All of these are courtesy of Forgotten Yesterdays' Yes timeline. Check it out if you're curious; the entire site is a great resource and I would hope that fans are aware of it already.
All of these are courtesy of Forgotten Yesterdays' Yes timeline. Check it out if you're curious; the entire site is a great resource and I would hope that fans are aware of it already.
Hi everyone! Welcome again to our weekly album discussion. Any album can really be featured, whether it be well-known, overlooked, or by a more contemporary artist - as long as it’s in the style and spirit of classic krautrock/kosmische Muzik.
If you're interested in discussing this week's album through instant messaging or are just interested in talking with more fans, check out the Kosmische Muzik Discord server!
Release Year: 2014
Label: Studio Fleisch
One of many 21st century krautrock-inspired groups active in Germany (and elsewhere) is the Aachen-based band Electric Orange, who have been continually releasing music from the early 1990s up until the present day. The music on their 10th release consists of freeform psychedelic jams, with ominous and at points droning atmospheres that make use excellent of dissonant effects, violin, and textured drums.
For those who’ve heard the album - what are your thoughts? Feel free to share any opinions, experiences, etc. related to it.
This was written as a general reference for another subreddit where people have been constantly asking questions about this issue, but I thought I'd share it here too.
As of the past day or so, a lot of people have reported seeing unusual/spam uploads on the Spotify profiles of multiple artists. This sorts of impersonation on streaming platforms is not unheard of, but this is the first time I'm seeing something like this happen simultaneously on such a large scale, as these are being spammed on the pages of no less than 25 artists! Interesting enough, those artists are mostly older rock/electronic music.
They usually have an icon of an AI image depicting a generic male rockstar and are all credited to one of multiple fictitious label names.
These are all the ones that I've identified, but there might be more. The names of these labels indicate that whatever person/entity is uploading these is likely based out of Indonesia, e.g. Pematangsiantar.
The following artist pages appear to be affected (not an exhaustive list, just those I found using a quick search):
What has happened is that a music distribution platform (think something like Distrokid) has been exploited and used to upload music to these profiles without authorisation. Both music distribution and streaming platforms lack safeguards to prevent this type of manipulation, and this is a decently well-documented phenomenon. It's been frequently implicated in both impersonation and music piracy (i.e. uploading music that is not legitimately licensed for streaming platforms) for the purposes of siphoning revenue from name recognition. Here's another example of one of these pirate labels that I wrote about a while back; very strange either way.
These unequivocally have no affiliation with the artists they are credited to. The impersonated musicians and/or their management are likely not even aware this has happened yet, as for the most part these have been uploaded within the past day. While I haven't seen any reports of these uploads specifically being mirrored on other streaming services, the distribution exploit being used is a problem on most major streaming services and is not exclusive to Spotify.
While this is in part also an issue with distribution platforms, Spotify absolutely does carry the responsibility to remove crap like this! Sadly even the "better" streaming platforms don't seem to care about similar forms of exploitation, as I've seen similar cases of AI content pollution on platforms like Quboz.
These unequivocally have no affiliation with the artists they are credited to. The impersonated musicians and/or their management are likely not even aware this has happened yet, as for the most part these have been uploaded within the past day. While I haven't seen any reports of these uploads specifically being mirrored on other streaming services, the distribution exploit being used is a problem on most major streaming services and is not exclusive to Spotify.
While this is in part also an issue with distribution platforms, Spotify absolutely does carry the responsibility to remove crap like this! Sadly even the "better" streaming platforms don't seem to care about similar forms of exploitation, as I've seen similar cases of AI content pollution on platforms like Quboz.
Anyway, don't listen to this crap, and if you continue to use streaming services, please be aware that artist impersonation is continually an issue there.
There have been multiple posts about this over the past day or so and I'd like to request a (temporary) moratorium on threads discussing this, as they are all essentially asking the same question.
I'll link the existing threads for reference:
There's also a new section about similar oddities on streaming uploads on the subreddit FAQ which help should serve as a decent summary of all of this.
Anyway, if you have any questions about these uploads, have a look here and on the existing threads before making a post of your own, as they will probably help you find what you're looking for. Future posts will be redirected here for the next little while.
Thanks!
As of the past day or so, a lot of people have reported seeing unusual/spam uploads on the Spotify profiles of multiple artists. This sorts of impersonation on streaming platforms is not unheard of, but this is the first time I'm seeing something like this happen simultaneously on such a large scale, as these are being spammed on the pages of no less than 25 artists! Interesting enough, those artists are mostly older rock/electronic music.
They usually have an icon of an AI image depicting a generic male rockstar and are all credited to one of multiple fictitious label names.
These are all the ones that I've identified, but there might be more. The names of these labels indicate that whatever person/entity is uploading these is likely based out of Indonesia, e.g. Pematangsiantar.
The following artist pages appear to be affected (not an exhaustive list, just those I found using a quick search):
What has happened is that a music distribution platform (think something like Distrokid) has been exploited and used to upload music to these profiles without authorisation. Both music distribution and streaming platforms lack safeguards to prevent this type of manipulation, and this is a decently well-documented phenomenon. It's been frequently implicated in both impersonation and music piracy (i.e. uploading music that is not legitimately licensed for streaming platforms) for the purposes of siphoning revenue from name recognition. Here's another example of one of these pirate labels that I wrote about a while back; very strange either way.
These unequivocally have no affiliation with the artists they are credited to. The impersonated musicians and/or their management are likely not even aware this has happened yet, as for the most part these have been uploaded within the past day. While I haven't seen any reports of these uploads specifically being mirrored on other streaming services, the distribution exploit being used is a problem on most major streaming services and is not exclusive to Spotify.
While this is in part also an issue with distribution platforms, Spotify absolutely does carry the responsibility to remove crap like this! Sadly even the "better" streaming platforms don't seem to care about similar forms of exploitation, as I've seen similar cases of AI content pollution on platforms like Quboz.
There are a lot of rare or obscure underground prog rock albums out there, and some of the more sought-after ones are those that would have been privately pressed on vinyl in very limited quantities. One of the more notorious examples is October's After The Fall (second image), of which only a few dozen (~25-50) LPs exist, low even for the standards of the time. Their first, self-titled album had considerably more copies printed, but both are very hard to come by now and easily go for good sums of money.
Aside from collector/enthusiast circles, these albums seem to have largely been forgotten about and have never seen an official reissue up until this year. The upcoming reissues will be handled by the label PQR and the release date is set for September 15 2026.
Note that only the debut will see a reissue on vinyl, with that edition being bundled with a CD of After The Fall. You can also purchase both as a 2CD bundle. Bit strange that the more sought-after of the two will not be available on vinyl, but ah well.
While I think they're decently regarded otherwise, an unfortunate aspect of this label is their tendency to use AI-generated imagery on inserts and in some cases album covers. The leaf assets on the 2CD's cover look a bit suspect, but I don't think the actual cover art of these two has been modified on the stand-alone LP/CD release. Not that this affects the actual music, but it's worth noting just as a heads-up.
As for the albums themselves, they're pretty alright symphonic prog records, albeit considerably flawed and by no means great. I like the former more than I probably should, as there are plenty of more "professional" sounding underground/independent prog releases from this same time period, but they strike me as a band who could have developed into something great had they the opportunity (and funds) to keep making music into the 80s. Either way, it's great to see them back in print.
I'll share some of my commentary about both, originally written for RateYourMusic back in January of this year. Would love to hear if anyone else here has heard these albums!
October S/T:
>I find this album a bit tricky to outright recommend, as there are some considerable flaws present. First of all, the production is extremely amateurish and frankly kind of bad. Everything is quite murky and a lot of the instruments lack much of an impact, which is particularly evident on the rhythm section. It's also let down by some weak singing (the intro to “Nero” being particularly egregious and borderline incomprehensible) on the few tracks with vocals.
> That being said, there's enough interesting ideas that I've relistened to this album multiple times, and I'm always surprised by how much I like it. I think the October albums are too obscure to have any kind of real “consensus” as to which of the two is better, but between this and After The Fall, this is by far my favourite. There’s a playful, kind of jazzy undercurrent to many of the songs that I really like, further accentuated by the violin playing (which is the highlight of many tracks here).
After The Fall:
>Overall, this is decently pleasant keyboard-dominant prog, but I can’t help but feel like most of these tracks lack a sense of movement. It’s most noticeable on “Charisma,” as that’s the longest track and the one that makes the poorest use of its runtime. I like a good jam as much as anyone else, but there isn't a real sense of progression or buildup there. Gone is the playfulness of the debut; what's here is arguably prettier and more tasteful, but I found the majority of this album to lack memorability.
> My favourite song off of this was “Earth”, which has some very nice violin playing (a consistent highlight on both of this band's albums) and surprisingly decent payoff. Overall though, there isn't much to keep you coming back for repeat listens and I was frankly a bit underwhelmed.
I say "new", despite the fact that this song was briefly available to listen to for less than a day last month! I presume that it was initially released prematurely by mistake and that it's set to stick around for longer.
Anyway, enjoy!
Urs Amann (1951-2019) had a very long career as an artist and was a longtime member of the Künstlergruppe Winterthur artist's association, joining in 1980. He began freelance work in 1974 and his artwork has been featured at numerous exhibitions over the years.
According to an article by David M. Cline published in 1997, none of Amann's designs used on Klaus Schulze's album covers were explicitly commissioned for them. Instead, they were preexisting paintings selected by Schulze, who had taken interest in Amann's artwork. Other paintings by him were selected by different Berlin School electronic artists for use as album art, the most notable examples being the Wolfgang Bock album Cycles and Adelbert Von Deyen's Atmosphere (both from 1980). Both albums are quite good, and I'd definitely recommend you check them out if you enjoy this sort of music!
The (poorly archived) AOL Hometown site that used to host his artwork in the early-mid 2000s indicated that the original titles of the artwork featured on Irrlicht and Cyborg were „All - Eingang“ and „Der bewußte Tiefschlaf“ respectively, although I do not know which names would've corresponded to the titles of the paintings used for Timewind and Picture Music. (Info courtesy of this RateYourMusic list)
Although he created many artworks over the years, his personal website seemingly went defunct a few years ago and the high-resolution images of his artwork that would've originally been hosted there don't appear to have been preserved.
Some of the images (i.e. the first two non-Schulze related ones) that I included come from the website of the Swiss Kulturort Galerie Weiertal. Many of the other images are in fairly low resolution, but I presume these are all paintings in the gallery's collection and may be available for viewing. Unfortunately, I don't live in or near Switzerland, so I don't think I'll have the opportunity to see any of these in person. It also appears that many of his later paintings (primarily dating from the late 1990s-2010, although some are older) were at one point up for sale via Singulart,, but although photos are still present, none are currently available for purchase.
Amann published a 108-page book of his artwork (Der Privatmönch: Das Leben in Bilder) in 2007, which is probably the best documentation/overview of his work. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but I have seen it for sale in a few places.
Part of the book's description, copied over from the book's (no longer available) Amazon listing:
>Die in diesem Band gesammelte Bildauswahl aus dem Werk des Schweizer Kunstmalers Urs Amann – von ihm selbst zusammengestellt und mit eigenen Texten ergänzt – fügt sich zu einer Art-Bildergeschichte, die in Schlüsselszenen den Lebenslauf vom Licht durch die Bedrückungen der Welt wieder zum Licht zeigt, oder anders: die die Vermenschlichung des Wesens und die Wiederverwesung des Menschen zum Thema hat.
Anyway, I'm curious if other people here might know more information about his artwork and/or have more resources aside from the ones that I linked. I'd really love to find more images of his ~1970s-era paintings, as there doesn't appear to be much online in terms of high-resolution photos.
I also wonder where the original paintings used on those Schulze covers are at this point in time. It'd be cool to see them exhibited somewhere, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they were long since sold into private collections or something similar.
Who else can't wait until this album is released and transferred to a dedicated Hackett/Rothery collaboration page?
Hi everyone! Welcome again to our weekly album discussion. Any album can really be featured, whether it be well-known, overlooked, or by a more contemporary artist - as long as it’s in the style and spirit of classic krautrock/kosmische Muzik.
If you're interested in discussing this week's album through instant messaging or are just interested in talking with more fans, check out the Kosmische Muzik Discord server!
Release Year: 1978
Label: Virgin
Unlike Edgar Froese’s early solo albums (i.e. Aqua and Epsilon in Malaysian Pale), which are predominantly ambient and reminiscent of Tangerine Dream’s mid-70s releases, Ages is more melodic and rhythmic. The presence of Klaus Krieger's drums on many pieces grants them some rock influence (most akin to the instrumentation on Cyclone), but many portions remain rather atmospheric. Recommended for fans of Froese’s work with Tangerine Dream and progressive electronic music as a whole.
For those who’ve heard the album - what are your thoughts? Feel free to share any opinions, experiences, etc. related to it.
Hi everyone! Hope you've all been having a nice day.
I'm currently looking for some more moderators to step in and help keep track of posts. At the moment, we only have 1-2 active ones and any help would certainly be appreciated. It's not particularly complicated; just keeping an eye out for spam, posts that break rules, etc.
I don't really have a preference as to how you reach out to us. Commenting on this post, DMs, Modmail, etc. is fine. Would appreciate knowing peoples' time zones though.
I'm also looking for feedback from people about things they want added or changed regarding how the subreddit is run. I've been planning on tweaking some older rules that've been in place for a number of years, but I don't really have a place to get opinions on them aside from talking with people here.
Thank you!
This is a slightly edited version of a post originally done for the subreddit r/HobbyDrama. The feedback there was pretty positive, so I thought I'd share it here too. Just a heads-up that the original text is written for a layperson's perspective (e.g. assuming one might not necessarily know what krautrock is), which I assume isn't the case for most people here!
Krautrock (or „kosmische Muzik“, i.e. "cosmic music") is the term used to a describe a scene of underground psychedelic and/or electronic music from West Germany, most active from the late 1960s to mid-1970s.
Despite being somewhat limited in terms of mainstream commercial success, the scene was (and still is) hugely influential on many up-and-coming underground artists, such as the UK post-punk and indie scenes. Many krautrock bands and artists (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk, etc.) are also considered incredibly important pioneers in the wider development of electronic music.
Although many of the more notable bands had contracts with international labels like United Artists and later Virgin Records, there were multiple Germany-based labels (e.g. Ohr and Brain) that specialised in underground psychedelic and electronic music. However, being a largely underground scene, some artists (such as Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler, Dom, etc.) who were unable to get major record deals opted to issue music through very small labels or to self-release it entirely. These releases would’ve been produced in very small quantities and many of these albums remain highly sought-after in their original format.
In the late 80s and early-mid 90s, there was a substantial revitalisation of interest in the German underground scene within the music press, furthered by books such as Julian Cope’s “Krautrocksampler” (1995) and Alan and Steve Freeman’s “The Crack In The Cosmic Egg” (1996). This revival resulted in many krautrock albums that had not been in print in years receiving official reissues. The 1990s also coincided with the increased prominence of dedicated reissue labels like Repertoire Records and Spalax Music, and pirate labels like Germanofon sprang up to distribute krautrock albums that had not yet been reissued on CD. Many archival/live recordings that had not yet been commercially released were made widely available for the first time. For dedicated record collectors, this era was a breath of fresh air for many, given the relative obscurity of some of these recordings.
This takes us to the year 1996.
That year, a series of three compilation albums called “Unknown Deutschland - The Krautrock Archive” were released on Virgin Records. These releases were curated by Trevor Manwaring, and were purportedly from recordings previously released through an obscure underground label called Pyramid, based out of Cologne.
From the liner notes:
>“These recordings were made between 1972 and 1974 using studios in and around Cologne. They were originally produced for the Pyramid label and some were released in tiny quantities and mostly sold in art galleries and the like - this is probably why they have remained so obscure, even among 'experts'.....until this release. The 'Mad Twiddler' responsible for their existence also worked with Stockhausen, Can, The Cozmic Jokers ^([sic]) and many more. Although memories from that time are beyond repair in many cases the tapes remain to bear witness to this creative and anarchic scene."
Coinciding with these compilations, a new UK-based record label named Psi-Fi (affiliated with the parent label Acme) was formed to reissue the "Pyramid" albums, with a total catalogue of 6 albums released between 1996 and 1997. These releases were pretty significant, as at the time, the full albums were not available on CD in any other form, and this was the first time a majority of people had heard of the existence of these recordings. However, some songs remained exclusive to compilation albums (e.g. Unknown Deutschland and a 2016 CD entitled "Cologne Curiosities").
The 6 Psi-Fi records are the following:
The original CDs lack substantial liner notes, but were all listed as being recorded in the 1970s. The 1996 releases were all originally credited as being “recorded 1972/1973 [in] Cologne”, whereas the 1997 releases were attributed to 1975 or 1976.
“The Mad Twiddler” (originating from the credits of the 1975 album Dreamlab by Mythos) is an alias of the engineer Toby Hrycek-Robinson, who did indeed have a background in engineering and mixing work for numerous krautrock bands, such as Can, Dryzan, Birth Control, Mythos, and Wallenstein, in the mid-1970s. Robinson was purportedly one of the masterminds of the Pyramid label alongside artist/painter Robin Page, who was best known for his work with the Fluxus art movement in the late 1960s.
While Psi-Fi has not been active since the 1990s, most of these albums were later reprinted on CD and LP (vinyl) in 2017-2018 by the reputable reissue label Guerssen (under their “Mental Experience” imprint) with new liner notes by “Cosmic Egg” author Alan Freeman. The only exception is Orion Awakes, which was reissued by Acme in 2010 and 2015, although like the rest of the Psi-Fi catalogue, Mental Experience handled the 2017 vinyl reissue.
There are multiple aspects of the original releases that are suspect due to possessing qualities atypical compared to other reissues from that time period.
Despite being said to have originally been released under the Pyramid label, no trace of that label or the original 1970s releases they are supposedly reissues of has ever materialised in the ~30 years since these albums were first released on CD. Even for extremely rare independent releases, this is highly unusual, as in any other circumstance, original copies would be highly sought after collectors’ items.
It is not uncommon for these types of privately pressed records to be produced in extremely low quantities. For instance, a limited run of 99 copies was reasonably common for private pressings in the UK, as this was reportedly the maximum that could be produced without being subject to additional taxes. Some other notably low quantities that I have seen are 64 (as was the case for the only studio album by the band Dark) and <50. These examples are of albums that are generally considered well-documented. For the entire catalogue of an independent label like this to be completely undocumented is unprecedented and frankly unbelievable. There is simply no concrete proof that Pyramid Records actually existed.
The only one of these albums that has had a documented vinyl/LP reissue predating the 2017 Mental Experience edition is Orion Awakes, first documented in the early-mid 2010s. However, these copies are confirmed to be modern reproductions, as test pressings (e.g. this copy sold on eBay) with the same identifying matrix number in the run-out grooves use a design by the French manufacturer MPO containing a link to their website.
Another complicating factor is the lack of substantial or verifiable credits, which makes verifying who did and didn't play on these albums difficult. Although some notable krautrock musicians are credited (and in some cases have confirmed their presence) on a few Psi-Fi releases, a majority of the musicians featured are not named on any other releases outside of the Psi-Fi catalogue. Two of these albums (Pyramid and The Nazgûl) lack conventional credits altogether, with the former lacking any musician credits and with the latter being attributed to pseudonyms derived from the names of characters from Lord of the Rings.
Lastly, it appears that there is some inconsistency across releases regarding specific details. For instance, the original 1996 edition of Epitaph For Venus attributes its recording date to sessions dated 1972 or 1973, but the 2017 reissues instead indicate that it was recorded in 1974. The same is true for Orion Awakes, which had its 2017 vinyl re-release printed with a 1976 recording date. The 2010 Acme reissue of Orion Awakes also corrects the number of copies of each record produced from 100 copies to 25, the former number originating from some 90s sources. (Even so, this would come around to 125 total records pressed at minimum, which is still a number far too high for them being undocumented to be believable)
The Psi-Fi albums are widely regarded as being forgeries and have been under scrutiny since their original release, with their catalogue often alleged to have been recorded in the 1990s with British musicians.
Some interesting early critical coverage (i.e. from the mid-late 1990s) that I could find of them comes from the music magazine “The Sound Projector”. Various albums from the Psi-Fi catalogue were covered throughout issues 2-7, and I’ll include some of the commentary out of historical interest.
>"It isn’t immediately obvious how to connect these oddities to a defined sense of a ’Krautrock continuum’, which is good as this confounds lazy journalists who think they’ve got this scene all figured out. Some Doubting Dans have even suggested in print that these records must be 1990s hoaxes, which is absurd. Others have placed too much emphasis on their obscureness, playing up the angle of ’not even the heavy-duty Krautrock collectors have heard of this label’, which is an indication of how the specialists want to appropriate everything for themselves. However, such specialisation and selfishness is overturned by democratising releases like this which put the music back in the public domain, where everyone with a CD player who’s so inclined can share in these delights."
>"These are neglected 1970s art-gallery only releases, originally available in limited runs of 100 copies. I'm still cultivating my suspicion that none of these bands had much of a life outside the studio. One envisages a series of projects emerging under Robinson's direction, musicians drawn from a pool of talent, working in Dieter Dierks Cologne studio during down-time, with 'The Mad Twiddler' producing; once sufficient album tracks had been gathered, sleeve art would be concocted and a name assigned to the one-off item."
On top of being controversial contemporarily, speculation and debate regarding the legitimacy of the Psi-Fi releases carried on well past the 1990s and you'd be hard-pressed to find online reviews or commentary regarding these albums that don't at the very least mention their dubious origin. Online discussion of these albums tends to fall into one of two categories: those who regard these albums as mere hoaxes and have largely written them off, and those who, while suspicious of the supposed origin of these recordings, treat the actual music as having some value.
I'll link a few of these reviews for reference, although there certainly is far more out there. If you're interested in these albums or the backstory behind them, I'd recommend seeking out more for yourself.
From the user "Braxt" on Discogs in 2015, about "Orion Awakes":
>"Listening to this in the cold light of day it certainly sounds like a '90s recording to me. Everything about it sounds a bit too studied. The wah wah, the relatively clean production, the drum sound. Add to the fact that nobody has ever seen a copy of these Pyramid releases (all right - someone thought they saw one once) and not one has ever been offered for sale. Even rare garage punk records from the 60s where there's ONE known copy have been documented."
From the user "Warthur" on ProgArchives in 2011, about "Epitaph For Venus":
>"The supposed rumours that this is a fake recorded in the 1990s didn't seem credible to me - musically speaking, the album sounds extremely authentic for the Krautrock scene of the time, with commonalities with Klaus Schulze's early work and Tangerine Dream's Zeit. In particular, the other two bands who were involved in this supposed fakery scandal - The Nazgul and Cosmic Corridors - supposedly consisted of complete unknowns, whereas this one is presented as a side project of a member of Dzyan, and it would be an *extremely* stupid move for forgers to try and pass the album off as the work of a real person who could contradict their story!"
From rock journalist Dmitry M. Epstein in 2017, about "Cosmic Corridors":
>"Purportedly recorded in the early ’70s by Toby Robinson for his Pyramid label, this album defies its own mythology by sounding suspiciously modern, and that doesn’t look like the case of retrofuturism."
Despite widespread doubt, one fairly notable individual who has consistently stood by the authenticity of these albums is the aforementioned Alan Freeman, who along with his brother Steve (himself a co-author on "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg") are the owners of the long-running "Ultima Thule" record outlet and publishers of the music magazine "Audion". Freeman claims to have seen a copy of the Golem album Orion Awakes in a record store in Berlin years before the Psi-Fi reissues were circulated, having caught his eye on account of its reflective metallic sleeve.
In the liner notes of the Mental Experience re-issue of Orion Awakes:
>"I do recall seeing a copy of this album on the wall in a German record shop, or something remarkably similar (some collector's shop in Berlin), which had a pressed metal sleeve somewhat like the original "Élő Omega" album by Omega. I was curious, but it was very expensive. Only later when the Psi-Fi CD came out did I remark that I'd seen it somewhere before. Apart from that the provenance of Golem is an unknown entity."
Although that in and of itself doesn't prove that any records were actually produced, a majority of the information made available about these albums in recent years comes from Freeman's research, and he is one of a few individuals documented to have spoken with Toby Robinson himself about the Pyramid albums.
This is a difficult question to answer because there was never any kind of real exposé, other than people naturally asking questions about discrepancies in the albums’ backstories. However, more information on these albums has come to light through Alan Freeman’s liner notes for the Mental Experience reissues.
Robinson has continued to maintain the authenticity of these recordings and provided some background as to what the recording process was like. For instance, he claims that the Cozmic Corridors project was largely initiated by a musician called Alex Meyer who used to loiter outside of Robin Page's studio, with his recordings later being overdubbed by guitars, vocals, and "noises."
Robinson's commentary, taken from Freeman's liner notes for that album:
>"All of the recording for Pyramid was done totally informally and ultimately, what decided whether something was released was if Robin would get one of his students to design a cover. If a cover existed, a small run would be paid for by whoever could afford it (normally Robin and me), and the albums distributed among the participating musicians. A few nightclubs had record bars, and sold our stuff. No tabs were kept on how many had moved, and I don't remember doing reruns on anything.
Basically, they were vanity pressings and a way of keeping Robin's students entourage occupied. I had to use pseudonyms for my involvement because most of the studio time was purloined without the proprietor's knowledge."
As mentioned previously, Robinson does have a genuine background in technical work on 70s krautrock albums, and a few of these albums are credited to real musicians that he had previously formed connections with. Epitaph For Venus features Reinhard Karwatky of the band Dzyan, Temple features Zeus B. Held of Birth Control, and the percussion on Cozmic Corridors was performed by Hans-Jürgen Pütz of Mythos. Pütz himself does not appear to have ever commented on these recordings, but both Karwatky and Held have confirmed their involvement. Another Birth Control member (Bruno Frenzel) is credited on the track "The Message" (attributed to the artist "Spirulina") from the second of the Unknown Deutschland compilations. Frenzel died in 1983 from heart complications associated with a stage injury he suffered in 1975, and although his presence is therefore unable to be confirmed by him directly, it's one of the only tracks from these sessions where there is a definite cutoff of when it might have been recorded.
Although not quoted directly, Held’s comments (described in Freeman’s liner notes for the Temple album) are quite interesting, as even he couldn’t confirm that the music that he recorded actually saw a release in the 1970s.
>“Certainly Zeus B. Held must be the most well-known name here, and his involvement would date his sessions as 1975 most likely after rehearsals or whilst recording Birth Control's "Plastic People" (which was handled by Toby Robinson under the guise of "Genius P. Orridge" at Dierks Studio). Apparently Zeus has confirmed his involvement in these sessions, although he didn't recall a band name, nor knowledge of any release.”
In any case, the presence of verifiable people on these recordings does suggest that there is some legitimacy behind them, whether they were recorded in the 70s or otherwise. It would certainly be a major issue from a legal perspective if any of these albums were falsely advertised as featuring musicians who don't play on them.
As for the other personnel on these records, it has been confirmed by Freeman's correspondence with Robinson that many of the musicians featured were credited under pseudonyms. For instance, owing to the interchangeability of it and the "Mad Twiddler" credit on the original Psi-Fi release, Robinson himself was likely credited as the fictitious "Joachim Weiss" in the liner notes of the Temple album for his contributions on bass guitar. Freeman speculates that, much like Robinson feeling compelled to obscure his own identity, these pseudonyms may correspond to other krautrock musicians.
From the liner notes of the Epitaph for Venus reissue, on the topic of the credits to "Johannes Lutz" and "Holst Seisert":
>"They may be the other members of what later became A.I.R. - a project formed by Reinhard Karwatky with Ingo Werner (ex-My Solid Ground, Baba Yaga) and Armin Stöwe (ex-Sixty Nine), or yet again they could be pseudonyms for Robin and Toby. I've tried to get in contact with Reinhard and ask him these questions, but never got anywhere. When I asked Toby, he said he couldn't exactly remember, only confirming that they weren't real names."
Freeman also speculates that, given Zeus B. Held's involvement, "Rolf Föller" on Orion Awakes may be related to fellow Birth Control member Peter Föller, and that a potential candidate for the unidentified percussionist (credited only as "Frodo") on The Nazgûl is Peter Giger of Dryzan. However, there is no actual evidence that directly ties them to any of these recording sessions, and it doesn't appear that Freeman was ever able to contact them.
Freeman has long been a proponent of these albums' authenticity and his research does admittedly present a decent argument for the actual sessions being legitimate. However, the inconsistencies behind when exactly these albums were recorded and how they were released (e.g. the Unknown Deutschland CDs claim they were sold at art galleries, but Robinson himself states they were sold predominantly at nightclubs) makes any of the "official" statements about these albums difficult to definitively trust. This is certainly not helped by there being little to no accounts from other people that actually corroborate Robinson's claims, alongside him failing to provide more information about certain discrepancies. For instance, the supposed "PYR 015" catalogue number assigned to Orion Awakes implies that at least 15 albums were produced for Pyramid, although only 6 albums were ultimately "reissued" and the only other documented catalogue numbers are 5, 8, and 9. When asked by Freeman about the full list of Pyramid releases, Robinson did not provide a quantity or any further information.
It's also worth noting that the origin of some recordings from legitimate 70s sessions doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility of them being overdubbed or otherwise altered on a later date. In any case, none of these projects were ever functional "bands"; instead being short-lived collaborations and sessions that never had much of a life outside of a studio setting.
In hopes of clarifying his research regarding the Pyramid albums, Freeman attempted to contact Robin Page, but despite briefly managing to track him down, Page's death in May 2015 halted any further communication. In Freeman's words, "the promised information and pictures about the Pyramid releases thus never arrived." As a result, many details about the status of the original releases (if they ever did exist) are likely to remain a mystery.
The music on these Psi-Fi releases is decently varied and consists of everything from wild psychedelic rock jams (e.g. Pyramid, Orion Awakes) to atmospheric space ambient (Epitaph For Venus) and avant-garde ambient (The Nazgûl).
I can't recommend these albums as an entry point to the wider scene of krautrock/kosmische Muzik, as there's certainly many more sophisticated and accessible examples of authentic krautrock in this vein out there. However, for enthusiasts of this sort of music, these aren't too bad and have a fair amount of stylistic overlap with other albums from the scene. They range from somewhat forgettable to pretty good, but all-around are fairly decent companions for those who've already listened to the wider catalogue of 70s krautrock and want to seek out more music in that vein. That being said, I do think there are some modern-sounding production elements (e.g. the drums on Orion Awakes are unusually "crisp" for lack of a better word) that make the claims of them wholly being 70s recordings rather dubious. Your mileage may vary on how "authentic" these sound, however.
Had there been more transparency about when these albums were recorded and released, they likely would've been viewed a lot more positively, but as it stands, there's enjoyable music here, regardless of them being imitations or genuine recordings from the 70s German underground scene.
Despite how controversial the Psi-Fi releases are, it doesn't appear that Toby Robinson's career as a producer/engineer was particularly affected, as he had long since moved on from his work in the krautrock scene to predominantly UK-based projects. Some examples include recurrent work with the BBC on multiple Doctor Who audio dramas and credits on albums by notable musicians such as David Sylvian and Derek Bailey. As such, the long-term consequences of the controversy surrounding these albums appears relatively minimal. There were no careers born or killed from it, but the entire story is nevertheless a good example of the importance of credible record labels.
Interestingly, this is far from the only example of alleged or confirmed hoax recordings claimed to be rare 70s krautrock. For instance, the album "Impressionen '71" (credited to the fictitious "Damenbart", actually Achim Flaam and Tina Schlebusch) dates back to 1989, and a more recent hoax was the "Kosmischer Läufer" series, purportedly by Drew McFadyen.
If there is anything that I want to personally add, it's that, assuming this was all an elaborate hoax and Robinson was bluffing the entire time, I do think it's pretty impressive that several albums worth of material might've been recorded, mixed, etc. for the sole purpose of being released like this. These releases are still highly suspect and I don't think there is likely to be any kind of definitive statement regarding their authenticity (or lack thereof) anytime soon, but I am nevertheless thankful that some interesting music came out of it.
In retrospect, this is kind of a dumb post idea because we don’t need a million threads about what prog is and isn’t, but I thought this topic was interesting and I wanted to hear other peoples’ thoughts. Especially curious as to if anyone wanted to add additional historical context, as I’m by no means a historian!
This thread was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend the other day where “proto-“ genre designators (mostly in the context of “proto-punk” rather than prog) came up, and we were discussing if they are particularly useful for retroactively classifying music or not.
On one hand, I get it, on another, I don’t. I do use the term sometimes in reference to the early scene of progressive rock in the mid-late 60s, but I think there are some complications that kind of limit its usefulness as a label.
I originally wrote a lot more text, but I’ll try and sum up those thoughts as best as I can:
Proto-prog is a useful term because it helps classify certain bands/albums/songs that, while not as commonly considered prog icons now, are nevertheless important for the development of the progressive rock scene. I also like how the term is inclusive of artists like The Beatles and Deep Purple whose wider discography would not necessarily be classified as prog-related. That, and it’s more of a period in the genre’s development than a distinct subgenre in and of itself.
Proto-prog is not a useful term because it implies an arbitrary and hard-to-define cutoff point between it and “standard” prog. Either something is prog or it isn’t. It also simplifies and is not particularly helpful for understanding the trends and development of progressive rock in the 1960s.
Obviously these are not the only opinions on the matter to exist, but I was nevertheless curious about what people here have to say. I don’t think anyone’s takes on something like this can really be “wrong” save for egregious factual errors, haha
I’m a big fan of German underground music and I’ve always found the backstory behind the catalogue of the label Psi-Fi interesting, especially given that I do genuinely like some of the music that came out of it.
Krautrock (or „kosmische Muzik“, i.e. "cosmic music") is the term used to a describe a scene of underground psychedelic and/or electronic music from West Germany, most active from the late 1960s to mid-1970s.
Despite being somewhat limited in terms of mainstream commercial success, the scene was (and still is) hugely influential on many up-and-coming underground artists, such as the UK post-punk and indie scenes. Many krautrock bands and artists (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk, etc.) are also considered incredibly important pioneers in the wider development of electronic music.
Although many of the more notable bands had contracts with international labels like United Artists and later Virgin Records, there were multiple Germany-based labels (e.g. Ohr and Brain) that specialised in underground psychedelic and electronic music. However, being a largely underground scene, some artists (such as Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler, Dom, etc.) who were unable to get major record deals opted to issue music through very small labels or to self-release it entirely. These releases would’ve been produced in very small quantities and many of these albums remain highly sought-after in their original format.
In the late 80s and early-mid 90s, there was a substantial revitalisation of interest in the German underground scene within the music press, furthered by books such as Julian Cope’s “Krautrocksampler” (1995) and Alan and Steve Freeman’s “The Crack In The Cosmic Egg” (1996). This revival resulted in many krautrock albums that had not been in print in years receiving official reissues. The 1990s also coincided with the increased prominence of dedicated reissue labels like Repertoire Records and Spalax Music, and pirate labels like Germanofon sprang up to distribute krautrock albums that had not yet been reissued on CD. Many archival/live recordings that had not yet been released were made widely available for the first time. For dedicated record collectors, this era was a breath of fresh air for many, given the relative obscurity of some of these recordings.
This takes us to the year 1996.
That year, a series of three compilation albums called “Unknown Deutschland - The Krautrock Archive” were released on Virgin Records. These releases were curated by Trevor Manwaring, and were purportedly from recordings previously released through an obscure underground label called Pyramid, based out of Cologne.
From the liner notes:
>“These recordings were made between 1972 and 1974 using studios in and around Cologne. They were originally produced for the Pyramid label and some were released in tiny quantities and mostly sold in art galleries and the like - this is probably why they have remained so obscure, even among 'experts'.....until this release. The 'Mad Twiddler' responsible for their existence also worked with Stockhausen, Can, The Cozmic Jokers ^([sic]) and many more. Although memories from that time are beyond repair in many cases the tapes remain to bear witness to this creative and anarchic scene."
Coinciding with these compilations, a new UK-based record label named Psi-Fi (affiliated with the reissue parent label Acme) was formed to reissue the "Pyramid" albums, with a total catalogue of 6 albums released between 1996 and 1997. These releases were pretty significant, as at the time, these albums were not available on CD in any other form, and this was the first time a majority of people had heard of the existence of these recordings. However, some songs remained exclusive to compilation albums (e.g. Unknown Deutschland and a 2016 CD entitled "Cologne Curiosities").
The 6 Psi-Fi records are the following:
The original CDs lack substantial liner notes, but were all listed as being recorded in the 1970s. The 1996 releases were all originally credited as being “recorded 1972/1973 [in] Cologne”, whereas the 1997 releases were attributed to 1975 or 1976.
“The Mad Twiddler” (originating from the credits of the 1975 album Dreamlab by Mythos) is an alias of the engineer Toby Hrycek-Robinson, who did indeed have a background in engineering and mixing work for numerous krautrock bands, such as Can, Dryzan, Birth Control, Mythos, and Wallenstein, in the mid-1970s. Robinson was purportedly one of the masterminds of the Pyramid label alongside artist/painter Robin Page, who was best known for his work with the Fluxus art movement in the late 1960s.
While Psi-Fi has not been active since the 1990s, most of these albums were later reprinted on CD and LP (vinyl) in 2017-2018 by the reputable reissue label Guerssen (under their “Mental Experience” imprint) with new liner notes by “Cosmic Egg” author Alan Freeman. The only exception is Orion Awakes, which was reissued by Acme in 2010 and 2015, although like the rest of the Psi-Fi catalogue, Mental Experience handled the 2017 vinyl reissue.
There are multiple aspects of the original releases that are suspect due to possessing qualities atypical compared to other reissues from that time period.
Despite being said to have originally been released under the Pyramid label, no trace of that label or the original 1970s releases they are supposedly reissues of has ever materialised in the ~30 years since these albums were first released on CD. Even for extremely rare independent releases, this is highly unusual, as in any other circumstance, original copies would be highly sought after collectors’ items.
It is not uncommon for these types of privately pressed records to be produced in extremely low quantities. For instance, a limited run of 99 copies was reasonably common for private pressings in the UK, as this was reportedly the maximum that could be produced without being subject to additional taxes. Some other notably low quantities that I have seen are 64 (as was the case for the only studio album by the band Dark) and <50. These examples are of albums that are generally considered well-documented. For the entire catalogue of an independent label like this to be completely undocumented is unprecedented and frankly unbelievable. There is simply no concrete proof that Pyramid Records actually existed.
The only one of these albums that has had a documented vinyl/LP reissue predating the 2017 Mental Experience edition is Orion Awakes, first documented in the early-mid 2010s. However, these copies are confirmed to be modern reproductions, as test pressings (e.g. this copy sold on eBay) with the same identifying matrix number in the run-out grooves use a design by the French manufacturer MPO containing a link to their website.
Another complicating factor is the lack of substantial or verifiable credits, which makes verifying who did and didn't play on these albums difficult. Although some notable krautrock musicians are credited (and in some cases have confirmed their presence) on a few Psi-Fi releases, a majority of the musicians featured are not named on any other releases outside of the Psi-Fi catalogue. Two of these albums (Pyramid and The Nazgûl) lack conventional credits altogether, with the former lacking any musician credits and with the latter being attributed to pseudonyms derived from the names of characters from Lord of the Rings.
Lastly, it appears that there is some inconsistency across releases regarding specific details. For instance, the original 1996 edition of Epitaph For Venus attributes its recording date to sessions dated 1972 or 1973, but the 2017 reissues instead indicate that it was recorded in 1974. The same is true for Orion Awakes, which had its 2017 vinyl re-release printed with a 1976 recording date. The 2010 Acme reissue of Orion Awakes also corrects the number of copies of each record produced from 100 copies to 25, the former number originating from some 90s sources. (Even so, this would come around to 125 total records pressed at minimum, which is still a number far too high for them being undocumented to be believable)
The Psi-Fi albums are widely regarded as being forgeries and have been under scrutiny since their original release, with their catalogue often alleged to have been recorded in the 1990s with British musicians.
Some interesting early critical coverage (i.e. from the mid-late 1990s) that I could find of them comes from the music magazine “The Sound Projector”. Various albums from the Psi-Fi catalogue were covered throughout issues 2-7, and I’ll include some of the commentary out of historical interest.
>"It isn’t immediately obvious how to connect these oddities to a defined sense of a ’Krautrock continuum’, which is good as this confounds lazy journalists who think they’ve got this scene all figured out. Some Doubting Dans have even suggested in print that these records must be 1990s hoaxes, which is absurd. Others have placed too much emphasis on their obscureness, playing up the angle of ’not even the heavy-duty Krautrock collectors have heard of this label’, which is an indication of how the specialists want to appropriate everything for themselves. However, such specialisation and selfishness is overturned by democratising releases like this which put the music back in the public domain, where everyone with a CD player who’s so inclined can share in these delights."
>"These are neglected 1970s art-gallery only releases, originally available in limited runs of 100 copies. I'm still cultivating my suspicion that none of these bands had much of a life outside the studio. One envisages a series of projects emerging under Robinson's direction, musicians drawn from a pool of talent, working in Dieter Dierks Cologne studio during down-time, with 'The Mad Twiddler' producing; once sufficient album tracks had been gathered, sleeve art would be concocted and a name assigned to the one-off item."
On top of being controversial contemporarily, speculation and debate regarding the legitimacy of the Psi-Fi releases carried on well past the 1990s and you'd be hard-pressed to find online reviews or commentary regarding these albums that don't at the very least mention their dubious origin. Online discussion of these albums tends to fall into one of two categories: those who regard these albums as mere hoaxes and have largely written them off, and those who, while suspicious of the supposed origin of these recordings, treat the actual music as having some value.
I'll link a few of these reviews for reference, although there certainly is far more out there. If you're interested in these albums or the backstory behind them, I'd recommend seeking out more for yourself.
From the user "Braxt" on Discogs in 2015, about "Orion Awakes":
>"Listening to this in the cold light of day it certainly sounds like a '90s recording to me. Everything about it sounds a bit too studied. The wah wah, the relatively clean production, the drum sound. Add to the fact that nobody has ever seen a copy of these Pyramid releases (all right - someone thought they saw one once) and not one has ever been offered for sale. Even rare garage punk records from the 60s where there's ONE known copy have been documented."
From the user "Warthur" on ProgArchives in 2011, about "Epitaph For Venus":
>"The supposed rumours that this is a fake recorded in the 1990s didn't seem credible to me - musically speaking, the album sounds extremely authentic for the Krautrock scene of the time, with commonalities with Klaus Schulze's early work and Tangerine Dream's Zeit. In particular, the other two bands who were involved in this supposed fakery scandal - The Nazgul and Cosmic Corridors - supposedly consisted of complete unknowns, whereas this one is presented as a side project of a member of Dzyan, and it would be an *extremely* stupid move for forgers to try and pass the album off as the work of a real person who could contradict their story!"
From rock journalist Dmitry M. Epstein in 2017, about "Cosmic Corridors":
>"Purportedly recorded in the early ’70s by Toby Robinson for his Pyramid label, this album defies its own mythology by sounding suspiciously modern, and that doesn’t look like the case of retrofuturism."
Despite widespread doubt, one fairly notable individual who has consistently stood by the authenticity of these albums is the aforementioned Alan Freeman, who along with his brother Steve (himself a co-author on "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg") are the owners of the long-running "Ultima Thule" record outlet and publishers of the music magazine "Audion". Freeman claims to have seen a copy of the Golem album Orion Awakes in a record store in Berlin years before the Psi-Fi reissues were circulated, having caught his eye on account of its reflective metallic sleeve.
In the liner notes of the Mental Experience re-issue of Orion Awakes:
>"I do recall seeing a copy of this album on the wall in a German record shop, or something remarkably similar (some collector's shop in Berlin), which had a pressed metal sleeve somewhat like the original "Élő Omega" album by Omega. I was curious, but it was very expensive. Only later when the Psi-Fi CD came out did I remark that I'd seen it somewhere before. Apart from that the provenance of Golem is an unknown entity."
Although that in and of itself doesn't prove that any records were actually produced, a majority of the information made available about these albums in recent years comes from Freeman's research, and he is one of a few individuals documented to have spoken with Toby Robinson himself about the Pyramid albums.
This is a difficult question to answer because there was never any kind of real exposé, other than people naturally asking questions about discrepancies in the albums’ backstories. However, more information on these albums has come to light through Alan Freeman’s liner notes for the Mental Experience reissues.
Robinson has continued to maintain the authenticity of these recordings and provided some background as to what the recording process was like. For instance, he claims that the Cozmic Corridors project was largely initiated by a musician called Alex Meyer who used to loiter outside of Robin Page's studio, with his recordings later being overdubbed by guitars, vocals, and "noises."
Robinson's commentary, taken from Freeman's liner notes for that album:
>"All of the recording for Pyramid was done totally informally and ultimately, what decided whether something was released was if Robin would get one of his students to design a cover. If a cover existed, a small run would be paid for by whoever could afford it (normally Robin and me), and the albums distributed among the participating musicians. A few nightclubs had record bars, and sold our stuff. No tabs were kept on how many had moved, and I don't remember doing reruns on anything.
Basically, they were vanity pressings and a way of keeping Robin's students entourage occupied. I had to use pseudonyms for my involvement because most of the studio time was purloined without the proprietor's knowledge."
As mentioned previously, Robinson does have a genuine background in technical work on 70s krautrock albums, and a few of these albums are credited to real musicians that he had previously formed connections with. Epitaph For Venus features Reinhard Karwatky of the band Dzyan, Temple features Zeus B. Held of Birth Control, and the percussion on Cozmic Corridors was performed by Hans-Jürgen Pütz of Mythos. Pütz himself does not appear to have ever commented on these recordings, but both Karwatky and Held have confirmed their involvement. Another Birth Control member (Bruno Frenzel) is credited on the track "The Message" (attributed to the artist "Spirulina") from the second of the Unknown Deutschland compilations. Frenzel died in 1983 from heart complications associated with a stage injury he suffered in 1975, and although his presence is therefore unable to be confirmed by him directly, it's one of the only tracks from these sessions where there is a definite cutoff of when it might have been recorded.
Although not quoted directly, Held’s comments (described in Freeman’s liner notes for the Temple album) are quite interesting, as even he couldn’t confirm that the music that he recorded actually saw a release in the 1970s.
>“Certainly Zeus B. Held must be the most well-known name here, and his involvement would date his sessions as 1975 most likely after rehearsals or whilst recording Birth Control's "Plastic People" (which was handled by Toby Robinson under the guise of "Genius P. Orridge" at Dierks Studio). Apparently Zeus has confirmed his involvement in these sessions, although he didn't recall a band name, nor knowledge of any release.”
In any case, the presence of verifiable people on these recordings does suggest that there is some legitimacy behind them, whether they were recorded in the 70s or otherwise. It would certainly be a major issue from a legal perspective if any of these albums were falsely advertised as featuring musicians who don't play on them.
As for the other personnel on these records, it has been confirmed by Freeman's correspondence with Robinson that many of the musicians featured were credited under pseudonyms. For instance, owing to the interchangeability of it and the "Mad Twiddler" credit on the original Psi-Fi release, Robinson himself was likely credited as the fictitious "Joachim Weiss" in the liner notes of the Temple album for his contributions on bass guitar. Freeman speculates that, much like Robinson feeling compelled to obscure his own identity, these pseudonyms may correspond to other krautrock musicians.
From the liner notes of the Epitaph for Venus reissue, on the topic of the credits to "Johannes Lutz" and "Holst Seisert":
>"They may be the other members of what later became A.I.R. - a project formed by Reinhard Karwatky with Ingo Werner (ex-My Solid Ground, Baba Yaga) and Armin Stöwe (ex-Sixty Nine), or yet again they could be pseudonyms for Robin and Toby. I've tried to get in contact with Reinhard and ask him these questions, but never got anywhere. When I asked Toby, he said he couldn't exactly remember, only confirming that they weren't real names."
Freeman also speculates that, given Zeus B. Held's involvement, "Rolf Föller" on Orion Awakes may be related to fellow Birth Control member Peter Föller, and that a potential candidate for the unidentified percussionist (credited only as "Frodo") on The Nazgûl is Peter Giger of Dryzan. However, there is no actual evidence that directly ties them to any of these recording sessions, and it doesn't appear that Freeman was ever able to contact them.
Freeman has long been a proponent of these albums' authenticity and his research does admittedly present a decent argument for the actual sessions being legitimate. However, the inconsistencies behind when exactly these albums were recorded and how they were released (e.g. the Unknown Deutschland CDs claim they were sold at art galleries, but Robinson himself states they were sold predominantly at nightclubs) makes any of the "official" statements about these albums difficult to definitively trust. This is certainly not helped by there being little to no accounts from other people that actually corroborate Robinson's claims, alongside him failing to provide more information about certain discrepancies. For instance, the supposed "PYR 015" catalogue number assigned to Orion Awakes implies that at least 15 albums were produced for Pyramid, although only 6 albums were ultimately "reissued" and the only other documented catalogue numbers are 5, 8, and 9. When asked by Freeman about the full list of Pyramid releases, Robinson did not provide a quantity or any further information.
It's also worth noting that the origin of some recordings from legitimate 70s sessions doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility of them being overdubbed or otherwise altered on a later date. In any case, none of these projects were ever functional "bands"; instead being short-lived collaborations and sessions that never had much of a life outside of a studio setting.
In hopes of clarifying his research regarding the Pyramid albums, Freeman attempted to contact Robin Page, but despite briefly managing to track him down, Page's death in May 2015 halted any further communication. In Freeman's words, "the promised information and pictures about the Pyramid releases thus never arrived." As a result, many details about the status of the original releases (if they ever did exist) are likely to remain a mystery.
The music on these Psi-Fi releases is decently varied and consists of everything from wild psychedelic rock jams (e.g. Pyramid, Orion Awakes) to atmospheric space ambient (Epitaph For Venus) and avant-garde ambient (The Nazgûl).
I can't recommend these albums as an entry point to the wider scene of krautrock/kosmische Muzik, as there's certainly many more sophisticated and accessible examples of authentic krautrock in this vein out there. However, for enthusiasts of this sort of music, these aren't too bad and have a fair amount of stylistic overlap with other albums from the scene. They range from somewhat forgettable to pretty good, but all-around are fairly decent companions for those who've already listened to the wider catalogue of 70s krautrock and want to seek out more music in that vein. That being said, I do think there are some modern-sounding production elements (e.g. the drums on Orion Awakes are unusually "crisp" for lack of a better word) that make the claims of them wholly being 70s recordings rather dubious. Your mileage may vary on how "authentic" these sound, however.
Had there been more transparency about when these albums were recorded and released, they likely would've been viewed a lot more positively, but as it stands, there's enjoyable music here, regardless of them being imitations or genuine recordings from the 70s German underground scene.
Despite how controversial the Psi-Fi releases are, it doesn't appear that Toby Robinson's career as a producer/engineer was particularly affected, as he had long since moved on from his work in the krautrock scene to predominantly UK-based projects. Some examples include recurrent work with the BBC on multiple Doctor Who audio dramas and credits on albums by notable musicians such as David Sylvian and Derek Bailey. As such, the long-term consequences of the controversy surrounding these albums appears relatively minimal. There were no careers born or killed from it, but the entire story is nevertheless a good example of the importance of credible record labels.
Interestingly, this is far from the only example of alleged or confirmed hoax recordings claimed to be rare 70s krautrock. For instance, the album "Impressionen '71" (credited to the fictitious "Damenbart", actually Achim Flaam and Tina Schlebusch) dates back to 1989, and a more recent hoax was the "Kosmischer Läufer" series, purportedly by Drew McFadyen.
If there is anything that I want to personally add, it's that, assuming this was all an elaborate hoax and Robinson was bluffing the entire time, I do think it's pretty impressive that several albums worth of material might've been recorded, mixed, etc. for the sole purpose of being released like this. These releases are still highly suspect and I don't think there is likely to be any kind of definitive statement regarding their authenticity (or lack thereof) anytime soon, but I am nevertheless thankful that some interesting music came out of it.
(Side note: I do enjoy writing long-form posts like this, and if the people here find this sort of thing interesting, I may come around to posting more often. I am tempted to write something about the Cosmic Jokers, for instance!)
Images courtesy of Tommy Crouch.
One of the many notable releases on Rolf Ulrich-Kaiser’s label Kosmische Muzik is “Tarot” by Walter Wegmüller, a Yenish artist whose concept album (featuring legendary musicians such as Manuel Göttsching, Klaus Schulze, Walter Westrupp, etc.) came packaged with a complete set of his “Das Zigeuner-Tarot” deck.
Something I was unaware of until recently was that Ulrich-Kaiser was involved in the creation of a second tarot deck, entitled “Sternenmädchens Wahrsagespiel Tarot”. It was commissioned in 1975 and inspired by his romantic partner Gille Lettmann (the titular Sternenmädchen), who herself had an album released on Kosmische Muzik.
The complete deck features the 22 major arcana (some with unique titles) plus three additional cards: an advertisement for the “Internationalen Tarot Club des Sternenmädchen”, a dedication from Gille Lettmann, and instructions on how to play. As Reddit has a 20-image limit for gallery posts, I’ll be posting photos of the rest of the cards in the comments section.
All of the artwork you see here is by Peter Geitner, an artist and graphic designer notable for designing the logo and many album covers for Kosmische Muzik (e.g. “Einsjäger & Siebenjäger” by Popol Vuh, Dreamlab by Mythos, etc.) A fun fact is that the artwork for that Mythos album actually comes from this deck! It’s card no. 6, “Die Liebdenden” (“The Lovers”).
Anyway, if you are into tarot or just find the artwork on those old Kosmische Muzik albums interesting, you might want to check these cards out!
The oldest version of this image that I could find is from 2015 but it was probably taken long before that. He didn't have a KitKat until at least 2016!
Anyway enjoy your French fries stone man
Idk how relevant this is if you’re not in the fuckass PRCJ server (aka hell on earth), but fuck you I love this photo and I needed an excuse to post it again
Hi everyone! Welcome again to our weekly album discussion. Any album can really be featured, whether it be well-known, overlooked, or by a more contemporary artist - as long as it’s in the style and spirit of classic krautrock/kosmische Muzik.
If you're interested in discussing this week's album through instant messaging or are just interested in talking with more fans, check out the Kosmische Muzik Discord server!
Release Year: 1971
Label: Polydor
The story goes that Polydor signed Faust in hopes of discovering the next big German pop sensation. Sufficed to say, they did not get that. Faust’s first LP is a landmark in early 70s German avant-garde rock, making prominent use of tape experimentation and sound collages to present a bizarre and noisy (but at times rather charming) album. Faust would later go on to produce many other quality albums in the 1970s, such as their collaborations with Tony Conrad and Slapp Happy and being a very early act signed to Virgin Records.
For those who’ve heard the album - what are your thoughts? Feel free to share any opinions, experiences, etc. related to it.
I'm not a huge fan of hard rock by itself, but there was a decent amount of overlap between some early 70s hard rock/heavy psych bands and full-on prog, even if not necessarily every song on a given album. Thinking of groups like Captain Beyond, Birth Control, Atomic Rooster, etc.
I don't listen to Uriah Heep regularly, but upon revisiting this album, I was really impressed with how good the songwriting and instrumentation is (especially the organ playing, which is a standout on "July Morning" in particular). Really solid record; it's quite iconic and I'd be hard-pressed to find people here who hadn't at the very least heard of it, but I'd certainly recommend it either way!
Another one of my favourite prog-oriented songs of theirs is "The Spell" from Demons And Wizards.
