For the love of music
Reverence for the Krautrock idioms of yore has arguably never been bigger or so widely expressed than it is now. With even the likes of Paul Weller developing a motorik affectation and the fervour surrounding last year’s boxset of previously unheard Can material, the importance of the genre's sonic trappings appears to be forever expanding. … [Read more...]
The Sea And Cake’s Sam Prekop on… Kraftwerk’s Ralf And Florian (Philips/Vertigo, 1973) I'm not sure when would have been the first time I heard this record; I suspect mid-nineties, when The Sea And Cake were becoming a band. I'm quite sure that it was John McEntire who illuminated Kraftwerk for me beyond Computer World - which I … [Read more...]
Landing albums have always been beauties regardless of volume, but they've usually been typecast as music for sleep or rest, operating well at lower volumes. Not so with their first album of new music in 6 years, the self-titled Landing. The louder you play it, the better it gets. The personnel for this album is Aaron Snow, Adrienne Snow, and … [Read more...]
With the influence of Can seemingly reaching its highest watermark right now, it’s somewhat inevitable that a long-awaited trawl of the band’s archives has finally come to fruition. Although a reissue campaign in the early-to-mid-2000s for Can’s official album catalogue put the group’s legacy into good working order with strong yet … [Read more...]
Having been on a shamefully belated personal Can back catalogue trawl over the last year, it’s clearly apparent that not one album can truly represent and illustrate what made the band so special and so important. Even the over-polished and disjointed albums from the band’s twilight years are at least, in parts, crucial in explaining their … [Read more...]
It’s hard to think of many musicians with a 40+ year career sustaining inspirational creativity whilst retaining much of their original modus operandi, but Hans-Joachim Roedelius is certainly one of those gifted few. A genuine grandee amongst Germany’s pioneering and close-knit experimental musical community since the late-‘60s, the … [Read more...]
Trans Am's Phil Manley has spent the last fifteen years immersed in independent rock playing in numerous notable bands (Trans Am, Golden, The Fucking Champs, Jonas Reinhardt), and is now working as a recording engineer and releasing solo material as well. While the tongue-in-cheek title Life Coach may partially be a reference to the qualities … [Read more...]
Sometimes you’ve got to wonder why bands label-hop. Why’d Low leave Kranky for Sub Pop, or Polvo trade Merge for Touch and Go? In the case of Emeralds, putting out music on multiple labels makes sense, since they produce and release so much material. So moving from one label to another isn’t such a dramatic deal for them, but their recent … [Read more...]
It took me a couple of albums to figure it out, but Jonas Reinhardt isn’t real. Rather, Jonas Reinhardt isn’t a living and breathing person, but the embodiment of an idea: specifically, a suave, perhaps academic, German electronic musician from the 70’s. Although press materials lead one to believe Jonas Reinhardt is a he, not an it, … [Read more...]
Intimacy is a trait that comes in many different forms in musical realms. Although it too often simply conjures up images of one person and an acoustic guitar, spooling themselves into lo-tech kit or sitting solitarily on a small club stage, intimacy is more about feeling and delivery than pure environmental settings. It can find itself … [Read more...]