TONE FLOAT

Tone Float is the debut album of Organisation, a pioneering Kraut band around Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter who would continue as Kraftwerk after this sole Organisation release. The album doesn't betray any of their future electronic music but is a pure experimental Kraut album with massive amounts of percussion, psych organs, flutes and violin.

With half of its 20 minute length taken up by seemingly random percussion and sounds right out of free jazz, the opening piece is a challenging listen, but the way the tracks develops from its initial incoherence to an enchanting psychedelic groove is pure bliss. Milk Rock is a short groovy track wriggling its way through flute dissonance and percussive bass work. Silver Forest is more enigmatic, with slow solemn percussion and spacious and dissonant droning organs. Percussive chaos follows on Rhythm Salad. Noitasinagro is more relaxed, with a rhythm not unlike Floyd's Main Theme from More, but the organ and violins are far more experimental and avant-garde then Floyd's bluesy approach.

The CD bonus Vor Dem Blauen Rock is a live recording from May 1971, when Organisation had already ceased to be and the band was performing under the Kraftwerk banner, be it in a very peculiar and short-lived line-up with drums and guitar by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, who would both go on as Neu! With its insistent beat and noisy minimal guitars, the track actually sounds more Neu! Then Kraftwerk. An interesting Kraut curiosity at least.

A mandatory album if you want to explore the avant side of Krautrock, but to be approached with care by Kraut-virgins and avant-skeptics.