Scratch Newsletter - November 3, 1999
Two New Releases on Scratch: D. Moebius and French Paddleboat
Out this weekend are two brand new releases on the Scratch label by D.
Moebius (an old German) and French Paddleboat (a teenager from Kelowna).
Info below.
Artist: D. MOEBIUS
Title: Blotch
Format: CD
Release Date: November 9, 1999
Catalogue #: SCRATCH # 32
Bar Code: 7 5971801322 1
Dieter Moebius was born in Switzerland in 1944. He studied art in Brussels
and Berlin. There he met Roedelius and Schnitzler. In 1969 the three
founded the group Kluster. After 2 years and 3 records Roedelius and
Moebius continued as Cluster and a never ending tour through the whole
universe began. Moebius has always been more interested in straight forward
motor or handmade rhythms and the use of electronic, eccentric and
unpredictable machine noises.
Moebius' solo works or his collaborations with Plank, Beerbohm, Neumeier
and Renziehausen illustrate his passion for strange sounds.
Blotch is the second Moebius solo album. The first was Tonspuren in 1983.
Before, between and after there were and are a lot of collaborations with
various artists.
Blotch was produced in March and April of 1999 in Moebius' minimal studio
in Berlin. Performed with a Korg Prophecy and a EMU Orbit it was recorded
with a Yamaha 8 track cassette recorder and finally perfectly mastered by
Tim Story in Ohio, USA. The final track is a duet with Tim Story.
Discography
1970 Klopfzeichen (Kluster)
1971 Kluster II and Kluster and Eruption (Kluster)
1971 Cluster (Cluster)
1972 Cluster 2 (Cluster)
1973 Musik von Harmonia (Harmonia)
1974 Zuckerzeit (Cluster)
1975 Harmonia de Luxe (Harmonia)
1976 Sowieso (Cluster)
1977 Cluster & Eno (Cluster & Eno)
1978 Liliental (Moebius & friends)
1979 After The Heat (Cluster & Eno)
1979 Grosses Wasser (Cluster)
1979 Rastakrautpasta (Moebius & Plank)
1980 Cluster 71 (Cluster)
1981 Curiosum (Cluster)
1981 Material (Moebius & Plank)
1982 Strange Music (Moebius & Beerbohm)
1983 Tonspuren (Moebius)
1983 Double Cut (Moebius & Beerbohm)
1984 Zero set (Moebius & Plank)
1985 Blue Moon (Original Soundtrack) (Moebius)
1989 Apropos Cluster Cluster)
1990 Ersatz (Moebius & Renziehausen)
1992 Ersatz II (Moebius & Renziehausen)
1994 One Hour (Cluster)
1995 En Route (Moebius & Plank)
1996 Other Places (Moebius, Neumeier & Engler)
1996 Japan Live (Cluster)
1997 USA Live (Cluster)
1998 Harmonia 76 (Moebius, Rother, Roedelius & Eno)
1998 Ludwig's Law (Moebius, Plank & Thompson)
1999 Blotch (Moebius)
Selling Points!
Moebius. Founder of Kluster/Cluster. One of the fathers of Kraut space
rock. His name said in the same breath as Can, Tangerine Dream, Neu, Faust,
and company.
Reunion tour with Cluster a year or two ago drew pretty unanimous rave
reviews.
His second solo album, first since 1983.
You will recall that several albums were created by Cluster and Eno…not Eno
and Cluster. Assume this was for a reason.
Hundreds of contemporary ambient/experimental recording artists now paying
the bills with their music owe the German fathers such as Moebius an
enormous debt.
He has that trademark German sense of humour!
Artist: French Paddleboat
Title: Conversions In Metric
Format: CD
Release Date: November 9, 1999
Catalogue #: SCRATCH # 30
Bar Code: 7 5971801302 3
You must know the John Cage maxim that if something seems boring after
doing it for a minute, try doing it for two minutes, and if still boring,
try four, then eight, sixteen and so on and so on. Eventually you will find
that it is not boring at all, but in fact, very interesting. With that in
mind, here are a series of thoughts on "Conversions In Metric".
Hans Werner, while building a new prototype robot, borrowed a ruler from an
electronics engineer. An interesting ruler, with the usual increments for
inches on one side; fourths, eighths, sixteenths, etc, but on the flip
side, increments in tenths, fiftieths, hundredths. It was of Japanese
design. Older model digital audio machines utilize different data transfer
methods than some of today's machines, so occasionally material recorded on
older machines can't always be played properly on the new machines. This
can result in the need to transport an old machine to a small room on the
second floor of a nondescript industrial zone building in order to get the
proper transfer of data required by a certain set of circumstances. "Van
Der Graaf Helicopter" has never, to my knowledge, been used as a band name.
Does anyone know the meaning or origins of the word "scepana"? Everybody
knows the meaning of "Déjà vu", but is there a term for hearing something
that is simultaneously alien and familiar, at once both the surface of
Venus and your very own pillow? An astounding amount of synapses are firing
electrical charges during the playing of drums with all four limbs,
especially if the syncopation involved is even slightly complex. Don Hill
says that listening attentively to music increases many facets of brain
activity, and therefore people who listen closely to a variety of music
tend to be able to think quickly. Music that is challenging in nature will
tend to improve with repeated listening. At its simplest breakdown, "music"
is comprised of rhythm and melody. "Sound" is just that; any audible
frequency, derived from infinite possibility. The music of French
Paddleboat is all its own; gentle and joyful, subtle, graceful, perfectly
disorienting in its comfort. The sound of French Paddleboat is all of the
above. Vibes, chimes, bells and clarinet provide melodic and harmonic
measures, while odd sounds punctuate, and samples swim over lilting
acoustic drumbeats and loops. Eating pennies can cause excruciating pain,
and even death, as copper reacts strongly with gastric fluid, creating a
new substance not entirely unlike hydrochloric acid.
Related Discography
FRENCH PADDLEBOAT - Constantinople CS (Granted Passage)
FRENCH PADDLEBOAT - Rome Loves Tan CS (Granted Passage)
VOTE ROBOT - untitled CS (Shelter)
VOTE ROBOT - R.U.R. LP (Vegas/Catsup Plate)
Selling Points!
Handsome, professionally designed and printed package.
Scott August, the talent behind French Paddleboat, is still a teenager. We
are astounded to hear something this good and "on the tip" from someone so
young…and from the Okanagan small burg that is Kelowna, BC.
Names we keep hearing in reference to this: Oval, Stockhausen, Pierre
Henry, Raymond Scott, Can.
Defines the category "organica" for today's ever-popular electronica market.
Earlier associated releases popular in Europe, notably Germany, where
people are notoriously fickle.
The first pressing of Vote Robot's "R.U.R." LP went instantly out of print.
Scott August is one half of the well respected Vote Robot.
Can be filed with equal prestige in the "Electronica", "Experimental", or
"Pop" music categories.
Don't be misled by all those vinyl purists who can't let go of the past,
the CD is still a great format.
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