Sorry. I'm ok with a mod fixing it, actually. PoPOLL Vuh makes SO much more sense. I was so worried I was going to fuck up the poll by forgetting to italicize a title or something.
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Friday, 3 January 2014 21:51 (ten years ago) link
slight derail/PSA: if anyone has any fichelscher-style noodling lying around that could use some drums, i would be honored to give it a try. i do feel super weird posting that, but my philosophy is that it might work out better/safer than craigslist or trying to find like-minded people purely by chance. thank you for reading this PSA.
also the title has a spelling error so i agree with fixing it
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 3 January 2014 21:53 (ten years ago) link
LL i will provide this! When I play fingerstyle on my danelectro (ie no pick) i tend to get fichelscherische. I'll send it along with the fear bff overdub I owe you!
xposts my favorite for Danny shreddage is Herz aus Glas. Closely followed by LT-LN. And of course the Amon Duul records he plays on.
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Friday, 3 January 2014 22:27 (ten years ago) link
I need little encouragement to do those little bagpipey pull-off/hammer-on flutters he loves so much
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Friday, 3 January 2014 22:28 (ten years ago) link
:) awesome!!
i need little encouragement to go nuts with the cymbals
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 3 January 2014 22:30 (ten years ago) link
Aguirre sounds really great on headphones when you're walking around Paris on a cold night.
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Friday, 3 January 2014 22:37 (ten years ago) link
May I also put a vote in for Tantric Songs? Hugely underrated!
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 3 January 2014 22:40 (ten years ago) link
I'm afraid I'll be the only vote for Das Hohelied Salomos. That plus LT-LN are the peak for me.
― J. Sam, Friday, 3 January 2014 22:44 (ten years ago) link
I have too many gaps in my collection to really make an informed decision but right now it's gonna be Das Hohelied Salomos (xp!) or Aguirre probably. Maybe it's time to pick up Seligpreisung and Einsjäger Siebenjäger and see if they blow my mind.
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Friday, 3 January 2014 22:44 (ten years ago) link
Those are both mindblowers, so probably!
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Saturday, 4 January 2014 01:02 (ten years ago) link
I just listened to Heart of Glass, and it's pretty awesome.
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Saturday, 4 January 2014 01:05 (ten years ago) link
W/r/t fischelsher... J. Mascis started out in drums as well.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Saturday, 4 January 2014 01:10 (ten years ago) link
Kinda like PV the less chord changes there are (my preference is for none tbh) and more droney/ mantric (is that a word?) the music, so my fave period is 1976-81, that covers the amazing sort of raga rock of "Letzte Tage" and "Herz aus Glas" and the phenomenal pholk rock of "Bruder" and "Tantric Songs". "Sei Still" is something else altogether, it just isn't like anything else (a bit like "Aguirre" in that regard). It's unfortunate that "Agape" is produced in such a flat way as it could easily have stretched my fave period out to 1983.
Beginning to think "Singet, denn der Gesang vertreibt die Wölfe" is my ultimate PV track, even though Florian Fricke isn't even on it!
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Saturday, 4 January 2014 16:00 (ten years ago) link
My people
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 16:34 (ten years ago) link
Vuh Tang Clan
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 18:05 (ten years ago) link
When I say Vuh you say Tang
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 18:28 (ten years ago) link
Affen in the backready to attack
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 18:33 (ten years ago) link
In Den Gärten Shaolin
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Saturday, 4 January 2014 18:48 (ten years ago) link
Ok so I obtained flacs of the Spalax version of Nosferatu today and am listening to them at the snowy bus stop now. In the other thread I mentioned that the spv reissue of this sounded distorted to me but I didn't have the Spalax to compare. Now I do: the Spalax sounds great, miles better than the spv. So my running tally of vuh discs to "accept only Spalax" is Nosferatu and LT-LN. Have yet to hear the spv of einsjager to compare to Spalax. While most of the spv I've heard are fine, none of them are improvements over Spalax editions.
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 20:38 (ten years ago) link
Also this (Nosferatu OST) is such a bizarre three headed PV item. You've got eastwest chamber vuh, haunted electronics florian, and majestically strumming Danny all on one platter.
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 20:42 (ten years ago) link
I might guess that after bruder des schattens was scrapped for the film, fricke went ahead and stitched the new OST together from odds and sods? Or even bibs and bobs?
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 20:44 (ten years ago) link
How do the Wah Wah vinyl reissues rate, sound wise? I just ordered a few and may get some more.
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:35 (ten years ago) link
anyone here actually read the popol vuh book? you know, the mayan one?
― tylerw
I've read the book, but outside of a handful of songs I've only heard the band's soundtrack albums. What's a good starting point for their other work?
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:39 (ten years ago) link
You should hear Heart of Glass or Eins/Siebenjager imo. I think you'd like the Fichelscher-heavy stuff.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:44 (ten years ago) link
Also I think the sound on the reissued LPs is pretty great, but I'm so accustomed to listening via headphones that it was nice to just hear the records being played in a room.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:45 (ten years ago) link
Thanks, milady. Will start with those two.
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:46 (ten years ago) link
I guess one of those is a soundtrack album but you should listen to it again.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:50 (ten years ago) link
can someone explain to me the appeal of this band?is there a chance for a person who don't like Ambient to like them?
― nostormo, Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:57 (ten years ago) link
There's a sampler from the spv reissues ineptly titled "70s Progressive Rock" maybe that's a good taster.
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:58 (ten years ago) link
Xpost yes indeed just try the ones LL just named
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 21:59 (ten years ago) link
is there a chance for a person who don't like Ambient to like them?
yes, because many of their records are not "ambient" -- try anything between 73 and 76 -- i think someone looking for not-ambient PV could find a lot to like in there
again, one of the things that i like most about this band is their use of rhythm even when the rhythmic elements aren't foregrounded. it's difficult (impossible for me) to ignore the role of rhythm in PV, even when it's very very very slow.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 22:12 (ten years ago) link
thanks!xpost
also Letzte Tage, Letzte Nächte: i heard Last Days Last Nights which sounds like Amon Dull only spacier
― nostormo, Saturday, 4 January 2014 22:13 (ten years ago) link
Anyone who likes the Fichelscher years and hasn't heard Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee needs to listen to it immediately. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USsLGeadwg
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 22:15 (ten years ago) link
About 15 or 20 years ago a bought a big pile of PVuh CDs off a friend (for £2 each!), so I can never remember which album is which as I heard them all at the same time. I just think of them in the same way I think of 1970s Miles Davis, as basically one long song spread over 15 albums or so.
nosferatu is really boring, post-that is especially dire, check out "sei still wisse ich bin" if you don't believe― the late great, Tuesday, December 31, 2013 3:11 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalinkvoted "sei still wisse ich bin"― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Friday, January 3, 2014 4:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― the late great, Tuesday, December 31, 2013 3:11 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
voted "sei still wisse ich bin"
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Friday, January 3, 2014 4:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Me too!
― bleak strategies (Matt #2), Saturday, 4 January 2014 22:27 (ten years ago) link
That was on Klaus Schulze's label and ran at 45rpm, my copy of it was a terrible pressing iirc.
― bleak strategies (Matt #2), Saturday, 4 January 2014 22:28 (ten years ago) link
Hey just wanna say thanks folks, all recs noted and welcome!
― grandavis, Saturday, 4 January 2014 23:51 (ten years ago) link
from my little knowledge, i'll vote to Letze Tage:
awesome album that takes the Ash Ra Temple/Amon Duul thing into a new level of proto-dream goth pop.(Einsjäger & Siebenjäger is too proggy to my taste and i'm not an ambient fan)
― nostormo, Sunday, 5 January 2014 22:43 (ten years ago) link
Voted Sei Still, too! It's the most otherworldly to my ears and I think the choral stuff + massive digital reverb is a positive addition to the overall PV aesthetic. Einsjager and Letze Tage came close, though.
― liam fennell, Monday, 6 January 2014 12:59 (ten years ago) link
I listen to a ton of Popol Vuh and would love to take more of an active role in this thread, but thinking about their music for me is like trying to recall a dream. I remember experiencing it but beyond the vague feel of it I can't really describe what happened.
― tench and pike, scaup and snipe (NickB), Monday, 6 January 2014 13:07 (ten years ago) link
Actually I mostly listen to them lying in bed so that might be the reason.
haha
that's what i meant about the headphones vs LPs -- listening to this music in a room with people other than myself present is a pretty new phenomenon.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Monday, 6 January 2014 15:14 (ten years ago) link
kind of shocked how little love Hosianna Mantra is getting. Heart of Glass is my second favorite so I get where you all are coming from, but HM is so incredibly beautiful.
― rob, Tuesday, 7 January 2014 02:32 (ten years ago) link
i agree. it was the second album of theirs i heard after garten and remains one of my favorites.
― fit and working again, Tuesday, 7 January 2014 04:24 (ten years ago) link
I voted Hosianna!
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Tuesday, 7 January 2014 05:54 (ten years ago) link
Um, any love for Yoga? I must give it a second listen one of these days (note: the first listen was decades ago).
― bleak strategies (Matt #2), Tuesday, 7 January 2014 10:40 (ten years ago) link
Listening to a lot of these again, I like Seligpreisung a little less than I remembered and Einsjäger & Siebenjäger a lot more than I remembered.
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Tuesday, 7 January 2014 21:46 (ten years ago) link
i've never heard yoga.
Quoting from an interview Fricke gave to Eurock.com: "YOGA is an unauthorized release. Some Indian musicians visited me in my studio, and somebody else took the tapes and sold them under the name of Popol Vuh, but it had nothing to do with Popol Vuh, really. I'm playing harmonium, and organ. I think it was released in Italy."
― fit and working again, Tuesday, 7 January 2014 22:03 (ten years ago) link
Maybe this is off topic (this being a poll, and there being a s/d thread already), but is there any decent (non-web) literature out there on this band? I know there are a few Fricke anecdotes in the Herzog book, and I'm sure Cope talks about Popol Vuh in Krautrocksampler (which I've never actually read), but has there ever been a sort of Our Band Could Be Your Life kinda thing about this scene?
There's this, about which I know nothing:
http://www.amazon.com/Krautrock-Cosmic-Rock-Its-Legacy/dp/1906155666/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389139516&sr=8-1&keywords=krautrock
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Wednesday, 8 January 2014 00:09 (ten years ago) link
i still haven't gotten over the cover art for the second album
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 8 January 2014 00:14 (ten years ago) link
Aside from reviews of some of their albums there isn't much about Popol Vuh in Cope's book.
― fit and working again, Wednesday, 8 January 2014 01:06 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, I remember liking that one more than I did when I listened to it again recently
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Sunday, 2 February 2014 02:15 (ten years ago) link
I'm glad someone else likes Messa di Orfeo!
― with hidden noise, Sunday, 2 February 2014 18:57 (ten years ago) link
Kind of surprised "In Den Gärten Pharaos" won this tbh. Anyway I came here to say "Meditation" by Eberhard Schoener sounds very like that early electronic side of Popol Vuh, which is not that suprising as it was recorded in the same studio Popol Vuh used, on (I'm almost certain) the same equipment, some of the sounds used are pretty much identical.
― Let's Get Ready to Trimble (Tom D.), Saturday, 30 July 2022 12:07 (two years ago) link
I guess In Den Gärten Pharaos (and Affenstunde) stand alone in the catalogue; people who like that electronic side of the band have only those to pick from, whereas the remaining records feel like variants on a different template (whether vocal or instrumental, rocking or contemplative).
Of the eleven I've heard, I might pick Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächt for its concision and breadth.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 30 July 2022 13:11 (two years ago) link