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
There are so damnably few resources on PV and Fricke. Maybe in German...?
For about a decade when the CDs were expensive and hard to get (in the nineties up to file sharing) my PV bible was the little write ups of all the discs in the (print) forced exposure catalog.
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 8 January 2014 02:25 (ten years ago) link
I memorized those and dreamed of what the music would sound like.
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 8 January 2014 02:26 (ten years ago) link
Not exactly non-web literature, but this is worth a read : http://www.furious.com/perfect/populvuh.html
― bleak strategies (Matt #2), Wednesday, 8 January 2014 10:33 (ten years ago) link
I remember our v. own Tom D doing an excellent Popul Vuh alb rundown somewhere on this board
Feel like a bit of an outlier on this thread, in that while I like most of the PV recs I've heard, Einsjäger & Siebenjäger is by some distance my fave - such an uplifting rec
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 8 January 2014 11:30 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Saturday, 1 February 2014 00:01 (ten years ago) link
btw if anyone is still looking for copies of those Wah Wah reissues, Fusetron just listed a few!
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Saturday, 1 February 2014 12:43 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Sunday, 2 February 2014 00:01 (ten years ago) link
Winner is sorta shocking here! The rest makes sense except for 0 votes for Seligpreisung and Cobra Verde.
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Sunday, 2 February 2014 00:08 (ten years ago) link
Aw, Agape Agape deserves more than 0.
― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Sunday, 2 February 2014 01:09 (ten years ago) link
the winner is the album most pick tbh
― ۩, Sunday, 2 February 2014 01:15 (ten years ago) link
Really? Ah, man, I like those first two but, err...had no idea people rated IDGP so highly. I should listen again.
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Sunday, 2 February 2014 01:20 (ten years ago) link
It's the second side -- it's totally grandiose and captivating. Respectable choice!
― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Sunday, 2 February 2014 01:27 (ten years ago) link
Glad my two favorites were tied in votes too.
― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Sunday, 2 February 2014 01:28 (ten years ago) link
I bought Seligpresung and have been listening to it! But while it is pretty, it didn't move ahead of Aguirre or Heart of Glass for me.
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Sunday, 2 February 2014 01:31 (ten years ago) link
Seligpreisung that is
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