"The albums Tone Float (as Organisation), Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2, and Ralf und Florian—all co-produced by Conny Plank—represent some of the most adventurous free rock and exploratory electronic recordings ever cut."

They are indeed fine albums - but the tone of this statement indicates you really need to get out more. You might start with the about, oh, 25 or so essential albums from that same period, in the same country.

PS. Around the 40 second mark of "Kristallo" from Ralf And Florian - the birth of "techno" as we now know it. Unless someone has a better nomination.

"Their early sound reminds me a bit of Spaceman 3 with more electronic adventurism."

Mmmmmm. Yeah. And I was just thinking the other day how the early 70's Stones remind me a lot of mid 90s Primal Scream with more.....um, you know, more.

All is lost. Please Mr. Sun, explode, soon.

@14 - "Bring it"? Bad start.

I would begin by taking issue with referring to the first two albums (and the Organisation) as necessarily "electronic", particularly the second one.

So let's see off the top of your head what five recordings from the same period you would give equal, or similar stature to?

And this is always a telling sign - at what point do you consider TD to no longer be of use?

@16 - It's more teeth-gnashing frustation than anger. That's just how I roll.

Re the link - only time to scan it briefly at the moment, but hooo boy - that's just gonna open whole 'nother can of frustrated worms. MUSIC is what matters. Not what format, not what genre it gets lumped into, not what "perceived wisdom" has to say about it. Music. Period. Each to his own, YMMV, etc etc, but anybody who works on the "music should only be heard on vinyl" theory, tells me with that sentence that the music itself is not really their overriding concern. It is, however, mine. Hence the occasional gnash.

One line I saw that caught my attention though, neatly tying us to this thread's subeject was Kraftwerk "stubbornly refusing to reissue" the early albums, to which I would say a) none of us REALLY know how or why Ralf (or Florian) feel like they do about them, so that's a bit of a leap to make, and b) it's not like they are, or ever have been, that unavailable to someone who wants them bad enough.

@17 (and to Dave) - Fine to your fine. A better way to have described my POV in response to your angry question may have been to say "you say angry, I say passionate". And in that regard, I have a feeling we still probably differ in some pretty crucial ways. But as I said - to each their own. Passion boils over at times.

After weeks and weeks of boring music posts we get this and the comments boil down to passion. Snobs ruin a good thing. Again.

@20 - Thanks for flipping me back to angry. Blow me.

I didn't say you said those exact words (and as I mentioned, I only had time to skim the article - am planning on reading it fully, and you do have my condolences for having to go through that shit storm) - but I got a whiff of that in there along with some other thing that made me sense a pretty wide gulf in overall outlook.

Similarly, with your list (and TD comment, which I was more less expecting), to which I can only say - let me roll back my initial, peevish "get out more comment" and simply replace it with "boy, do we work different corners of this universe" on this one. (And go a little earlier still with Cluster '71...)

Sorry, guy - as one who does not "crave the totems that announce to my visitors (and the world) that my taste is impeccable", all I can offer is my downloaded copy of that, which I realize doesn't compete with your vinyl, but hey - I try, ya know? ; )

Although I DO have an original Sudden Sway Spacemate box, with all of the goodies. Does this "announce" me better in your eyes? (Though of course, I ditched the vinyl ages ago once I downloaded that too.)

Bloop-

Sounds like you need to get out more.

I certainly need to find some new websites to browse for intelligent discourse, that's for damn sure.

Hey Bloop, I'm not as tactful or concerned with sucking my own dick. Go fuck yourself. I think that the Stranger is typically pretty flawed and that they are generally much more impressed with posting articles that, somehow, manage to boast about how much they don't know--"I'm not gonna lie, I don't really know anything about this... oh, geez." or, "My friend who knows about this stuff told me that it sounded kind of like ___" etc.--but to come on here and attack Dave Segal for not knowing anything about early 70s German experimental rock and kosmische Musik is ridiculously off base.

It's not very affective to approach a "conversation" as an antagonizing, pretentious asshole basing their own self worth on their own interpretation of historical significance; what does and does not constitute certain micro-genres; and rating systems, to try and accuse someone else of the same thing.

I only skimmed the article that you were linked to, as well, and the first things that I noticed were Dave mentioning how he lost 3 times as many CDs as vinyl and then going on to discuss the negative psychological implications of associating ones own identity with the things that they collect, enjoy, and connect themselves to. From every single angle, you look like a fucking clown.

So... I agree that you certainly do need to find some new websites to dump your worthless bullshit onto; although, I'm sure that you've already found plenty. But let's not kid ourselves; you didn't come here because something interested you, you showed up because you got the "signal" and thought there'd be an opportunity to commandeer a soapbox for yourself. And if you believe that I'm now the one gnashing my teeth, then you are correct sir. This type of pseudo-communication where people feel like they are injecting Pac-Man invincibility pills for their own egos, every time they type something that they feel is worth patting themselves on the back for--"Do you love me yet, papa?"--with their ocular cavities burning like a laptop monitor without a screensaver and their physical bodies withering away and caked in Dorito powder.... well, it's the disease of the age. But it's a fucking vile disease that's not dissimilar to Campylobacter enteritis, but of the soul and a hell of a lot more contagious.

Get over yourself dickhead. I'd suggest getting yourself a hobby, but you're better off getting rid of one.

That was very cute and foot stompy. But why are you wasting this shit in comments? With talent for garbage like that, you should be writing for this place, lol.

Everybody chill. I know when and where I'm not wanted. Or understood. So night night. Continue to enjoy your hipster navels. Somebody has to.

And not a single mention of the Radio Bremen recordings... great job!