The history of PROPAGANDA does not need retelling, but their acclaimed 1985 debut album ‘A Secret Wish’ released on ZTT and produced by Stephen J Lipson is regarded as something of a cult classic in industrial pop.
However, internal friction between the “ABBA in hell”line-up of Claudia Brücken, Ralf Dörper, Susanne Freytag and Michael Mertens led to PROPAGANDA imploding. Signing to Virgin Records, Mertens continued as PROPAGANDA with a new singer Betsi Miller as well as two former members of SIMPLE MINDS, Derek Forbes and Brian McGee, releasing the album ‘1234’ in 1990.
There was an aborted PROPAGANDA reunion in 1998 and that was that until Brücken and Freytag presented a variation on the theme and performed as xPROPAGANDA, before releasing a new album ‘The Heart Is Strange’ with Stephen J Lipson producing that updated the ZTT-era sound in 2022.
Now in 2024, with a record “conceived and accomplished in Düsseldorf” and a resistance to nostalgia, Dörper and Mertens have started a new chapter of PROPAGANDA with an eponymous title to signify a fresh start. The initial plan was to use guest vocalists for particular songs but the pair came across the silky soulful tones of young German singer-songwriter Thunder Bae.
Despite the techno-robotic introduction, ‘They Call Me Nocebo’ drifts into a steadfast electronic groove with Thunder Bae delivering an accessible vocal crossover over the atmospheric synth programming and sustained guitar inflections that conjoin to still provide an air of mystery.
With a smoky pop presence, ‘Purveyor Of Pleasure’ continues the laid back mood using understated percussive loops and smooth electronic bass while reworked from ‘1234’, ‘Vicious Circle’ brings in a pacier snap and shuffle, differing by moving away from the harder rigidness of its earlier incarnation which featured Susanne Freytag by moving into a modern slice of European sophistipop.
With a hypnotic rolling sequence, ‘Tipping Point’ raises the tempo but keeps the beats subtle on this ecological poem. But recalling “life in a glass cage” during lockdown, the husky ‘Distant’ brings stylistic connections to ‘Cloud 9’, the co-write by Martin Gore with Claudia Brücken that had been demoed for the aborted 1998 PROPAGANDA reunion and was subsequently issued as a ONETWO track.
Although starting sparse, ‘Love:Craft’ builds up to a more dramatic neo-classical template with enticing synth solos and operatic background voicing while ‘Dystopian Waltz’ does as it says on the ration tin, a lengthy solemn instrumental with a haunting Cold War chill in its wonderful orchestrated arrangement.
The best is saved until last, ‘Wenn Ich Mir Was Wünschen Dürfte’ (translated into English as “If I had a wish”), a Weimar-era song written by Friedrich Hollaender in 1930; Dörper first heard it in the disturbing controversial movie ‘The Night Porter’ during a smoky cabaret scene with Charlotte Rampling performing the song made famous Marlene Dietrich.
Hauntingly melancholic, the translated title provides a link to the past while there is even a cheeky musical reference to THE ART OF NOISE’s ‘Moments In Love’ in the intro. Thunder Bae gives a superbly enticing performance in Deutsch over appropriately Autumnal backing to highlight the contradictory emotions expressed. And when Volker Bertelmann, best known as Academy Award winner Hauschka, brings his frozen piano motifs in, it is the icing on the cake.
Ralf Dörper and Michael Mertens have made a cinematic European electronic pop record while adopting modern influences. However, some listeners may find Thunder Bae’s voice too similar to today’s pop starlets like Dua Lipa. Saying that, she stylistically suits these songs and particularly comes into her own on the finale ‘Wenn Ich Mir Was Wünschen Dürfte’, which ultimately prompts craving and secret wishes for more songs in German.
On ‘Dr Mabuse’ they said “never look back” and that is exactly what this enjoyable album is about; a totally different animal to either ‘A Secret Wish’ or ‘1234’ or the aborted 1998 material, a few long standing PROPAGANDA and ZTT enthusiasts may not embrace this album’s younger generation vocal stylings while the lack of Teutonic industrialisation may be a disappointment to others. But those who buy into this new vision will want the double editions with bonus tracks…
‘Propaganda’ is released on 11 October 2024 by Bureau B in CD, limited double CD, vinyl LP, limited double vinyl LP and digital editions
A product of Stuttgart and Los Angeles, ‘Neostalgia’ is the new collaborative album by CAMOUFLAGE’s Heiko Maile and composer Julian DeMarre.
The pair first worked together on the 1991 CAMOUFLAGE album ‘Meanwhile’ produced by Colin Thurston. It saw a musical diversion into more conventional instrumentation such as violin, saxophone, guitar and drums when the band from Bietigheim-Bissingen were reduced to a duo.
Outside of his dayjob with Marcus Meyn and their reunion with Oliver Kreyssig in 1999 which now sees CAMOUFLAGE celebrate their 40th Anniversary with the ‘Rewind To The Future & Goodbye Tour’, Maile and DeMarre partnered up to soundtrack the American action crime film ‘Killerman’ in 2019.
In 2020, the world was locked down by the Covid pandemic and with months of isolation at home, Maile and DeMarre got creative in each of their separate bases to create musical love letter to early electronic music from Wendy Carlos to Conrad Schnitzler and PINK FLOYD to YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA, Brian Eno to Vangelis with naturally TANGERINE DREAM and KRAFTWERK along the way. Despite ongoing soundtrack commissions for both delaying completion, the end result is the appropriately titled ‘Neostalgia’.
The opening piece ‘Patience’ is superb, originally written for ‘Killerman’ and titled ‘Leaving NY’, it has been reworked from the sweeping ambience of the soundtrack version to something more pulsating and percussive while there is a greater melodic presence.
Other tracks seeded from ‘Killerman’ like ‘Reflection (Dark Horses)’ and ‘Helios’ appear but another strong highlight is ‘Hollow Earth’ which utilises DeMarre’s Korg Lambda string machine alongside Maile’s hypnotic sequence. As the tempo rises, there comes a chilling drama enhanced live percussive rolls and textural guitar interventions which recall TANGERINE DREAM.
Meanwhile ‘Melancholia’ is a wonderful showcase for a number of vintage synth warhorses in the Yamaha CS60 and Korg PE-1000 although instead of a Mellotron, a real flute from Torsten Kamps provides the desired airy effect.
Featuring fretless bass and pretty synth, ‘Serengeti Ostinato’ rumbles rhythmically in tribute to the late Oscar winning German conservationist Bernhard Grzimek and his TV classic documentaries on African wildlife while ‘Universal Universe’ heads to the cosmos to illustrate the viewpoint of Stephen Hawking with a swinging neo-Schaffel backbone. But planet’s earth’s nature is the focus on ‘Between Trees’, a reflective ambient exploration to reflect the sense of openness between tree branches and how trees have defied changing climates before the arrival of humankind and civilisation.
Cosmic, spacey and occasionally ambient but mostly melodic, ‘Neostalgia’ blends of a variety of electronic styles with lengthy intros and outros forming key components. Tense yet hopeful, this is an album that will be appreciated by those who love the esoteric instrumental music of four or five decades ago.
Singer / songwriter Lloyd Cole is best known for his glum but jangly guitar-based tunes with his band THE COMMOTIONS.
With three Top20 UK albums to their name between 1984 to 1988, their best known songs were ‘Perfect Skin’, ‘Forest Fire’, ‘Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?’, ‘Brand New Friend’, ‘Lost Weekend’ and ‘Jennifer She Said’. Scottish band CAMERA OBSCURA later paid tribute to Cole’s poetic cynical romanticism with the song ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken’.
More recently however, Lloyd Cole has recorded two albums ‘Guesswork’ and ‘On Pain’ which have primarily been synthesizer-based. But his journey into electronic music has not been a recent artistic whim. While studying Law at University College London, his neighbour Morris Gould, now known as underground electronica DJ Mixmaster Morris, lent him an EDP Wasp synthesizer for Cole’s only solo music performance at LSU. Another student introduced him to KRAFTWERK whose magnificent ‘Computer World’ show would later be declared by Cole as one of his favourite gigs of all time.
Transferring to Glasgow University to study Philosophy and English, he met his future bandmates keyboardist Blair Cowan, guitarist Neil Clark, bassist Lawrence Donegan and drummer Stephen Irvine to become LLOYD COLE & THE COMMOTIONS. With Cole demoing his songs using guitar, drum machine and a Yamaha DX7, word got out to London about the band’s eloquent melancholic pop.
On the back of interest in the city’s music scene which had produced ORANGE JUICE, ALTERED IMAGES and AZTEC CAMERA, the quintet were signed by Polydor Records, releasing their acclaimed debut album ‘Rattlesnakes’ in 1984 and achieving their highest chart placing with second album ’Easy Pieces’ in 1985.
Relocating to New York, Lloyd Cole went solo in 1990, experimenting with orchestral, folk and country styles along the way and even returning to a band format with THE NEGATIVES in 2000. Always “excited to still be finding new methods, new perspectives, new sounds”, he had already bought a Sequential Circuits Prophet VS and featured it on the ‘Mainstream’ album in 1987.
Later acquiring a Minimoog and various samplers, Cole used them sparingly on the 1993 psychedelic rock flavoured long player ‘Bad Vibes’, although the album was not well-received by his fans. Considering the album an artistic failure, he kept his songs traditional and his electronic interests purely instrumental, leading eventually to the excellent 2002 ambient electronic album ‘Plastic Wood’ made at his attic studio in Massachusetts.
Photo by Camillo Roedelius
A fan of CLUSTER, the cult German duo comprising of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and the late Dieter Moebius, ‘Plastic Wood’ recalled the spacious vibe of their now classic 1976 long player ‘Sowiesoso’. With his synthesizer secret not so secret anymore, a mutual friend passed the album over to Roedelius who was impressed and set about doing his own remix. On sending over Cole his reinterpretation, while the remixed ‘Plastic Wood’ has yet to see the light of day, Cole was flattered and the two discussed working together on a project in a similar manner.
Having assembled his first Eurorack modular synth which was steadily expanding, Cole created a number of minimal electronic sketches for Roedelius to develop in isolation with neither being together during the creative process. The finished tracks became 2013’s ‘Selected Studies, Vol1’, a thoughtful union of the sorcerer and the apprentice released by Bureau B.
Following an invitation by Bureau B to curate ‘Kollektion 02’, a retrospective of Roedelius’ music, the German label suggested to Cole that he could release a solo electronic album based on the unused material originally constructed for his collaboration with Roedelius. Although Cole considered himself to still be very much a student of electronic music, the resultant ‘1D Electronics 2012-2014’ boosted his confidence. However, an attempt at ‘Live Electronics’ in 2015 proved to be too big a challenge; two performances in Portugal were cancelled while a German show with Roedelius saw a return to his usual guitar and vocal format for his solo part of the set.
Undeterred, Cole allowed time to develop his prowess with synthesizers and programming. Applying these electronic textures and techniques to traditional songwriting, 2019’s ‘Guesswork’ album was a triumph. Reuniting with Blair Cowan and Neil Clark, the album’s first single ‘Violins’ took cues from Robert Palmer’s cult electronic pop favourite ‘Johnny & Mary’ but included a guitar solo at its conclusion to not totally alienate Cole’s following.
Opening ‘Guesswork’, ‘The Over Under’ was reminiscent of the sparse nocturnal atmospheres of THE BLUE NILE during their ‘Hats’ period. The most KRAFTWERK influenced song ‘Moments & Whatnots’ was like a second cousin to ‘Neon Lights’ while ‘When I Came Down From The Mountain’ offered the biggest surprise as a bouncy drum machine driven slice of synthpop.
Produced by Chris Hughes who had notably helmed the first two TEARS FOR FEARS albums, 2023’s ‘On Pain’ saw guitars make a more prominent but limited return but whereas ‘Guesswork’ had largely been traditional songs made electronic, a number of the follow-up’s tracks were composed bottom-up using synthesizers.
In an artistic diversion, the shimmering ‘I Can Hear Everything’ utilised voice treatments and the title track provided an emotive hybrid of synth arpeggios and guitar. The standout song from the album ‘The Idiot’ gave a touching synth-laden narrative on the relationship between David Bowie and Iggy Pop as they relocated to Berlin in 1976, while ‘This Can’t Be Happening’ wonderfully stripped things down to gentle pulsing and minimal strings.
The ‘On Pain’ campaign also saw external remixes employed with Chris Hughes and Mark Frith’s ‘Unlimited mix’ of ‘Wolves’ providing an unexpected groovy disco delight. The 2023 UK tour saw Lloyd Cole bring his new direction to the stage for the first time with “No sequences. Just loops and arpeggiators” alongside acoustic and electric band performances that included an unexpected rendition of ‘Headlights’ from ‘Plastic Wood’.
Just back from a one man tour of New Zealand and Australia, Lloyd Cole took time out from the golf course and had a quick chat with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about his electronic adventures…
You are widely known as a traditional musician who plays guitar with the usual Bob Dylan and Lou Reed influences, but many will not be aware that one of your favourite concerts of all time is KRAFTWERK in 1981 on the ‘Computer World’ tour, how did your interest in electronic music begin?
My interest started with Fripp and Eno’s ‘No Pussyfooting’, I suppose. But let’s not forget ‘Son Of My Father’ by Chicory Tip. Number 1 single in the UK 1972. Moog bass and lead melodies, produced by Giorgio Moroder (or maybe he was in the band, I forget)! Also the ‘Doctor Who’ theme tune… after ‘No Pussyfooting’, I pretty much went where Brian Eno and David Bowie led me – so to CLUSTER and KRAFTWERK and Conny Plank. Strangely I was never taken by YMO…
You had released instrumental electronic works ‘Plastic Wood’, ‘Selected Studies Vol 1’ with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and ‘1D’ in the past while you had also covered ‘Pocket Calculator’ live with THE NEGATIVES, but what had been the spark to introduce more prominent synth textures into your song based material?
I just wanted to make records which could sit next to music I was listening to. I was listening to THE BYRDS, Bob Dylan and Isaac Hayes in 1983. In 2018 I wasn’t listening to guitar driven music at all. Also, making ‘Selected Studies’ and ‘1D’ gave me more confidence in my abilities with synthesizers. I don’t think I was ready, before then, to try and bring the two things (songs and synths) together.
Would say ‘Violins’ on ‘Guesswork’ have been written traditionally before you applied the primarily electronic production and arrangement?
It was written, initially, on a guitar.
What synths and drum machines were you using for ‘Guesswork’ and ‘On Pain’? Are you into VSTs?
I’m always changing hardware. This is approximate. It’s about 50/50.
Hardware synths and drum machines on ‘Guesswork’ and ‘On Pain’:
Dave Smith OB-6
Moog Sub 37
Modor NF-1
(mostly) Make Noise Modular system
Lorre Mill Double Knot
Soma Lyra 8
Vermona DRM 1 Mk III (drum synth)
Software synths and VSTs:
Spectrasonics Omnisphere (this is the synth that gets used most)
Borderlands (iPad granular processor)
MicroTonic drum synth by Sonic Forge
Izotope Vocal Synth 2
Logic Pro Arpeggiator
SoundToys FX
Did you purchase any new equipment for ‘On Pain’ that allowed greater possibilities sonically? How did you maintain the balance of making sure the songs remained central?
I’m sure I did. I’m always replacing synths with other synths. Since I made ‘Guesswork’, I replaced the Moog Sub 37 with the Moog Matriarch. Keeping the two things balanced is always a challenge, but quite often synth sounds inspire compositions. For example, the synth at the beginning of ‘The Loudness Wars’.
In terms of concept, writing and production, how did ‘On Pain’ differ from ‘Guesswork’?
Not much really. I was just trying to take the concepts to greater extremes. I suppose a major difference would be the vocal treatments. There are no ‘natural’ vocal tracks on ‘On Pain’.
Using voice treatments can be seen as anathema to music purists, but how do you consider its applications?
When I’m working alone in an attic and I’m not great at singing harmony vocals, these synths and treatments opened up a whole new world of musical opportunity for me. It took a LONG time to become comfortable with them, though. This can’t be happening in one vocal and, I think, 8 more virtual harmonies all automated to change the feeling from somewhat naturalistic to almost completely synthesized.
‘The Idiot’ was ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s Top Song Of 2023, while there is the narrative about David Bowie and Iggy Pop relocating to West Berlin in 1976, how did the song come together musically, what were the inspirations?
The music was written, almost completely by Blair Cowan. My job was just to rearrange slightly to make it into a song rather than an instrumental and fine tune the sounds. 80% of those synths are Blair’s original recordings.
Was it a challenge to bring the more electronic material into your live shows on your most recent tour? Have your older fans accepted it?
It was a big challenge and we didn’t try to reproduce any songs exactly as we were just a four piece. But we got pretty close on ‘The Idiot’. We used some drum machines and click tracks for Signy (the drummer/percussionist) to play along with so we could use arpeggiators, but this was quite a challenge. I think next time we will have a drum machine for those songs and Signy can play percussion with it.
‘Guesswork’ and ‘On Pain’ have started a new phase in your career, which songs are your favourites from them?
I don’t really have favourites. I suppose ‘The Over Under’ and ‘Wolves’, because they were the two exploratory pieces which established the possibility of the projects. The songs I wasn’t able to play live that I missed the most were ‘The Loudness Wars’ and ‘More Of What You Are’. Hopefully we can figure a plan to play these in 2025.
Will you continue in this electronic song direction? Is another album in the works? What is next?
I think there is a third. And then I have an idea to go somewhere else for the one after that.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Lloyd Cole
Special thanks to Ted Cummings at Cloud PR
‘On Pain’ and ‘Guesswork’ are released by earMUSIC in vinyl LP, CD and digital formats
‘Plastic Wood’ is still available in digital formats via earMUSIC
Lloyd Cole 2025 full band shows include:
Aberdeen Tivoli Theatre (20 January), Buxton Opera House (22 January), Manchester Bridgewater Hall (24 January), London Barbican (25 January), Dublin Olympia (27 January)
Harald Grosskopf is the German drummer who entered the world of electronic music while still maintaining his percussive role behind the kit.
Grosskopf made his name in the rock band WALLENSTEIN, but legend has it that a hallucinogenic adventure led to a voice telling him to stop trying to sound like Billy Cobham or Ginger Baker, as he realised he had been imitating other musicians.
With his mind free from having to drum within a set role, he realised rock music was not the best medium for this mode of artistic expression. Two musicians, who were members of the Berliner kosmische combo ASH RA TEMPEL, Klaus Schulze and Manuel Göttsching were to become key in paving Harald Grosskopf’s path into the world of electronic music.
Schulze was a fellow drummer who had served an apprenticeship with TANGERINE DREAM and went on to wholly embrace the meditative synthesizer aesthetic; he invited Grosskopf to play drums on his 1976 masterpiece ‘Moondawn’.
Meanwhile Manuel Göttsching had developed a more transient guitar style to compliment his more electronically-based instrumental backdrop as showcased on the classic long player ‘New Age Of Earth’ as ASHRA. Looking to expand his vehicle to a more-band oriented format, the guitarist asked to Grosskopf to join him for the recording of what became 1979’s ‘Correlations’.
Harald Grosskopf took the plunge to go solo with the mind bending album ‘Synthesist’ which was released on the iconic Sky Records in 1980. A work comprising of eight instrumentals that blended a sonic tapestry of synthesizer soundscapes with drumming that provided colour as opposed to dominance, it musically followed in the exquisite tradition of his Berlin electronic friends.
More recently, Grosskopf has been recording and performing live, both solo and with Eberhard Kranemann with whom he released the experimental cosmic rock album ‘Krautwerk’ in 2017.
For the 40th anniversary of ‘Synthesist’, Bureau B are reissuing the album as a deluxe edition with new remixes provided by the likes of Steve Baltes, Thorsten Quaeschning, Paul Frick and Stefan Lewin among others. From his home in Berlin, Harald Grosskopf kindly spoke about how his career was liberated by electronics.
You started as a drummer, so what got you interested in synthesizers and electronics?
That‘s a long story until I got there. When my friend and colleague Udo Hanten (of YOU who unfortunately died two years ago) asked me in August ’79 “Why don`t you produce solo albums?“
I was astonished and my first thought was “Who will be interested in an album with a line-up of tracks with solo drumming?”. He of course meant working with synthesizers, which I did not have in mind at all. I told him that “I‘m a drummer, I don‘t own synthesizers. All I have is a drum kit, an 8-Track reel-to-reel tape recorder and part of the fee from my work on Klaus Schulze’s ‘Bodylove’ album”. So Udo invited me to come to his home, using his equipment.
In exchange, he asked for my 8-Track to record his own album. I must point out that ASHRA never met regularly, like a rock band to rehearse or produce. We never said “We are a band now forever!“. ASHRA always was based on spontaneity in all concerns. There were quite some breaks in between touring and studio sessions. So I had lots of time and my desire for making music was killing me during 1979.
After a few days thinking about Udo‘s proposal, I decided to do it. To tell the truth, I had no clue how to record nor how to operate synthesizers, even though I had worked with Klaus Schulze, one of the godfathers of electronic music. During studio sessions I never had to, nor did I care about studio techniques. The only thing I occasionally operated was a volume fader during mixing.
In that entire era, I felt I was a drummer, nothing else. Even after ‘Synthesist‘ was done and out. Putting it live on stage seemed technically impossible in 1980. So my first album was kinda born out of an emergency situation; no band activities and left behind with a huge unsatisfied desire to making music.
The beginnings of those recording sessions were technically pretty rough. I had to learn all about recording from scratch while I was recording. But conversely, operating synths was an easy challenge. At the end I wasn’t even sure, almost very insecure whether an audience would share the joy and trouble I went through in the process. And what I emotionally and music wise had put into it. But the naivety and emotional innocence behind that album might be the main reason why it seems to have touched people right up to today.
Working with Klaus Schulze on ‘Moondawn’ must have been interesting, given he started as a drummer. What was your brief from him for the recording?
No briefing at all! After my time in the rock band WALLENSTEIN, it was a very unfamiliar experience. WALLENSTEIN, typically German, was very (!) structured and disciplined. We used to work extremely hard on details. Program music at its best!
It never reached the satisfaction and joy I felt working with Klaus and Manuel Göttsching. Klaus gave no advice at all. Never ever! He liked my drumming I guess and he trusted me more than I did doing the right thing. Other than from Klaus and Manuel, I was not used getting positive feedback from any of my colleagues in those rock ’n‘ roll times. After ‘Moondawn’, I decided to leave WALLENSTEIN and rock music.
The first ‘Moondawn’ take ended abruptly after 5 minutes, I somehow didn‘t feel well. Klaus and I started talking about what happened. After only one sentence Klaus spontaneously said: “I see you know where we are going, let‘s do it again!” The second take led to what is heard on the ‘Moondawn’ A-side under the title ‘Floating‘, one long 25 minutes lasting improvisation. No emotional break or technical mistakes. Joy in the clearest mind. After the last note faded, we met in the control room and hugged each other.
‘Correlations’ saw Manuel Göttsching expand ASHRA into a band format, how did you come to be involved?
We first met at Dierks Studios around 1971 and I visited him occasionally when WALLENSTEIN had a Berlin performance. There was ASH RA TEMPEL, TANGERINE DREAM, POPOL VUH and some other important formations who were on the same record label (Ohr and Pilz) as well as WALLENSTEIN. Compared to my experience in the German rock business, these Berliners had an extraordinary self-confidence, friendly and relaxed dudes.
My drumming style and emotional presence seemed to have impressed them. Klaus was the ASH RA TEMPEL drummer at the time, after he had left TANGERINE DREAM and he just had announced his split from ASH RA TEMPEL to start his solo career which didn‘t seem to shock anyone. So Manuel invited me to put my drums on ‘Starring Rosi‘. Rosi was his girlfriend and she´s been a New Yorker since 1982. I had a few gigs in New York and we met there after a 30 year break. When I left Klaus in 1975/76 to live in Berlin, my first activity was to visit Manuel. That was the beginning of my ASHRA involvement.
One thing that is quite interesting is that the tracks on ‘Correlations’ were generally shorter than other ASHRA works, had this been a conscientious decision?
We never talked about commercial intensions. Our main interest was having fun and producing something original. I liked the freedom of not thinking about whom we could reach or sell to what we had made. The combination of the three of us simply made it what it was.
Everybody had ideas and had the chance to put them into the album. Manuel played a very melodic guitar. In those days. Maybe Carlos Santana was a bit of an influence on him. Lutz Ulbrich had another music background than electronics. He was and still is a brilliant rhythm guitarist and for a change, he liked playing with delays and was open to experiments, even though his main goal was traditional guitar music.
Lutz was in love with Nico of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND and they lived together in Paris, New York and Berlin. He was the only person among all her other famous friends (Bowie, Cale, Alain Delon) that brought her body to Berlin, after she had tragically passed away on Ibiza island, struck by an Aneurysm while riding on her bike. A doctor that was called just said: “I do not treat addicts!”…
The follow-up ‘Belle Alliance’ added vocals and was more aggressive, with your voice on ‘Kazoo’; how do you look back on the approach of that album now?
From my point of view for some reason the “good alliance” wasn’t as powerful as on ‘Correlations‘. In retrospect, it lacked homogeneity in style. Maybe the reason behind that Virgin Records didn`t want to release ‘Belle Alliance’ in the first place. So the three of us went to south France to visit the MIDEM in Cannes, that huge music industry fair, to either sell it to another company or have a conversation again with Virgin Records.
The Sony Walkman was just invented and everybody was able to listen to music wherever you were. The visit ended with a longer conversation with Richard Branson who owned the label at the time. Seemed we charmed him, resulting in the release. It‘s still a good album and I liked putting my intensions on ‘Kazoo‘.
As a drummer, how did you feel about the advent of programmable drum machines?
First, I was shocked that machines could replace and endanger my profession as drummer. I could not stand their artificial sounds either. Very unreal and artificial, especially the Roland TR808 that later became cult in techno and rap.
More and more studio session drummers used Linn and Oberheim e-drums to stay in the business and make a living from fast productions, mostly pop productions. Linn and Oberheim used samples for their e-drums and those sounded quite real. It still took quite some time to programme a fill that a real drummer could do in a minute.
I never really got into programming drum machines until the first machines came up that could be played like an analog drum kit (Simmons and D-Drum). I could not afford a Simmons but bought three Simmons e-modules and built one myself by using old Bongo drums as trigger. You can hear them on ASHRA album ‘Tropical Heat‘. By discovering the fascination of techno music, I suddenly understood the magic machine drums can have like the Roland TR808. I bought a D-Drum but its dynamic and limitation on sound bored me after a while.
I started editing drums parallel to the invention of digital recording in the late 80s. The Atari 1040 was a first step in that direction. I was in my 40s when most people my generation could or would not cope with computers. A few years later, when digital recording of analog signals became a possibility, I felt a huge release. It freed me from dreaming about hiring expensive analog studios as the only possibility to get creative the way I wanted. I couldn´t have afforded such studios anyway. In the beginning, it was pretty complicated getting into controlling the recording software, but once I managed it, it was a revelation that continues today.
The artwork of ‘Synthesist’ sees you pictured with a Prophet 10, which were your favourite synths and keyboards to work with on this album?
The Prophet 10 was an investment of my manager (R.I.P. Peter) and was bought after ‘Synthesist’ was released. On ‘Synthesist’, you can hear a Korg PS3200 and a Minimoog. The Moog was triggered by an ARP 16-Step Sequencer or used for solo melodies. That was it!
The Moog permanently slipped out of tune and many times, it was more than a pain in the ass to get the bitch stabilized. I had to record the same sequences over and over again.
How did it come together in the studio?
All the basics were recorded during 6 weeks in August and September 1979 at Udo Hanten‘s home in Krefeld, an industrial town in Northern Westphalia, the River Rhine area. Additional tracks were laid at Panne Paulsen studio in Frankfurt, which I knew from the sessions with Klaus and ASHRA. It was perfect for recording my drums and the solo melodies. All on 16 tracks after the basic 8 tracks were transferred.
‘Transcendental Overdrive’ had some distinctive arpeggios but also those very frantic but understated drums?
I take that as a compliment. My intensions lay more on composition and creating magic sounds than drumming. I financially had a week to get it done. It took just 2 days to record all drum parts. There was not much time to think. It just happened.
How do you now look back on ‘Synthesist’ as a whole?
As I mentioned, I was very insecure about what I had done. A negative highlight was a visit to Edgar Froese‘s home where my manager and I asked Edgar to listened to ‘Synthesist‘ before it was released. Edgar listened patiently but did not say a word afterwards. Either he was stunningly shocked or could not stand it. I never found out and the situation led to a bunch of negative speculations.
Back home, I was devastated. The sales after 5 or 6 months also were not super, just around 10,000 vinyl copies. Today that would almost be a hit, but in 1980, it was a massive flop. I did not listen to the album for a very long time until I had several offers from different labels. Young people seemed to have discovered ‘Synthesist‘. DJs all over the world put it on and since I re-released it, they still do. I needed the distance in time to finally to understand and enjoy what I had done.
There is a 40th Anniversary double vinyl and CD package being released by Bureau B featuring remixes, so is remix culture something you embrace and what do you think of the end result here?
40 years flew by! Unbelievable! The remixes on that double album are great. I was surprised about the spontaneous involvement of young musicians. ‘Synthesist‘ had an influence on them and their own music. I met Steve Baltes in 1994. He was 27 years old, a techno DJ, producer and fan of electronic music, whom I had invited to join in with ASHRA for our first Japan tour in 1997. He made a brilliant remix of ‘Earth’.
Thorsten Quaeschning who toured with Edgar Froese and TANGERINE DREAM for 15 years and is now head of the actual TD line-up did a fantastic remix of ‘So Weit, So Gut‘. Paul Frick remade ‘Synthesist‘, he is member of the well-known trio BRANDT BRAUER FRICK from Berlin which I am a great fan of.
Some famous old Krautrock colleagues who are also on Bureau B. label did a great job too. To mention here: PYROLATOR and KREIDLER. Stefan Lewin, an old friend, musician and quality analog synthesizer producer (ACL) worked on the ‘Synthesist‘ title track. Beside these, a few very young label musicians like TELLAVISION, LOVE SONGS and CAMERA also brought some interesting fresh air on their remix versions.
Your second solo album ‘Oceanheart’ didn’t appear until 1986, were there any reasons for this? How does this album stand up for you compared with ‘Synthesist’?
There was no pressure to put out one album after the other. Like others, I did not want to repeat myself over and over. I also had no equipment to experiment the way I needed. Remember it was the pre-computer time. In the meantime, I had a trio named LILLI BERLIN; I owned a Tascam 8-track reel to reel tape recorder and Manfred Opitz, the keyboarder had a Minimoog and a Roland JX-3P. I used those to lay basics. Drums and other sources were added at Christoph Franke‘s studio. The final mix and master was done there too. I think ‘Synthesist‘ has this first time innocence.
In 1997, you reunited with ASHRA to do some concerts in Japan. The live recordings became the ‘@shra’ album, ‘Twelve Samples’ was a particularly glorious track, how much of the performance was pre-prepared and was there much flexibility for improvisation?
We usually met a week before touring or for studio sessions to prepare some basics. In between, we played ‘Hype‘, a game that was based on the development of rock bands. From putting a line up together, to low level touring and album recording, the player who first had a hit album won. The game was created by Virgin Records. Manuel and Lutz rehearsed some basic harmonies and melodies, mostly without even being amplified in Manuel’s flat (Studio Roma).
I had a pair of drumsticks, listened and hit on my knees. As I mentioned before had we long breaks in between such meetings. Sometimes for years. So I never knew what will happen next with ASHRA. But I was positively surprised to receive Manuel`s phone call, asking me to join in performing in Japan. A little tour including 4 gigs. Wow! Japan! Great! My second reaction was of technical concerns, which I did not speak out about.
You must know, touring in the 70s was technically quite basic. On stage, it could take Manuel more than 5 minutes in between the titles to tune his sequencer for the next piece, while I was getting nervous just sitting waiting and staring into the audience. That was the reason I wanted Steve Baltes to join in. I knew he was able to recreate all the basic ASHRA sequences and original keyboard sounds we needed with his skills about sampling and sound design.
After I had introduced Manuel and Steve, Manuel liked him from the first minute, so Steve started producing all the required bass and sequencer loops that enabled us to improvise on stage as we always did in the past, with the difference that Manuel was released from that tuning burden. Steve did a brilliant job. We even sounded much better than ever before. The Japanese audience really liked it. We performed twice in Tokyo and twice in Osaka.
You teamed up with Eberhard Kranemann for the 2017 album ‘Krautwerk’, how would you describe your dynamic with regards creating and performing ?
I met Eberhard Kranemann for the first time in 2016 on a local festival at a castle. We performed on different locations. I did not know him, not even that he was an original KRAFTWERK member. I was very curious about what he did on stage and as we performed at different times, I was able to sneak into his gig. After one minute, I left the performance! Pure loud guitar noise and mumblings with his voice! I could not stand it!
Two weeks later he phoned me, obviously very excited by my performance. He asked me what I thought of a collaboration. Wow! My enthusiasm was not very high but I thought what the f*ck, let‘s try, if turns out bad, I can leave.
Eberhard recorded our session we made in his home, located around the corner where I live with my family. The session output was mainly poor, but in between had some great original parts. I took the session back home, dragged it into my Ableton recording software, extracted those parts I liked and produced loops. In a next step, I took it back to Eberhard where we added some material here and there. He really liked the way I had edited the material.
The result was the ‘Krautwerk‘ album released on Bureau B. We did live performances in England, Sweden and on a festival in China. A second album is ready to be released, but Eberhard preferred to concentrate on his solo work again. Meanwhile Ralf Hütter of KRAFTWERK ordered his lawyers to threaten me in case I would not withdraw my ‘Krautwerk‘ name ownership.
You have new works ready for release, how would you describe them? What musical direction are you heading in?
I work intensely on new material and will soon release an album in co-operation with my old friend and colleague on guitar Axel Heilhecker. Sequencer, guitar loops, melodies. Very atmospheric!
The album will be named ‘Are You Psyched?‘. Parallel to that, I work on new solo material which I hope to release next year. No rush as always. I do not think in terms how to style my music. It`s always spontaneous and unpredictable decisions. The main intention is that I must like it. Even that can change after a few hours, days or weeks and it is always possible to push a piece in another direction.
It’s very hard for me to finally decide when something is finished. I do not listen much to music from others. Mainly only when someone says to me “You got to listen to that!“ That does not mean I´m ignorant but I love most to work on my own stuff.
What are your own favourite tracks and memories from your career?
Definitely ‘Moondawn‘. All the tracks I ever recorded are like own children. You love them all but they are different!
When you entered this world of synthesizers back in the day, did you think that you and your contemporaries would have such a big impact in the popular culture of today?
Not at all. Compared to fast and massive internet activity today, we had very little feedback in those days. National and international. Just a few music magazines existed. And they mostly wrote about pop music or the stars. The only measure we had were sales or live performances. But other than KRAFTWERK, we had no hits.
Andy McCluskey from OMD two years ago shook my hands and said “Did you know how much your music changed my life!?“. I had no idea about that influence when I was sitting in my small Berlin flat trying to figure out how to finance the next week. Since I connected to the internet around twenty years ago, I receive wonderful daily feedback from all over the world. It is a great pleasure to specially get it from a younger generation.
Last year, I had my first DJ appearance in a well-known techno club in Berlin. Right now, all live performances are cancelled or postponed. But isolation is not unusual for me and most artists. That‘s the space where we enable output. I still miss to be on stage. Hopefully it will be soon possible again.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Harald Grosskopf
Additional thanks to Mark Reeder
‘Synthesist’ is reissued as a 40th Anniversary deluxe edition double CD and transparent sun yellow double vinyl LP by Bureau B on 5th June 2020
Eberhard Kranemann is a one-time member of KRAFTWERK who later recorded an album ‘Fritz Müller Rock’ with the legendary Conny Plank.
A graduate of the Dortmund Conservatory, the multi-instrumentalist also worked with NEU! but it was in 1967 while as a member of the band PISSOFF that he met Florian Schneider. More recently, Kranemann has formed KRAUTWERK with Harald Grosskopf who played drums on Klaus Schulze’s ‘Moondawn’ and recorded a number of albums with Manuel Göttsching as a member of ASHRA.
In a merger of the Schools of Düsseldorf and Berlin, Kranemann and Grosskopf transmit their cosmic sonic visions of today, tomorrow and beyond in an updated take on art school kosmische with a lively and rhythmic self-titled debut album. Following an enthusiastic talk at the 2017 ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE in Düsseldorf, Eberhard Kranemann kindly chatted about the genesis of KRAUTWERK and his observations on the vibrant post-war German music scene that ultimately impacted the world’s musical landscape.
So what is the concept of KRAUTWERK?
There is no concept, we are just two guys who are making music for fun. We did know not each other until one year ago. I heard Harald for the first time at a festival in Sulingen where he was doing a solo performance and I had a performance in another room.
I liked his kind of drumming, he doesn’t play natural drums and doesn’t use those crazy boom-boom-boom drums from a computer, he plays a special electronic kit with sticks on plates. He doesn’t use the pure electronic sounds, he changes them via Ableton with his special effects… they had so much power, I had never heard this before. I thought “I must work with him”
Then, he came into my room… I’m a more experimental musician using wired sounds and he didn’t like it! For him, it was too dissonant! So when I telephoned him to suggest working together, he did not want to… but 4 weeks later, he said “OK, we try something”
What was the process?
He came into my studio, but I did not tell him before that I’d prepared it to record our whole session professionally. I recorded 40 minutes of what we had played. We had never played together before but this 40 minutes was so great, it was wonderful music. We made another date 4 weeks later and did 20 more minutes.
So we had 60 minutes in total and this is our first LP, CD and digital download. It was two old guys making music for fun, but then a label heard it and other people liked it very much. We did a British tour which was a big success, we will be going to Stockholm and next year, we play in China. People in America want us to go there too.
Both you and Harald Grosskopf have a lot of history in German electronic music, Harald was in ASHRA and released a great solo debut in ‘Synthesist’, had you been aware of his previous work?
No, I wasn’t interested in the Berlin School of Music, for me it was boring, it was just synthesizers going on and on and it was not enough. For myself, I need more power or action.
You were in KRAFTWERK?
Me and Florian Schneider were the originators of KRAFTWERK, one year later Herr Hütter came into the band and now he is the only man who makes it exist, he gets a lot of money out of it because he is a businessman.
A band who spends 30 years not making any new music and only the old sh*t comes out every year in new clothing, this is not for me. I must make new music going into the future and when I began this project with Harald, I had the idea of starting at a point 30 years ago when KRAFTWERK stopped making music because when they now play concerts, they don’t make music… they stand there like roboters and the music comes programmed from the computer, I do not like this.
When I played in KRAFTWERK in 1971 and the years before, we used techniques between man and machine but there was a lot of freestyle, everyone could play. But they stopped it and did this very cool, reduced music… you can do this if you want, they are very famous for it and they do it very well, but I think my friend Florian left the band he didn’t like it anymore. He is a real musician and he wanted to make music, he doesn’t want to stand on a stage with the sounds coming from the computer
So how do you make technology work for you in KRAUTWERK?
There is a difference between Harald and me; Harald works very much with technology and computers. But I don’t do it as much as he does, because I’m more of a traditional musician. When we play live, I play cello, Hawaiian guitar and sing. But I don’t tell stories, I use the voice like another instrument and make rhythm with it like “boom-tschak-boom-bah-tschak”… so I sing like a drummer and then Harald comes in with drums.
As Fritz Müller, you worked with the legendary Conny Plank, what was he like?
He was a very important man, for me in the last century, Conny Plank was the most important producer, engineer and mixer in the whole world, THE BEST! He was so great that he even turned down David Bowie and U2. He was very honest, he didn’t want to work with them.
He was very clear and only wanted to make music with people he liked… not only liked but loved! There was a lot of love between him and the musicians, it was so wonderful to work with him, he had a good gut feeling about people. I was the person in the background that put him in contact with KRAFTWERK and NEU!
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Eberhard Kranemann
‘Krautwerk’ is released by Bureau B in CD, vinyl and digital formats
Eberhard Kranemann and Harald Grosskopf play Kraken Sthlm in Stockholm with FAUST on Friday 17th November 2017
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as ASHRA. Looking to expand his vehicle to a more-band oriented format, the guitarist asked to Grosskopf to join him for the recording of what became 1979’s 
.
which was released on the iconic Sky Records in 1980. A work comprising of eight instrumentals that blended a sonic tapestry of synthesizer soundscapes with drumming that provided colour as opposed to dominance, it musically followed in the exquisite tradition of his Berlin electronic friends.
is released by Bureau B in CD, vinyl and digital formats
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