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 X: DDR Android

The Puhdys were built in a factory in what was the East Germany, or DDR. As they grew older, they began to encounter the music of their android brethren on the other side of the wall. They longed to join their cybernetic cousins, but human politics kept them apart. Many times they attached burrows to their arms in vain attempts to dig their way to the West, but every time they were thwarted.

Finally, they decided just to take up synthesizers against their opressors. Eventually, their ghost in the machine sounds reached Klaus, Edgar, Harald and the rest of us, and so we set up a signal to let them know that we knew that they knew we were all in the same gang.

After the wall fell in '89 we all met up in the Berlin glimmerlights and danced until the sun came up. Check out on of The Puhdy's shining moments by clicking on the title of this post.

Six Degrees of Sauerkraut -- Part IX: The Cross-Dressing Android

Thomas Dinger is one of the more unheralded cogs in the Krautrock bröselmaschine. He rocked the drums on Neu! 75 and continued on the trommel duties for La Düsseldorf, the band he formed from the ashes of Neu! with his brother Klaus.

Thomas was the rare Krautrocker who went through two transformations. His transition to android was more permanent. But when he ventured into the glimmerlights, Thomas liked to dress as a woman. Hence, he became the first recorded cross-dressing android.

After La Düsseldorf's demise, Thomas went on to create a Krautrock masterpiece in Für Mich. One of its best tracks is available by clicking on the title of this post.

So plug yourself in, put on some lipstick and enjoy!

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!"

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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.