Music Banter - View Single Post - Human Being - Live at the Zodiak-Berlin 1968 [SAA Album Club discussion thread]
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Old 04-26-2011, 08:19 PM   #3 (permalink)
clutnuckle
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As an eater-upper of drone, and a worshiper of several well-known Krautrock bands, I can't tell you how immediately I downloaded this album when I found out it existed. It must have taken 0.02 seconds to type in 'what.cd', another 0.03 seconds to type in 'Human Being', and another 0.3 seconds to download the correct torrent. Then wait an hour because my torrent connection is TERRIBLE... But still, the heart was there. I had huge expectations. This is, even if I hate it, a historical recording.

But yeah, it's really good once you get passed all of those irrational expectations. Several musicians involved were in fact 'non-musicians', and I really don't feel it's fair to assess what they're doing relative to what Can, Faust, Neu! or any of the several big names of Krautrock did later on. This precursor doesn't want to do that. It lays out the maps for several bands in a way, but it doesn't openly admit to any of them. It's very ambiguous, and I never for a minute felt like it was attached to any particular Krautrock band (aside from early Cluster, but I'd only say that's because one of the members was in fact involved in this). It's a sketch of how things would be done later on, but it's a very vague sketch, something that anybody could listen to and build off in any particular way.

In a lot of ways, it's an inspiring and heartwarming listen. I really enjoyed it.
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