RIYL: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Air, Cavern of Anti-Matter, Neu!, Marcos Valle, Todd Terje, Klaus Dinger, Blank Realm.

FOURTH album from the Swiss duo. Six years have passed since Swiss-based duo Klaus Johann Grobe's last long player "Du bist so symmetrisch" (2018) and you'll hear they've come a long way. "Io tu il loro", their fourth album for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records was written over two weeks in a cabin at the very end of a remote Swiss valley, where - pretty much at the same place - Klaus Johann Grobe came up with their whole debut full-length "Im Sinne der Zeit" album in 2014. What started out as simply making music again quickly turned into seriously making a new album. Once decided, the whole thing was finished rather quickly and recorded once again at David Langhard's Dala Studio at the end of 2022.

"Io tu il loro" is a record that cannot be done by endlessly fiddling around with hundreds of ideas and sounds. All it needed was a real break (Dani and Sevi didn't work on any Grobe related stuff until they met up in the mountains in 2022). It's an album with a blurry vision and soft limitations. You can somehow feel them looking back on all their work forgivingly and then moving on to what felt right. So here we are with nine tracks full of embracing warmth, so melancholicly welcoming you don't know if you want to smile or cry. Some might call it timeless, some might call it dad-rock... well, it certainly isn't disco for the masses, it's more like, "If I can't make myself dance after four beers, I can as well go home." So, no disco? No syncopated synths? No German? No reverb? Where's The Grobe? Take your time, you'll notice Klaus Johann Grobe aren't gone, they just took a turn before driving yet into another unknown. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Highway High
2. Getting Down To Adria
3. Never Going Easy
4. When You Leave
5. Try
6. Bay Of Love
7. Io Sempre Di Tu
8. Better Do
9. You Gave It All 

Behold! Yes, Blue Butterfly, one of the absolute stunners on the revered Selected Sound label is finally available for all the beat-heads. Heavyweight library funk with a psychedelic touch, the super in-demand Blue Butterfly from *deep breath* Hardy's Jet Band, Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff, Jan Troysen Band and Orchestra Gary Pacific - was originally released in 1971. Incredibly ahead of its time, it's been rare and sought-after for decades.

For many aficionados, this is the best Selected Sound release. Loaded with fuzzy wah-wah guitar, deep flute-lines atop soulful psych-rock breakbeats and huge organ action, its uncompromising funk will blow you away. Sampled for many hip hop beats and dropped by well known rare groove DJs around the world, one jewel in particular from this glorious German vault needs little introduction. The intro to Orchestra Gary Pacific's mesmeric "Soft Wind" rides the illest, crispest drum break you've perhaps never heard - like, the drum break to end them all - alongside a smooth, deep bass line from the heavens. It featured notoriously on the beloved Dusty Fingers comps of the 90s and was brilliantly sampled by Pacewon for his eternal "Sunroof Top". Just listen and be dazzled.

Beyond this mini-masterpiece, the other killer tracks offer brilliance in abundance. Hardy's Jet Band take control of the full A side, and it's full of dynamic psych-funk bombs. Hard, "big city" industrial groovers. In particular, the initial one-two of "Sorry, Doc!" and "Wind It Up" provide thrilling funky-blues rock instrumentals showcasing relentless guitars, flutes, sax and organ, the latter containing gorgeous, hypnotic breakdowns; these tracks just slay. The title track, "Blue Butterfly" is a real deep strut of a track with fantastic soloing from guitar and flute over crisp drums whilst the highway banger "What You Call To Be Free" certainly sounds a lot like unbridled, rhythmical liberty.

On the flip, the ghost-riding "Lady In Space" is a string-drenched acid-western foxtrot. Yep. “Pop Happening” by Jan Troysen Band is a heavy, druggy psych-fuzz organ groover whilst their slow beat-organ-flute gem "A Blue Message" is a gorgeous psych floater conjuring deeply strange frontier lands. Preceding their monster "Soft Wind", the soulful, uptempo groover “Ghetto Gap” by Orchestra Gary Pacific contains solo piano and flute whilst closing out the set is the free-and-easy samba beat of "So Far".

Founded in the late 60s by German composer and musician Klaus Netzle (who recorded under the alias Claude Larson for Sonoton) Selected Sound began as a production music company specialising in jazz, orchestral and electronic recordings. You can’t miss those early LPs in their iconic glossy metallic copper sleeves with minimal German typography. Serious, classy stuff.

The audio for Blue Butterfly has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis whilst Richard Robinson has handled reproducing the glossy metallic (iconic) original Selected Sound sleeve. Essential.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Hardy's Jet Band – Sorry, Doc! (3:12)
A2 Hardy's Jet Band – Wind It Up (2:52)
A3 Hardy's Jet Band – Safari Track (2:58)
A4 Hardy's Jet Band – Look At Me (2:27)
A5 Hardy's Jet Band – Blue Butterfly (2:44)
A6 Hardy's Jet Band – What You Call To Be Free (3:03)
B1 Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff – Lady In Space (2:26)
B2 Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff – Big Beat (2:45)
B3 Jan Troysen Band – A Blue Message (3:31)
B4 Jan Troysen Band – Pop Happening (2:29)
B5 Orchestra Gary Pacific – Ghetto Gap (2:43)
B6 Orchestra Gary Pacific – Soft Wind (2:07)
B7 Orchestra Gary Pacific – So Far (1:38)

Acid Klaus, the new collaborative solo project from songwriter-producer and Northern England cult leg-end, Adrian Flanagan (The Moonlandingz, International Teachers of Pop, Eccentronic Research Council & lots more) releases his debut concept album co-produced with his music partner in the ERC, Dean Honer titled Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop Producer, Melvin Harris via Yard Act's ZEN F.C. label.

The album features contributions from Adrian’s long-time collaborators and friends including actress, Maxine Peake, US musician and video director, Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger), Maria Uzor from Sink Ya Teeth and the Bradford-born pop-noir singer (currently singing in The Specials), Hannah Hu who is joined on lap steel guitar on a track by Richard Hawley. The album is completed by a whole host of fresh and exciting artists (as well as the aforementioned Lieselot Elzinga) – there's the enigmatic Queen Bee of the Calder Valley, solo artist, Bianca Eddleston who goes under the name Soft Focus and finally from South Wales (and the current talk of the South London scene), the incredible welsh language singer-songwriter, Cat Rin.

Flanagan proclaims about the album: “I hereby herald in a masterclass of conceptual brilliance and sonic floor-shaking heroism. A record that is both mocking and hugging in its stance – a solid and weighty brick in the face to the horrid and cod sincere, brat histrionics of the easy-on-the-eye careerist indie minstrel. Where I, an invisible bruised and battered craftsman of high (and low) art for nigh on two decades is finally (and begrudgingly) held aloft like a prize-winning Champion Cock at a village fete whilst a demonically futurist/modernist B-Boy B-Girl group bring the gathered throng, deep, penetrative, body music!”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The superb Adrian Flanagan returns this week for a grooving, gritty dancefloor wonder, featuring bandmate and all-round musical polymath, Dean Hohner, Maria Uzor of Sink Ya Teeth, the wonderful Maxine Peake and MANY more. The perfect odyssey, and no surprise at all given the roster of talent. Ace.

TRACK LISTING

1. Step On My Travelator
2. Party Sized Away Day (feat Maria Uzor)
3. Bethlehem Or Bust (feat. Cat Rin)
4. Blow Your Speakers (feat. Soft Focus)
5. Crashing Cars In Ibiza (feat Maria Uzor)
6. Bad Club Bad Drugs Bad People
7. Elevate (feat. Charlotte Kemp Muhl)
8. The Three Rooms Of Nightclub Marilyn (feat Lieselot Elzinga)
9. I Used To Be A DJ In A Club (But Now I'm Just A DJ In My Bedroom)
10. My Hats On Fire (feat. Hannah Hu And Richard Hawley)
11. Eulogy To A Quiet Life (feat. Maxine Peake)

Swiss group Klaus Johann Grobe have been at it since 2012, and as they prepare to release their third album "Du Bist So Symmetrisch" (and third on Trouble In Mind), the group continues to defy description & blur the lines between electronic pop, dance music, synthesis & kosmische. "Du Bist So Symmetrisch" follows the inevitable path laid out by their previous album (the Basel Prize-winning "Spagat der Liebe"), incorporating the slinky, jazz-fusion-laced grooves populating late night clubs and braiding them together with the band's own blend of mutant electro-funk.

Driven by an organic, metronomic beat aligned with synth, chant-like vocals, and a monstrous funky bass, the music aims towards a certain kind of hypnosis, particularly as the sleeping pill echo-heavy vocals cycle over the locked grooves the pair throw down. "Du Bist..." begins with the cascading arpeggio of a synth, edging into view, before lurching into the placid dancefloor groove of the first single "Discogedanken". While the band invariably feels more at home in the club, Klaus Johann Grobe certainly aim towards the more dance-orientated arena of German music (see "Der König" or "Von Gestern"), aligning the metro pulse of Klaus Dinger and Kraftwerk's later techno work to more biological factors - like moss growing on the mainframe. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Discogedanken
2. Ja!
3. Der König
4. Sintemal 1
5. Von Gestern
6. Watte In Meinem Kopf
7. Out Of Reach
8. Du + Ich
9. Sintemal 2
10. Siehst Du Mich Noch?
11. Zu Spät
12. An Diesem Abend

History revealing compilation project centering around the legendary Front Club in Hamburg Germany that existed from the 80´s - late 90´s - a leading club in terms of music selection, mixing technique, rave culture - in a very important period of time.

Eponymous resident DJ´s Klaus Stockhausen and Boris Dlugosch take a close look back at that time, guide you through the history, the early beginnings and absolute key moments of house music club culture in Germany.

37 legendary tracks make up the CD release - many of which have not been on sale forever and a day while the vinyl, set across two volumes, selected 16 of the hardest hitting numbers for an unmixed selection for the DJs and collectors alike.

Hamburg’s Front club was already the stuff of legend, and the story is important now, 21 years later as not many peoiple know how house music infiltrated Germany to give techno some competition on the dancefloor. With Front you wouldn't have Robert Johnson or, to some extent, Parorama - house and disco simply were not celebrated in large numbers until Front, Stockhausen and Dlugosch opens minds and record boxes to the soulful sound. 

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklist: 
Disc 1 (Mixed By Klaus Stockhausen)
1. Blue Moderne – Through The Night (Dub Mix 1)
2. Connie - Funky Little Beat
3. Skyy – Show Me The Way
4. KC Flightt – Let’s Get Jazzy (Dope Dub Mix)
5. Modern Romance - Can You Move (Midnight Mix)
6. Nitro Deluxe – This Brutal House
7. Shirley Lites - Heat You Up (Melt You Down)
8. Mark Imperial - J' Adore Danser (Club Mix)
9. Mario Reyes - Whatever Turns You On (Club Mix)
10. Wired - To The Beat Of The Drum (On The Burn Mix)
11. Toyin Agbetu Presents Nemesis – After The Storm (Boris DlugoschEdit)
12. John Beltran – Aquatic
13. The Wizard & The Prince – The Wiz Is A Genius
14. Val Young – If You Should Ever Be Lonely (Street Mix)
15. Syncbeat – Music (Boris Dlugosch Edit)
16. CT Satin – I Found A Friend (Underworld Version)
17. Temper – No Favors (Dub)

Disc 2 (mixed By Boris Dlugosch)
1. Üdytü Ützeltürk And His Male Harem – Kairo
2. Answering Service – Call Me Mr. Telephone (Street Dub Mix)
3. Simphonia - You And Me (Dub)
4. Sandee – Notice Me (Notice The House Mix)
5. The 28th St. Crew – I Need A Rhythm (Vocal Club Mix)
6. Solution – Feels So Right (Original Victor Simonelli Mix)
7. Housefactors – Play It Loud
8. Fortran 5 - Heart On The Line (Bassline Mix)
9. Ralphi Rosario - An Instrumental Need (Club Need)
10. Mood II Swing Feat Lee Smith Jr – I Need Your Luv (Right Now)
11. Nick Holder – Frantic
12. Dee Dee Brave – Can’t Get Over It
13. D.O.G. – The Key (Lunar Dub)
14. The Prince & The Wizard – The Music Is Kicking
15. Fila Brazillia – Mermaids
16. Station Q – That Special Melody (Club Mix)
17. Sensory Productions - Deep Introspection
18. Hot Streak - Body Work (Vocal Mix)
19. Steve Arrington - Dancin' In The Key Of Life (Special Mix)
20. Executive - Celebrate Your Love

Vinyl Part One: Gatefold 2LP Tracklist (Unmixed)
A1. Blue Moderne – Through The Night (Dub Mix 1)
A2. Modern Romance - Can You Move (Midnight Mix)
B1. Simphonia - You And Me (Dub)
B2. Answering Service – Call Me Mr. Telephone (Street Dub Mix)
C1. Wired - To The Beat Of The Drum (On The Burn Mix)
C2. Temper – No Favors (Dub)
D1. Steve Arrington - Dancin' In The Key Of Life (Special Mix
D2. Executive - Celebrate Your Love

Vinyl Part Two: Gatefold 2LP Tracklist (Unmixed)
E1. KC Flightt – Let’s Get Jazzy (Dope Dub Mix)
E2. Toyin Agbetu Presents Nemesis – After The Storm (Boris DlugoschEdit)
E3. Dee Dee Brave – Can’t Get Over It
F1. Mark Imperial - J' Adore Danser (Club Mix)
F2. The 28th St. Crew – I Need A Rhythm (Vocal Club Mix)
G1. CT Satin – I Found A Friend (Underworld Version)
G2. Ralphi Rosario - An Instrumental Need (Club Need)
H1. D.O.G. – The Key (Lunar Dub)
H2. Fila Brazillia – Mermaids

Although "Inter*Face" wasn't a typical 80's record of mine you can notice in what era it was made. The tracks really do not sound like what the press called the "Berliner Schule". By the way, we musicians never used this term, we all just happened to live in Berlin -- myself, Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream. The Simmons drums by Ulli Schober were pretty new at the time. They weren't digital drums but I have alienated them in a way that they sounded slightly digital. The analogue sound was "forbidden" for a while during the early Eighties, and therefore, it was "forbidden" for me to sound analogue. I had already recorded a piece entitled "Death Of An Analogue" on "Dig It" [1980, No. 13 in this edition] because I didn't like the analogue sounds any more. I had exclusively worked with analogue gear for over a decade and I couldn't stand those floating oscillators, that out-of-tune sound and all the whining anymore! Today people consider that sound to be beautiful but in the 80's it was a pain in the ass. In contrast to many people who found the digital sound cold, I found it more interesting than the rumbling analogue sound just because of its clear transparency. You can use both sounds together wonderfully. Percussionist Ulli Schober lived here near the town of Celle. Ulli could also play percussively and that was exactly what I wanted on "Inter*Face". UIli came into the studio and played the fills with the Simmons drums. We met several times afterwards but we later lost touch with each other somehow. The bonus tracks "The Real Colours In The Darkness" and "Nichtarische Arie" are pretty different. The first one is very quiet, the second is pretty rhythmical because of the percussion and there are also vocals. The vocalist, incidentally, was Rainer Bloss. His primary instrument was piano but he could also sing and play the bass, and he was a qualified composer. He was educated in classical music in the former GDR. In the GDR there were the national A, B and C certificates which decided how you were classified as a musician. With the A certificate you were a hobby musician and were allowed to play at private parties, with the B certificate you were allowed to perform in small bars, but only with the C certificate were you entitled to officially call yourself a "musician" and perform in public. In that sense Bloss was a state-certified professional musician, which I noticed when working with him. When you told him to play this or sing that he could do everything! It's a pity that you don't hear anything from him anymore. 

TRACK LISTING

On The Edge
Colours In The Darkness
The Beat Planante
Inter*Face
The Real Colours In The Darkness
Nichtarische Arie (A Not So Hidden Track)

Klaus Schulze about “X“

Richard Wagner could also have been part of these musical biographies on "X". Wagner is particularly close to me because for me he was the first to create a synthesis of the arts. For instance he demanded for a composition a separate theatre where the orchestra could disappear in the pit. Therein I see an analogy to the synthesizer. Here the actual instrument is also disappearing behind a few buttons – you're hearing very much but you don't see much. But Wagner was a far too tremendous topic because then I would have had to make "X" a triple album. For this reason I had chosen only authors – except Friedemann Bach – who had influenced me very much.

Frank Herbert's novel Dune almost was a bible for me at that time! Bavarian king Ludwig II was, of course, no author but his life is a novel itself. "X" also was film music – Barracuda – I had the budget so I could afford an orchestra. However, it was really difficult to master the orchestral score. I can actually write notes – I once took also classical guitar lessons – but to write such a score is a different kind of thing. All that music I could have played within a day but on the score I worked for four weeks long. Cellist Wolfgang Tiepold was a big help since I wasn't that experienced just to say a violin can really play what I had written in the score. In the middle section of "Ludwig II." We had to make a tape loop for those repetitions. The loop reached out across the studio and the kitchen, and then we looped it. Because the musicians dropped their violins when trying to play this passage live for 15 minutes. The tape loop of course was – typical for my compositions! – 20 meters long, haha.

The bonus track "Objet d'Louis" is a live verson of "Ludwig II." using a complete orchestra. I did that in 1978 because I wanted to hear how this track sounds live on stage with an orchestra. I was on tour and also performed "Ludwig", and in Belgium there was an opportunity to perform the song in that style. A radio station wanted to broadcast the concert live. So I asked if we can do that with an orchestra. Then Tiepold rehearsed it a little bit with the orchestra, and in the evening we played it and it was broadcasted live. Now you can hear it again on the CD.

TRACK LISTING

CD 1:
Friedrich Nietzsche
Georg Trakl
Frank Herbert
Friedemann Bach

CD 2:
Ludwig II Von Bayern
Heinrich Von Kleist
Object D'Louis