Watch this video with german rock band Birth Control performing the tune Gamma Ray, one of their most successfull songs. This is a concert from the 1970s and belongs to what people outside of Germany called Krautrock, referring to Kraut which is typical german food.
The band played in the progressive rock tradition and in this video clip is performing a concert for the german television channel WDR which organized yearly rock concerts for live transmission throughout the late seventies and early eighties. This version of the song shows only the first part of the song, usually there would begin a drum solo when this clip ends …
Electronic Music Band Tangerine Dream Performing Kiew Mission
This video clip presents the german electronic rock band Tangerine Dream with Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Johannes Schmoelling performing Kiew Mission which is the opening track from their LP Exit. This album was released in the early 1980s and illustrates the band’s concept. It is interesting to know that Tangerine Dream was a very experimental group in the sense that they always did improvise their concerts, so the same tune never sounded the same. Of course, there is always a well defined theme and mood in each of the pieces.
Tangerine Dream is stil active in the entertainment business and the band’s latest album is called The Five Atomic Seasons. It is a musical journey accomanying Mr. H. T. to an old Zen Monastery where he is getting introduced to the secrets of life and death. Tangerine Dream has been releasing several new albums in the last years and they are DVDs rather than CDs (Let’s forget the LPs belonging to another epoche of entertainment.)
Tangerine Dream’s Bandleader is Edgar Froese who has been experimenting with electronic sounds since the 1970s. The band has always used synthesizers and belongs together with Can to the first generation of german rock groups in the electronic music field while people like Karlheinz Stockhausen had been experimenting with electronic sounds since the synthesizer appeared in the music instrument stores. However, Stockhausen is ‘serious’ composer, he has studied composition on the conservatory. We have posted about him in this blog, see the video clip with his composition Kontakte.
Can – German Electronic Music Band Playing Chain Reaction
Can is a german electronic music band from the early days of this rock music genre. Watch this video with the song Chain Reaction, music from 1974. You will listen to music which could be a production from the present days, however, this german rock group did this more than 30 years ago. It is avant-garde music even though Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most important composers experimenting with electronic and synthetic sounds, didn’t get very excited when he listened to the music of Can. That’s just because they belong to the field of rock music while Stockhausen belongs to what is called ‘serious music’ or concert music.
The german group was not very popular due to the experimental character of their music, but they had and have their audience. In fact, the music is quite interesting, specially if you consider the time it was made. There weren’t many computers out there…
The song of this video is from the album Soon Over Babaluma which contains interesting elements. It is full of ethnomusicology experiments that would become hugely popular in rock music of the 80s as well as proto dance, techno, big beat music that would become tremendously popular in the 90s. Fortunately the band is still known among the musicians who are interested in quality music and sound exploration and many bands of the 80s and 90s mention Can as a band that has influenced their music.
For those of you who would like to watch more videos with music of the german avant-garde rock music band Can, we recommend a visit to the fiesta-musical.com site where you can find clips with the band performing live on stage as well as documentary videos about their work.
Music and Video Guide 