MOEBIUS & PLANK: RASTAKRAUT PASTA

Here's another slice of cultural nonconformity from an enduring musical tradition (Krautrock) that always manages to sidestep easy classification, This was the first of several overlooked albums made by Dieter Moebius and Conny Plank, the former a founding member of the celebrated techno-ambient team of CLUSTER (he was the one responsible for the odder noises generated by that band), and the latter a legendary producer who, perhaps more than any single person, was responsible for putting German music on the map.

Add the sonic wild-card of kindred spirit/guest bassist (and ex-CAN guru) HOLGER CZUKAY, and the sum is an unpredictable package of (mostly) instrumental weirdness, with a lyrical title that all but itemizes the various influences brought to the studio.

It's not a very long album, but there's a lot happening in its brief 35-minutes. The mock electro-reggae of the title track and "Missi Cacadou" (complete with silly vocoder interjections and saxophone farts) is only the tip of a very wide iceberg. Elsewhere there's the industrial/tribal stomp of "News" (driving a cacophony of pirated broadcast chatter), and later the hypnotic, throbbing over-amped guitars of the aptly titled "Feedback 66".

The flipside of the original vinyl has a more easygoing disposition, moving from the dreamlike ambient space-jazz of "Solar Plexus" (backwards voices, assorted noises, and an electric piano wired through what sounds like every flanger in Cologne, where Plank had his celebrated studio), to the sunny rhythm-boxed groove of "Two Oldtimers". With a lilting melody played on (acoustic) guitars and piano, this track (at 7-minutes the longest on the album) suggests a glimpse of what the men-machines of KRAFTWERK could have sounded like, minus all their trendy cybernetics.

This album and its likewise recommended 1981 sequel "Material" were later re-packaged together onto a single CD: a near-indispensable bargain for anyone with an ear for odd music, especially coming out of Germany in the late 1970s. Krautrock was always more an attitude than a style, and in the hands of these two pioneers it never sounded more playful or creative.