Cluster - Zuckerzeit
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CD Details
Artist: ClusterEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-07-17
Music Label: Revisited / Brain Records
Soundtracks:
- Hollywood
- Caramel
- Rote Riki
- Rosa
- Caramba
- Fotschi Tong
- James
- Marzipan
- Rotor
- Heisse Lippen
Music reviews of Zuckerzeit
Music Review: 3.5 Stars... engaging at times but not enough so
Rating: 4 Stars
First things first: I recently saw the instructive "Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution" DVD documentary, and in it a bunch of Germany's so-called "Krautrock" scene is discussed, including of course Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Neu!, Can, etc, but also a number of bands with whom I was less familiar, or not familiar at all. Kluster (later renamed to Cluster) is one of those bands, so I started reading up a bit on these guys, and ordered this CD.
"Zuckerzeit" (1974; 10 tracks, 38 min.) is somewhat of a curiosity. Band members Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius were at a crosspoint in their career, and for this album rather than the full-blown space rock one might suspect, Roedelius and Moebius each contributed 5 racks, ranging from 2 to 6 min. Moebius seems to be the pushing the band into a further experimental direction, check out "Rote Riki", by far the longest of the tracks here, and also the most abstract piece. I love it. Roedilius' pieces remind me more of the latter days of Tangerine Dream, almost new age-like. Check for example "Rosa" and "Hollywood". Not bad, but not terribly engaging or demanding either. His "Fotchi Tong" and Marzipan" tracks are much better, though.
In all, this is not a bad album, but not a great one either. I will be exploring more of the Cluster albums in the near future, in particular and can't wait to see where that will lead me, but I've got "Cluster II" and the Eno-collaborations on my radar screen already.
Description of Zuckerzeit
The most important and consistently underrated space-rock unit of the '70s, Cluster (originally Kluster) was formed by Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler as an improv group that used everything from synthesizers to alarm clocks and kitchen utensils in their performances. Continuing on as a duo, Moebius and Roedelius eventually recorded many landmark LPs - separately, as a duo, and with all manner of guest artists from Brian Eno to Conny Plank to Neu!'s Michael Rother - in the field of German space music, often termed kosmische. Cluster also continued to explore ambient music into the '90s, long after their contemporaries had drifted into tamer new age music or ceased recording altogether.Zuckerzeit (Sugar Time) is a well titled release; after the stark and (at times) testing Cluster II, this is an altogether sweeter affair. The music here is much denser, with more colour and a much greater degree of poppiness, all lending the album a pleasingly light and upbeat feel. One very obvious difference to Cluster II is the extensive use of drum machines, meaning that where tracks had previously consisted of layers of synthesizer noise, they now have a definite rhythm, seeming to free the melodic side of the band. Actually, Zuckerzeit is an album put together by two separate artists operating under a collective title, with Moebius and Roedelius each contributing five tracks and while this kind of behaviour rarely produces a unified outcome, here the album holds together nicely. Although Cluster are less well known than the likes of Kraftwerk, this material deserves to be considered as being as influential and important in the development of electronic music. This is powerful and creative music and for anyone looking to venture into the less Rock side of Krautrock, or into groundbreaking electronic music, it s a very fine place to start.
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