Sundaze (16)

Hello, SunDaze finalises the seventies story of Cluster and the birth of Krautrock with an album that said out a course for Moebius and Roedelius and even Kraftwerk, Neu ! was new indeed, unfortuantely the two members didnt see eye to eye anymore within a few years and bad blood prefailed for decades, fortunately they did ultimately agree on releasing one of the three remasters they made for every album they did (3), the one here is for their eponymous debut album, some say its a precursers to Kraftwerks Autobahn, well i guess you could drive that one out yourselves...Well Michael Rother was a kindred spirit with Cluster so their cooperation in Harmonia made sense and three great albums were released ( see previous Sundazes). Cluster themselves found themselves a full duo again after Eno had veered off to become a sought after producer, besides releasing his amnient series. At the end of that eventful decade they released Grosses Wasser (big body of water) produced by Tangerine Dream's Peter Baumann not unlike their previous albums. With Curiosum they tried an offbeat path, but considering they stopped working together for eight years afterwards i'd say they considered their chemistry had been used up and they went looking for inspiration elsewhere.

For now this concludes my 4 part special on Cluster and friends, 12 albums some sure made musical history and changed the way electronic music was percieved. I may come back to Cluster and show what they've been up to the years that have passed since.

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Neu! - Neu! (71 flac 246mb)

Drummer Klaus Dinger had joined Kraftwerk midway through sessions for their eponymous debut album. Guitarist Michael Rother was then recruited to the Kraftwerk line-up on completion of the album.Kraftwerk founder Ralf Hütter left the band at this point, and for a 6 month period, Kraftwerk consisted of a trio of Rother, Dinger & Florian Schneider. Attempted recording sessions at Conny Plank's studio were unsuccessful, and Dinger and Rother parted company from Schneider and began a new project with Plank: Neu! (Schneider rejoined Hütter and the pair continued recording the second Kraftwerk album with Plank.)

Their eponymous first album sold very little by our standards today (though 30,000 records was a lot for a band of their musical nature), yet is today considered a masterpiece by many. It included the Motorik benchmark tracks "Hallogallo" and "Negativland", and bizarre "songs" like "Sonderangebot" (special sale). Dinger's mechanical, cut time drumming and Rother's two-note bass runs adorned with cleverly manipulated and dreamy guitar riffs and fills were the hallmarks of the "motorik" sound that would become the band's trademark.

Their second album, Neu! 2, features some of the earliest examples of musical remixes. The band, excited to record another album, decided to expand their limits by purchasing several instruments. With the money they had left as an advance from the record company, they could only record half an album's worth of material. To rectify the lack of material, the band filled the second side with manipulated versions of their already released single, "Neuschnee"/"Super". Dinger and Rother were both very different , and this showed on their final album of the 1970s, Neu! '75. Side One was Rother's more ambient productions which were similar to the first album, side two was acknowledged as important influence by many later involved in the UK's punk rock scene, with Dinger's sneering, unintelligible vocals searing across a distorted Motorik beat with aggressive single chord guitar poundings. Well they split afterwards..Rother had been working with Cluster in Harmonia and made another album this included Eno aswell (Harmonia 76). before going on solo.. The Neu ! falling out caused it to take 25 years before official cd remastered releases became available.



01 - Hallogallo (10:07)
02 - Sonderangerbot (4:50)
03 - Weissensee (6:42)
04 - Im Glück (6:52)
05 - Negativland (9:46)
06 - Lieber Honig (7:15)

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Cluster - Grosses Wasser ( 79 flac 114mb )

Grosses Wasser is the seventh album by the electronic music outfit Cluster. It was co-produced by former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann. Grosses Wasser marked the return to Cluster working as a duo of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius after two albums collaborating with Brian Eno. Grosses Wasser was recorded and released in 1979 on the Hamburg, Germany based Sky label. It featured a wide variety of styles, including some of the most avant-garde material created by Moebius and Roedelius, particularly during the middle section of the title track, which occupied all of side 2. Other tracks, including "Manchmal" and both the opening and closing sections of "Grosses Wasser" continued the gentle, melodic style of the previous three albums, while others echoed the rhythmic style of Zuckerzeit, albeit with more of an edge.



1 - Avanti (4:32)
2 - Prothese (2:10)
3 - Isodea (4:02)
4 - Breitengrad 20 (4:00)
5 - Manchmal (2:03)
6 - Grosses Wasser (18:34)

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Cluster - Curiosum (81 flac 129mb)

Curiosum is the eigth album by the electronic music outfit Cluster. It was also the final collaboration between Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius before an eight year hiatus. Curiosum was recorded in May, 1981 at Hamet Hof in Vienna, Austria and released later that year. The album was Cluster's last release for Sky. It lives up to it's name, with the seven relatively short tracks of offbeat and unusual melodies.



01 - Oh Odessa (3:06)
02 - Proantipro (7:00)
03 - Seltsame Gegend (7:31)
04 - Helle Melange (3:36)
05 - Tristan In Der Bar (2:56)
06 - Charlic (4:20)
07 - Ufer (8:13)

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