I might have to put this at album #2 right behind New Age of Earth. Unfortunately, I don’t have an original pressing, but the 180g re-press sounds great.
Cluster (then Kluster) was formed by Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Conrad Schnitzler in 1969. Schnitzler had recorded Tangerine Dream’s debut Electronic Meditation just two months before Kluster’s debut Klopfzeichen.
After Schnitzler’s departure three albums later, Moebius and Roedelius renamed the group Cluster and continued recording starting with Cluster (aka Cluster ’71), and following that Cluster II.
A year before Zuckerzeit, Moebius and Roedelius joined up with Michael Rother of NEU! and released two albums under the name Harmonia (which I will be posting very soon). After Rother left Harmonia, Moebius and Roedelius went back in the studio to record Zuckerzeit, and if you listen to Cluster’s previous releases, you can hear Rother’s influence practically bleeding through the tracks. Mmm!
Zuckerzeit has a very interesting structure. Each track was written solely by either Moebius or Roedelius and, except one track, cycles between the two. It gives a very interesting mixture of light and fluffy to a much more experimental noise-centric sound. I tend to like Roedelius’s tracks much more, but “Caramel” is the exception.
You may know Tellier from the Lost In Translation soundtrack or his CD being the only album available to purchase at every American Apparel retailer which probably are the 2 best ways(soundtracks and lifestyle shops) to get a record heard these days. If you haven’t already take a moment and at least listen to La Ritournelle, the first half is early Coldplay-ish but the second half when he starts singing i think of it being one of the best licensable tracks out there if edited right to video.
Beautiful images and beautiful music, they don’t make either like this anymore. Bitches Brew ranks up there as one of my all time favorite album covers.
I know Beamer has a large vinyl collection and Scott here and there has sent me some Cream songs and they should be able to add to series with some depth. So, i thought adding some good old AM Gold in the mix since if you dig deep enough you can find great artwork from singles and 7 inches like this pre-70’s single of The Moody Blues.
If you haven’t noticed by now i’m a huge fan of Benoit Pioulard, he is a Portland based folk musician. He has his next album coming out on Kranky October 14th which will include this brand new single “Brown Bess” for free for us to share. As for other talents he has a few things flying under the radar a very simple but effective website pioulard.com where if you catch him at the right time of year you can buy limited handmade versions of his albums and look thru his polariod pictures.
Benoit Pioulard – Brown Bess (Temper: October 2008)
[audio:bess.mp3]
Benoit Pioulard – Needle & Thread (Precis: 2006)
[audio:needle.mp3]
Benoit Pioulard – Kids Are Getting Younger (Enge: 2005)
[audio:younger.mp3]
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Seedling (Benoît Pioulard version)
Here are a few new tracks a little more from the indie rock end. Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning whole LP is superb, a great follow up to Kevin Drew’s LP. Also, new tracks grabbed from the B-sides and demos of LCD Soundsystem, a forthcoming Stereolab full length single and the highly anticipated Walkmen album is finally out.
Paul Mawhinney is the owner of the world’s largest vinyl record collection, if you’re a music fan of some sort i can’t see how this short documentary won’t touching you in some way.
Last night i went to see Norwegian DJ Todd Terje, the man is a machine, a 6 hr set and most of the time he just plays edits that he did himself of songs, mostly that deep slow motion disco but with a lot of tribal elements which is always is a win-win situation for me.
Brought out a old favorite, Nightmares on Wax, i think if you do graphic design and you’ve listened to lounge music at some point in your career, this is probably played as much as Thievery Corporation or Air.
Grovesnor is a Hot Chip favorite, he toured with them in the UK, its kinda cheesy but has a great keys being played at the beginning and has a good feel to it.
The artwork above is from Fleet Foxes, i woke up with the song playing in my head and i’ve only heard the song a couple times. The overall color when you step back look at their cover is really appealing to me, it reminds me of Monty Python’s Holy Grail but really crowded.
Dolle Jolle – Balearic Incarnation – Todd Terje’s Extra Doll Mix
