BUREAU B - Forced Exposure

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/31/2023

Christoph Dallach, Andreas Dorau, and Daniel Jahn present Echo Neuklang, a compilation which explores the question of how krautrock has influenced generation after generation of musicians since its inception. A contentious genre at the best of times, the music within its spectrum is essentially intangible. The common thread running through it is a compulsion to seek out the new. Beginning in the year 1981 and extending as far as 2023, the music in this collection demonstrates how the idea of what passed for krautrock in the 1970s has been interpreted or reinterpreted by a diverse array of artists with distinct approaches in the decades which followed, without recourse to any generic conventions. Features Stefan Thelen & Olek Gelba, Burnt Friedman, Haindling, Conny Frischauf, Moebius & Renziehausen, Deutsche Wertarbeit, Kreidler, Workshop, Love-Songs, To Rococo Rot, Härte 10, Schlammpeitziger, and Rheingold.

A conversation between Dallach, Dorau, and Jahn: A: Goodness, I'm freezing, it is wintertime in 2019. Here we sit, smoking in a railway station bar to discuss our compilation and the irksome topic of krautrock. Such a stupid word, krautrock. The three of us all agree on that, do we not? D: Indeed we do. There's no rock in krautrock. A: Rock's just as stupid, we can agree on that as well! C: Not one of the interesting, so-called krautrock bands has anything to do with rock. A: The million-dollar question has to be: what is krautrock anyway? I would say that krautrock is a genre which defies description. Think about the rhythms, the music, the instrumentation, there are no recurring elements at all. It must be the freest genre of all time. D: The only common denominator is that it's free music, different music, neither experimental in the classic sense, nor is it pop or rock. C: There has never been a "krautrock sound" as such, it's more of a unifying attitude, a drive to search for something genuinely new. That's how it was back in the early 1970s. A: It was an attempt to find "other" music! But has it crossed into this millennium, is that same spirit in evidence in newer music? C: Absolutely, like the music on this compilation, because it is so hard to classify. A: So what do we call it? D: Neo-kraut? A: I like it, you've left out the rock. D: And so the story continues.

$35.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/31/2023

Double LP version. Christoph Dallach, Andreas Dorau, and Daniel Jahn present Echo Neuklang, a compilation which explores the question of how krautrock has influenced generation after generation of musicians since its inception. A contentious genre at the best of times, the music within its spectrum is essentially intangible. The common thread running through it is a compulsion to seek out the new. Beginning in the year 1981 and extending as far as 2023, the music in this collection demonstrates how the idea of what passed for krautrock in the 1970s has been interpreted or reinterpreted by a diverse array of artists with distinct approaches in the decades which followed, without recourse to any generic conventions. Features Stefan Thelen & Olek Gelba, Burnt Friedman, Haindling, Conny Frischauf, Moebius & Renziehausen, Deutsche Wertarbeit, Kreidler, Workshop, Love-Songs, To Rococo Rot, Härte 10, Schlammpeitziger, and Rheingold.

A conversation between Dallach, Dorau, and Jahn: A: Goodness, I'm freezing, it is wintertime in 2019. Here we sit, smoking in a railway station bar to discuss our compilation and the irksome topic of krautrock. Such a stupid word, krautrock. The three of us all agree on that, do we not? D: Indeed we do. There's no rock in krautrock. A: Rock's just as stupid, we can agree on that as well! C: Not one of the interesting, so-called krautrock bands has anything to do with rock. A: The million-dollar question has to be: what is krautrock anyway? I would say that krautrock is a genre which defies description. Think about the rhythms, the music, the instrumentation, there are no recurring elements at all. It must be the freest genre of all time. D: The only common denominator is that it's free music, different music, neither experimental in the classic sense, nor is it pop or rock. C: There has never been a "krautrock sound" as such, it's more of a unifying attitude, a drive to search for something genuinely new. That's how it was back in the early 1970s. A: It was an attempt to find "other" music! But has it crossed into this millennium, is that same spirit in evidence in newer music? C: Absolutely, like the music on this compilation, because it is so hard to classify. A: So what do we call it? D: Neo-kraut? A: I like it, you've left out the rock. D: And so the story continues.

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/10/2023

Originally part of 2021's Faust Box Set release commemorating the bands 50th anniversary Momentaufnahme I and II are now set for their own standalone release by popular demand. This is for all those that missed out on the limited-edition box set release. They collect together music recorded at the band's studio -- a converted schoolhouse in rural Wümme between 1971 and 1974 in a similar vein to the way in which The Faust Tapes (released in 1973) was assembled. These two albums range from minimal electronic pulses, ambient dreamscapes, vocal collages to heavy drone, ritualistic percussion and psychedelic grooves. Highlights include the hypnotic space jams of "Vorsatz" and "Rückwärts Durch Die Drehtür", the delicate acoustics of "I Am... An Artist" and the radiophonic workshop-esq "Weird Sounds Sound Bizarre".

Let's let founding member Jean-Hervé Peron explain more: "Faust? were originally a group of musicians, each following our own inspirations, desires, illusions: many facets, many directions, different styles, different languages. We often had to struggle with the clash of our egos but there was also a natural tacit understanding of each other's role. We had the privilege to work with a great producer and an extraordinary recording engineer. From spring 1971 to spring 1974 we existed as a group. Then Faust became a Gestalt with various incarnations. Momentaufnahme? Don't panic here, it is only German for 'Snapshot'. Momentaufnahme I and II present a collection of unreleased snapshots which offer a wonderful insight into the world of Faust. Some tracks are extremely raw and experimental, others are fully rounded productions. So far we have MA I and MA II but we plan to do more of these when we come up with more material or new ideas."

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/10/2023

Originally part of 2021's Faust Box Set release commemorating the bands 50th anniversary Momentaufnahme I and II are now set for their own standalone release by popular demand. This is for all those that missed out on the limited-edition box set release. They collect together music recorded at the band's studio -- a converted schoolhouse in rural Wümme between 1971 and 1974 in a similar vein to the way in which The Faust Tapes (released in 1973) was assembled. These two albums range from minimal electronic pulses, ambient dreamscapes, vocal collages to heavy drone, ritualistic percussion and psychedelic grooves. Highlights include the hypnotic space jams of "Vorsatz" and "Rückwärts Durch Die Drehtür", the delicate acoustics of "I Am... An Artist" and the radiophonic workshop-esq "Weird Sounds Sound Bizarre".

Let's let founding member Jean-Hervé Peron explain more: "Faust? were originally a group of musicians, each following our own inspirations, desires, illusions: many facets, many directions, different styles, different languages. We often had to struggle with the clash of our egos but there was also a natural tacit understanding of each other's role. We had the privilege to work with a great producer and an extraordinary recording engineer. From spring 1971 to spring 1974 we existed as a group. Then Faust became a Gestalt with various incarnations. Momentaufnahme? Don't panic here, it is only German for 'Snapshot'. Momentaufnahme I and II present a collection of unreleased snapshots which offer a wonderful insight into the world of Faust. Some tracks are extremely raw and experimental, others are fully rounded productions. So far we have MA I and MA II but we plan to do more of these when we come up with more material or new ideas."

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/10/2023

LP version. Originally part of 2021's Faust Box Set release commemorating the bands 50th anniversary Momentaufnahme I and II are now set for their own standalone release by popular demand. This is for all those that missed out on the limited-edition box set release. They collect together music recorded at the band's studio -- a converted schoolhouse in rural Wümme between 1971 and 1974 in a similar vein to the way in which The Faust Tapes (released in 1973) was assembled. These two albums range from minimal electronic pulses, ambient dreamscapes, vocal collages to heavy drone, ritualistic percussion and psychedelic grooves. Highlights include the hypnotic space jams of "Vorsatz" and "Rückwärts Durch Die Drehtür", the delicate acoustics of "I Am... An Artist" and the radiophonic workshop-esq "Weird Sounds Sound Bizarre".

Let's let founding member Jean-Hervé Peron explain more: "Faust? were originally a group of musicians, each following our own inspirations, desires, illusions: many facets, many directions, different styles, different languages. We often had to struggle with the clash of our egos but there was also a natural tacit understanding of each other's role. We had the privilege to work with a great producer and an extraordinary recording engineer. From spring 1971 to spring 1974 we existed as a group. Then Faust became a Gestalt with various incarnations. Momentaufnahme? Don't panic here, it is only German for 'Snapshot'. Momentaufnahme I and II present a collection of unreleased snapshots which offer a wonderful insight into the world of Faust. Some tracks are extremely raw and experimental, others are fully rounded productions. So far we have MA I and MA II but we plan to do more of these when we come up with more material or new ideas."

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/10/2023

LP version. Originally part of 2021's Faust Box Set release commemorating the bands 50th anniversary Momentaufnahme I and II are now set for their own standalone release by popular demand. This is for all those that missed out on the limited-edition box set release. They collect together music recorded at the band's studio -- a converted schoolhouse in rural Wümme between 1971 and 1974 in a similar vein to the way in which The Faust Tapes (released in 1973) was assembled. These two albums range from minimal electronic pulses, ambient dreamscapes, vocal collages to heavy drone, ritualistic percussion and psychedelic grooves. Highlights include the hypnotic space jams of "Vorsatz" and "Rückwärts Durch Die Drehtür", the delicate acoustics of "I Am... An Artist" and the radiophonic workshop-esq "Weird Sounds Sound Bizarre".

Let's let founding member Jean-Hervé Peron explain more: "Faust? were originally a group of musicians, each following our own inspirations, desires, illusions: many facets, many directions, different styles, different languages. We often had to struggle with the clash of our egos but there was also a natural tacit understanding of each other's role. We had the privilege to work with a great producer and an extraordinary recording engineer. From spring 1971 to spring 1974 we existed as a group. Then Faust became a Gestalt with various incarnations. Momentaufnahme? Don't panic here, it is only German for 'Snapshot'. Momentaufnahme I and II present a collection of unreleased snapshots which offer a wonderful insight into the world of Faust. Some tracks are extremely raw and experimental, others are fully rounded productions. So far we have MA I and MA II but we plan to do more of these when we come up with more material or new ideas."

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/24/2023

LP version.

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/24/2023

For eight years now, songwriter, and producer Sebastian Lee Philipp has been steering his project Die Wilde Jagd through the field of tension between contemporary electronic music and avant-pop. Between 2015 and 2020, three studio albums were produced as documents of Philipp's rigorous musical creativity. "Atem", a composition for Roadburn Festival, was released in 2022 (BB 402LP), documenting yet another, more experimental side of the project. On the fourth album, all these multi-faceted worlds are brought together in an impressive way. "'Ophio, Ophio' you say. Lies in the end of you Still the best ahead of me?" With these lines from the title track, Sebastian Lee Philipp poses the question that spans over the entire album like a parenthesis. The work entitled "Ophio" tells of constant transformation, the blurring of beginning, end, and the various dimensions in between. "It's about the constant unfolding of the self, about the seductive forces of life, an ode to existence and the transformation to happiness." Says Philipp himself about his conceptual direction of the album. The meandering between leaving behind and starting anew is not only found in the lyrics, but also in the music itself. The production seems more consistent than ever before, stripping away all frills and trinkets, like a skin that has become too tight. The compositions form a concentrate in which every single sound finds its space. In a certain sense, it's like listening to an introspection in which the bundled voices become a single, demanding murmur that is both drone and whisper in equal measure. As on the previous album Haut (BB 343CD/LP, 2020), the drums were played by long-time stage partner Ran Levari. The new album also features cellist and singer Lih Qun Wong (Lihla), who first joined Die Wilde Jagd for the live performance of "Atem". This collaboration sounds particularly impressive on "The Hearth", the band's first English-language song. A beguiling track as if of shiny, heavy tar, carried by Philipp's dense composition, Levari's pulsating beats and lyricist Wong's voice. Other production partners were Philipp Otterbach ("Kelch") and Vactrol Park ("In Wonnenhieben"). Nina Siegler, who could already be heard as a duet partner in the song "Himmelfahrten", also lends her voice again to the tracks "Ouroboros" and "In Wonnenhieben".

$16.50 IN STOCK

With Leave Me Alone, Detlef Weinrich presents his fifth album under the moniker Tolouse Low Trax. Weinrich, who has meanwhile turned his back on Düsseldorf and lives in Paris, has long since ceased to be an insider tip and is a guest in renowned clubs and festivals all over Europe. With his new album, he succeeds in an exciting, unforeseen new direction. The velvety heaviness and rawness of earlier records seems to have given way to a new playfulness. A playfulness perhaps in the sense of an electronica reminiscent of the late 1990s, which in its idea of deconstruction and reduction is currently enjoying a new appreciation in the clubs. But also, in the sense of an urban vibe of hip-hop and dub references, which are woven into a very unique mix in Weinrich's tracks.

"Nervous mechanical murmurs, drifting comic-like through razor-sharp rhythm cliffs: welcome to Leave Me Alone, a loop meta-level dreamland of styles and mental meteorology. A repetitive notion on the overwhelming speechlessness towards the world, its clocking, and all the despairs that come along with it. Wholly veiled in a sharp sonorous language, that brings a complete agreement of the expression with the idea, a sense of harmony, of a secret beauty, that often escapes the judgment of the crowd. It marks the latest long player by Tolouse Low Trax. After his stunning collaboration with French singer and hurdy gurdy player Emmanuelle Parrenin and myriad remixes for artists like Aksak Maboul, Ex Ponto, or Sebastian Tellier, he sharpened his artistic skills for a fresh musical treasure hunt. Leave Me Alone is a renunciation from the industrial slow drone zones, waving into spectacular deconstructed style collages. 13 veiled drum machine experiments, featuring dubby jazz districts, hip-hop flair, haunting little melodies, and the TLT signature funk . . . For a wonder, this time almost no pocketed vocal samples in the TLT creations. Instead, freshly recorded spoken words and singing by Brooklyn based producer Chris Hontos aka Beat Detectives, poet and multidisciplinary artist Fran from Paris, and Italian synthesist and singer Andrea Noce aka Eva Geist, chanting introspective verses and Pier Paolo Pasolini poems over rugged grooves and suggestive sounds, opening his creative universe into a crisp manic eroticism. A cluster of genres, dancing in a rebellious, blistering swing, whirling styles upside down with an overall atmosphere that is flourishing on a positive spirit..." --Michael Leuffen

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. With Leave Me Alone, Detlef Weinrich presents his fifth album under the moniker Tolouse Low Trax. Weinrich, who has meanwhile turned his back on Düsseldorf and lives in Paris, has long since ceased to be an insider tip and is a guest in renowned clubs and festivals all over Europe. With his new album, he succeeds in an exciting, unforeseen new direction. The velvety heaviness and rawness of earlier records seems to have given way to a new playfulness. A playfulness perhaps in the sense of an electronica reminiscent of the late 1990s, which in its idea of deconstruction and reduction is currently enjoying a new appreciation in the clubs. But also, in the sense of an urban vibe of hip-hop and dub references, which are woven into a very unique mix in Weinrich's tracks.

"Nervous mechanical murmurs, drifting comic-like through razor-sharp rhythm cliffs: welcome to Leave Me Alone, a loop meta-level dreamland of styles and mental meteorology. A repetitive notion on the overwhelming speechlessness towards the world, its clocking, and all the despairs that come along with it. Wholly veiled in a sharp sonorous language, that brings a complete agreement of the expression with the idea, a sense of harmony, of a secret beauty, that often escapes the judgment of the crowd. It marks the latest long player by Tolouse Low Trax. After his stunning collaboration with French singer and hurdy gurdy player Emmanuelle Parrenin and myriad remixes for artists like Aksak Maboul, Ex Ponto, or Sebastian Tellier, he sharpened his artistic skills for a fresh musical treasure hunt. Leave Me Alone is a renunciation from the industrial slow drone zones, waving into spectacular deconstructed style collages. 13 veiled drum machine experiments, featuring dubby jazz districts, hip-hop flair, haunting little melodies, and the TLT signature funk . . . For a wonder, this time almost no pocketed vocal samples in the TLT creations. Instead, freshly recorded spoken words and singing by Brooklyn based producer Chris Hontos aka Beat Detectives, poet and multidisciplinary artist Fran from Paris, and Italian synthesist and singer Andrea Noce aka Eva Geist, chanting introspective verses and Pier Paolo Pasolini poems over rugged grooves and suggestive sounds, opening his creative universe into a crisp manic eroticism. A cluster of genres, dancing in a rebellious, blistering swing, whirling styles upside down with an overall atmosphere that is flourishing on a positive spirit..." --Michael Leuffen

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. A pivotal figure in Düsseldorf's Salon Des Amateurs, Stefan Schwander has already amassed a remarkably rich musical repertoire. Through his Harmonious Thelonious project, he has spent the past dozen years exploring the worlds of Pan-African, South American, and Middle Eastern rhythms in combination with a minimalistic electronic sound, distilling his very own groove from the point at which they converge. His new album -- challengingly entitled Cheapo Sounds -- sees Schwander move away from tried and trusted recipes.

"This musical reorientation starts with the fundamental approach to production: the entire record was created using a single instrument -- the Monomachine -- which lends a very physical sound to the ten tracks featured here. The polyrhythms of earlier works are no longer in the foreground, replaced by melodies and chords interwoven on a base frame of brittle, simplified beat constructs and rugged bass pulses. On closer inspection, this is, at times, a new vision of an old technique. There are still the old amps in Schwander's rehearsal room, along with a primitive rhythm box, a programmable drum machine and various synthesizers, including an MS-20. None of these made it onto Cheapo Sounds and yet the idea with which these instruments are associated is written into the DNA of the album. When new wave superseded punk and the last throes of rockism, a new and particular spirit emerged, one which Stefan Schwander sought to capture on his new works. A new wave record informed by techno. His success in this venture brings us back to the elemental idea of the Harmonious Thelonious project: a form of dance music which, like a good club night, does not succumb to formulaic rigidity or generic expectations, but challenges the crowd, trading with jazz, krautrock, industrial, punk, dub, and disco. Stefan Schwander has never shown any interest in trends, but Cheapo Sounds and the ten pithy pieces contained therein, few of them exceeding the four-minute mark, can arguably be considered an exceedingly modern record -- in the best sense of the word. And even when the closing track 'Afterhour' has played out, Schwander's mesmeric variations on minimalism still hang in the air, like quiet clouds of smoke." --Daniel Jahn

$16.50 IN STOCK

A pivotal figure in Düsseldorf's Salon Des Amateurs, Stefan Schwander has already amassed a remarkably rich musical repertoire. Through his Harmonious Thelonious project, he has spent the past dozen years exploring the worlds of Pan-African, South American, and Middle Eastern rhythms in combination with a minimalistic electronic sound, distilling his very own groove from the point at which they converge. His new album -- challengingly entitled Cheapo Sounds -- sees Schwander move away from tried and trusted recipes.

"This musical reorientation starts with the fundamental approach to production: the entire record was created using a single instrument -- the Monomachine -- which lends a very physical sound to the ten tracks featured here. The polyrhythms of earlier works are no longer in the foreground, replaced by melodies and chords interwoven on a base frame of brittle, simplified beat constructs and rugged bass pulses. On closer inspection, this is, at times, a new vision of an old technique. There are still the old amps in Schwander's rehearsal room, along with a primitive rhythm box, a programmable drum machine and various synthesizers, including an MS-20. None of these made it onto Cheapo Sounds and yet the idea with which these instruments are associated is written into the DNA of the album. When new wave superseded punk and the last throes of rockism, a new and particular spirit emerged, one which Stefan Schwander sought to capture on his new works. A new wave record informed by techno. His success in this venture brings us back to the elemental idea of the Harmonious Thelonious project: a form of dance music which, like a good club night, does not succumb to formulaic rigidity or generic expectations, but challenges the crowd, trading with jazz, krautrock, industrial, punk, dub, and disco. Stefan Schwander has never shown any interest in trends, but Cheapo Sounds and the ten pithy pieces contained therein, few of them exceeding the four-minute mark, can arguably be considered an exceedingly modern record -- in the best sense of the word. And even when the closing track 'Afterhour' has played out, Schwander's mesmeric variations on minimalism still hang in the air, like quiet clouds of smoke." --Daniel Jahn

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Without a doubt, To Rococo Rot are an exception within the German music landscape. From 1995 until they broke up in 2014, the group around Robert Lippok, Ronald Lippok, and Stefan Schneider researched a unique sound between electronic music, ambient, post-melancholy, and the further development of a new, free music like krautrock. The trio was invited three times by John Peel to record radio sessions in the BBC studios. Bureau B make the recordings from these three sessions from the years 1997 and 1999 available on record for the first time, which, in addition to the live versions of selected album tracks, also contains exclusive, unreleased songs.

"... Kreidler originated in the west, Ornament & Verbrechen in the east. Robert Lippok describes the moment when things did a 180: 'When we first started releasing records it was almost a shock to hear our own music on the radio.' You walk through an invisible wall. You cause a membrane to pulsate. And finally in 1995, To Rococo Rot was the band whose music, in a kind of aesthetic feedback loop, also made a certain John Peel at the BBC and Daniel Miller at Mute Records sit up and take notice: 'It was something new, something that sounded like it could only be done in Germany; and, as I discovered later, could only be done by guys who were born in the east of Germany in the days before the wall came down.' And so, the three To Rococo Rot sessions united here with their to some extent exclusive Peel tracks ('Glück', 'Esther', 'Glass'), some recorded under intense time pressure, are testimonies to the intimate connection of three German musicians with the whole world, with pop, with the happiness that one possesses and that one shares. Pop without its means of production is inconceivable. And even in times when digital is king, we should consider ourselves lucky that this analog reality of sound, like radio waves, continues to pulsate through us." --Karl Bruckmaier

$29.50 IN STOCK

50th anniversary edition reissue, originally released 1972. Cluster can be counted among the most important international protagonists of the electronic avant-garde. Some credit them with having invented ambient music, others as pioneers of synthesizer pop, whilst to some they are firmly embedded in the krautrock universe. There is some truth in all of these notions. Cluster (or Kluster as they were in the beginning) were founded in 1970 in Berlin by Conrad Schnitzler, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Dieter Moebius. A change in direction and musical differences moved Moebius and Roedelius to split from Schnitzler after which the duo recorded ten regular studio albums between 1971 and 2009. Their debut album (Cluster 71) was in Wire Magazine's "One Hundred Records That Set The World On Fire" list. Follow up, Cluster II, has now reached its 50th anniversary and to celebrate Bureau B are releasing a limited anniversary edition, vinyl only in a gatefold sleeve.

"Cluster II was born in two big cities. Back in 1972 Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius still lived in Berlin, where they were part of the city's swirling underground scene, situated somewhere in the middle of artistic happenings, musical outrageousness and drug abuse: an urban mixture that perceptibly influenced Cluster II, but the album was recorded in Hamburg; one track a live performance at Hamburg's concert hall 'Fabrik' . . . It goes without saying that they could not do completely without electricity, but they mostly manipulated their keyboards and other electric devices in an improvised way, as if rolling their sleeves up for some real manual work. This way Cluster never saw their role reduced to pushing buttons and pressing switches. It is obvious that Roedelius and Moebius were not late in discovering the tape loop as a method of creating repetitive patterns. They also incorporated an analog rhythm machine into Cluster II, even though it did not yet play an essential part on the album but what they firmly relied on was not their equipment, but rather their intuition and the option to decide at any point what was supposed to happen in the next few moments. The fact that they were always ready to run the risk of musical failure is something that cannot be respected highly enough. So, Cluster proceeded in a different way not only from a musical point of view, but also displayed a completely new attitude. Moebius and Roedelius never submitted to their machines but let their personalities as heart and soul musicians be heard at all times to create 'electronic music with a human face'. Conrad Plank, the ingenious sonic magician, who regularly hosted Cluster, Harmonia and others in his studio, displayed so much enthusiasm and inspiration in helping put these new ideas into practice. Bravely and without fear, Cluster had ventured out on a journey without knowing where it would lead them, stepping into fascinating, virgin territory..." --Asmus Tietchens

$16.50 IN STOCK

Reissue, originally released 2003. "Like a blizzard in a snow globe American indie label File 13 Records released what was already Martin Rev's sixth solo album in the autumn of 2003. The previous year, Rev and his musical partner Alan Vega had struck out in a new direction on their American Supreme album and Rev's solo works continued in a similar vein. If Strangeworld (BB 337CD/LP) from the year 2000 actually felt more like a timeless abstract of Martin Rev's entire spectrum of musical influences, To Live, three years later, introduces more contemporary elements, including guitar samples for the first time. "The sound of To Live was actually one I had already been using live on stage for a couple of years. The inspiration didn't come from the 2000's but probably from something much earlier although I couldn't specifically pinpoint from where. It's also related to the rhythm tech I was using," Rev recalls. The record met with mixed reactions on release. Some critics were wrongfooted by sequence-driven segments and the industrial rock characteristics of the late 1990s -- not what they expected from a Rev album. In the same way that Suicide's revolutionary new sound was loved and hated in equal measure back in the 1970s, Rev was still polarizing opinion with his music some 30 years later. But even if synthesizer drones and minimalist keyboard figures were less prominent on To Live it is fair to say that all of the tracks shared the inimitable language of form which made Martin Rev's sound so distinctive. Layers of rhythmic loops fade into Rev's sporadic, recitative spoken words which are as tender as they are threatening, building into a snow globe blizzard where chromed glitter and golden confetti dance wildly, haphazardly. This is particularly striking on 'Gutter Rock', an overmodulated, hypnotically charming slice of lounge exotica. And this very sound of antithesis, between hard drum machines, guitar salvoes and Rev's intangible voice, in which every mood and sense of insecurity which foreshadowed the new millennium, especially in a city like Rev's New York, was shattered two years earlier on September 11. To Live is not easy to digest, a work of contradictions which marks a transition in Martin Rev's overall output as a child of its time, worthy of special attention in his legacy." --Daniel Jahn, February 2022

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Reissue, originally released 2003. "Like a blizzard in a snow globe American indie label File 13 Records released what was already Martin Rev's sixth solo album in the autumn of 2003. The previous year, Rev and his musical partner Alan Vega had struck out in a new direction on their American Supreme album and Rev's solo works continued in a similar vein. If Strangeworld (BB 337CD/LP) from the year 2000 actually felt more like a timeless abstract of Martin Rev's entire spectrum of musical influences, To Live, three years later, introduces more contemporary elements, including guitar samples for the first time. "The sound of To Live was actually one I had already been using live on stage for a couple of years. The inspiration didn't come from the 2000's but probably from something much earlier although I couldn't specifically pinpoint from where. It's also related to the rhythm tech I was using," Rev recalls. The record met with mixed reactions on release. Some critics were wrongfooted by sequence-driven segments and the industrial rock characteristics of the late 1990s -- not what they expected from a Rev album. In the same way that Suicide's revolutionary new sound was loved and hated in equal measure back in the 1970s, Rev was still polarizing opinion with his music some 30 years later. But even if synthesizer drones and minimalist keyboard figures were less prominent on To Live it is fair to say that all of the tracks shared the inimitable language of form which made Martin Rev's sound so distinctive. Layers of rhythmic loops fade into Rev's sporadic, recitative spoken words which are as tender as they are threatening, building into a snow globe blizzard where chromed glitter and golden confetti dance wildly, haphazardly. This is particularly striking on 'Gutter Rock', an overmodulated, hypnotically charming slice of lounge exotica. And this very sound of antithesis, between hard drum machines, guitar salvoes and Rev's intangible voice, in which every mood and sense of insecurity which foreshadowed the new millennium, especially in a city like Rev's New York, was shattered two years earlier on September 11. To Live is not easy to digest, a work of contradictions which marks a transition in Martin Rev's overall output as a child of its time, worthy of special attention in his legacy." --Daniel Jahn, February 2022

$33.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Reissue, originally released in 2008. Hazy dream chronicles. "A Martin Rev album is always liable to spring a surprise. Think of the rough guitars which unexpectedly appeared on his 2003 release To Live (BB 417CD/LP) instead of synthesizers. Les Nymphes, which followed in 2008, saw Rev return to dream-laden melodic miniatures, but came from a resolutely more radical place than its predecessors. A minimalist thread runs through Martin Rev's oeuvre, and yet there is an opulence, something approaching exuberance, to the pieces on Les Nymphes. The first few seconds of the opening track 'Sophie Eagle' herald a towering sonic wave, a cascade of echoes and rhythm loops, with fragments of melody and Rev's sporadic utterances rising like whitecaps above splashing phase shifts. References to contemporary club music, in evidence on To Live, resurface here, along with the disconcerting guitar samples which dominated the previous album. The other tracks on Les Nymphes share a subcooled, dreamlike, slow rave sensibility amidst a post-industrial atmosphere which is reminiscent of Coil in the scope of its three-dimensional soundscape. Rev elaborates: "The similarities of Les Nymphes to house and dance were evident for sure, although I didn't start off searching for them in particular. It was probably the first work I brought to completion from start to finish on computer, and a lot of the tracks were digitally derived from interactive programs rather than outboard gear. The atmosphere and sound were inspired by a lot of reading I had been doing in Greek mythology and also investigating the same stories in different languages. Probably my spending a lot of time living in Montreal for several years was a strong influence in that it's a French speaking environment and all the book stores had a great array of classical literature in French and other languages." The inspiration of cultural mythologies is what makes Les Nymphes so irresistible, its hazy realities assembled in a dream chronology. What would an ethereal house or techno album sound under Rev's guidance? Once again, this work demonstrates the rigor of Martin Rev's approach, his willingness to embrace risk and his uncompromising rejection of a single aesthetic framework. Les Nymphes is, without question, the work of an artist who is constantly in search mode." --Daniel Jahn, February 2022

$16.50 IN STOCK

Reissue, originally released in 2008. Hazy dream chronicles. "A Martin Rev album is always liable to spring a surprise. Think of the rough guitars which unexpectedly appeared on his 2003 release To Live (BB 417CD/LP) instead of synthesizers. Les Nymphes, which followed in 2008, saw Rev return to dream-laden melodic miniatures, but came from a resolutely more radical place than its predecessors. A minimalist thread runs through Martin Rev's oeuvre, and yet there is an opulence, something approaching exuberance, to the pieces on Les Nymphes. The first few seconds of the opening track 'Sophie Eagle' herald a towering sonic wave, a cascade of echoes and rhythm loops, with fragments of melody and Rev's sporadic utterances rising like whitecaps above splashing phase shifts. References to contemporary club music, in evidence on To Live, resurface here, along with the disconcerting guitar samples which dominated the previous album. The other tracks on Les Nymphes share a subcooled, dreamlike, slow rave sensibility amidst a post-industrial atmosphere which is reminiscent of Coil in the scope of its three-dimensional soundscape. Rev elaborates: "The similarities of Les Nymphes to house and dance were evident for sure, although I didn't start off searching for them in particular. It was probably the first work I brought to completion from start to finish on computer, and a lot of the tracks were digitally derived from interactive programs rather than outboard gear. The atmosphere and sound were inspired by a lot of reading I had been doing in Greek mythology and also investigating the same stories in different languages. Probably my spending a lot of time living in Montreal for several years was a strong influence in that it's a French speaking environment and all the book stores had a great array of classical literature in French and other languages." The inspiration of cultural mythologies is what makes Les Nymphes so irresistible, its hazy realities assembled in a dream chronology. What would an ethereal house or techno album sound under Rev's guidance? Once again, this work demonstrates the rigor of Martin Rev's approach, his willingness to embrace risk and his uncompromising rejection of a single aesthetic framework. Les Nymphes is, without question, the work of an artist who is constantly in search mode." --Daniel Jahn, February 2022

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Reissue, limited 30th anniversary edition. Originally released in 1992. Under the name Areu Areu, the two Camouflage musicians, Heiko Maile and Marcus Meyn, released a five-track EP in 1992, which is now being re-released in an extended version in a limited edition and for the first time on vinyl. In 1991, a friend and companion of Heiko Maile and Marcus Meyn, the photographer Reiner Pfisterer, celebrated his 24th birthday. Instead of records or books, the two Camouflage founders planned to present the birthday child with a performance by a band formed especially for the occasion and launched Areu Areu. After Camouflage had just released their rather acoustic sounding album Meanwhile, Maile and Meyn were more in the mood for purely electronic music, so this side project was just what they needed to play around with the electronic gear they had accumulated in their studio in the center of the small town of Bietigheim in southern Germany. The result was cover versions of songs that had always strongly influenced Maile and Meyn: you hear "Day Tripper" (Beatles), "Cold" (The Cure), Fad Gadget's "Ricky's Hand" and a two-song medley of "I'm Your Money" (Heaven 17) and the Depeche Mode classic "Tora! Tora! Tora!". In addition, several versions of their legendary German-language song "Mr. X" were worked out. A few weeks after the party, Maile and Meyn told their A&R manager about the project, and in 1992 a small number of tracks were released in a small edition on CD. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of this release, the complete work of Areu Areu now appears on an album for the first time. Areu Areu created the perfect soundtrack for a party in the hot summer of '91. Areu Areu are danceable, unpolished and wild.

$16.50 IN STOCK

Reissue, limited 30th anniversary edition. Originally released in 1992. Under the name Areu Areu, the two Camouflage musicians, Heiko Maile and Marcus Meyn, released a five-track EP in 1992, which is now being re-released in an extended version in a limited edition and for the first time on vinyl. In 1991, a friend and companion of Heiko Maile and Marcus Meyn, the photographer Reiner Pfisterer, celebrated his 24th birthday. Instead of records or books, the two Camouflage founders planned to present the birthday child with a performance by a band formed especially for the occasion and launched Areu Areu. After Camouflage had just released their rather acoustic sounding album Meanwhile, Maile and Meyn were more in the mood for purely electronic music, so this side project was just what they needed to play around with the electronic gear they had accumulated in their studio in the center of the small town of Bietigheim in southern Germany. The result was cover versions of songs that had always strongly influenced Maile and Meyn: you hear "Day Tripper" (Beatles), "Cold" (The Cure), Fad Gadget's "Ricky's Hand" and a two-song medley of "I'm Your Money" (Heaven 17) and the Depeche Mode classic "Tora! Tora! Tora!". In addition, several versions of their legendary German-language song "Mr. X" were worked out. A few weeks after the party, Maile and Meyn told their A&R manager about the project, and in 1992 a small number of tracks were released in a small edition on CD. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of this release, the complete work of Areu Areu now appears on an album for the first time. Areu Areu created the perfect soundtrack for a party in the hot summer of '91. Areu Areu are danceable, unpolished and wild.

$16.50 IN STOCK

"For their second foray into the fringes of German pop, Bureau B delve deeper than before, raiding cassette culture, 7" obscurities, and overlooked album cuts to further frame this free-thinking strain of sonic expression. Starting the count from punk's year zero, this set sees a newly liberated generation get weird and wild with anything they could lay their hands on, delivering demented, detuned and disorienting tracks brimming with DIY spirit. Where their kosmische predecessors preferred immersive, expansive compositions, these artists opted for immediacy, quickly capturing one idea before moving on to the next. Exploiting advances in home recording to say outside of industry confines, these art-school extroverts and commune drop outs often came together in unplanned collaborations and one-off projects, capturing their whole creative lifespan on one side of a C45 . . . The sparse drum machine of ALU's 'Aludome' opens proceedings, laying the foundation for wavy guitar chords and simple melodies on this tender 1980 composition, which only came to light in 2005. From there we sink into the watery electronics, free jazz bass and abstract guitars of Detlef Diederichsen charmingly abrupt 'Pissnelke 2000', before Maria Zerfall moves us into the shadows with the dark and punkish dirge 'Der Mond', a haunting track with double tracked and distorted spoken vocals. Butzmann/Kapielski's avant-dance masterpiece 'Do The VoPo' diverts us to the dancefloor, where the oddball synth sounds and skewed sampler vox of Rüdiger Lorenz's 'Francis & Friends' traps us in a strange slow motion groove. The tempo raises via E.M.P.'s dubbish sabotage of '80s smooth jazz, turns inside out on Vono's charming interlude 'Der Zauberer', then finds its feet again via Reichmann's '78 composition 'Wunderbar' taken from the Sky LP of the same name. This frazzled fusion of cosmic country and Asiatic melody shares a widescreen worldview with Deux Baleines Blanches' 'Draht 9', on which post punk electronics and chiming guitars combine with bittersweet beauty. The time-travelling Rolf Trostel takes us to the midpoint with pulsating chords which predate Basic Channel by a decade, while Phantom Band's 'Dream Machine' stitches together two decades of the psychedelic continuum in a riot of tumbling toms, panning sequences and brain melting waveforms. 'Glucose' sees Moebius & Beerbohm unleash their strange music at a delinquent tempo, before Jimmy, Jenny + Jonny offer a second subversion of smooth jazz with their skronking Mediterranean fantasy 'Salome'. Thomas Dinger's frosty music box romance 'Alleewalzer' and The Wirtschaftswunder's stomping ska-like 'Television' follow in quick succession, leading us into Cluster's narcotic fairground 'Oh Odessa', a queasy assemblage of detuned FM bells and percussive piston bursts. From there, the dubbed-out post punk of Sprung Aus Den Wolken, experimental dance of 'Notorische Reflexe' and unhinged disco of Günter Schickert capture different ends of the alternative dancefloor, before the pastoral outsider pop of Lapre's 'Septer' signs off in a swell of yearning melody." --Patrick Ryder

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Conrad Schnitzler liked to embark on daily excursions through the sonic diversity of his synthesizers. Finding exceptional sounds with great regularity, he preserved them for use in combination with each other in subsequent live performances. He thus amassed a vast sound archive of his discoveries over time. When the m=minimal label in Berlin reissued two Conrad Schnitzler albums at the outset of the 2010s, label honcho Jens Strüver was granted access to this audio library. Strüver came up with the idea of con-structing new compositions, not remixes, from the archived material. On completion of the first Con-Struct album, he decided to develop the concept into a series, with different electronic musicians invited into Schnitzler's unique world of sound. Since 2014, Baal & Mortimer is the project of Alexandra Grübler, sonically exploring questions of resistance, autonomy, matter and speculation. The debut album Deixis was released on Bureau B in 2020 (BB 344CD/LP).

Grübler on the release: "Conrad Schnitzler's music came to me first in Düsseldorf at Salon des Amateurs, roughly 2007 or 2008, most definitely in the early morning hours, in the shape of his track Das Tier. I remember his name coming up quite a bit, deeply rooted in a specific experimental/Kraut discourse and I liked listening to his records, but working with his archive added an entirely different, physical intensity. Instead of reworking the material on its own, I chose to find traces of melodies, harmonies, notes within it, using them as seeds to add and derive new compositions. Schnitzler's archive became the foundation and departure point from which a process of accumulation and chiseling away started. Through playing things on wrong speed, stretching, or warping, fractal structures appeared, one unfolding out of the previous one, almost like chaos magick set in motion. I tried to internalize his work mode of not having any rules before the first note is played, no key, no meter, just following through with the evolving linearity of the sound. I tried to not focus too much on the fact that Schnitzler is from a different generation or that I'm not from a Krautrock or Post-Krautrock generation. Then again, my age and background pose different urgencies, questions and conditions, so I took the liberty to meet his material on a level that reflects the specific present surrounding me. Through living in Berlin, Schnitzler's (and Roedelius') short lived Zodiak Free Arts Lab was interesting as a concept and in that collaborative spirit I invited a few people to contribute their instruments and languages to the record. It was exciting to break open existing material, peeling something out of the past and thus transgressing it and opening portals."

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The Berlin project Sprung Aus Den Wolken was part of the "Geniale Dilletanten" movement in the early 1980s, along with Einstürzende Neubauten and Mechanik Destrüktiw Komandöh. The band first released an EP on ZickZack in 1981, followed by further releases on the band's own record label Faux Pas in 1982 and 1983, then on the French outlet Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier until 1991. The track "Pas Attendre" was part of the soundtrack of Wim Wender's movie Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) (1987) and thus became an underground hit. Founder of the band Kiddy Citny is also a painter. His paintings of the Berlin Wall have been exhibited around the world and are now in private collections in the US, France, and Japan. Bureau B finally make the long out-of-print, self-titled album from 1982 available again. Carefully remastered, with reconstructed original artwork, numerous photos and liner notes by Alexander Hacke.

"How do you feel, Kiddy?"

"I feel free!"

"A leap from the clouds is the ultimate expression of joie de vivre. Implicit trust in one's own powers, confidence in a positive outcome, surrendering to fate without delay or hesitation, ripping up any restrictive barriers, eyes front, unwaveringly so. That's what it's all about. The ever-changing line-up of Kiddy Citny's group thrived on the liberating anarchic energy of noise and poetry, the spirit of reinvention. We hung out in the West Berlin district of Schöneberg, in bars and clubs like Café Mitropa, Dschungel, and das Risiko, before heading down to the cellar of the Cassetten Combinat in Naumannstraße. Here we let our inspirations run free in wild all-night sessions. Something to remember, something we value and can be proud of: the music. The cassette was our medium, the four-track recorder which had just appeared on the market was a cornerstone of the studio. Our fresh recordings were duplicated in the shop upstairs and slipped into covers we made in the copy shop. Hey presto, a new piece of work, direct from the creator to the people's playback devices, without further ado. Sprung Aus Den Wolken and hip-hop are children of the same generation, not so remarkably similar and yet somehow related. Cousins rather than siblings. They share a symbiosis of music and art, rhythm and color, loudness and light, all combining to underpin the integrity and authenticity of the end product. They were the happiest years of my teenage life in West Berlin, oh how we laughed!" --Alexander Hacke

$16.50 IN STOCK

Without a doubt, To Rococo Rot are an exception within the German music landscape. From 1995 until they broke up in 2014, the group around Robert Lippok, Ronald Lippok, and Stefan Schneider researched a unique sound between electronic music, ambient, post-melancholy, and the further development of a new, free music like krautrock. The trio was invited three times by John Peel to record radio sessions in the BBC studios. Bureau B make the recordings from these three sessions from the years 1997 and 1999 available on record for the first time, which, in addition to the live versions of selected album tracks, also contains exclusive, unreleased songs.

"... Kreidler originated in the west, Ornament & Verbrechen in the east. Robert Lippok describes the moment when things did a 180: 'When we first started releasing records it was almost a shock to hear our own music on the radio.' You walk through an invisible wall. You cause a membrane to pulsate. And finally in 1995, To Rococo Rot was the band whose music, in a kind of aesthetic feedback loop, also made a certain John Peel at the BBC and Daniel Miller at Mute Records sit up and take notice: 'It was something new, something that sounded like it could only be done in Germany; and, as I discovered later, could only be done by guys who were born in the east of Germany in the days before the wall came down.' And so, the three To Rococo Rot sessions united here with their to some extent exclusive Peel tracks ('Glück', 'Esther', 'Glass'), some recorded under intense time pressure, are testimonies to the intimate connection of three German musicians with the whole world, with pop, with the happiness that one possesses and that one shares. Pop without its means of production is inconceivable. And even in times when digital is king, we should consider ourselves lucky that this analog reality of sound, like radio waves, continues to pulsate through us." --Karl Bruckmaier

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Krishna Goineau was born in Sri Lanka in 1963. He spent his youth in the 1970s in Barcelona, where he met Javier Hernando in 1978 to found the post-punk group Xeerox. In 1981 Goinau moved to Düsseldorf, where he met Christo Haas and Beate Bartel. He became the singer of the joint project Liaisons Dangereuses and lent his unmistakable voice to the band's big hit ("Los Niños Del Parque"). At the end of the 1980s Krishna Goineau lived in Brussels and became the singer and keyboardist of the groups Metropakt and Veldorome, together with Jodie Guber. Meanwhile, Goineau lives very secluded in the south of France and concentrates mainly on his painting. In 2007-2008, he worked at home with analog synthesizers on a series of songs that to this day have never been released. Electronic cut-ups and haunting compositions that sound as contemporary as they are detached from any zeitgeist. Bureau B make a selection of these lost recordings available with this collection I Need A Slow.

Krishna Goineau (February 2022): "... My first influence was punk; in attitude and in music with Xeerox/Javier Hernando & Co at Barcelona where we lived at the time. It was in 1978 just after Franco's regime. Later on in Düsseldorf I met Chrislo Haas (former DAF-member) and Beate Bartel (founding member of Einstürzende Neubauten and of Mania D.) who recorded several tapes under the moniker CHBB, which later turned to be Liaisons Dangereuses. The crystallization of us as a trio was strange and remarkable and comet fast. I remember clearly the amazing approach to sound in Conny Plank's studio. Since that point my interest switched from image to sound, infinite intelligence without frontiers. After working for a long time with a Tascam 4-track-tape-recorder I later, in Brussels around 1987, discovered Atari, Steinberg, and synth software while working with Jordi Guber (Lineas Aereas, Velodrome) which was a new big experience. All these years were simply music and painting. When I lived in France, I studied at the Narbonne Conservatory in the jazz section and learned the guitar; it's system, spirit, knowledge, fluency and the pleasure in playing a real acoustic instrument. I was also working and recording with Victor Sol (Lars Müller) in Barcelona on a project we had together from 1998 . . . All recordings on this album were made in the south of France (au bord de la mer) during the years 2007-2008. Home works with analog synths and a home computer system. Songwriting and recordings all by myself..."