Album title: Ash Ra Tempel
Artist: Ash Ra Tempel
Nationality: German
Label: Ohr
Chronology: Debut
Grade: A
Tracklisting: Amboss/ Traummaschine
Comments: And back to Krautrock we go. This one has only two tracks, but one is nearly twenty minutes and the other over twenty-five. Very interestingly, I see there’s no place for keyboards here, though something called “electronics” is used; could be a very early version of things like sound processors and Fairlights? I see vocals too, though I had expected this would be all instrumental, but as I did expect it’s quite ambient - at the beginning anyway - and takes some time to even rise to the level of audibility. Kind of a drone when it gets going? Very spacey, very atmospheric, possibly building to something. Think I hear guitar now for the first time and we’re about six minutes in to “Amboss”. Impressive stuff.
Percussion also coming up more forcefully now; I guess the opening section was that electronics thing they were referring to. I must admit, as much as I feared/did not look forward to listening to this genre, I’m quite enjoying this. Wonder if I should give Sleep another shot at some point? Sounds almost like some sort of animal noise, like monkeys or birds or something, then it all but stops and comes up on a warbly - well I would have said keyboard line but there appear not to be any so I guess it’s electronics - and then wavering guitar rising and falling with absolutely no percussion at all. Now the percussion comes back in and it’s mostly guitar accompanying it as it heads into the sixteenth minute.
Track two, “Traummaschine” (which I’m informed means “dream machine”) is more ethereal, with so far not any guitar (or none I can hear) and a very sort of celestial sound, like something out of a documentary on space maybe. Good interplay between the percussion and the guitar later, with the electronics holding court over everything.
Favourite track(s): Well there were only two and I liked both
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: Again, much more pleasant than I had expected. Perhaps I will be able to get into this Krautrock thing. It does seem to have been an early version of post-rock merged with ambient music.
Personal Rating: 4.5
Legacy Rating: 4.0
Final Rating: 4.25