Mental Experience: Cologne Curiosities – The Unknown Krautrock Underground 1972-1976 Vinyl 2LP Mental Experience

Rare krautrock sounds on vinyl for the first time ever! For Cologne Curiosities, Mental Experience digs deeper than the rest and collects a trove of unpublished/un-reissued material, originally only available on the out of print Unknown Deutschland – The Krautrock Archive CDs from 1996. The tracks here go far beyond stuff from Can, Neu, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul, etc., delving into the true underground rock sound of experimental Germany circa the mid-70’s. I have to admit, I’ve never even heard of any of the bands featured here (despite having a decent pretty krautrock collection), so this comp should be a revelation to even veteran diggers. From the label – “Toby Robinson, aka The Mad Twiddler, aka Genius P. Orridge, is well-known to krautrock collectors as one of a number of engineers working at Stockhausen’s WDR and Dierks Studio in Cologne in the mid-1970s, where he assisted on recordings by many famous kraut bands such as Can, Birth Control, Mythos and Dzyan. The recordings included here were made between 1972 and 1976 using studios in and around Cologne, produced by Toby Robinson for his own amusement. Bands would come in for practice sessions, to record demos, and during slack periods, impromptu jams would happen. Most of these sessions were recorded by Toby, and they feature Toby himself plus a revolving cast of friends and musicians (some of them apparently big kraut names under pseudonym). Including lost-in-time bands/studio projects like Astral Army, Fuerrote, Spirulina and Baal among others, the music here ranges from killer proto-new wave kraut psych to wild space rock, proto-ambient electronic, dark psychedelia and raw kosmische sounds with lots of analog synths/Moog. It was during that time in Cologne, that Toby, along with Fluxus artist Robin Page, gave birth to the mysterious and controversial Pyramid label, for which these tracks were originally made for.” Recorded and remastered from the original master tapes and comes with insightful liner notes by Alan Freeman (Ultima Thule, The Crack In The Cosmic Egg). Recommended.

• 24–bit remaster from the original master tapes
• insert with liner notes by Alan Freeman
• digital download included
• music label: Mental Experience 2016

reviewed by 9th Circle 10/2016