We are in the heart of Germany in the early 70s, Krautrock Land. I know there's a certain amount of PC issues surrounding the word krautrock, it's offensive to Germans so don't use it. So, would Germrock be better? That sounds like more of a Scorpions kind of music. Krautrock is strong like concrete, like Krakatoa, cranium, crater, makes your mouth feel like you're actually about to break your teeth on it. Krrrrrautrock! It's Krrrrazy. You know that commercial from the 90s for Freedom Rock? I think it would be fun to make a fake commercial about krautrock. 'Hey, mann, ist dass krautrock?' 'Yawohl!' 'Gut aufdrehen, Mann!' The main problem with the word krautrock is that much of it really isn't rock. It's Kosmische Musik, music from the cosmos.
Let me talk about Tangerine Dream. Back in the 80s, if you had told me I would someday like this group, I would have said that's highly unlikely. All I knew about them was the Risky Business soundtrack, and I thought they were New Age fluff-meisters. Ah, but then Julian C explained that I would love their early stuff, and he was right. It's sometimes edgy and electronic noise, clanging metal, distorted guitar collages, and other times it's subdued ethereal cosmically mellow experimental waves of meditative beauty. Perhaps that side of things won out in the end, melted away the hard edge.
Journey Through A Burning Brain is hard to write about. I could try to write some story about this 'journey' - there's the amygdala, roasting away on the hippocampus. Nah, I'll just write about the free form lunacy. It's a long weird instrumental of noise bursts and tune ups. Organ comes in at 1:47, guitar pecks at the air like a bird. Stick with it, don't give up. The dance evolves. The organ never stops, if it's not the primary sound then it's hanging out just below the surface, gurgling softly. Guitar and organ are getting along well, enjoying a play date, but then flute shows up at 4:53. Ten seconds or so later, the guitar sounds agitated. 'Flute, no! Now look what you've done, you chased organ away and you woke up drums!'
At 5:13 the drums wake up and start banging around the place. Guitar complains, flute replies. Then guitar loses it at 6:45 and cries at flute to get away. Drums keep pounding. A giant electric foghorn blows at 8:20, and storm clouds roll in. Intense! It sounds like the guitars are ganging up on the poor little flute. After 11 minutes, organ comes back and chases guitar away. There, there little flute.
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