M.A.L. for Krautrock

M.A.L. is the pseudonym of Belgian musician Daniel Malempré (b. 1953), an undersung pioneer of tripped-out kosmische electric guitar from Charleroi. Taking influence from his big brother, nine-year-old Malempré began a life-long affair with the guitar, initially inspired by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones before becoming entranced with Pink Floyd, King Crimson and the krautrock movement. After meeting bassist Francis Pourcel in 1970 via high school, the two formed blues-rock ensemble SIC with some friends, covering Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple while also writing original material. The two later formed krautrock collective Kosmose in 1973 with keyboardist/flautist Alain Neffe, whom Malempré originally met at a SIC concert before their disbandment. Malempré departed Kosmose in 1975 to undergo Belgium's then-compulsory military service, later getting married and starting a family in its wake.

He returned to music in 1981, joining old friend Neffe (now the man behind the minimal/cold wave label Insane Music) for the short-lived band Subject. The early-to-mid 1980s saw Malempré make guest appearances on Neffe's other projects Bene Gesserit and Human Flesh while he launched his solo career (in which Neffe would often return the favour). As underground as they come, M.A.L. became "best known" for proggy minimal synth music, performed across numerous compilation tracks and four full-length cassettes, with two subsequent retrospective collections providing an overview of this period.

The turn of the century saw two new studio LPs, along with an archival compilation, The Song of the Stars, released on EE Tapes in 2002. The limited edition CDR featured pieces recorded between 1972 and 1976, simultaneous to his stay in Kosmose, which demonstrated his earlier, more experimental style based around a used 1964 Fender Stratocaster, a wah-wah pedal and a Sony TC630 tape recorder. Malempré declared to have pioneered the psychedelic multi-layered echo-guitar approach made popular by Manuel Göttsching's 1975 seminal Inventions for Electric Guitar - in fact, Malempré claimed to have sent demo tapes of his material to Virgin and legendary krautrock label Ohr (for which Göttsching was working at the time), and was ultimately rejected by the former, hearing only silence from the latter. Malempré was later notified Ohr declined, but only soon after the release of Göttsching's album. Malempré's thoughts about this were summed up best via the title of his inaugural 1981 compilation submission: "Manuel Ist Unehrlich."

In the wake of his retirement after over a quarter-century as a hospital toxicologist, Malempré was cajoled by Neffe and Belgian label Sub Rosa to curate even more lost tracks from M.A.L.'s pre-synth-pop period. The result was My Sixteen Little Planets, released to critical acclaim in 2018 and securing Malempré's name in the history books next to Günter Schickert, Michel Moulinie and Achim Reichel.

"My Sixteen Little Planets" (2012)

"The M.A.L. Tapes" (2011)