Raiders of the Lost Media

Raiders of the Lost Media

     I thought the digital revolution was going to change everything. No more out of print books - no more hard to find obscure music or films. Alas, I was wrong.

NY Times article on o.o.p. books

     

     There are all sorts of things that affect the availability of media. Mostly it has to do with legal wrangling over who controls the rights. Sometimes, in the case of Robert Fripp (of the band King Crimson), it has to do with the personality of the right's holder.

     By the by, good luck finding Fripp's albums God Save The Queen/Under Heavy Manners (featuring a guest spot by David Byrne)

...or the collaborative album he did with his (now) wife Toyah called The Lady or the Tiger.

     The above two youtube links represent the philosophy of democratization of lost media in allowing people to listen to or see things they wouldn't otherwise have access to. It's a shame that it has to be done without the artist's consent or blessing and therefore, they are always in danger of being taken down.

  

DGM Live website

     

     In 1992 Fripp founded Discipline Global Mobile. DGM releases music in CDs and in downloadable files. DGM's stated goal is "to be a model of ethical business in an industry founded on exploitation, oiled by deceit, riven with theft and fueled by greed." DGM insists that its artists retain all copyrights. King Crimson's work is not available either through I-tunes or Amazon MP3.

     

     Piracy doesn't help. Some artists are so fed up with piracy that they yank their creations from the market in general - although doing so doesn't usually shut down the black market, and in some cases makes pirates out of those who would willingly pay the artist.

Music Piracy

     

     In some cases there are musical artists who despise the MP3 format and refuse to release anything but compact discs and/or vinyl, although the ability to rip to the MP3 format seems to make this gesture little more than pissing in the wind.

     

     Last but not least, there are some artists who are either ashamed of their early output and simply want to distance themselves from it. They attempt to frustrate those who would seek their work out by blocking any type of general release.

     

     Okay, before we get in to the list proper let's establish some rules. I consider something unavailable if it has not been released as a DVD - CD - or some form of accessible digital format. VHS - Beta Max - and cassette tapes have a certain nostalgia factor, but are not accessible to the average soul who wants to partake of something cool.

     

     Piracy is not accessibility. Forcing me to do something illegal is not allowing me free access to materials.

     

     Lastly, if I have to order something from overseas or through shady dealers at an exorbitant cost (for new) then it is not accessible.

Okay? Okay. Here we go…

The Top 10 List of Elusive Media

1. The Road to Wellville DVD - New starts at $39.39 then jumps up to $75.76. - Used $25.99.

The Road to Wellville is a 1994 film adaptation of T.C. Boyle's novel. The film was written and directed by Alan Parker who also directed Pink Floyd's The Wall and Birdy.

2. Watership Down DVD - New starts at $74.95 - Used $19.96 in good or acceptable condition.

This one was released as a Criterion DVD. Finally.

Watership Down is a 1978 British film written, produced and directed by Martin Rosen and based on the book by Richard Adams. It was one of the first animated feature films to be presented in Dolby. John Hurt and Zero Mostel performed voice work. It also featured Art Garfunkel's hit single "Bright Eyes".

A bit of Watership Down

3. The Bed Sitting Room DVD - This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R or simply not available in region one.

Finally found it through Barnes & Noble for under $20.

The Bed-Sitting Room is a 1969 British film directed by Richard Lester and based on the play of the same name. It stars the comedy duo of Dudley Moore & Peter Cook.

4. Julian Cope's Krautrocksampler book - New from $408.90 - Used $176.99.

Krautrocksampler: One Head's Guide to the Great Kosmische Musik - 1968 Onwards by Julian Cope, is a book describing the underground music scene in Germany from 1968 through the 1970s. The book was first published in the United Kingdom in 1995 by Head Heritage.

Krautrocksampler PDF

5. Captain Beefheart's "Troutmask Replica" CD - New from $47.81.

I was lucky enough to find this one at my local library.

Trout Mask Replica is the third album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in June 1969. It was produced by Beefheart's friend and former schoolmate Frank Zappa.

6. Lo Chiamavano King (His Name Was King) DVD - Unavailable as a DVD.

His Name Was King is a 1971 Spaghetti Western directed by Giancarlo Romitelli and starring Klaus Kinski - with music by Luis Bacalov.

7. William Parker Double Quartet's "Alphaville Suite" - currently unavailable.

Alphaville Suite (subtitled Music Inspired by the Jean Luc Godard Film) is an album by bassist and composer William Parker's Double Quartet inspired by the film Alphaville (1965), which was recorded in 2007 and released on the RogueArt label.

Alphaville Suite

8. The Red Tent (DVD) - New from $54.99 - Used $32.95.

The Red Tent is a joint Soviet/Italian 1969 film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov starring Sean Connery & Claudia Cardinale featuring music by Ennio Morricone.

9. Rom Spaceknight Graphic Novel - Nonesuch exists. If you want to read Rom you have to find the individual issues.

10. The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner by Werner Herzog. It is not so much the film that I am after, it is the soundtrack. In particular, the opening music. I know that it was Popol Vuh, but finding it - that is another matter entirely. Word on the street is that it was an unused part of the Aguirre soundtrack. I would consider this piece of music to be the Holy Grail of Lost Media. 

10 and a 1/2. 1979's The Shark Hunter by Enzo G. Castellari. Only available in the VHS format.

10 and a 1/2 part II. The 1986 Post Apocalyptic British Animated film - When The Wind Blows. All regions Blu Ray $54.99.

Bonus. Kraftwerk I & II + Ralf und Florian. The early days of Kraftwerk were quite a different animal from the latter plastic robot electronic days. Don't get me wrong - I love Kraftwerk. The early stuff featured more organic type instruments even though the instrumentation gave hints of what was to come. Most of these compact discs can be found but be prepared to pay a hefty sum. In the meantime enjoy this on the house.

Through the Earwormhole Part I: Krautrock

THROUGH THE EARWORMHOLE

Part I: Krautrock

Bowie in Berlin mit einem schwein.

Further Reading on Bowie's Berlin Period

      My inroad to Krautrock was twofold. First, I found myself interested in David Bowie's Berlin Period - a creative milestone in a career marked by experimentation and a knack for staying far out ahead of the avant-garde.

     Secondly, as a fan of Progressive Rock in all its permutations, Krautrock is one of the main categories of foreign progressive music, the other being Progressivo Italiano but more on that later.

Progressivo Italiano

     The Berlin Period lasted from 1976 to 1979. It covered five albums (six if you count 2013's The Next Day) - Low (1/14/77) Heroes (10/14/77) and Lodger (5/18/79). Some consider the double live album Stage (9/8/78) to be an integral part of the period.

Ein neuer freund in einer neuen stadt.

     
     The other two albums are by Iggy Pop, whom Bowie shared an apartment with in Schöneberg - The Idiot (3/18/77) and Lust For Life (8/29/77).

Fripp, Eno & Bowie

                               Die Arbeit an dem gleichnamigen "Heroes" Strecke.

Hansa Tontstudion in West Berlin 1977.

Bowie in Berlin DVD

Berlin Period Timeline

1977's Low                          1977's The Idiot                  1977's Lust For Life

              1977's Heroes                       1979's Lodger                     1978's Stage

2013's The Next Day

     Krautrock (as it was dubbed by the British) was a creative music form that was forged in the fires of late 1960's postwar Germany, itself a byproduct of the alienation felt by leftist youth movements towards the Wirtschaftswunder (German for "economic miracle") and their suspicion of the former Nazi architects behind it. Krautrock continued on into the early 1980's, with its hypocenter being in the mid to late 1970's.

Krautrock Geography

Groups under the Krautrock umbrella lacked any real cohesion, with most of the principal players operating in different areas of the country and largely unaware of the work being done by their peers.

Germany Year Zero

     
     The end of the war signaled the beginning of a veritable clean slate artistically. This period became known as "Year Zero". The musicians, by and large, wanted to break away from the horrors of Germany's past and forge out into new frontiers. They did not want to play blues based rock or Schlager music. What they came up with was a mixture of electronic music (then in its infancy), free jazz and discordant classical music ala Karlheinz Stockhausen.

     When mixed together in the early stages it sounded like Space Rock, but as they advanced forward it became something else entirely, pushing out beyond the frontiers into a new form of electronic music.

Krautrock on Sound Opinions

THE KEY FIGURES

     Brian Eno: Brian Eno is an anomaly. Both a dilettante and a visionary, he pops up throughout the span of the 1970's wherever musical boundaries are being transcended. He emerged from the ether of Ipswitch Art School, a tabula rasa who quickly transformed into the de facto voice of a group of theoretical sonic trailblazers on the vanguard of musical exploration. From Roxy Music to his own solo work and collaborations with Robert Fripp, David Bowie, Cluster and Harmonia (et al), he didn't just create music, he redefined it.

ENO KRAUTROCK ESSENTIALS

         1977's Cluster & Eno            1978's After The Heat             1976's Tracks & Traces

     Karlheinz Stockhausen: Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer and one of the great visionaries of 20th century music. He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, aleatory (controlled chance) in serial compositions and musical spatialization. He was a major influence on many of the Krautrockers, with two members of Can studying under him - Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay.

Holger Czukay tribute to Karlheinz Stockhausen

     Florian Schneider: Florian Schneider founded Kraftwerk with Ralf Hütter in 1970. Originally Schneider's main instrument was the flute, which he would treat using electronic effects. He also played violin, electric guitar (including slide guitar), and made use of synthesizers (both as a melodic instrument and as a sound processor). After the release of their 1974 album, Autobahn, his use of acoustic instruments diminished.

Ein Beispiel für die frühe Kraftwerk Ton.

     
     David Bowie titled his Heroes instrumental track V-2 Schneider after Schneider, and was heavily influenced by Kraftwerk's sound.

     

     Klaus Schulze: Klaus Schulze (born August 4, 1947) is a German electronic music composer and musician. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades. In 1972, Schulze released his debut album "Irrlicht" with organ and a recording of an orchestra filtered almost beyond recognition. Despite the lack of synthesizers, this proto-ambient work is regarded as a milestone in electronic music.

     

     Conny Plank: Konrad "Conny" Plank who died on December 18, 1987, was a record producer and musician who hailed from Hütschenhausen, Germany. His innovations in the field of sound engineering and musical production were essential to the development of Krautrock. Plank was also a musician, performing with Cluster and later collaborating with Dieter Moebius on 5 Moebius & Plank studio albums (including "Rastakraut Pasta") recorded between 1979 and 1986.

     Dieter Moebius: Dieter Moebius met Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler at an art school in Berlin. They founded the band Kluster in 1969. After Schnitzler departed to join Tangerine Dream, the duo changed their name to Cluster. Moebius and Rodelius joined with Neu!'s Michael Rother to form Harmonia which also worked with Brian Eno.

     Hans-Joachim Roedelius is best known as a co-founder of the Krautrock groups Cluster and Harmonia. In 1968 Roedelius, along with Konrad Schnitzler, founded the Zodiac Free Arts Lab - a venue that hosted and organized events themed upon electronic musical improvisation.

         

Dielmar Garland Kurzfilm über den Zodiak Arts Lab von 1968 bis 1969.

     Julian Cope: Julian Cope is a musician and musicologist. He wrote this book…

Krautrocksampler: One Head's Guide to the Great Kosmische Musik - 1968 Onwards - published in 1995 by Head Heritage. It is considered a definitive guide to Krautrock. It is currently out of print and original copies fetch a hefty sum on the interwebs. PDF's can be found with a cursory search and can be consumed guilt free due to the refusal of Cope and his publishers to accept freely given currency by putting the book back in print.

Krautrocksampler PDF 

     Here is a list of Cope's top 50 Krautrock albums.

Julian Cope's Top 50 Krautrock Albums

These are the other books written on the genre.

 

The Bands

     Amon Düül II: Generally considered to be the first of the Krautrockers. They were part of a West German commune which included the leaders of the Red Army Faction aka The Baader-Meinhof Group.

                                           Baader & Ensslin         Meinhoff

Trailer zu Der Baader Meinhoff-Komplex.

     In 1970, Rainer Werner Fassbinder worked on a German television documentary called The Niklashausen Journey which featured Amon Düül II performing. Fassbinder was part of the New German Cinema movement which featured Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog among others. Herzog would later go on to work with Popol Vuh.

Amon Duul II in Die Niklashausen Fahrt

Fassbinder, Herzog & Wim Wenders

Amon Düül II Essentials

           1969's Phallus Dei                     1970's Yeti                        1972's Wolf City

     Can: Can formed in Cologne, Germany. Their music had strong elements of minimalism (punctuated by the hypnotic drumming of Jaki Liebezeit) fused with psychadelia. As a unit, they constructed most of their music through collective spontaneous composition. In 1970 they were joined by street musician and vocalist Damo Suzuki and produced much of the music that they are best known for.

CAN ESSENTIALS

    1969's Monster Movie                    1970's Soundtracks                1971's Tago Mago 

       

     1972's Ege Bamyasi                      1973's Future Days                   1975's Landed

     Faust: Faust formed in Wümme, Germany in 1971. "There is no group more mythical than Faust," wrote Julian Cope in his book "Krautrocksampler", which praised the essential influence the German band exerted over the development of ambient and industrial textures. Their music, a cacophonous sound collage of cut-and-paste musical fragments, never became commercially viable. They did, however, have a solid cult following. In 1972 they released the album "Faust So Far", which earned the group a contract with Virgin. In 1973 they released "The Faust Tapes" followed by "Faust IV" - a commercial failure that resulted in the loss of their contract with Virgin, who refused to release their planned fifth album.

FAUST ESSENTIALS

       1972's Faust/So Far             1973's The Faust Tapes             1973's Faust IV

    

Klaus Dinger & Michael Rother

     NEU! - NEU!(Pronounced Noy as in "noise" - German word for "New!") formed in 1971 in Düsseldorf by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother after their split from Kraftwerk. Though they failed to achieve commercial success, the band is retrospectively considered one of the founding fathers of Krautrock.

     
     One of the defining elements of their music is what is often called the Motorik beat (meaning "motor skill" in German) later referred to as the "Apache beat". At least one third of their recorded output is in the Motorik form. Here they deconstruct the traditional rock song format, with its verses and choruses, intros and changes, stripping it down to a single minimalist 4/4 beat, which Dinger repeats continuously throughout the entire track.

Beat   1  +    2    +    3    +    4    +

Hi-hat x  x    x    x    x    x    x    x

Snare  -  -    x    -    -    -    x    -

Kick   x  x   -    x    x    x    -    x

Top 10 Songs With the Motorik Beat

NEU! ESSENTIALS

              1972's NEU!                      1973's NEU! 2                         1975's NEU! 75

    

     Tangerine Dream: Tangerine Dream is an electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member. Their most stable line-up was as a trio consisting of Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann. Tangerine Dream's early Pink Years released on the Ohr label (the Ohr logo was a pink ear) had a pivotal role in the development of Krautrock. Their "Virgin Years" albums helped define what became known as the Berlin School of electronic music. These and later albums were influential in the development of electronic dance music.

TANGERINE DREAM ESSENTIALS

            1972's Zeit                          1974's Phaedra                           1975's Rubycon

1979's Force Majeure

Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Dieter Moebius

     Cluster: Cluster was a Berlin based group who influenced the development of contemporary popular electronic and ambient music. They have recorded albums in a wide variety of styles ranging from experimental music to progressive rock, all of which had an avant-garde edge. Cluster was active from 1971 until 2010, releasing a total of 15 albums, including two collaborations with Brian Eno. Musician, writer and rock historian Julian Cope places three Cluster albums in his Krautrock Top 50.

CLUSTER ESSENTIALS

               1971's Cluster                             1972's  Cluster II                          1974's Zuckerzeit

1976's Sowiesoso

     Kraftwerk: Kraftwerk which translates to "power station" in German, are an electronic music band formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970 in Düsseldorf. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies, mainly following a Western Classical style of harmony, with a minimalistic and strictly electronic instrumentation. The group's simplified lyrics are at times sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. Kraftwerk were one of the first groups to popularize electronic music and are considered pioneers in the field.

Kraftwerk Essentials

             1970's Kraftwerk I               1972's Kraftwerk II                1973's Ralf und Florian

       1974's Autobahn               1978's The Man Machine            1981's Computer World

     Popol Vuh: Popol Vuh was founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1969. The name Popol Vuh, a manuscript containing the mythology of the Maya, translates roughly as "meeting place". The band contributed soundtracks to the films of Werner Herzog, including Aguirre: the Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Cobra Verde, Heart of Glass and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, in which Fricke appeared. Popol Vuh disbanded following the death of Florian Fricke in Munich on December 29, 2001.

Florian Fricke in der 1974 erscheinenden Film 

"Das Rätsel der Kaspar Hauser" unter der Regie von Werner Herzog.

Popol Vuh Essentials

            1975's Aguirre                      1978's Nosferatu                      1982's Fitzcarraldo

Dangerous Minds article

     There are many fascinating and influential albums and artists to discover in this genre. The primer above merely hints at the deep waters that flow through these artists. Many albums take multiple listens to get a good bead on what is going on. The reward for discovery is an expanded and limitless musical horizon that can be explored for decades - an uncharted world both known and unknown. Step out beyond the stale limits of popular music and who knows where it will take you.

Coda:

As always, the last word goes to David Bowie. May he continue to fill the cosmic void with wonderment and remind us always of the extraordinary transcendent power of the creative heart and mind. Godspeed.

David Bowie

Fell to Earth January 8, 1947

Returned to the Cosmos January 10, 2016