Michael Rother

basically yes agreed, the first four. that fairlight was the end of him.

the less said about Neu! 4 the better... half finish jams from two days in the late 80's, rother was furious when dinger released it. it goes for insane prices: do not bother with it.

yes, he was. One of the best producers ever. Someone should write something about the great German producers like Conny, Uwe Nettlebeck and Dieter Dierks pre-Scorpions and how they influenced lots of other people.

More or less.

you bringing up the whole Autobahn thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHu9QryT0Xw

einarehn (1 day ago)
Gay!

That was terrific.

Corny German hippie.

There's a big batch of Rother reissues coming soon on Water- Sternthaler, Fernwarme, Flammende Herzen, and Katzenmusik.

Yes!

Again?

AWESOME. got any more info on these?

technically never been available in the US, and I bet you Water will be smart enough to leave off those horrible bonus tracks of 90's remixes that marred the SPV editions, which retailed for $25+ when they came out before dropping... probably english liner notes as well.

Water picked the first four, the ones with Jaki on drums & Conny producing. they know their music, those guys

On 01 July 2007 Michael Rother joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the endjam at their concert in Hamburg. John Frusciante, Flea, Chad Smith, Josh Klinghoffer and Michael Rother played for about 25 minutes to an enthusiastic crowd of 35.000 people

Amazon doesn't have tracklistings yet, but the solicitation text doesn't mention the bonus tracks, thank god. I'm happy it's Water putting these out, after they did such a good job with the Cluster/Eno material, and not, say, Cleopatra's "Purple Pyramid" Kraut/psych division.

Rother has done a whole tour with John Frusciante, so makes sense.

Water picked the first four, the ones with Jaki on drums & Conny producing. they know their music, those guys

That's one way of looking at it, the other is that the rest of his albums are so bad ("Lust" is esp. foul) that you'd mad to want to re-release them. Did Conny produce the 1st 4 albums? I thought Rother prod. them himself - in Forst.

Covers of my copies of Flammende Herzen (in Conny's studio), Sternthaler and Katzenmusik (in both Conny's studio & Forst) say "Produktion Rother/Plank" (FH's cover also says "Toning: C. Plank").

i saw those water reissues at a store today. didn't know they were out

katzenmusik is epic

yes.

i mentioned it on another thread, but: michael rother is a good-looking man.

It's true! He was wearing his 59 years lightly in the recent BBC4 Krautrock documentary. "I've always lived near rivers," he said, by way of explanation of the rhythmic flow of Neu!. He then listed a few places he'd lived, including WILMSLOW. Wilmslow!

Having seen him live a couple of years ago, very much so! Could've passed for 20 years younger.

Plus whenever I find myself reading some internet gear review which suggests that you have to have an expensive top-of-the-range guitar to be worth a damn, I think about how for some customs reason he hadn't been able to bring his own guitar, and he'd been lent a cheap one by one of the local support acts, and he still had that unmistakeable Michael Rother tone.

sonnenrad from sterntaler, my fave by rother. great guitar sound which always makes me think of liquid gold. an addictive tune with a melancholic undertone and an incredible pull. when i saw him a two years ago with moebius that piece with rother on guitar alone saved the whole evening. which on the whole was rather crap as most of the time they made prefabricated computer music.

http://www.lastfm.de/music/Michael+Rother/_/Sonnenrad?autostart

haw - I played Sonnenrad on my radio show last week!! !

Hmmm i need to get Sterntaler. I have Flammende Herzen and fucking love it.

yeah, sterntaler is my fave. I'd rate it close to top-tier harmonia/cluster.

is the BBC4 documentary available for viewing anywhere? Can't see it in eye-player.

it used to be on vimeo a couple of days ago but it isn't anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B89-69icyc

the narration is so fucking dire. is that standard for bbc4 docs?

thanks very much, don't know why I didn't think of YT.

yeah the overwrought narration is the same as on those african music docs that came out last year (?). may even be the same dude?

BBC4 obviously has a house style for these things that can be irritating. as i said on another thread, the conclusion to the krautrock doc was really unsatisfactory. bowie? really? who didn't even play with many german musicians? what about the unending and continually renewed influence of krautrock--stereolab, etc. etc.? that would seem to be the way the BBC would be inclined to go: make it relevant to the youth by showing how this old-guy music has continuing influence. maybe they just ran out of time?

also -- malcolm mooney really got shafted here. in an unacceptable way. the way the doc tells the story, you'd think that can was formed when damo suzuki showed up and started to sing.

also: no damo suzuki's wang, no credibility.

re: Rother's looks; I'm glad someone else noticed this. Something strange is going on with these guys - I hope that I age half as well as he has. Ditto on Karl Bartos. Michael Karoli was also ridiculously good looking. What's wrong with me???

flammende herzen is a very breezy listen. been meaning to pick it up for ages - due to really loving justus kohncke's version of 'feuerland' for a long time as much as the rother-neu-harmonia connections.

i remember accidentally listening to one of his records on 45 instead of 33 and it had some major mystical durutti column vibes going on

*whimpers*

Last night was so, so good! I've only ever seen him as a little ant on a stage in a huge place like the Southbank Centre. Seeing him up close in a little club was... exciting. His guitar tone is so... I don't know how he does it. He is the least guitar hero guitar hero I have ever seen.

Also he continues to be an astonishingly good looking man. He's not very big though. He never stops grinning it seems; there's something very impish about him.

Did he have lots of pedals and things sitting on top of a table in front of him?

He only had 4 guitar pedals (maybe 5? But I think one was a tuner) but yes a whole table of gear. I was so close I couldn't actually see well what was on the table because of the angle of the stage. I could definitely see he was using a laptop (with a sequencer that cut him off if he got too bashful and said "danke" too much) and some kind of rack mount - could have been a sampler, could have been a processor; I could only see the back. But an unfeasible amount of wires and cables and what looked like splitters or DI boxes. Hans Lampe was using headphones for a click track and some kind of trigger pads on the drums that I suspected came from Michael's gear. A lot of what they were doing was playing against samples and backing tracks - for NEU! songs they had one set of (processed) drums on the sample track, and then Hans would play the second, live drums on top - so there were 2 drummers, one living one dead, which was a bit strange. There were a lot of ghosts onstage, which Michael acknowledged several times. For the Harmonia tracks, again, he had his bandmates in a silver box while the three of them (there was another lad who played live rhythm guitar or bass) played on top.

It was very sensitively done! A real sense of "this is how these tracks were meant to be performed but there wasn't the technology at the time" balanced with the fact that so many of his collaborators - Klaus, Dieter, Conny - are now dead. It was a moving tribute - but also it felt live enough that it totally ROX0Red. Hans broke a sweat, even if Michael is ageless and also poreless. Have I mentioned how beautiful he is? He is phenomenally handsome, that man.

I'm trying to remember all the songs he played. He would say "that was Neuschnee" or "that was Isi, from NEU! 75" or "Veteranissimo which we performed as Harmonia" to which we would laugh and say "yes, Michael we know" (the front row probably knew his catalogue better than he did) so then he stopped introducing the tracks and played at least 2 songs I didn't recognise! He did Katzenmusik "because there was a request from England" which made me very very happy. Seeland, Negativland, Immer Wieder (without words which was weird) and several others I've forgotten.

Katzenmusik! So cool!

His first three solo albums are all stunningly good, some of Liebezeit's finest ever work on them as well.

This thread revive inspired me to blast out Flammende Herzen this aft, such a euphoric album.

feuerland is the motorik sound taken to perfection

Flammende is my special favorite

His first three solo albums are all stunningly good, some of Liebezeit's finest ever work on them as well.

This is doing my head in at the moment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071c24k

He has so many adorable stories, he just sounds so lovely.

66 years old yesterday! Happy Birthday Michael!

Michael Rother boxset "Solo"
The vinyl and CD boxset "Michael Rother - Solo" will be released in collaboration with Groenland Records on 22 February 2019.

The vinyl version of the boxset will contain the original and digitally remastered albums "Flammende Herzen", "Sterntaler", "Katzenmusik" and "Fernwärme" as well as the album "Soundtracks" with Michael Rother´s scores to the feature films "Houston" and "The Robbers" as well as the album "Live & Remixes" featuring two remixes for Paul Weller and the British band "Boxed In" and live recordings of the new track "Groove 139" (with Hans Lampe and Franz Bargmann) and "Drone Schlager" by his project "Hallogallo 2010" (with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Aaron Mullan of "Tall Firs").

(A bit) more here, incl. a youtube of "Groove 139", which is some groovy motorik stuff (and (therefore) awesome)
http://thequietus.com/articles/25758-michael-rother-new-box-set-solo

Those records are so, so good, completely core kraut-kosmische for me (I may actually listen to Flammende Herzen more often than Neu tbh)

I will totally take any of those first four Rother albums over anything else he ever did. Katzenmuzik is actually on my shortlist for favorite records ever.

otm - they are apex expressions of 'innigkeit'

Wish I liked these records more, but I think these three Rother albums (I've never heard the fourth) are some of the silliest and least challenging albums to emerge from the whole Krautrock scene: "Sonnenrad" is lovely, yes, but every other Rother track is like a less-good version of that one ("Stromlinien," for instance, is nearly identical). Katzenmusik is one idea spread across an entire album. The brittle guitar sound on songs like "Karussell" reminds me of The Cars or something, and not in a good way. Compared to an immediate contemporary such as, say, Manuel Gottsching (whose run of albums between '77 and '79 mops the floor with anything Rother ever did, including Neu!), Rother hardly rates. Every Rother solo tune sounds like he's about to break into the melody of "Modern Love" by Bowie at any moment; every song.

Sorry, rant over. I'm still bitter about being convinced to buy those Water reissues a decade ago

LOL totally disagree but totally love your skewering anyway

Yes, total bollocks. Having said that, I always think the Rother albums are a bit on the bland side, a bit too nice, I prefer La Dusseldorf. I love his guitar playing though. I like Ashra too, but they're bland too.

although I raved about "Zyklodrom" above from memory some 14 blink-of-an-eye years back, when I listened again to Flammende Herzen the track that still did it for me was/is "Feuerland", with its smears of sound and fatigued/winded drum sound (which reminds me of JD's Closer, e.g. "Passover"). I suspect that Martin Hannett was listening closely, just as "Oasis" on Ash Ra's Correlations invents Durutti Column a year early.

Every Rother solo tune sounds like he's about to break into the melody of "Modern Love" by Bowie

haha oh wow

I listened to these again last night after reading the thread and agree they do sound a little enervated - like echoes of previous work, work in which he was more immanent. I do love the title track of Flammende Herzen - that and Feuerland.

"Oasis" on Ash Ra's Correlations invents Durutti Column a year early.

This is true btw.

Stromlinien is my favourite thing he's ever done, like a krautrock Shadows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvDmbjqPfb8

idk about enervated/not immanent

the michael rother albums are 'redeemed' music, not 'struggle' music. It is their core identity to be thus. Deluxe and Neu! are at least partly struggle music.

(classic examples of redeemed music/struggle music for context: mozart/beethoven, early stravinsky/mid period stravinsky, david sylvian/scott walker, kottke/fahey)

He'd definitely had a Hank Marvin thing going on.

early/mid stravinsky are the wrong way around in what I just typed

the michael rother albums are 'redeemed' music, not 'struggle' music. It is their core identity to be thus. Deluxe and Neu! are at least partly struggle music.

I like this explanation; I need to think about it. I suppose I instinctively find the former more engaging, where the latter can seem a little programmatic.

yeah it really depends; i have music from either type that reduces me to a shuddering jelly

This is the thing - I'm not against redemptive at ALL; in fact, I might prefer the strange kind of ecstacy that comes with the unburdening of struggle. An obvious point, but it's always the quality of the expression.

Digging this convo
Thanks to all, as always, for tolerating my ridiculous pronouncements

Every Rother solo tune sounds like he's about to break into the melody of "Modern Love" by Bowie at any moment

that 3am manhattan vibe is a good thing imho. "modern love" is self-actualized/-redeemed blues -- "i know when to go out and when to stay in . . . it's not really work, it's just the power to charm" -- resonant like rother's solo stuff of the bittersweet relief/ennui of a world-class artist with nothing left to prove but still the impulse to create

is there a particular origin for the redeemed/struggle dichotomy?

Not entirely, it’s kind of a personal fixation, but it sprang from an interview in the wire with Scott Walker shortly after tilt came out in which Sylvian comes up and, at least the way I remember it, SW contrasted his music and Sylvian’s by describing the latter’s music as coming from a “redeemed” place. Stuck in my mind. Struggle is not a great polar twin term but you see what I’m getting at.

Found it tucked away quoted by a commenter on one of momus’ live journal posts:

He's much more of an ethereal merchant than I am. I'm a man who struggles with spirituality whereas he's given in to it. My album and the one before it is about struggle in a Dostoyevskian sense. It's a real fight for me in every line. Whereas he's given in to a state of grace.

First part of a long interview: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/02/20/39086811/german-guitar-god-michael-rother-talks-kraftwerk-neu-and-the-dubious-term-krautrock

his first four albums are re-released, also available on spotify now.

another good interview: https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2019/03/06/michael-rother-the-aquarium-drunkard-interview/
I like michael rother, he seems like a cool guy.

Played live in London earlier this month, with Thurston Moore opening. Review: https://thequietus.com/articles/26329-michael-rother-neu-live-review

Amazing setlist (4 to 9 constitute Sterntaler, but Scheisse, look the songs that make up the rest of the set!)
1. Katzenmusik 1/Katzenmusik 5/Katzenmusik 6
2. Neuschnee
3. Seeland
4. Sonnenrad
5. Blauer Regen
6. Stromlinien
7. Sterntaler
8. Fontana di Luna
9. Orchestrion
10. Deluxe (Immer Wieder)
11. Hallogallo
12. Dino
13. Negativland (with Thurston Moore)
14. E-Musik (with Thurston Moore)

oh damn, I'd pay like....20 bucks for a live album of that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtYvda-Q2Nc

that was AWESOME thank you

wow <3

it's now impossible for any vaguely avant-garde gig to happen in London without Thurston Moore showing up, apparently

Pretty much.

and an irresistible, groove-driven ‘Hallogallo’ from the first Neu! album, that gets the crowd dancing wildly. An audience member shouts out: ‘Play that one again and for longer!’

Can that clip above loop for three hours?

some days i think if sterntaler was the only music i heard for the rest of my life i'd be okay with it

today is def one of those days

never heard this before. listening now - it extremely owns

hell yes

I hadn't listened to it in a long time so I put it on now immediately my mood improved 100%. Thank you thread and Michael.

I listened to him constantly after Brexit Day - his albums (first 4) are a pure sugar rush.

He comes across in interviews as an extremely pleasant, positive and nice person - and his music mirrors his personality perfectly.

Tother is on most of my playmixes, he goes with everything

tom otm re: nice guy michael, i always feel bad for him that he had to play with certified bastard klaus dinger despite the magic of their work in neu!

Perfect combination of personalities imo.

The sober ying to Klaus' raging yang

Dude is supporting Einstürzende Neubauten in Denmark in a few months. I've been trying to persuade them to get Rother to join them onstage for a song, because wow, I think that could have a similar sober ying / raging yang dynamic. Blixa seems to like the idea, and he's actually thinking about it?

Like, the Düsseldorf school and the Berlin school colliding in such a pleasing and circle-completing way would make me so happy.

Is he still hot af @ 69 yo?

Blixa or Michael? They are both still hottttt.

Michael looks really spry and healthy, like he plays tennis every day. :D

Wopp-Wopp, new album Dreaming. Can't find anything about it apart from the pre-order page on Grönland's webshop https://www.groenland.com/product/michael-rother-dreaming-lp/

aw hell yeah

Seven disc boxset yall

That’s all great news!

As if on cue this morning, Spotify Hipster Boyfriend let me know that Michael Rother has a new album out called Dreaming.

The first track starts with a tangle of Cluster-esque electronics and soft NEU!-esque recordings of flowing water, and I am here for this!

If my recollection is correct, I believe there is a quote in that BBC documentary about Krautrock from Rother talking about living near a river his life being an influence upon their sound.

Yeah I can see that, music that both forges forward and shimmers when it's doing so.

Yeah, I think he was talking about the river at Forst, where he records - which I think Roedelius later revealed was actually contaminated with nuclear power plant radiation? But also about the way that Düsseldorf was so centred around the Rhine.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the album, and it is fantastic BTW. I remember reading an interview a while ago, about the new vocalist he was working with, but I cannot for the life of me remember her name. She does add a lovely intimacy to the record. I'm really digging it - Bitter Tang in particular is quite a good lockdown anthem.

Found the clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B8JF8CRoZc

Das ist kein Michael, das ist Ralfi! <3

Oh wait, no, there he is, indeed, talking about the flow of rivers.

Also YouTube suggestions, up next:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDEaJgZI6ZQ

(So frustrated, because I had tickets for that show, but was not able to go due to being very ill. Now I've no idea when I'll see him again - the shows with Neubauten have been delayed, too, so ...)

This is sounding perfect today: gently propulsive and soothing. Does anyone know who the female vocalist is?

He did mention her in an interview he did fairly recently, but I can't find it on the thread, which means I'm going to have to dig through Tumblr to locate it... eeep.

Ha the algo served this up to me today as well, I assumed it was just something old repackaged as a chunk of the “new music” Spotify recommends is like 60 year old jazz albums and such so it was a pleasant surprise - was very unprepared for the singer lol

https://www.self-titledmag.com/michael-rother-interview/

He did mention her in an interview he did fairly recently, but I can't find it on the thread, which means I'm going to have to dig through Tumblr to locate it... eeep.

Ugh, well the link is there :)

that is the one:

Actually, the story of Dreaming goes back to 1995, ’97, when I met this British singer and cello player…. Sophie Joiner is her name.

I was gonna say Michael Rother only has one track - it's a great track of course - but all this talk of a singer has piqued my interest

New website:
https://www.michaelrother.de/

wish he was on Bandcamp! this sounds cool.

man, i want to buy this, but with shipping it comes out to nearly $70. glad it's on spotify, but man that's disappointing.

Thanks for posting that recent interview! What a sweet, charming man he is. I didn't realize until late in life just how many things I love have his fingerprints on them.

but guys, get this: nothing matters and everyone else is crazy.

concerning rivers not sure if it has been mentioned. eno's "by this river" was written when he was with michael rother and cluster in forst in 1974 i guess. the river of the song is the weser which apparently left a deep impression on eno. a great river & hilly countryside (weserbergland) anyways.

I was gonna say Michael Rother only has one track - it's a great track of course - but all this talk of a singer has piqued my interest

This really isn't the album I was expecting, it's got that Rother melodic shimmer but it's also got a very strong Balearic beach vibe, some of the songs are like hearing a distinctive Michael Rother take on 'Flotation' or 'Barefoot In The Head'.

Also the use of space on the first few songs is amazing.

a lot of great artists just have "one track"!

roedelius riffs on “by this river” here and there on at least one of the selbsportait things.. can’t remember specifically

There are four versions of it – one 14 minutes long – on the Tape Archives release Bureau B put out a few years ago.

Hey hey, now, Michael Rother has at least *three* tracks:

-there's the fast, driving motorik one that feels like flying
-there's the soft, ambient, pretty one that feels like floating
-there's the slow, stately, majestic but anthemic one with the awesome guitar riff

It was meant as an appreciation! But yeah that's probably fair

The new album is really lovely. But vaguely suspicious I'll binge a few more times and then - to pursue the rive metaphor - it'll float on by.

This watery talk reminds me that there's a River Rother in Sussex (flows down from the Weald past Bodiam Castle and into the sea at Rye). Could do some nice walks along it just listening to Michael

Other suggestions for krautrock riverside walks:

Avon Duul
Annexus Cam

Don't forget Ash Ra Temepel and Tynegerine Dream.

Isi(s)
Sowiesosouse

Hallogallouse is probably betterer but it's a tough call.

can confirm Mr Rother was definitely amused when he was driven past the River Rother when he played ATP in camber sands... there may even be a photo of him next to a road sign.

this is awfully pretty. I think I gave up around Fernwarme and now I'm wondering if I missed something.

this is awfully pretty. I think I gave up around Fernwarme and now I'm wondering if I missed something.

I picked up the Solo ll box a week ago, and have listened to pretty much nothing else since. I try not to let reviews affect my personal engagement of music, but they frequently do. Not this time, though.

This is very pretty and melodic and everything you expect but texturally it's an absolute marvel, both on speakers and on headphones there's an incredibly tactile element to the production, you can feel every sound.

I keep coming back to this. There's something about its late 90s post-club comedown feel that's answering a need right now.

'Hey-Hey' is pure Hebden/Beth Orton.

_this is awfully pretty. I think I gave up around Fernwarme and now I'm wondering if I missed something._

Same here. I made a playlist🕸 of the tracks from _Solo II_that were singled out in the Pitchfork review 🕸and have enjoyed it quite a bit!