Brand NEU!

Horrible news! Oasis and Kasabian will be featured on a soon to be released NEU! tribute record. Ciccone Youth will also be on it, so there is some consolation to be found. But the album seems to be made up mostly from previously recorded songs, which is also boring as hell.

Funny thing - information on this release is all over the internet now. But nobody mentions which label will release the album. That might be because everyone uses the same source, The Quietus.

The full list:

Ciccone Youth - Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening To Neu!
Primal Scream - Shoot Speed / Kill Light
Pets With Pets - We Only Found This Place
Oasis - I Can See It Now
Foals - Titan Arum
Cornelius - Wataridori
Holy Fuck - Super Inuit
LCD Soundsystem - Watch The Tapes
Kasabian - Stuntman
School Of Seven Bells - Device fuer M
Fujiya & Miyagi - Electro Karaoke
Hook & The Twin - They'll Get Your Head
La Dusseldorf - Sketch 1_08
Michael Rother - Neutronics 98

Klaus Dinger RIP

Klaus Dinger (second from the left), drummer for Kraftwerk in the early days, inventor of the Motorik beat, and co-founder of Neu! and La Düsseldorf!, passed away March 21:st, just days before his 62:nd birthday.

This fantastic postcard was sent by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider to Klaus Dinger in 1973. I assume Dinger is on the drums.



Related:
Stockhausen RIP
Bernd Becher RIP
Christa Fast RIP

Harmonia, large and in charge

According to Michael Rothers website, Harmonia will not only release the live recording from 1974 as we've mentined below. No. They will also perform live in Berlin again, for the first time in over 30 years. Here's the information, as it was written by someone else:

Berlin will see the first Harmonia concert since 1976 on 27th November 2007 when Michael Rother, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius will open the Worldtronics festival at the "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" with their live appearance as Harmonia. More information will follow soon.

Kraftwerk 1971, Live on Radio Bremen

The line-up on this newly released bootleg is said to consist of Florian Schneider, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, which tells us that this was probably recorded in that short period of time in 1971, estimated to 6 months, when Ralf Hütter had left the band. Supposedly, the recording was made at the Gondel Kino in Bremen, Germany on June 25, 1971. And it's an interesting recording.

The track listing includes something called "Heavy Metal Kids", followed by "Stratovarius", "Ruckzuck", "Vom Himmel Hoch" and "Rueckstoss Gondoliere" (misspelled on the back cover, correct on the CD and in the booklet). It's the "Heavy Metal Kids" track that does it. The title, for starters, is most likely too weird to be the original one. And listening to the song makes you think the music has been created by someone else as well. It 's a bit in style with the first two Kraftwerk records, but still... this is hard rock. We've got metal guitar riffs and guitar solos throughout this sucker... But there's a steady, almost punishing motorik beat keeping pace, to convince you that you've ended up in the right country and in the right area.

The band just keeps on rocking, not only on that "Heavy Metal Kids" track but throughout most of the recorded concert. Stratovarius -rock. Ruckzuck - not rock, but 20 minutes long. Vom Himmel Hoch - rock. Rueckstoss Gondoliere - rock.

"Live on Radio Bremen" gives us an interesting lesson in the wobbliest, rockingest part of early Kraftwerk history.

You could also get the tracks right here, in mp3 format.
01, 02, 03, 04, 05.

(Courtesy of Big0 Worldwide)

New old music from Harmonia

Krautrock supergroup Harmonia was created when Cluster/Kluster members Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius joined forces with ex Kraftwerk member and Neu! founder Michael Rother in 1973. The band released the brilliant albums "Musik von Harmonia" (1974) and "Harmonia de Luxe" (1975). In 1976, they recorded an album with Brian Eno. The album, titled "Tracks and Traces", wasn't released until 1997.

This fall, Groenland Records (Europe) and Water Records (US) will release a so far unreleased 1974 live recording by Harmonia. This is brilliant news, of course. The title will be the rather imaginative "Live 1974". The release date seems to be set to late September. CD and LP. Look out.