DEUTSCHE SCHULE !

Fancy late 70's Kraftwerk collaborating with Jan Garbarek, and trying out a slight approach towards early 70's krautrock. The result might be sounding a bit like this album.

Synth sounds and rhythms very much in the Kraftwerk vein, Saxophone soloing where other artists probably would have chosen guitar or keys, and moods and structures quite like classic krautrock.

If you can tolerate the sound of much saxophone playing on an otherwise very electronic album, and like what the classic krautrock bands were doing as well - check this release out asap. Not music for the masses, but a great release for the specially interested this one.

Of all the Robin Taylor albums I bought this was the one I was most looking forward to. I had purchased quite a few through Wayside Music because they had all of them on for 8 dollars each but this one was out of stock, so I ended up finding it somewhere else. This is the album where he plays tribute to Krautrock. Apparently Robin was influenced by KRAFTWERK, CLUSTER, NEU ! and more, so here he wears his influences on his sleeves you could say. In the liner notes it says he uses cheap toy keyboards and i'm not sure if that's a joke but I do not like how they sound.

"Misch Musch" has this rhythm and it gets fuller after a minute with those keyboard sounds. Sax after 2 1/2 minutes. It settles 4 minutes in with the drums standing out then it kicks back in. Not a fan of this one. "Eisenbahn Mit Sauerkraut" again has this rhythm but female vocal melodies join in this time. This is very light-weight. It's better when it turns darker but then it turns light again late. "Karl Splelt Klavier" is a top three for me as we get this melancholic vibe with female vocal expressions that come in before 2 minutes. Male processed vocals follow.

"Noch Ein Zahnartzt" has those cheap sounding keyboard sounds again that pulsate as it builds. Spoken words 2 1/2 minutes in.They stop and the sax comes in. "Neue Stimmen" is a top three. Organ and spacey winds as a beat builds. Those spacey winds remind me of early CLUSTER. This is great.Sax before 3 minutes. "Gesang Der Truben" has keys and a beat then female vocal melodies join in.Sax later. "Das Experiment" is my favourite. We get samples and atmosphere to start. It's building after 2 minutes then it kicks in with sax around 3 minutes. So good. Some insanity here then it settles some before kicking back in at 5 1/2 minutes. A calm with atmosphere 7 minutes in.

This really gets off on the wrong foot for me with those first two tracks but then there are a couple of more that i'm not fond of either. So three very good songs but not enough to offer up 4 stars in my world.

This album was inspired by Krautrock of the Seventies, especially bands like Can and Faust, and here Robin has been joined only by Karsten and drummer Rasmus Grosell. All of the song titles are in German to add to the fun, and the result is an album that manages to definitely bring in the Krautrock feel yet for the most part doesn't recreate the carnage of a live Can performance (for example) ? something which does somewhat surprise me given the way that Taylor's Free Universe approaches music. In fact, "Eisenbahn mit Sauerkraut" is quite pedestrian with only Karsten providing some levity.

However, I am quite aware that I haven't played a great deal of the genre (in fact I am only recently being educated in this regard), and I think that my general lack of enjoyment of this CD is down more to my own personal likes and dislikes as opposed to any issues with the music on offer. Looking through the net this release generally gains high praise so all I can suggest is that if the bands mentioned interest you then listen to some samples to make up your own mind.