Cluster II is the second full-length album by German electronic music outfit Cluster and their first album with the band reduced to a duo. Conny Plank, who was credited as a member on the first album, decided to concentrate on production and engineering. Plank is still credited as a composer together with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius on all tracks.Cluster II was recorded at Star-Studio in Hamburg, Germany in January, 1972. It was Cluster's first release for legendary Krautrock label Brain Records, a relationship which would last until 1975 and include the subsequent album Zuckerzeit as well as the first two Harmonia albums, a group which included both remaining members of Cluster and Michael Rother of Neu!.
Cluster II continued the transition away from the discordant, proto-industrial sound of Kluster towards a more electronic sound. It was the first album to feature relatively short tracks and it was the first album in which tracks were named.
*********************************
Review by philippe (at progarchives.com)
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
5 stars This album closes Moebius & Roedelius early radical experimentations in electronic, guitar/organ works. Compositions are always made of repetitive patterns, simple motifs, noisy and cerebral. However it features a better implication in term of "structures". The electronic exercises are shorter, more controlled. The album starts with a spheric music that surronds you, then it introduces a continuous organ line with perpetual static electronic "tones" and guitar's distortion. This tune van evokes the unit of perception. "Im Suden» used a hypnotic electronic bass pulse / guitar patterns to produce hallucinations inside your ears. Gradually it alternates the sound level of each part. Fascinating and visceral "Brain" music. "Fur Die Katz" combines modulating electric sounds with many electronic noises and effects in the background. The atmosphere obtained is very creepy, calibrated for a real discharge of intensity. "Live In Der Fabrik" is made of a repetitive, concentric, duplicated electric sound with a kind of abstract electric bass sound. Very industrial and chaotic. We can also hear modulating frequency harmonies, feedback in the performance space. "Georgel"is a haunted, dark organ work, irrevocably moving to a serie of changing, beating pitches. A sonic meditation, a pleasant cerebral massage. One of the most incredible, stimulating albums I've heard.
********************
Label: SPV/Universal (SPV 49492 CD)
Tracks Listing
1. Plas (6:16)
2. Im Suden (12:50)
3. Fur Die Katz (3:05)
4. Live In Der Fabrik (14:41)
5. Georgel (5:37)
6. Nabitte (2:40)
Total Time: 45:09
Musicians
- Dieter Moebius / electric organ, guitars, effects & electronics
- Hans-Joachim Roedelius / electronics
1 comment:
Thank you
Post a Comment