CLUSTER

While "Cluster 71" was about as amorphously abstract as a cosmic tripper could hope for, on CLUSTER II this trio began to rein such liberties and started to replace the disorienting and nebulous swarms of sound with rhythmic oscillations and while far from the world of commercial music at least allowed the listener to latch onto a familiar pattern while the sound effects sort of were expansions of the electronic pulsating sounds that oft employ the use of a repetitive guitar riff. "Plas" starts things off with a dark, cold as space detachment from the traditional music world while "Im Süden" takes a simple guitar riff and incorporates various ascending and descending pitches to simulate a journey into some unexplored regions of the cosmos.

CLUSTER II is definitely in the camp of what Klaus Schulze was crafting after his departure from Tangerine Dream. While the previous project Kluster was all about discordant proton-industrial soundscapes with a jarring disregard for convention, CLUSTER focuses exclusively on electronic sounds and electroacoustic manipulations and with the magic of Conny Plank turned rather mundane sounds into frightening even multi-dimensional phantasms that seemed to be reverberating and phasing out of the limited perception capabilities of our known reality. The accumulative effect is nothing less than amazing and the desired effect of crafting the ultimate transcendental escapism is without a doubt achieved.

Due to the fact that CLUSTER II has microbeats and percussive drive due to reverberations, oscillations and other frequency modulations, this set of six tracks makes me think of some kind of atomic disco party where where gluons are bumping and grinding with muons and electrons are getting all jiggy with neutrinos. The ambiguousness of whether this is a cold icy cosmic journey or playing Antman and going to the world of the molecular is totally up to the listener's imagination and the very reason i love this kind of tripped out inchoate romp through sound. This kind of "music" is truly one that activates the creative processes that allows the imagination to fill in the gaps as well as simply providing the soundtrack for an astral trip.

CLUSTER would refine their trippy ambient Kraut weirdness even more for the third album "Zuckerzeit" where avant-garde melodies would replace seemingly random swirls of sound as the main focus but for the first two albums, CLUSTER provided an anarchic liberating stylistic approach matched only by the earliest works of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Having proved themselves in this arena, the duo would focus on tighter comparisons that included more "normal" sounding beats, recognizable melodies and less free floating soundscapes that evoke the deepest recesses of space and the quantum worlds. While i have to be in the right mood to endure these harsh soundtracks of the unknown, when i do have the hankering to escape Earth's gravitational pull, the first two CLUSTER albums rank high on my list to do so.

This album is flooded with repetition and dissonance. The first shot "Plas" can be called as kinda heavy guitar-synth- fuzz-oriented electronic concerto in a depressive manner. Quite impressive is the rhythmic component gets altered suddenly. There is no comfort nor relief, but melodic malformation. "Im S'den" too has mysterious atmosphere. Intentionally and technically discordance tempo and phrase should be produced, you imagine easily. On the other hand, some crystallized melody line can be heard momentally. In "F'r Die Katz" ambient electrosynthesizer-based noise madness extents you an invitation into another sound dimension. A mixture of unfitting tones is eccentric but excellent.

Anyway slight uptempo moist sound hotchpotch is "Live In Der Fabrik", where lots of inorganic unstable electro- sound-depths. Every single noise is bursting like a golden star upon the shocking sleeve pic. Well, wondering why you are getting relaxed toward the end of this track. "Georgel" is another meditative stuff. Just like "Reise Durch Ein Brennendes Gehirm" by Tangerine Dream, you can grab something beautiful and solemn, whilst dissonant sound experimentalism launched all around. The last "Nabitte" is one of the darkest, most serious sound spiritualism like Fille Qui Mousse. You would be tempted to the gorgeous electronic explosion fully with sorta black magic, and it's a potential milestone of Krautrock. What a sour sweetness.

In retrospect the collaboration was more Eno than Cluster, extending the former's "Music For Films" project, in construction at exactly the same time. The nine brief doodles presented here don't exactly qualify as ambient soundtrack fodder, but they show a similar, highly evolved sense of near-subliminal understatement: rich in atmosphere and nuance, and purposely designed to have an almost negligible impact.

Under the reliable guidance of producer/guru Conny Plank - the invisible fourth member of the trio - the album made an admirable virtue of its compositional modesty. The opening "Ho Renomo", featuring Can's Holger Czukay on bass guitar, is a notable highlight: five hypnotic minutes of undiluted Krautrock mesmerism, the sound of a treasured childhood memory recalled in dreams.

The six-minute "One" (Eno spelled backward of course, and by far the album's longest track) is another obvious standout. Like so much else in the 1970s it looked east for inspiration...by way of the planet Neptune, in this case. That persistent drone was the work of Dutch sitar enthusiast Okko Bekker, who would rejoin Plank and Moebius the following year on the self-titled Liliental album.

Eno, Moebius and Roedelius would likewise meet again (see: "After the Heat", 1978). But the sequel, while excellent in its own way, lacked the surprising novelty of the original: a revelation of sorts in 1977, and still worth hearing when the pace of modern life becomes too hectic.

Opener `Plas' is a churning stormy drone that grows in stature amidst a heartbeat-like wavering klaxon and harsh ebbing and flowing serrated slivers. A snarling and grumbling electric guitar line repeats over and over into infinity throughout `Im Suden' with ambient distortion washes shimmering to the surface behind them, everything swamped in an unceasing brewing rumble of feedback. Chiming guitar tendrils try to snake their way through an air of shuffling electronic spirals and pulsing machine hisses that slowly abate to allow the briefest of light to enter, and`Fur Die Katz's alien-like twitches and scratchy distortion close the first side, a piece that could have easily found a home on Tangerine Dream's proto-dark ambient `Zeit'.

The suffocating `Live In Der Fabrik' on the flip side is a cavernous environment of chugging machine oscillations feverishly ripped apart by delirious electronic ripples, and the growing menace of `Georgel's sombre droning organ with the lightest of crystalline airy wisps flitting about could have easily worked its way out of the spacey improvised section of Pink Floyd's `A Saucerful of Secrets' and `Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' live performances from the late Sixties. Closer `Nabitte' wraps the disc on smiles and sunshine...no, wait, make that mucky clanging nightmares of brooding jagged piano and groaning eerie voices makes for deeply unpleasant stuff, pretty much the perfect soundtrack to the seediest snuff tape.

`Cluster II' really gets under the skin with grubby fingernails, making for supremely uneasy listening but also one that remains wickedly addictive and completely consuming, laced beginning to end with that dirty sense of danger that permeates all the most satisfying Krautrock works.

Four stars.

1974 was definitely an important year in the history of development of electronic music. Alongside with KRAFTWERK's "Authobahn" and TANGERINE DREAM's "Phaedra", CLUSTER's "Zuckerzeit" is the last piece of the Holy Trinity of 70's electronica. Much more accessible than the freaked-out experimental long krautjams from their two first opuses and completely different from other synthesized suites of the same time period, the compositions of this third album are short titles, less improvised and more structured, with a greater usage of electronics and sound effects. Why is this disc so particular?

Whereas the men-machine of Düsseldorf will become the godfathers of electro/synth-pop, whereas TD's extended hypnotic meditative soundscapes announce the techno/trance of the 90's, Roedelius and Moebius explore another path, populated with little electronic creatures living on their own in an ethereal and out-of-time place. The approach goes a little further than other bands and foreshadows 90's electronica, more precisely the so-called "IDM", such as APHEX TWIN and early AUTECHRE. Even more ahead of its time than their fellow countrymen, this minimalistic post-electronic music succeeds at emancipating from its krautrock roots and Moog brothers by proposing very futuristic and modern tracks, seeming to come from another world (and another decade too). Furthermore, the beats are also quite unusual and inventive for the 70's, 15 years before the second electronic revolution. Incredible!

Curiously, the two musicians have not collaborated for this record. They composed five titles each, their styles being entirely opposite. Hans-Joachim Roedelius' compositions are the white sugar cubes, spacey, relaxing and accessible, whereas Dieter Moebius' are the brown sugar cubes, darker, more disturbed and aggressive. The contrast is thrilling. As a result, the listener is constantly switching between ambiances, alternating peaceful and rockier passages.

This approach and opposition will also be present one year later in another important "eleckraut" album of the decade, "Neu!75", with Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger. Interesting when you know Rother is the third member of HARMONIA alongside with the CLUSTER duo, as well as "Zuckerzeit"'s coproducer.

More calm and spacey, Roedelius' tracks are my favorite. The mesmerizing drops of "Hollywood" will make you directly travel through the stars. This title has certainly influenced APHEX TWIN in his youth. Magnificent! The soothing crystalline "Rosa" is rather contemplative, nearly melancholic, like a delicate pocket universe. "Fotschi Tong" and "Marzipan" are peaceful and playful Asian passages, while the finale "Heiße Lippen" is just sublime, in the style of "NEU!'75", a genuine open window on the future to come... Voluptuous and magic, needless to say more...

Moebius' compositions are also rather good but more demanding and uneven. "Caramel" is somber, repetitive, and possesses a really modern beat. Only track to exceed 5 minutes, "Rote Riki" sounds like a ramshackle old computer out of control. Dissonant, a bit too long, nonetheless futuristic. However, the title the most ahead of its time may be "Caramba". Despite its threatening krautrock background... was this pre-techno music really recorded in the 70's? In contrast, the intruder of this record is the guitar-driven "James". With its bizarre introduction, this slowed down krautblues reminds a little NEU!'s "Super 16". "Rotor" is my least favorite passage of the album, quickly becoming irritating. Fortunately, this is also the shortest.

With "Zuckerzeit", CLUSTER definitely opens a new musical universe up. The German duo can be considered as the APHEX TWINs of the 70's. As for the English autodidact, their titles are little independent synthetic creatures, living and growing on their own, exhibiting two opposite faces: the light side, relaxing, ethereal and dreamy, and the dark side, disturbing, like a mad machine. Although overshadowed by their electronic brothers, this groundbreaking third opus is highly influential and truly visionary for the 70's, going beyond krautrock and Berlin School, with beats and arrangements unheard before.

Both vintage and incredibly modern, both imperfect and breathtaking, "Zuckerzeit" is a milestone, simply essential for anyone interested in the history of electronic music, as well as for fans or 90's electronica, such APHEX TWIN and AUTECHRE.

Setting aside the great introduction 'Cluster' sound so lacklustre at this late period in their discography. Almost as though they've been anesthetized for the rest of the album. It's like listening to Zombie's attempting to replicate Mozart. Slow, plodding yet somewhat chilling if played at high volume 'Curiosum' was the right time for the duo to have a lengthy hiatus.

Melodies come and go like like petals in the wind. Unstable throbbing wobbly sounds bleep and burp. It's a lot better than their previous recording 'Grosses Wasser' as it has far more diversity in sound. Bendy, broken, discordant keyboards is the one thing I'll always remember from this.

The album gets odder the the longer it goes on. At times it almost feels like you're drowning, listening to lullabies sung by dolphins as they swoop up to your face to see if you're alright.

I don't think any of this recording was scored. It sounds like an improvisation. It's too erratic, with too little cohesion and only the unsettling vibe on certain tunes gets this a positive score.

By most accounts 'Manchmal' is the most respected track on the album, but to me it just sounds like a Nursery Rhyme from baby school.

I guess comparisons could be made with 'Asmus Tietchens' early recordings, but this doesn't have the 'Psycho Killer Clown' approach that he offered. The cover sleeve is also very 'Tietchens'. I could be cruel and say that they spent as much time and effort on the sleeve as they did in the music, but that wouldn't be very nice would it?

A lot of the sounds are very dated, particularly the electronic string segments. The liner notes tell me that this was recorded using a super-duper highly expensive synthesizer. Surely I've stuck the wrong album on?

It's all very telling then, that their first two recordings from '71 and '72 sound far more relevant and timeless than 'Grosses Wasser', despite being recorded seven years later

Nothing new is introduced in the Cluster canon and the Peter Baumann (of Tangerine Dream) production sounds all too obvious on the first half of the recording.

Things improve a bit on the 18 minute title track with tom-tom drums and percussion taking centre stage for a large slab of the duration. Strange little fragments of electronica pitter patter throughout before an acoustic piano sees out the conclusion in a sort of limp manner.

This is Cluster on autopilot.

This duo actually began under the moniker Kluster which included Conrad Schnitzler as the third member. The group was short-lived releasing only 2 studio albums and 1 live in 1970-71. Schnitzler would go on to have a prolific solo career but was also involved in all of the following: Berlin Express, Con-Hertz, Eruption, Feedback, Conrad Schnitzler & Bjørn Hatterud, CS & Wolf Sequenza and even Tangerine Dream. That left the duo of Moebius (also in Cosmic Couriers, Harmonia, Liliental, Moebius & Plank, Space Explosion, Project Undark) and Hans-Joachim Roeelius (also in Aquarello, A.R.S.(e), Harmonia, Human Being, Lunz and the continuation of this group Qluster). This debut album also includes a third member Konrad Plank on electronics, effects and also as a producer. He would go on many projects including Can, Eno, Eurythmics, Neu! and even the Scorpions and more.

This is very strange abstract music. Personally i feel like i've entered the quantum world when i listen to this. I feel like a little stray electron that has been displaced from its parent atom and am traveling through into the extreme microscopic in a place where space and time have totally different properties. In a way, what comes to mind is that i feel like i am a tiny particle bombarded through the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland and my experience is meeting my fellow inhabitants of the quantum world and the musical equivalent of their frequencies and universal vibrations. While there is a basic drone ambience that is in play for most of this sonic experience, the different sounds that accompany this make me feel like i'm saying "hey there" lepton, "wassup z boson?" and "how's it goin', quark?" While listening to this it makes you wonder how in the world did they achieve these sounds in 1971.

This was a clear evolution from the proto-industrial sounds of Kluster. These sounds were not created on keyboards. They utilized the sounds of organs, Hawaiian guitar, cello and used audio generators as well played by Moebius and Roedelius and then the final ingredient was Conrad Plank electronic manipulation to tweak and distort the sounds to create the bizarre sonic worlds that they achieved. Truly light years ahead of the competition in the trippiness department. CLUSTER was taking music freaks into strange new worlds that could never have been foreseen a mere ten years earlier before even The Beatles made a dent into the musical world displaying just how far music had evolved in an ever so short period of history. Blows my mind. I personally find this to be my favorite CLUSTER album. This is uncompromising in every way.

Released around the same time as 'Kraftwerk's ' 'Autobahn' this stands up as being every bit as good if not better due to the undiluted electronic manner in which it's constructed. You won't find any flutes here folks. What you will discover is a fairly dominant 'rhythm box' which by serendipity fits perfectly with the electronic keyboards utilised throughout. It may remind listeners of Eno's early recordings - in particular 'Another Green World' which appears to use the same keyboards.

There's a degree of elegance in which Roedulius and Moebius construct this recording where they clearly don't give a hoot as to how it will be received. It's all very 'of the moment' and despite being far more tuneful than all previous releases, maintains a current of slight underlying threat. I'm sure Bowie took a lot of this on board his drug addled mind before fleeing to Berlin in '76 where he pulled together two of his best works.

The fact that the tunes are all quite short may lead you to the conclusion that this is, in fact , proto-synthpop. And you'd be right... There's no doubt that the form and structure of this album influenced many artists. The 4-4 western drum beat that 'Neu!' continually performed is -used frequently here too but without an actual drum kit, instead going for an all out electronic approach. This is a smashing little record who's name - 'Zuckerzeit' - fits perfectly after the apocalyptic first two recordings from '71 and '72 - which I have to admit to having a deeper affiliation to.