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Hi,
Been listening and loving Ash Ra Tempel/Ashra since 1973 or so ... and this has always been a special part of my life in listening to music. And a year later or so, it became one of the mainstays, in Guy Guden's Space Pirate Radio show, for many years, along side of Klaus, Edgar, TD, PV, AD2 and many others.
It's hard for me to sit here, and not enjoy these things ... just watched a film with Robert Redford (The Company You Keep) and my look at all that music THEN, is just as strong NOW, as it ever was. Some folks don't care for "7-UP", but its appeal, was almost as wide open and imaginary as so much stuff in those days ... but there is one thing in there that is really special, that everyone here "ignores", because it requires a magical historical sense to appreciate it ... when the narrator talks about matching the high fidelity of music with the German technology ... to create something new ... and guess what those folks did? That line might express what a lot of music in those days was going through ... but in one sentence, it tells you what Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and a lot of the exprimental scene was doing in those days, that we do not remember, we were too damn stoned?, and have not discussed properly for what it was, other than just some stupid and poorly designed music, when it is not about its "design", but about its feeling and its continuing expression.
Never, has anyone noticed, that sad inability to learn what the music was about in the first place ... not just the notes and the chords ... but the tangibles behind it that created the music in the first place!
Maybe the sexy appeal of a piece in "JOIN INN", or the apparent fun playing around in "STARRING ROSI", and then, the pair of albums that really gave you a notion that this was more than just a stoned exercise in music ... but something serious. I always got the feeling that this was music for the body to appreciate and enjoy at that special time, in our younger days ... which we have so conveniently forgotten, because we "grew up", and do not enjoy life anymore!
"INVENTIONS FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR" and the next album "NEW AGE OF EARTH", were both outstanding and showed that there was something really valuable here ... I like to think of IFEG as a sort of Klaus Schulze done with guitars ... and some things are trully wonderful in it, and then, on the next album, one of the trully magical experiences in listening to anything ... for me, it was one of the very first "new age" albums ever done, before "ambient" became the mode and the fad.
Many folks like the later material, which is more Manuel on his own performing, whereas the earlier material before these last two, was with a band. Manuel states that he is a "live performer", but what you get on almost all the albums before, is exactly that. Even the material on the Cosmic Couriers, which gets trashed all over and doesn't deserve it (specially the COSMIC JOKERS album), stands out for its "live" performance, which shows the incredible dedication to the feeling of the moment, and its sweet expression, something that you have to be patient to be able to enjoy ... and how it takes you apart and away on a smooth trip ... COSMIC JOY indeed, and it was one of Guy's background pieces for many years, because there are not many pieces of music that can flow and fly so smoothly, and quietly ... and not sound like musak, or new age later stuff.
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