VA - Kraut Mask Replica: Krautrock Rarities '68 to '74

This compilation was intended for release in 2004 as the 5th edition of a CD-series dealing with rare and unreleased Krautrock rarites, which started with Kraut! Demons! Kraut! and went on with Hungry Krauts Daddy, Obscured By Krauts and Kraut-Bloody-Rageous. The number five dive into the abyss of the bottomless kaut barrel never saw the light of day due to a broken down market for specialist records in small editons, or, let's face it, a broken down music market all together. Which is fine with me. The stubborn and predictable way the majors committed suicide was a sight to see, and the crocodile tears they shed about being killed by the net are as funny as hypocrites can get. Trouble is: a couple of very fine small labels and mailorders died a silent death too. But after all, the whole idea about musical archeology is sharing the results with the rest of the like-minded, so here we go and give it all away for free. (By the way: the "Kraut Mask Replica"-pun was coined before a very recommendable blog nicked it.)

Werner Pirchner is an underrated experimental Jazz musician from Austria, who started his recording career in 72 with this weird collection of all things unexpected called "Ein halbes Doppelalbum" (Half  A Double Album) on Austro Mechana. 

Freedom's sole 7" was released late in 69 on the tiny Topmaster label. Their amateurish charm is irresitible. No relation to the better known British band of the same name, of course, and none such as well to the German group who released the "Swinging Prayers"-LP at about the same time. You'll find the the other side of the single on Prae-Kraut 15. 

Another incredible find is the 45 by Asphalt on the totally obscure Modern Music label ("eine Orchidee-Musikproduktion") from 71. On the flip there's part 2 of the same song, which doesn't sound much different. 

The next one hit us unprepared and floored us immediately. A 45 on Flöte Schallplatten called "Abendlied"  (Evening Song) by a band named Die Leute (The common people) from 74 doesn't sound much like an unsung Kraut nugget at first sight. But as soon as the needle drops... Wow! Sheer mayhem!! Sound quality is a bit at the edge, but the vinyl looks reasonably clean, so that the distortion factor may be intended. They obviously sing in German, although I'm unable to tell you what. Dieter Bistrup, Marcel Bartolein, Siggi Reuter and Georg Anhalt came from Bonn. 

Orange Rocks most probably didn't live very far away, and their only known 7" on the collectable New Blood label was reportedly released as late as 77. Listening to it, you'd bet that sounds like that can't have been produced later than 74. And you might be right, as a couple of New Blood's records have been recorded long before the were released. 

Definitely 74 is the only single by The Prisoners from the Stuttgart region on another famous independent label: Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg. Their Hard Rock assault is an aquired taste, and if they'd been skilled like they thought they were, this might have been a typically tedious example of the genre. Thank God, they can't play! 

Same town, same label, a year later: Argo and their only known single sound like Germany's answer to The Trees, even if the Folk Rock-factor is reduced to the girl vocalist's strenght. Immaculate, so to speak...

The flip of Mother Sunday's 45 on Moon Records (71) has already been exposed on "Obscured By Krauts". Both sides are top-notch Kraut classics, although the band most likely was of Swiss origin. 

Excalibur were a trio from Hamburg and represented the typical Hamburg school of Hard Rock (i.e. trying to sound as British as possible) on their "First Album"(72) on Reprise, which as well was their last. While they've always been a bit better than most of the competitors, and had some support from various members of the Rattles, they never really made it commercially, and called it a day soon after. Their last sign of life were 3 non-LP tracks on a rare sampler called "Hell's Angels Rock", released on Jaguar Rec., and produced by Rugy Rugenstein in 74. "Danger Zone" is one of these.  

Nothing is known about Dynamo and their single on Deutsche Vogue (70). The label used to release a lot of one-offs between 65 and 73 by unknown artists that later turned out to be of  non-teutonic origin, and Dynamo may or not be one of them. But this record hasn't been released in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, so until someone proves us wrong, we'll file it under Kraut. 

The Heart probably were an Austrian band, as their LSP label was based there. A marvellous over-ambitioned amateurish single by a band with a message from 70. 

Lyrically less intellectual is the flip of "Birthday" (see "Obscured By Krauts") by Lony & The Misfits LTD from Dillenburg on Gaston Boutique. (70). Actually "Make Me Love" is pure machismo, and girl singer Lony for obvious reasons apparently refused to appear on this side at all. Blues Rock usually isn't our cup of Hofbraeu, but done like this: Down the hatch and gimme more! 

Proud Flesh from the Cologne-Bonn region (Bad Godesberg, if my memory serves me.) are best remembered for 2 singles on Resono. (See "Obscured..." for "Devil Flight".) In 71 they recorded a third 45 for the label, which never was released. "All In Vain" was the intended b-side. 

Krefeld's Trash and their sole single on Bi-Spar Rec. (72) has already been featured on "Kraut! Demons! Kraut". Here's the even weirder flip. 

After the occupation of Austria and Switzerland for the Kraut Cosmos, we'll take a little excursion to a tiny German speaking country called Luxembourg. (Well, actually they're bilangual and prefer to be seen as the better part of France, but who cares...) Cool Feet seem to be the only Luxembourgian band from the era written in vinyl. Their horrendously rare album "Burning Desire" was pressed in Germany by Pallas in 76, but a year earlier they had two equally scarce singles on Luxembourg Sound Records. "Mister" is one of them. 

Ludwigsburg, suburb of Stuttgart, is the home of The Shatters, a band that played at the Hamburg Star Club in 64 (billed as The Shutters), and still is active in our region after 45 years on stage. (Meanwhile split in the Original and the New Shatters, and with hardly a founder member left, but staying power nontheless.) They've never been accused of being underground, psychedelic or anything else related to decent music. In fact, they were specialised in covering the Top-20 material the usual crowd would expect from a moderate beat band in those days, with a little Soul thrown in for good measure. Strange enough, the only vinyl output during their heyday was this 45 on Philips, a more than untypical trip to heavy prog territories. 

The recorded work of Stuttgart's Exmagma - including the initially unreleased third album -  is (or at least has been) available on CD on Daily Records for a while. "Jam Jar" is a track they never recorded in the studio. It was taped live in France 74, and it gathered dust in the private tape collection (well, rather a dustbin full of reels) of Andy Goldner, who handed it down to us these days. 

T.A.C. (Team for audio-visual communication) was chosen as the name for a project that combined a film crew with a musicgroup in order to produce a series of commercials and an image campaign for Beiersdorf, a company specialised in cosmetics. (Nivea etc.) The band was Baden-Baden's Fashion Prick, who at about that time (71) had shrinked the Prick to Pink, and changed the name to Brainstorm in 72, when they recorded their first official album. The T.A.C. LP was never intended for  commercial release, and only a handful were pressed to impress the white collars at Beiersdorf, which makes it one of the toughest to find Kraut rarities. Musically we're talking about brilliant instrumentals, which all are variations of more or less the same basic theme with a very different approach each time. Our chosen example isn't necessarily the best, but the longest track on the record. 

None of these comps would be complete without a rare or unreleased Can track. This one is from 68 and was recorded during one of the sessions that made up the "Delay 68" album, but wasn't included there or anywhere else yet. 

Nothing is known about Holger Muenzer, except his two singles on Intercord. Both were released in 73, and both had a dreadful singer/songwriter a-side (actually we're talking about schlagers here), and a quite interesting flip. Intercord was a label from Stuttgart. 

One of the most mysterious albums of all time is The Nomadia's "Range Of Vision" LP. It was recorded between 69 and 71 in Austria, and privately released there in such small quantities, that we didn't believe in its existence until we found a cover-reproduction of the original on the net. Slightly more common, but still near impossible to find, is an Austrian re-release on Toadstool with a different cover from 77, but even there no-one seemed to know anything about who or what The Nomadia was. The album has two long tracks, one called "The Marihuana Side", the other "The Acid Side", which might as well be called acoustic and electric sides. Totally weird stuff that defies descripton, obviously puzzled together from hours of taped sessions, but a hell of a listening experience throughout. 

Equally obscure is an LP by Heinz Funk, which seemingly only exists in form of a couple of test pressings without covers. (Chappell Records, 76) A two-sided affair again, but this time the a-side is filled with cheesy synthesizer dance tunes and not so funny versions of contemporary hits. Turn it over and you'll find a different universe. Most tracks are space related or cosmic, at least by their titles, and all are very pleasant, if admittedly a bit naive and too short to create the intended atmosphere. An express mail cosmic courier, that guy....  (spurensicherung)

This compilation was never released on vinyl or cd!