sie nicht gewinnen könned, mit ihnen." Roughly translated, that means- if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And that is exactly what Dorothea did. One night in the glimmerlight she sidled up to Klaus Schulze and asked him to take her back to his bröselmaschine laboratory. 

The next day she emerged as a new music making maschine- "Deutsche Wertarbeit," or German Craftsmanship. The music she created now was that of the synthesist, containing the ghost of her human past; the kind of sound Vangelis and other wannabe androids would try to create for years to come, but never succeed. Check out a slice of this German Craftsmanship by clicking on the title of this post.

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part VI: Das Zen Meister

Hans-Joachim Roedelius was the spiritual leader of the Krautrock movement. Some say he was the first to discover the ghost in ze bröselmaschine. Forced in to the Nazi-youth as a child, escaping from Communist East Germany after the war, and joining the electronic underground, Roedelius led perhaps the most fascinating life of any of those who dwelled in the glimmerlights.

He was the other half of Cluster (the other being Moebius), a member of Harmonia (along with Krautrock heartthrob Michael Rother), and a completely astounding solo-künstler in his own right.

Roedelius' experiences also led him to develop his own philosophy. He believed the secret of the universe was contained in the foot. Consequently, feet figured prominently on his album covers. The music he created was also good for philosophizing, or for just drinking coffee and staring out the window on rainy Stuttgart days.

In the future, I plan on doing a whole series of posts on the life and times of Roedelius. But for now, tippen Sie auf die Füße to the sounds of my favorite Roedelius track by clicking on the title of this post. It's title, "Alle Jahr Wieder," means "every year again." Rumor has it he wrote it for a never-realized German film adaptation of PKD's Now Wait For Last Year. Sadly, that never came about. 

Genießen!

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part IV: Beschmutzen

Peter Backhausen was kind of the old crusty hippy of the Krautrock scene. Everyone called him "Beschmutzen" which translates to janker in English, and a truer janker there never was. Peter always wanted to hang out with the androids in the glimmerlights, but with his long hair and tattered jeans he never looked the part. Also, the music he made tended to lean more in the prog direction, he could never really shake that Emerson, Lake and Palmer vibe, that Klaus, Wolfgang, and Harald found very uncool.

That was until Peter made his seminal LP, Planet Show. I remember he showed up at a party one night in Cologne with a test 8-Track of the record. Something was different about him; his pants were tighter, his walk -- just a tad stiffer, and there seemed to be a metallic sheen in his eyes. He would have failed The Voight-Kampff test that night for sure. Indeed, Planet Show was going to be Beschmutzen's entree into the Society of Synthesists. He played everyone the track "Phoenix II."  The title was apt, as this music could have been the soundtrack for one of the films then in vogue on Harald's Offworld Colony. Peter was now part of the gang!

"Phoenix II" is actually my favorite track of the whole Krautrock era, the finest morsel of sonic sauerkraut around. This track is where you will truly find the ghost in the machine, and when Peter's vocoder kicks in 2/3's of the way through, you too can soar with the silver phoenix. Check out the otherworldly magic by clicking on the title of this post.

As far as I know, Planet Show, in its entirety, is completely unavailable in MP3 format. Klaus, Harald and the others heard the other songs and kicked Beschmutzen right out of the gang, and he's completely banned from the Offworld Colony.  

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part I: Flammende Herzen

This is the first post in a series that will document the life and times of many of your favorite Krautrock stars. Those days and nights in Düsseldorf, and beyond, were full of fun and drama, and I thought it might be nice to share some of my memories. Many of these damen und herren were interconnected in many ways, and I hope to document some of that during the Six Degrees of Sauerkraut saga.

I thought I'd begin with Michael Rother, or as he liked to think of himself "Flammende Herzen." In English that means "Blazing Heart." As you may have guessed, Michael was Krautrock's ladies man. He thought quite highly of himself, as did the ladies (and a number of men as fate would have it). Indeed, I remember one night in 1977; we were all out, dancing in the glimmerlight of a club on Düsseldorf's eastside. That night, Michael basically stole Dorothea Raukes from Wolfgang Riechmann. Dorothea and Wolfgang were members of Streetmark, West Germany's Fleetwood Mac. Plenty of interband hook-ups and what not. Anyway, Dorothea took one look at Blazing Heart and that was the end of her and Wolfgang. 

Wolfgang took to wearing icy makeup, dressing in tight suits, and acting like he was a robot. Indeed, Blade Runner was influenced by this new style Wolfgang developed in response to his heartbreak over losing Dorothea. This would happen to Dorothea as well when she and Blazing Heart broke up, and she subsequently formed the legendary Krautrock band, Deutsche Wertarbeit. But, these are tales for another time.

Anyway, Rother made my favorite music of the whole Krautrock era. Excellent for experimenting with JJ-180, Can-D and what have you. And it is always easier to commune with the Vast Active Living Intelligence System ("Valis") while listening to Rother's Katzenmusik, which every true Krautrocker should own.

Try some Blazing Heart for yourself, Rother's "KM 12" from Katzenmusik, by clicking on the title of this post! This song quite literally took me to the stars one night. 

Krautrock für immer!