Recently I felt really stuck with how was I writing music.  I felt like my beats were sort of reflective and dull.  I was talking with my friend Jaqueline from 0th and we were reminiscing about old times in SF.  A couple of times I hung in her art studio while she was quilting vinyl and we would bond over Cluster…..specifically the Zuckerzeit album.  I searched my mp3′s and found the record and listened to it four times until I fell asleep.  It blew up my brain.  I have listened to it 5000 times and I felt like I was listening to it for the first time.

Cluster (Hans Joachim-Roedelius/Deiter Mobieus/Conny Plank) are a seminal krautrock/electronic pop/ambient group from 1970s’ Germany.  They were also in a band with Brian Eno called Harmonia, a ground breaking ambient group. Clusters’ 1974 album Zuckerzeit seems to be timeless.  It is impossible to tell if this record was made 35 years ago or 5 minutes in the future.  Julianne Cope of Tear Drop Explodes (and Krautrock expert/author) hails that Zuckerzeit is one of the best Krautrock records ever recorded.

Zuckerzeit is a collaboration between Cluster and Michael Rother of Neu!.  Rother’s influence on this record is apparent when listening to its Motorik, repetitive and rhythmic, influence.  The Collaboration between Cluster and Rother perfectly highlights Clusters’ melodic sensibility/synth design with Rother’s rhythmic perfection.  It is so fucking good.  This record influenced all that is electronic music.

A couple of years ago Cluster toured the US.  I saw them in SF at Great American Music Hall and it was probably one of the best decisions I have made.

basically just listen to this record…and I love Krautrock…