ASH RA TEMPEL

Sometimes I'm in the mood for a nice big slab of epic psychedelic jamming. Usually when that's the case, I know exactly which album to come to - Manuel Göttsching on guitar and electronics? Epic. Klaus Schulze on drums and electronics? Just as epic. Hartmut Enke on bass? Well, I don't know him quite as well, but he holds down the bass well. With their powers combined, we have the debut album from Ash Ra Tempel - and what a beast it is!

Side one of the album belongs to the fiery epic which is Amboss. Göttsching really gets to let it rip here. The track is a builder. It starts off calm, but builds into an epic maelstrom of guitar, drums and bass. Once it's built up it really rips your face off (figuratively speaking, of course) until it's over. Krautrock and prog electronic artists really excel at the buildups like this. As far as the styles of the tracks on the album, this one is basically the polar opposite of the (equally) epic side two.

Traummaschine is more heavy on the electronics and atmosphere than Amboss was. Whereas Amboss was a storm of sound, Traummaschine feels like floating down a river of reverberation and electronic sounds, or a journey through space, or a mixture of the two. It's a very meditative track, and on occasion (maybe thanks to the percussion, or to the way the track builds) it makes me think of Indian classical music.

I've already mentioned the skills of the musicians on the album, but I feel as if Göttsching deserves another mention. The things he does with a guitar (on this album and in the future) are just out of this world. It's fitting that he plays such "kosmische Musik". Of course Schulze goes on to be better known as one of the pioneers and visionaries of the synth world, but I don't think that his drumming should be overlooked at all - he's got a lot of energy behind the kit. I feel bad leaving the bass out of my praises, but the focus of the album is clearly on the guitar (and to a lesser extent, the drums in my opinion).

This is a true gem of spacey, psychedelic jamming. With such a personnel list, I doubt anyone who hears about this album now and knows a bit about the German music scene at the time would expect any less though. I would say that this album is a pretty good introduction to the Krautrock scene - it gives the listener a good idea of the louder, "freak out" type of music AND the quieter, spacier meditative type of music. This one is another album deserving of the masterpiece rating from me.