THE COSMIC JOKERS

I won't forget the day I got "Galactic Supermarket", I was just completely amazed! It comes to prove that you shouldn't always listen to Klaus Schulze's opinions, specifically in his regards to the "Cosmic Jokers" sessions (which he deemed "cosmic shit"). Schulze had always despised these albums and wished every last copy was destroyed, buried and forgotten. Yes, it's true, none of the musicians received any royalties. Yes it's true that Rolf Ulrich Kaiser (head of Kosmische Musik, formerly Ohr) was driven out of Germany thanks to the lawsuits he rightfully deserved. And the music of the "Cosmic Jokers" were just amazing, and I would be glad to have music like this, if I knew the album was to be released and would be receiving royalties for it. Of course I'm glad to know there's more where "Galactic Supermarket" came from, like this self-entitled offering, which was the first in the series.

The lineup here includes some of the best names in the Krautrock movement in the early '70s: Manuel Göttsching (ASH RA TEMPEL), Klaus Schulze (ASH RA TEMPEL, TANGERINE DREAM, his famous solo electronic albums), Harald Großkopf (WALLENSTEIN, Schulze), Jürgen Dollase (WALLENSTEIN), and Dieter Dierks (studio engineer and producer for many acts). To me, this first COSMIC JOKERS offering might be a bit more difficult to get in to than "Galactic Supermarket", but this album is stuffed with a lot of the great spacy guitar and keyboards that I love of this kind of music. "Galactic Joke" is much more guitar oriented, letting Göttsching shine on his guitar. The keyboards don't play much of a role here, so you won't get to hear much of Schulze. "Cosmic Joy" is Schulze's time to shine, so you get plenty of great organ and synth work that's much in the vein of the albums he were doing at the time (Cyborg, Blackdance). Throughout the album there is a ton of phasing, which I pretty much think was an afterthought, once the album had a chance to get mixed after the recording was done. Another great album to have if you enjoy ASH RA TEMPEL or early Schulze.

My rating: 4 1/2 stars