cluster

my latest obsession. amazing stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5lwRjLd_4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JIi1dsDcqY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEwXsJ9P0mU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNgAhr0aEho

Aaaaahhhh! I appreciate six kinds of f*ck out of Cluster. Yes yes yes yes yes.

I will never forget the first time I heard them - it was a couple of years ago, right after I'd just had a major operation on my hand. I'd been put under and had the most amazing auditory experiences while under anaesthetic of this strange music. Anyway, I got home and a friend was looking after me and had to stay over my house overnight to make sure I was OK as I could barely move. So she put her iPod over the stereo while I kind of lapsed in and out of consciousness.

She put on Sowiesoso and then Zuckerzeit and between the music and the codeine I just felt so coccooned in loveliness. It was like a kind of music I'd always dreamed of and never known how to find. Just so gentle and organic but at the same time completely wonderfully electronic.

I'm going to go and do a YouTube search for Caramel now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4YoScbyO7k

It's all about that amazing shuffly drum machine. I used to have a Rhythm Ace that would do that sound exactly.

i'm only just getting started really, so far i've only heard sowiesoso, cluster&eno and grosses wasser.. and from those alone i've decided i need to get everything these guys have ever done.

Zuckerzeit (means Sugartime in German, I love that name!) is more structured, but still very much the same headspace.

The albums as Kluster are kinda divisive much more noisy freeform krautrock noize stuffs.

I saw them just last year (yes they are still playing) with James Holden of all people and it was two ancient German dudes shuffling CDs into computers but still so amazingly beautiful.

I'm not going to insult yr intelligence - I assume you know all about the Harmonia stuff - can we appreciate them as well on this thread? :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kVr8_c-HJY

^^^^^^it still catches me out every time I hear the Engineers track that samples this song, I think it's gonna be Harmonia

yes! harmonia were awesome too. almost like the autechre of the 70s. i actually found out about them through that engineers track, then from there got into all the other krautrock stuff.. i didn't realise the krautrock scene was so incestuous!

It's funny, I also got into Cluster through Harmonia (coz I was such a NEU! stan) which is kind of viewed as the back door entry route by most krautrock geeks.

It's not krautrock in general that's so incestuous but just that Dusseldorf scene really - they don't have a family tree, they have an interbraided stick.

I still have to say that La Dusseldorf are kind of my favourite of the offshoot bunch, tho.

zuckerzeit soo goood.

i love cluster

one of my favorites by them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtgqnJ3GU-I

Cluster is amazing, i remember always being confused why Brian Eno was so pointed to for his 'ground breaking' contributions to ambient when bands like Cluster were doing stuff before .

..i dont like Brian Eno

Weird thing is my best mate makes music just like Cluster and he'd never heard of them

  On 1/25/2010 at 9:42 PM, Awepittance said:

Cluster is amazing, i remember always being confused why Brian Eno was so pointed to for his 'ground breaking' contributions to ambient when bands like Cluster were doing stuff before .

 

 

..i dont like Brian Eno

i find myself liking eno less and less as the years go by. i still love his pop albums but theres something so incredibly boring about the man and most his theories. he says that working with acts like coldplay and u2 are the unexpected 'non safe' projects for him to work on, but i think hes just trying to make himself feel better about cashing in. nothing wrong with that, i wouldnt turn down the millions either.. but saying youre exploring new and interesting areas with those two bands is just being disingenuous.

i saw cluster at a small venue in my home town. during the most beautiful ambient section of

their set, one of the people listening somehow backed into a plate glass window to the side of the

small stage and shattered it. just a moment after that happened ...a fire truck and other

emergency vehicles went screaming by. cluster continued playing and everyone was

overwhelmed by the whole experience. it was quite a moment in sound and

i'll never forget it.

Harmonia has made some of the most stunning music I've ever heard! It was a true awakening for me to hear when I was young (wasn't into electronic music at the time) and I find everything they have done incredibly calming and exciting at the same time.

I definitely have felt a dislike of Eno over the past few years, finding him to water down everything with enough boring pretention to wash away the soul of it. His music pisses me off when I hear it now (was a gradual change, used to love Eno) and I still can't figure out why other than level of wank vs level of awesome.

Stoked to see Harmonia and Cluster love!!

i'll have to delve into Harmonium more, the only album i've heard is 'Si on avait besoin d'une cinquiäme saison' i was hoping it would sound more Cluster like. Is there a better or more electronic Harmonium album i should check out?

re: Brian Eno, i really appreciate some of Eno's contributions such as Oblique Strategies & some of his collaborations with Harold Budd. I just feel he gets too much attention for his 'invention' of ambient music and his production techniques.

  On 1/26/2010 at 1:35 AM, Awepittance said:

i'll have to delve into Harmonium more, the only album i've heard is 'Si on avait besoin d'une cinquiäme saison' i was hoping it would sound more Cluster like. Is there a better or more electronic Harmonium album i should check out?

 

re: Brian Eno, i really appreciate some of Eno's contributions such as Oblique Strategies & some of his collaborations with Harold Budd. I just feel he gets too much attention for his 'invention' of ambient music and his production techniques.

try 'musik von harmonia', amazing stuff.

  On 1/26/2010 at 1:35 AM, Awepittance said:

i'll have to delve into Harmonium more, the only album i've heard is 'Si on avait besoin d'une cinquiäme saison' i was hoping it would sound more Cluster like. Is there a better or more electronic Harmonium album i should check out?

 

re: Brian Eno, i really appreciate some of Eno's contributions such as Oblique Strategies & some of his collaborations with Harold Budd. I just feel he gets too much attention for his 'invention' of ambient music and his production techniques.

Harmonium is entirely different (and there's also a chamber quartet named Harmonia I believe)...

These 4 albums are all that exist of Harmonia, and only the first two were released before the last few years-

Musik Von Harmonia

De Luxe

Tracks and Traces (by Harmonia 76 w/ Brian Eno... you can actually *hear* him ganking their ideas)

Live 1974 (not a good start, but a pretty amazing document in itself)

I suggest getting all of them and calling in sick to work

Great suggestion, did any one tell you to read the rules yet?

  On 1/26/2010 at 3:00 AM, Glass Plate said:

Great suggestion, did any one tell you to read the rules yet?

Yes, god damnit.

cluster kind of sounds like they could be a boc of an older generation. not in an insulting way, a cool way

  On 1/26/2010 at 5:52 AM, Calx Sherbet said:

cluster kind of sounds like they could be a boc of an older generation. not in an insulting way, a cool way

i can hear that actually. cluster = 70s boc, harmonia = 70s autechre.

  On 1/26/2010 at 8:19 AM, modey said:

  On 1/26/2010 at 5:52 AM, Calx Sherbet said:

cluster kind of sounds like they could be a boc of an older generation. not in an insulting way, a cool way

i can hear that actually. cluster = 70s boc, harmonia = 70s autechre.

::sputters than remembers where she is and realises it's intended as a compliment::

ah come on, watussi totally sounds like it could be an autechre track! rpeg?

1) if anything, it's the OTHER WAY AROUND. Things which preceded other things in (our perceived one-directionally flowing time) cannot "Sound like" the things that came after. The latter things sound like the former. Not vice versa. Don't mean to shout at you, specifically, Modey, this kind of thing just always winds me up irrationally.

2) I have been trying for nearly 20 years to get my head around Autechre and have never succeeded (::hunkers down and awaits the wrath of the moderators coming to throw me off the board::) It's just not for me. I got so excited by the fake leak because I was all "yay, finally some Autechre I actually like!" then was gutted to find out it was some other artist.

i have that live double album they did in '96. some parts are a tad noodley but there are some really strong moments too. also yea the harmonia stuff is good.