Ash Ra Tempel
Ash Ra Tempel (or Ashra as they were later to be known) were my gateway to the wonderful world of krautrock. I was told by a sales clerk at my favorite record store in Montreal that their self-titled album was his absolute favorite album from the genre. I went on to explore many other records from that era and others have become favorites, but Ash Ra Tempel's first remains a top five. To this day I still believe that it was an inspiration to the whole Godspeed You Black Emperor sound. Their are similarities in the way the notes are drawn out and melodies slowly shape up through the hazy sounds. Other groups worth mentioning who have been influenced by these german pioneers are Acid Mothers Temple (who not only used a variation of the name, but also the sound with their overdriven guitar shenanigans) and Hash Jar Tempo (who also played around with the name but were more focused on the druggy side of the band).
Ash Ra Tempel usually play their own brand of long acid jams which normally last around twenty minutes. Often there will be one practically ambient jam and a "freak-out" one. The former tracks play a lot with reverb and drones, with Manuel Göttsching's guitar slowly swelling to the surface and disappearing into the thick sounds, while the latter usually build up quite rapidly in a frenzy of distorted guitar solos straight out of an illuminated mind. Indeed, the psychedelic factor is really high (no pun intended) on Ash Ra Tempel's early records and this probably lead to their collaboration with LSD guru Timothy Leary on their infamous Seven Up album. There's no other group quite like them in the whole krautrock scene, and even though there are others well worthy of investigating... these guys are definitely one of the top five most important groups of the scene.
Ash Ra TempelLabel: Spalax Music Release: 1971 Format: CD Cat. no: 14244 |
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Join InnLabel: Spalax Music/Cleopatra Records Release: 1972 Format: CD Cat. no: CLP 1258-2 |
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