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Ghosts of Jam Bands Past
Edited by Sister Mary Carmen

Why Kosmiche Musik?

I wasn't always listening to Kosmich musik, in fact it took a bit of time before I was introduced to it. Before I had always liked the ultra-energized, sometimes loud, a lot of times gratuitous, wailing guitar solos found in a lot of "Classic Rock." I have to admit that I was getting a little bored. The day my dad handed me a Can album could not have come at a more perfect moment.

I need to digress for a moment to better explain my position. I always felt as though I was a weird girl because I loved music. In high school my world revolved around music. I am not talking about the normal dance or rap music that all my classmates loved. I mean the trippy psychedelic, rock and roll that only about five other people I knew liked.

I would talk about music all the time and it didn't take me very long to figure out that most people had no idea what i was talking about. I learned something very important in high school: there is a difference between listening to music and really listening to music. We all know people who "just don't get it" (be honest, you know you say this about at least one person on a daily basis). They are the people who you could play the entire album, "The Who Sells Out" (this is just an example, insert your favorite album here) and after it is finished playing, their only response is, "Yeah, so?" This phenomenon killed me in high school and to some extent it still kills me today in college.

Some people I know hate going to concerts with me because they tend to feel left out of the whole experience. This is probably due to the fact that I nearly assault my companions with my excitement during performances and most of the time, they don't understand where I am coming from. I have been known to breakdown in tears at certain shows (Nassau Coliseum, 4-4-98 comes to mind) because I am so moved by the music. I can understand how this behavior can be intimidating to those who don't understand the relationship between emotion and music. What I mean by understand is that they have repeatedly had emotional experiences while listening to music. In my mind this is the purpose of music; to elicit an emotional response from the listener.

So what does this have to do with me and Kosmiche musik? Like I mentioned three parahraphs ago, I was bored with a lot of the music I was listening to and really wanted a change. My father was already "in the know" about Kosmiche musik and had tried a couple of times to get me to listen. Finally out of desperation, I walked downstairs one day and asked my dad to hand me something that would blow my mind. He handed me Can's "Soundtracks" which he felt was a great album and an easily accessible introduction to Kosmiche musik. To get right to the point, the album blew me away and I quickly converted, becoming a diehard Kosmiche fan.

I would like to use "Soundtracks" as my example because this was the album that started it all for me, and because I think it is an album that a lot of people have heard of and can get a copy of fairly easily (Can's albums have all been re-released and I have seen them in Border's).

I want to primarily focus on the song, "Mother Sky", the 14-minute driving splendor on side two. This song was everything i thought music could be and more. It is an excellent example of the type of trips Kosmiche musik takes you on. I tend to compare it to sex. Other music is just foreplay, it gets you revved up, excited, interested, but just when you are enjoying it, it stops and leaves you hanging. Kosmiche songs are exactly like good sex. There is an opening segment that tickles you, getting you interested, things then get hot and heavy, then bizarre and intense and the song peaks, giving you an aural orgasm, and then there is the basking in bliss part that either lets you down easy, or goes back in for more. This is what I find amazing about this sound.

"Mother Sky" is a perfect illustration of this metaphor. Take my advice, get a copy of "Soundtracks", put yourself in a nice cozy place, where you can get sucked into the music (those of you who need the help of mind altering substances, feel free, you'll love the album even more), I suggest headphones for the optimum experience, and put side two of the album on. Just focusing on Michael Karoli's guitar playing, which tends to be both howling and savage on this tune is enough for you to experience the true mindfuck that this song, this band, this music truly is. This is the Kosmiche version of "LA Woman" folks, it is a droning, savage, raw, urband song. The rhythm section of Holger Czukay on bass and Jaki Leibiezeit on drums, drives this song right through your brain. When people ask me why I listen to Kosmiche musik i tend to throw them a copy of this album.

I feel the need to discuss my other favorite Kosmiche musik band, Ash Ra Tempel. ash Ra tempel were the quintessential German power trio. Forget the German part, they were the quintessential power trio, period. I was delighted and somewhat freaked out by a bizarre coincidence that occurred while i was reading Julian Cope's "Krautrock Sampler." In his chapter on Ash Ra Tempel, he refers to a passage in Iggy Pop's autobiographical book, "I Need More." The coincidence is that both of us found the same sentence extremely important. Me enough to have it hanging on my wall and Cope enough to quote it in his book (heh, weird minds think alike). When writing about the early Stooges's sound, Iggy Pop states:

"But what we had put into 10 minutes was so total and so very savage, the earth shook, then cracked, and swallowed all misery whole."

I always thought this sentence was extremely accurate in describing kosmiche musik. This idea was at the core of Ash Ra Tempel's music. Under the guidance of cult record company producer, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, whose method was to find the musicians, dose them with acid, stand back, and record. Ash Ra tempel makes good on the promise of creating music that swallows all misery whole. The first four Ash Ra Tempel albums are flawless (IMHO).

Ash Ra Tempel's first album was huge. Each musician reached into their essenceof being and placed what they found directly into the music, creating 20-minute plus songs. Juliam Cope describes the playing on the first album much more eloquently than I can:

"On "Amboss" Klaus Schultze plays drums like a hundred drummers. He's not twice as powerful, he's a hundred times as powerful. Harmut Enke, the spiritual leader of the band, hits his Gibson bass the way only a giant could: the huge extra-longnecked she-bass was courted, cajoled and ultimately goosed into action by this huge handsome freak they called The hawk. And Manuel Gottsching plays blues like Clapton, but right alongside preemptive Keith Levine white noise and egoless as Lou reed's "Live 1969" rhythm guitar freakouts. The interplay is so intuitive that frequently it's impossible to hear the instruments - you just hear the music." (Cope, 73)

What else can i say except get yourself a copy of this album. The important information:

Ash Ra Tempel: "First" (or simply known as Ash Ra Tempel) Ohr Records
Harmut Enke: bass and electronics
Klaus Schultze: drums and electronics
Manuel Gottsching: guitar and electronics

In the last issue, I wrote that Flying saucer Attack wrote two songs entitled Amon duul I and Amon duul II. This was a mistake, Imust have had Amon duul on the brain. the correct song titles are Popul Vuh I and Popul Vuh II (hey, they sound the same, give me a break.) Anyway, thanks goes to my dad for pointing out my mistake.

There exists a net digest called the Isi-Digest, that is all about Kosmiche musik. The contributors and discussion is very inteligent and everyone is very knowledgeable. to get information on how to subscribe send a message to majordomo@kuci.org with thw words "info isi" in the message body.

I got a couple of really nice emails of encouragement and appreciation about this collumn. Two people that come to mind are Bob Makin and Fred Mills the listmaster of the isi-dgest. I just wanted to publically say thank you for your support.

As always I am looking for your contributions. If you like a Kosmiche band or a band that you feel has been influenced by the Kosmiche scene, please feel free to write something and submit it. I would love to publish your work here.