The M M & M 1000 – part 48

Here’s the latest batch of Music Musings and Miscellany’s unapologetically subjective selection of the twentieth century’s best 1000 singles.

FLAMING LIPS – She Don’t Use Jelly / Turn It On (Warner Brothers 18131 1994)
Simple and surreal, “She Don’t Use Jelly” was Coyne and cos first singalong song which, unlike many, never seems to pall with repeated listenings. It’s just gleefully absurd, simple fun.

POP GROUP – She Is Beyond Good and Evil / 3.38 (Radar 29 1979)
Perhaps the Pop Group’s most accessible song, this is still evil sounding Faustian funk that lies somewhere between Chic and free jazz. They were a band whose tension between deep dub-funk and stellar jazz was stretched to breaking point, and topped with the borderline madness of Mark Stewart’s paranoid vocals, created a distopian soundtrack to societal, political and personal breakdown. The tension that drove them inevitably destroyed them as the group was pulled in too many conflicting directions, but their small ouevre is a truly great legacy.

PJ HARVEY – Sheela-na-gig / Joe / Hair (Too Pure 8 1992)
Part Pixies part riot girl, Polly Harvey stripped out the fat and fancy from her music, but still sounded a world away from the basic rock template. She infuriated and thrilled people in equal measure for her steadfast refusal to be labelled, or dragged into ’scenes’, and still does. Her secret is a paradoxical combination of self-doubt and self-confidence that leaves her restless and continually inventive, but at the same time, never capriciously flitting from style to style.

RAMONES – Sheena Is a Punk Rocker / Commando / I Don’t Care (Sire 746 1977)
They sounded dumb but were never stupid. The first three albums fire off crackers like this every couple of minutes without ever sounding weary. That they ultimately became a cliché was inevitable. They either progressed and lost the raw simplicity, or stayed the same and became a self-parody.

HALL & OATES – She’s Gone / I’m Just a Kid (Atlantic 3332 1974)
In the eighties they became pop giants, but their music became plastic and soulless. In the seventies they couldn’t get arrested, but came out with some amazing Philly soul-drenched pop. “She’s Gone” is a powerhouse of impassioned vocal interplay.

YELLO – She’s Got a Gun / The Evening’s Young (Do It 18 1982)
While a lot of Yello’s early music was fairly brash, electro-influenced synth pop, my favourite side to the duo was always the atmospheric noir-ish stories relayed in tracks like “Lost Again” and this one. Dieter Meyer’s image fits the world of darkened railway stations, femmes fatales with guns and the fading decadence of a Europe living under the burden of its own catastrophic history.

HOUSE OF LOVE – Shine On / Love / Flow (Creation 43 1987)
About as good as indie guitar music gets. The House of Love’s first single was emotional, exciting, crisp and concise. It sold diddly squat, despite being on a fashionable label. Some things are just unfathomable. Over the last two decades, they’re a band I’ve introduced to people more than any other I think, and the reaction is always glowing. And I’ve met other people who rate the band’s short tenure at Creation as highly as I do.

ROBERT WYATT – Shipbuilding / Memories of You (Rough Trade 115 1982)
Elvis Costello’s brilliant response to the Falklands War isn’t a angry polemic, but a confused reflection of a character whose livelihood has been secured by it, and feels guilty about that fact. I have no problem with Costello as a singer, but he has a rather sarcastic tone that really can’t carry off the emotional conflicts of the song. Robert Wyatt, however, has the right mixture of pathos, vulnerability and deep unease to convey it perfectly. A masterpiece.

BOYS NEXT DOOR – Shivers / Dive Position (Mushroom 7492 1979)
Before they discovered their true mettle as the Birthday Party, the band’s previous incarnation peddled a kind of jerky, spiky pop. This Rowland Howard song sounded nothing like either. It’s a brooding ballad that oddly has far more in common with some of Nick Cave’s later work even though it wasn’t his song. It’s appearance in the film Dogs in Space is a perfect cinematic moment.

MIRACLES – Shop Around / Who’s Loving You (Tamla 54030 1960)
Along with Barrett Strong’s “Money”, “Shop Around” is one of the two major hits of Motown’s first year that has one foot in doo wop and rock ‘n’ roll, and the other in the future, world-dominating Motown sound.

MAGAZINE – Shot By Both Sides / My Mind Ain’t So Open (Virgin 200 1978)
With a riff so good that former Buzzcocks partners Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley both used it (see “Lipstick” by the Buzzcocks), “Shot By Both Sides” introduced Magazine with a bang. It was a winning combination punk’s excitement and sharpness and the more expansive, almost prog, sound of bands like Roxy Music.

JUNIOR WALKER & THE ALL STARS – Shotgun / Hot Cha (Soul 35008 1965)
Motown anomalies in that they owed as much to Booker T & the MGs and James Brown as they did to the sound of the Motor City, Walker’s All Stars were a funky rhythm and blues outfit who were as much about the groove as they were about the song. “Shotgun” is a blast (sorry).

THE CARDINALS – Shouldn’t I Know / Please Don’t Leave Me (Atlantic 938 1951)
The Cardinals were one of the great proto-doo wop ballad groups, but one who seem to have fallen through the cracks of history. The only available compilation is a stingy 10 song collection that appeared on the Collectables label in 2006 and is only available on import from the US for a silly price.

STEELY DAN – Showbiz Kids / Razor Boy (ABC 11382 1973)
“Showbiz Kids” is another one of those great Steely Dan tunes that subverts the kind of smooth, self-regarding, nouveau riche types who probably listed the band as one of their favourites. Only this time they did it with a brazenness that only an idiot could fail to see: “They got the house on the corner, with the rug inside / They got the booze they need, all that money can buy / They got the shapely bodies, they got the Steely Dan T-shirts…” and as a final coup de grace: “Show bus’ness kids makin’ movies of themselves / You know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else“

More soon

100,000 hits

Yippee!

Yeah, I know it’s no big deal really, but it’s nice to know folk are reading this stuff!

Lots to come including Stray Ghost, God’s Gift and others.

Album: GVSU NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE + V/A – In C Remixed (Innova 758 2009)

Remix albums are nearly always hit and miss affairs. They are too often inconsistent in mood and quality while at the same time being naggingly repetitive. Having eighteen mixes spread over two CDs with a running time of two hours AND all of the same piece of music seems like total overkill. However, Innova’s double album’s worth of remixes and reimaginings of Terry Riley’s “In C” works largely because the approaches of the (very) mixed bunch enlisted to give it a go vary enormously.

The original played by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble of Michigan closes disc two, and it’s this that provides the clay to be worked by the remixers. “In C” was an unusual composition when it was published in 1964 and is often cited as the first truly minimalist piece. It has no set duration and the score allows a certain amount of improvisation within strictly defined limits. Similarly the instrumentation and number of players is left to the performers to decide. The only fixed constant is the repetition of a C note at eighth intervals throughout the length of the piece, usually played on a piano, giving a metronomic rhythm to proceedings. This is the work’s instantly recognisable motif, and unsurprisingly provides the backbone to most of the remixes.

Some use it more than others. Many twist it, mangle it, slow it down or even turn it into a sequence of notes. Masonic’s “Terrycloth Troposphere” is one of the few reworkings that strips it out altogether, concentrating on the violins. Others do the opposite, and the piano figure is the only recognisable remnant of the GVSU reading left intact.

In the end, In C Remixed works so well because the piece gives such free reign to the remodellers that they can, and do, bring almost anything to the party. Nico Muhly strips away the strings, working with just piano, percussion, bass and clarinet while DJ Spooky adds a tonne of new stuff to create a surprisingly mainstream rock sounding track that has echoes of the Lightning Seeds’ “Pure”. In between, there are abstract versions (Michael Karlsson and Rob Stephenson), glacial electronica versions (Michael Lowenstern), breakbeat versions (Lowenstern again), neo-classical versions (Phil Kline), electro-funk versions (Dennis DeSantis) and even infant samples (Jad Abumrad). My favourite is the dark funk of Jack Dangers’ “In C – Extension” that harks back to the mid nineties golden era of Mo’ Wax. But all the takes are worth hearing, and importantly, the album works as an album rather than an aural equivalent of Groundhog Day.

Tracks
1-1 In C: Semi-Detached – Jack Dangers
1-2 Terrycloth Troposphere – Masonic
1-3 Smooth – Glenn Kotche
1-4 Bints Mix – Michael Lowenstern
1-5 Zinc – Zoe Keating
1-6 Counting In C – Jad Abumrad
1-7 In C with Canonms and Bass – Nico Muhly
1-8 In Sea of C – DJ Spooky
1-9 In Cognito – Phil Kline
1-10 In C – Dennis DeSantis
1-11 Zachary’s Dream – DBR
2-1 In C: Extension – Jack Dangers
2-2 Xenoglossia – Mikael Karlsson & Rob Stephenson
2-3 Foster Grant Mix – Michael Lowenstern
2-4 Is In C In F? – Luke DuBois
2-5 In C – Todd Reynolds
2-6 In C Remix – Kleerup
2-7 Simple Mix – David Lang
2-8 In C – Terry Riley / GVSU New Music Ensemble

Websites
www.in-c-remixed.com
www.newmusicensemble.org
innova.mu

Album: AARKTICA – In Sea (Silber 078 2009)

Jon DeRosa’s Aarktica project covers ground where many have trod before, namely the use of guitar, loops, feedback, distortion and tape manipulation to make musical atmospheres and mood pieces. As the name suggests, the dominant aura is one of cold, oceanic isolation. But there is more to In Sea than an hour of Arctic ambience.

DeRosa lost almost all hearing in his right ear ten years ago, so the way he perceives sound is different to most of us. What is obviously a severe handicap for a musician, he has used to create sound slightly differently. Instead of stereo separation, he concentrates on depth and distance. It’s the aural equivalent of watching a movie without left-right panning but in 3D. A good example of this is the opener “I Am (The Ice)” where a guitar figure of graceful serenity dominates the foreground while the background is a tumult of crackle, feedback and distortion.

Some tracks on the album set moods, but don’t really develop anything with it. The best are more adventurous or, paradoxically, more traditionally structured. The deep, submerged drone of “A Plague of Frost” is almost free of rhythm or solidity and the title track, with its homophonic pun of a title, recreates the repetitive minimalism of Terry Riley.

On the other hand, some of the stand out pieces move away completely from the realms of the ambient. The gentle “Young Light” is upbeat, almost childlike. And the two actual songs are real gems. “Hollow Earth Theory” (as in Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth) is beautiful and delicate pop. Even better is the closing cover of Danzig’s “I am Demon” which turns Satanic metal into an almost folk-ish appeal for peace and rest. It’s a stunning interpretation.

In Sea has a few generic patches, but enough passages of beauty and distinction to leave it standing head and shoulders above most in what is becoming an ever more crowded field.

Tracks
1 I Am (The Ice)
2 LYMZ
3 Hollow Earth Theory
4 A Plague of Frost
5 In Sea
6 Onward!
7 Young Light
8 Autumnal
9 Corpse Reviver No. 2
10 Instil
11 When We’re Ghosts
12 Am I Demon?

Websites
www.myspace.com/aarktica
www.silbermedia.com/aarktica/

Album: V/A – Messthetics #107 DIY 78-81 London III (Hyped 2 Death)

It’s a sobering thought to think that the punk and post-punk boom of the late seventies and the very beginning of the eighties is as far back in history to us now as the end of the second world war was to them. Society was very different. Mass unemployment was a new thing not experienced since before the war, and compared to what it was to become in the Thatcher era and again today, it barely merited the term. Britain still had industries – factories, shipyards, steelworks and mines – and a working class who were working and politicised. Against that, of course, most of the technologies we take for granted today simply didn’t exist. Where music scenes now can be transnational due to the wonders of the internet (this blog being an example – you, dear reader, could be anywhere on earth right now), back then they were necessarily localised. You could be a legend in Kentish Town and a complete unknown in Camberwell.

The latest trip in the post-punk time machine that is the brilliant Messthetics series takes us back to a three year period between 1978 and 1981, and to a few square miles of North London centred on Camden and roughly stretching south to Euston and north to the far off reaches of Hornsey. Central to the story are the short-lived Dining Out label and the art-rock collective The 49 Americans.

Messthetics 107 thus has more of a focus to it than any other volume bar the Manchester Musicians Collective one, and consequently a slightly more homogeneous sound. That is just a relative statement. But there is a definite musical theme running through the tracks. Percussion is rarely limited to a standard rock drum kit playing straight four/four time. Bass lines are fluid and often the main melodic force while guitars scratch away adding atmosphere and colour, or simply dissonance. There are also an unusually high number of folk who would go on to greater fame.

There are 23 tracks on the CD, plus 7 bonus MP3s as well as a fact-stuffed 24 page booklet that includes interviews with a good number of the band members. The quality of the music on hand varies considerably, but there is nothing without some merit. And in the same way, although some of the production is distinctly lo-fi, you’ll have heard much much worse.

The set’s relative superstars are the Disco Zombies, Six Minute War and the aforementioned 49 Americans, a collective whose passing members probably exceeded the 49 mark and included such luminaries as Max Eastley, Steve Beresford and David Toop among their number. The band’s two contributions are both brief – “Newton’s Laws” is exactly what it says it is, a reading of the basic laws of physics against a punk-ish backdrop, while “Should Be More Ideal” features tuba, tin can percussion and off-key piano in a wild piece of experimental pop. Spin-off group the Avocados bring a lovely little pop tune to the party.

The Disco Zombies featured writer Dave Henderson and future boss of Food Records Andy Ross. They were more mainstream than the Americans, dealing in a fairly arty take on power pop. The previously unreleased “Greenland” is especially good, a sensible response to nuclear war (ie bugger off quick to somewhere no one’s going to bother obliterating). My favourite track of all on the CD is Henderson and Ross’s other band Club Tango and their funked-up epic “Performance” – a real find.

Six Minute War started life as North London’s answer to the Minutemen. A trio playing very short, highly political punk songs. By their third EP, represented by “Weathermen” here, they’d stretched out musically way beyond the two minute mark and adopted a more martial post-punk sound.

The set has a few fairly generic lo-fi pop songs (and a band called Steppes who add a distinctly old-school guitar solo to their track. What were they thinking?), but also some fantastically inventive pieces. Patterns’ “The Bishop” is a like a four minute medley of completely unrelated mini-songs. If the voice is naggingly familiar, it’s because it belongs to Nanette Greenblatt. No wiser? Well, Patterns became And The Native Hipsters whose “There Goes Concorde Again” was a Peel favourite (and Festive Fifty number one? Close anyway) and almost a proper hit.

Elsewhere, future members of Alien Sex Fiend, A Certain Ratio, the Alabama 3 and the Afro Celt Sound System all pop up, and the influences of bands like Swell Maps, Joy Division (the brilliantly named Insex do a better job than most JD imitators), Raincoats, Pere Ubu, Scritti and the Pop Group are all apparent, but never in a copycat way.

Another fine set from Hyped to Death. It seems like the well of goodies is nowhere near to running dry yet.

Tracks
1 Stepping Talk – Common Problems
2 Jelly Babies – Roller Skate
3 Avocados – I Never Knew
4 Occult Chemistry – Water
5 Patterns – The Bishop
6 Six Minute War – Weathermen
7 Demon Preacher – Royal Northern
8 Methodishca Tune – Leisuretime
9 Jangletties – Happy All the Time
10 Stolen Power – Little White Lies
11 Flags – Is God Love?
12 Steppes – God’s Got Religion
13 Disco Zombies – Here Come the Buts
14 Insex – Inner Sanction
15 49 Americans – Newton’s Laws
16 Disco Zombies – Greenland
17 Milkmen – Since You Went Away
18 Methodishca Tune – LFD
19 Design for Living – One to the Wise
20 Twilight Zoners – Twister
21 49 Americans – Should Be More Ideal
22 Club Tango – Performance
23 Jelly Babies – Living It Up

Websites
www.hyped2death.com

The M M & M 1000 – part 47

Here’s the latest batch of Music Musings and Miscellany’s unapologetically subjective selection of the twentieth century’s best 1000 singles.

COASTERS – Searchin’ / Young Blood (Atco 6087 1957)
Not the Coasters at their most comic, but a fine pair of catchy doo-wop / pop tunes nevertheless.

COCKNEY REBEL – Sebastian / Rock and Roll Parade (EMI 2051 1973)
I’ll be the first to admit that “Sebastian” borders on ludicrous pomposity with its quasi-operatic structure and full-on bombastic orchestration, not too mention Steve Harley at his most mannered in the vocal department. Still, there’s something deeply appealing in its guileless over-the-topness.

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Seconds Too Late / Control Addict (Rough Trade 60 1980)
“Seconds Too Late” is one of Cabaret Voltaire’s most chilling tracks, steeped in paranoia and foreboding. It also still sounds amazingly contemporary. Here’s the original video:

PINK FLOYD – See Emily Play / The Scarecrow (EMI Columbia 8214 1967)
English psychedelic pop at its very best.

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON – See That My Grave Is Kept Clean / Electric Chair Blues (Paramount 12608 1928)
The early blues artists never shied away from topics not normally associated with popular song – disease, addiction, poverty, early death. All were only too real in the world around them. “See The My Grave Is Kept Clean” is a sombre song with the protagonist already dead asking for one last favour. The sad thing is, after Jefferson died the following year, he was buried in an unmarked grave. When a headstone was eventually erected in 1967, the precise whereabouts of his resting place was no longer known. In 1997 he finally got his wish with a proper granite headstone, and ten years later, the cemetery was renamed the Blind Lemon Jefferson Memorial Cemetery. As for the song, it’s been covered many times, most famously by Bob Dylan. My personal favourite version was by the Dream Syndicate.

JUDY COLLINS – Send in the Clowns / Houses (Elektra 45253 1975)
An opinion splitter. Many people find this Stephen Sondheim song almost comically mawkish. I’m not among them (obviously, otherwise it wouldn’t be here). Sinatra used to sing this a lot, but I think Judy Collins nails it. It’s weird that it feels so sad and resigned and yet I haven’t got a clue what it’s all about. But the “well, maybe next year” bit at the end is the epitome of crushed hope to me, and always brings a chill to the spine.

FIELD MICE – Sensitive / When Morning Comes To Town (Sarah 18 1989)
Sarah Records and the Field Mice – the kings of twee. Even many of their fans wear it like a badge – an infantile world of innocence and sweets. I never saw it. OK, they could be a bit wet at times, but “Sensitive” is actually a really angry song.. It’s fast and often furious as it rages against a callous world where aestheticism is perceived as a weakness. A big, meaty ‘fuck you’ to philistines.

BIG STAR – September Gurls / Mod Lang (Ardent 2912 1974)
I see Big Star as the precursors to the Replacements. Romanticism tinged with self-destructive tendencies. At times bright and sunny (as on this little gem), at others like an emotional car crash (most of the legendary Sister/Lovers). There were also times when they churned out some dreary dad-rock, but it was 1974.

LOVE – Seven and Seven Is / Number Fourteen (Elektra 45605 1966)
Surrealistic punk rock played out on acoustic guitars and featuring a (literally) explosive climax. What’s not to love?

MARVIN GAYE – Sexual Healing / instrumental (Columbia 3302 1982)
An Indian summer or a new beginning? After his Belgian exile, serious depression and final freedom from his fraught relationships with Motown and the Gordys, Marvin came back and showed the young pretenders like Alexander O’Neal and Luther Vandross who was the boss in the bedroom soul stakes. Murdered by his father two years later, the opening question can never be answered.

JOE TURNER – Shake, Rattle & Roll / You Know I Love You (Atlantic 1026 1954)
It’s all about sex, of course. Many people will only know the bowdlerized Bill Haley version. Most of the lyrics were changed or cut to protect the sensitive dispositions of white folk (and allow radio play). Including the cunnilingus references (“I get over the hill and way down underneath”). Inexplicably they left the “I’m like a one-eyed cat peepin’ in a seafood store” line unchanged. Too subtle for ‘em I guess.

JOHNNY KIDD & THE PIRATES – Shakin’ All Over / Yes Sir, That’s My Baby (HMV 753 1960)
There was more to British rock & roll than Cliff Richard and the Larry Parnes school of clean-cut clones. Not much more, though. The frankly bonkers Vince Taylor and the great Johnny Kidd are the only ones who spring to mind who could hold their own with their American counterparts.

JIMMY REED – Shame, Shame, Shame / There’ll Be a Day (Vee-Jay 509 1963)
Jimmy Reed was one of only a few of the original electric blues artists whose career truly flourished in the wake of the British blues boom. Many of his songs have become pub back room standards including this one.

THE YARDBIRDS – The Shapes of Things / You’re a Better Man Than I (Columbia 7848 1966)
If Clapton had had his way, the Yardbirds would have remained a footnote in rock history, regurgitating electric blues standards for a white audience. Fortunately he gave way to Jeff Beck, and they turned in some some fantastic pieces of proto-psychedelic pop like this fuzz-drenched beaut. Arguably they were the prime influence for the nuggets generation of US garage bands alongside the Stones, and are still much more appreciated across the pond than they are here.

THE CHORDS – Sh’Boom / Little Maiden (Cat 104 1954)
What better way to end this installment than the sublime, uplifting sound of the luckless Chords. One hit wonders, as much to do with legal battles over the name than any failure to match the quality of their debut single, they did at least leave one song of joyous originality and feel-good vocal dexterity. Supposedly a response to the prevalent fears of nuclear annihilation, it shrugs off the threat and parties. And why not.

More soon

A Few Forthcoming Releases: Nov 2009

The usual monthly round-up. Fairly slim pickings as the release schedules are dominated by X-Factor pop fodder, compilations, remasters, reissues, box sets, old live albums etc. etc.

Nov 2nd

• 2562 – Unbalance (Tectonic)
• CIRCULASIONE TOTALE ORCHESTRA – Bandwidth (Rune Grammofon)
• DEFRAG – Lament Element (Hymen)
• DJ SPOOKY – The Secret Song (Thirsty Ear)
• FELIX – You are the One I Pick (Kranky)
• NIRVANA – Live at Reading (Universal)
• OOIOO – Armonico Hewa (Thrill Jockey)
• PHILL NIBLOCK – Touch Strings (Touch)
• PORT ROYAL – Dying in Time (N5MD)

Nov 9th

• BENJAMIN GIBBARD & JAY FARRAR – One Fast Move (Atlantic)
• BIBIO – The Apple and the Tooth (Warp)
• BLACK TO COMM – Alphabet 1968 (Type)
• EVAN PARKER – House Full of Floors (Tzadik)
• GITHEAD – Landing (Swim)
• GRANT HART – Hot Wax (Wienerworld)
• MELT BANANA – Melt-Banana Lite Live Ver 0.0 (A-Zap)
• MERZBOW – 13 Japanese Birds Volume 10 (Important)
• RYUICHI SAKAMOTO – Playing the Piano (Decca)
• SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN – Seven Storey Mountain (Important)
• SLAPP HAPPY – Live in Japan May 2000 (Voiceprint)
• TIM CATLIN & MACHINEFABRIEK – Glisten (Low Point)
• VARIOUS – Warp 20: Unheard (Warp)

Nov 16th

• ANNIE – Don’t Stop (Smalltown Supersound)
• DAVID GRUBBS – Hybrid Song Box.4 (Drag City)
• PETER HAMMILL – In the Passionkirche, Berlin 92 (Voiceprint)
• RADIAN – Chimeric (Thrill Jockey)
• RAKIM – The Seventh Seal (SMC)
• SOFT MACHINE – Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971 (Reel UK)

Nov 23rd

• MILES DAVIS – Complete Miles Davis (Sony)
• TOM WAITS – Glitter and Doom (Live) (Anti)

Nov 30th

• DANIEL MENCHE – Kataract (Mego)

Jan 11th 2010

• LAURA VEIRS – July Flame (Bella Union)
• VAMPIRE WEEKEND – Contra (XL)

TV: Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany

After last week’s generally fascinating, if slightly flawed, Synth Britannia (no mention at all of Suicide, and some of the chronology seemed a bit iffy to me), BBC Four’s music documentary series moved on to look at some of the biggest influences on both the synth-pop movement, and indeed all post-punk and electronica music that’s happened since, from Acid Mothers Temple to Alva Noto and all points in between.

Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany is rather a grand title, and it immediately apologised for the term. Krautrock was coined by anglocentric British journalists and has unfortunately stuck ever since to the various amusement / irritation of the musicians themselves. But at least their music was accepted here – in their homeland they remained, by and large, obscure. I remember when I first met my German friend Olly in the early nineties, I breathlessly waxed lyrical about all the German bands that I was a big fan of, and was astonished that he’d never heard of half of them. I’d simply assumed that acts like Cluster, Faust, Neu! etc would all be household names in Germany, something that turned out to be far from the truth.

The programme offered 1968 as year zero for the movement, suggesting that everything before then was Schlager and classical music. Although that’s certainly true for the electronic and experimental bands that followed, surely things weren’t that simple. After all, many British bands cut their musical teeth in Hamburg at the start of the sixties, and other ex-pat acts like the Monks were pretty successful in their adopted land. There must have been some indigenous equivalent, surely.

That question aside, this was an hour stuffed with great anecdotes and superb archive footage. Those interviewed were a great bunch of characters with intelligent, dry humour and none of the rock star pomposity of their Anglo-American prog-rock equivalents. The central theme was that this wasn’t a scene as such, but a bunch of disparate groups from all over the country whose music was equally eclectic, but whose philosophy was strikingly similar – to create a new art music for Germany untainted by the past and yet specifically German rather than a poor facsimile of the dominant Anglo-American forms. And to challenge the West German establishment, something still riddled with relics of the Nazi era. They succeeded, and collectively became a massive influence on much of the interesting music made in the last thirty years. Indeed, most are probably far more widely known today than they ever were in their heyday.

Nearly all of the big players were present and correct – Amon Düül, Popol Vuh, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Neu!, Harmonia, Can, Faust and, of course, Kraftwerk. The only serious omission was Ash Ra Tempel. There were some great stories – Amon Düül’s uncomfortable association with Andreas Baader and Ulriche Meinhof; Faust being sold to Polydor as the German Beatles (?!); Damo Suzuki’s bizarrely spontaneous induction into Can; Klaus Schulze’s admission that he still had no idea how to properly work his first synth that he’s had for nearly forty years. And also some superb archive footage, including the pre-electronic Kraftwerk. Implied, but not explicitly said, was the contention that Eno was little more than a thieving magpie, appropriating ideas from his collaborations with Cluster and using them in his work with Bowie, that archetypal chameleon.

Cramming all this into an hour inevitably felt a bit rushed. But it was great that somebody had the foresight to step outside the usual Anglo-American axis and tell the stories of the makers of some of the twentieth century’s most forward-looking and influential music.

For UK residents, it’s on the iPlayer.