HARMONIA

So here it goes.........I never considered Harmonia as a "guitar leaded" band. Their studio albums, by rule, never stick to the same option of styling, among so many choices of electronic gadgets usually found in studios and the ones each brought in. The best part of this "Live-1974" cd, is that you will never have noticed it is "live". No applauses, cheers, whistling nor stuff like that. The "live" music went directly to the tape.

The performance is constructed as a sole base. The songs, most of the time are intense in repetition, more than in creativity. The incessant drum box beats more than once overshadow, the frontal music. Now, talking straight, they have to rely constantly in the "human" nature of the electric guitar performance, which of course has always been an integral part in their "studio" albums, but never that much, as to become too much.

So, an outdated drum box sound, a somehow leadind guitar, which at times is not that creative, because it is holding the whole song alone, because the other two guys are busy, "live" controlling their synths, sequencers, drum boxes and other simmilar tools.

The song writing has its occasional awesome heights, the "drone" like "live" experience should have been amazing, but as recorded material or album as such, ***3.5 "I admire the band, but this is "universal" information" PA stars.

Musik Von basically sounds like Cluster, but a lot warmer and eclectic with a stronger element of poppy Kraftwerkian melody (somewhat comparable to Zuckerzeit). The krautrock-inspired strong motorik beat expected from Neu! (experts at this method) propels a good amount of these tracks.

With the longest track, "Sehr Kosmisch", being just over 10 minutes and along with "Ohrwurn" being the most experimental and drone-oriented on the album, Musik Von is very manageable for listeners looking for something retro and reasonably accessible and melodic in regard to krautrock-inspired electronic music.

The range of tempi on this album are surprisingly refreshing, ranging from rather fast and powerful to slow and sentimental, though always employing the typical '70s German electronic groove.

A lot of this album sounds a lot like the underrated Kraftwerk and Kraftwerk 2 albums but injected with a considerable amount of emotion while still remaining mostly robotic and cold. I think fans of Cluster and early Kraftwerk will find much to enjoy about Musik Von, but for those looking for something even more obviously rooted in krautrock then Harmonia's follow-up album may be more appropriate.

If you know those old electronic rhythm devices such as you´d find on old organs - that snuffle and chug like a puffing steam train, then look no further if you want to know how this sounds applied to music.

Harmonia was a German trio consisting of Michael Rother off legendary Krautrock band NEU! and the 2 electronic wizards from Cluster Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius. One could almost call this a super group, if these guys were better known to the world outside of Germany and the few Krautrock connoisseurs out there.

As the title suggests this record was cut in 1974, and luckily so because all 3 musicians here was at the very top of their game. None of these tracks feature anywhere else in their discography (at least to my knowledge), which means that you get 5 sparkling new tracks. On top of this, the sound quality of this release happens to be vibrant and warm, and by the flick of the switch - with eyes closed - ready for a mind movie, you´re transported back in time to this tasty and imaginative gig. This is serious headphone music, and it helps big time if you can picture the Penny Station in Griessen Germany filled with long haired freaks and folks sitting on their jackets smoking, drinking, tripping doing their very best to escape the earthly bounds of the floor.

All of these tracks sound improvised with blowing ambient synth landscapes that consistently prowls the airwaves like soft and delicate wolverines in flight. Together with Michael Rother´s spacey and lingering guitar work, the music takes on an effervescent characteristic, that makes the music soar and glide in and out of psychedelic terrains and electronic currents.

It is a boat ride just as much as it is a train journey, - a realistic musical adaptation of a trip through the swooping autobahn on a huge robotic vessel. The music is cradling and motorik laden, but still a long way from being gentle and sedate. It feels determined like a commercial ferry ploughing through the streets headed for its home harbour. Just like German engineering the rhythm boxes showers this release in a very conform coating, but that only ads to the mystery, as to why this album sounds so free.

If you enjoy your music psychedelic, chugging, minimalistic, improvised and hypnotic, then you could do worse than this fine record, which is a fine example of a journey well spent on your bottom. Your head on the other hand has been places, where objects move like echoing slow lightnings through the skies, and your senses feel heightened and crisp like a metaphysical conductor licking the rail road tracks in sheer exuberance.

Unhappily, result isn't so great, as could be expected. Harmonium changed direction from their earlier experimental works to more accessible, and Eno lyrics, vocals and some electronic ambient effects doesn't bring the magic to refresh the sound.

Album was recorded in 1976, but didn't released till 1997. Looking from now, it sounds simplistic and quite dated. For sure, Cluster and Eno ambient sound fan will easily find there many pleasant elements, but for not such involved listener this work is pleasant, but dated recording, more nostalgic reminder about mid 70-s electronic music, then really good music to listen today.

MUSIK VON HARMONIA sports a brash, bold, comic-book art drawing of a simple bottle of detergent with the bands name encased in a spiky yellow explosion of a speech bubble. The bubble is featured on the electric blue-coloured detergent bottle's lower half with the names of the musicians sit ting above the band motif in smaller, sparser letters whilst behind the central image strange, ornate flames flicker and loom in the darkness.

Is it a joke? An acerbic attack on the erosive cultural capabilities of bland pop? Or is it a serious statement regarding the disposable nature of modern music? Or maybe a mix of all the above? Whatever the meaning, the crisp, hypnotic electronic rhythms are immediate. The juxtaposition of a mundane household item and the strange, beautiful, emotive cosmic sounds of this three-piece is both jarring and yet utterly correct. The brave, bright colouring signals that, yes, this is a simple bottle of detergent, but inside there is something unexpected, something much complex and fascinating. The reference point is obviously Warhol in his more jocular, mainstream-courting moments, framing the mixture of the mundane with the extraordinary and the bizarre. The music itself is classic Krautrock. Electro-grooves, motorik drumming, tribal beats, fizzing keyboards, primitive technology and psychedelic sonic textures all rolled up into a blissful spaced-out mixture of instrumental avant-garde ambience.

From the fragile synth-backed groove of WATUSSI to the guitar-flecked, sun-dappled meditations of DINO, MUSIK VON HARMONIA ebbs and flows naturally and effortlessly, eschewing accepted musical structures for experimental new excursions into lengthy, ad- libbed electronic jams. Darker pieces, such as the ominous OHRWURM, maybe delve too deep into the distorted sound-of-electrics experiments once produced by innovative genre- mates CLUSTER ditching melodies in favour of a discordant brew of mysteriously archaic neo-futuristic soundscapes. But the overall feel of the album is both mellow and upbeat, with layers of keyboards and guitars adding a warm glow to proceedings. Unfortunately, despite the ornate beauty of their work, Harmonia's career was a sadly truncated one, with just three studio albums and one live effort making up their entire back catalogue. MUSIK VON HARMONIA is the pick of the bunch, its influences instantly identifiable in a whole host of latter-day pop, dance and rock records. DELUXE, although similar in style, is a less whimsical offering which drenches everything in a thick, glutinous array of dreamy synthesizers that dispenses with the bands darker, more experimental tendencies, thus rendering it in a more simplistic and less challenging light.

LIVE 1974, however, is a wonderful account of the bands live setup as well as a rare example of genuinely well-recorded live electronic Krautrock. It is here that the band stretch and meld many of the pieces featured on MUSIK VON HARMONIA and DELUXE into long, winding experimental epics that bathe the listener in a golden glow of strange, sensual electronic sounds. It is also here that we find Harmonia performing in prime condition, twisting original ideas into wonderful sonic textures and platforms; expressing new ideas without fearing the consequences, bringing forth exceptional music of the like that has rarely been attempted and conjuring up beautiful organic sounds from strange, electronic devices?Harmonia's career was brief, but, as time is beginning to tell, it was also singularly brilliant. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2009

The compositions on this album were more complex than they were on the debut yet there is this charm about this recording that can't be missed. "Deluxe (Immer Wieder)" is such a great track. It just sounds so good early on with those spacey sounds then we get sort of a mechanical sounding beat as vocals come in. Guitar sounds come and go. This is catchy until after 4 minutes when it settles right down. Vocals are back 8 minutes in after a long break. "Walky-Talky" is led by what sounds like percussion, drums and various electronics.

"Monza (Rauf Und Runter)" is spacey to open. It stops after 1 1/2 minutes then the guitar sound signals a change as a catchy beat with vocals comes in. This is fun. "Notre Dame" opens with organ sounds as a beat joins in. It settles before 1 1/2 minutes and turns spacey. Contrasts continue. "Gollum" sounds silly to open but the melancholic synths a minute in and later after 2 minutes are very good. "Kekse" sounds so simple for the first 4 1/2 minutes then it changes for the final minute to an experimental soundscape.

I do know people who rave about this release despite the poor ratings on this site, and I have to join in on their praise.