Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei (1969)

This one here is a Krautrock classic. It came out in 1969 at the same time that bands like Faust, Can, and Neu! were recording their first albums, and it has won a place between the genre's classics. 

Amon Düül II is a band created after lots of musicians met at the Art Commune for the post-war era Munich based artists, a place that during the late 60's and early 70's hold a big part of the new and experimental music scene. Is important to mention the existence of another band named Amon Düül I, formed by musicians of the same artistic commune that shared similarities with Amon Düül II and Amon Düül UK. These three bands had a big impact on what later would be the style and sound of the Krautrock genre.

Phallus Dei ("God's penis" in english) is an album mined with long instrumental parts, free improvisation, and strange vocal interpretations, showing the "instant composition" spirit of Krautrock. Compared to another early releases such as Neu! - s/t and Can - Monster Movie this album may seem a little bit more diverse and not so centered on the "rhytmic" aspect of the classic motorik drum beat and the extense and quick atmospheres preferred by those bands. The instrumentalization is also a little bit more complex, given that the artists use a wide array of instruments (mostly percusion kits) to create the arrangements for each song.

Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei Tracklist:

1. Kanaan – 4:02
2. Dem Guten, Schönen, Wahren – 6:12
3. Luzifer's Ghilom – 8:34
4. Henriette Krötenschwanz – 2:03
5. Phallus Dei – 20:48

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The Physics House Band - Horizon / Rapture (2013)

Horizon / Rapture is the debut album of the trio Physics House Band, an experimental/progresive band from England. In this instrumental work, the musicians play a mix of FX-heavy guitars riffs, catchy bass lines, and powerful drum kicks wich often leads the group. I also have to mention that both the guitar and bass players are in charge of playing the synths too, often forcing themselves to play each instrument with only one hand, which can be seen in the video footage of this album (highly recomended, too!)

This album's tracks will get the listener through a series of fast rhythm changes, unexpected melodic turns in every song, and beautifull synth arrangements, setting a particular, clear and defined style all through only six tracks. All in all, a great release (even more for a debut album), that got me hooked up as soon as I listened it. I advise that people into experimental and prog rock give this a listen, since I'm sure almost noone will regret it.

The Physics House Band - Horizon / Rapture Tracklist:

1. ObeliskMonolith - 05:12
2. Abraxical Solapse - 04:19
3. Hollow Mountain - 03:47
4. Teratology - 06:25
5. The Spectral Beyond - 01:32
6. Titan - 03:06

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Electronic Music History I: Luigi Russolo and the futurist movement

I will try to make an electronic music history. For what I know, I can go back to 1913, when the futurist composer Luigi Russolo was performing with his intonarumori in Italy. Luigi Russolo is an interesting music composer having in mind the fact that he was breaking with the classical aesthetics at the same time that Schoenberg was creating his dodecafonic system.

The influence of Russolo in experimental music is huge: his intonarumori can be consider the precesor of any synth of this time, and his ideas started a force that strike people from all arround the world in different times: in France, as in Japan and Egypt too, musique concrete emerged in the 50`s and during the 60`s, in his bitrthland, Luciano Berio experimented with tape machines producing noise in his symphonies.Thirty years later the noise artist, Merzbow were releasing his first tapes albums.  But that force can be recognize in many artist of this time to: Nils Frahm, for example, use tapes machines with his grand piano.

Russolo's music its full of rough atmospheres and noises without any kind of tune, melody or rhythm; sometimes a few instruments appears trying to recalling those concepts but with some intonarumori interferences.

That being said, a compilation of Russolo made in 2000 and a compilation from various futurist artist can be downloaded below. Sorry about the bad quality but I couldnt find anything better.

Luigi Russolo - Die Kunst Der Geräusche (2000)

V.A. - Futurist Music - The Art of Noises 1909-1935

Brian Eno - Ambient 4 On Land (1982)

This one caught my attention the last couple of days: the 4th volume from the Brian Eno's "Ambient" works. The presence of more drone-like, dynamic songs; instead of the tranquil & repetitive melodies of previous works, such as "Discreet Music" and "Ambient 1: Music for Airports", makes this in my opinion the most outstanding work from the series.

Even though the overall sound of the album changes (from previous ones), there's still a lot of elements and characteristics of his early work. Most tracks might be more drone-ish,  but at the same time they preserve the mellow soundscape and the relaxed atmospheres that made some of his older albums classics of the genre.

Brian Eno - Ambient 4 Tracklist:

1. Lizard Point – 4:34
2. The Lost Day – 9:13
3. Tal Coat – 5:30
4. Shadow – 3:00
5. Lantern Marsh – 5:33
6. Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) – 5:23
7. A Clearing – 4:09
8. Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960 – 7:13

DOWNLOAD HERE