The first rumblings of genius from German electronic giants Cluster – but oddly, a record recorded without any synthesizers at all! The team of Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Rodelius are both playing organ here – as well as cello and Hawaiian guitar, and some "audio-generator" and amplifier effects – and they're recording with some excellent production help from the legendary Conny Plank, who uses all sorts of weird techniques to mess up the sound in really great ways. Ordinary notes are completely abstracted here – given cosmic tones and echoey rumblings that are far more challenging than most of the later work by Cluster, especially the pair's more ambient late 70s recordings. The 3 long songs are identified only by their timings – "15:33", "7:38", and "21:17". LP, Vinyl record album

A key meeting between 2 important forces in electronic music in the 70s – the increasingly-experimental Brian Eno and the Cluster team of Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius! Unlike the trio's other album, this one's an all-instrumental affair – one that takes the atmospherics of Cluster, and gives them a darker Eno edge – in a way that gives the record an incredibly moody feel, and predates endless electronic work to come in the 90s. There's a spare brilliance here that's almost indescribable – songs that are hardly songs, sounds that slide back into silence – but somehow the whole thing's got a power that's far beyond the sum of its very small parts. Titles include "Wehrmut", "Fur Luise", "One", and "Die Bunge". LP, Vinyl record album

Great experimental work from Holger Hiller – a set that was issued on the important German new wave label Ata Tak, but which was maybe even more revolutionary than most other records on the imprint at the time! Hiller bridges so many different worlds here – earlier German electronic experimentation at an academic level, some of the spacier sounds of the prog generation, and the really creative exploration of earlier ideas in a more personal level that marked the new wave of the post-punk years – using some elements here that would be right at home on a cold wave recording, but with modes that are sometimes more playful, and almost in territory that Holger Czukay would explore on some of his solo work of the decade. The mix of keyboards, vocals, and analog elements is great – and titles include "Jonny", "Hosen Die Nicht Aneinander Passen", "Mutter Der Frohlichkeit", "Das Feuer", "Ein Hoch Auf Das Bugeln", and "Budapest Bukarest". LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful solo electronics from Moebius – an album recorded in the early 80s, but with a really timeless feel that takes it far from so many other electric sets of this vintage! There's still very much a spacious sound going on here – similar to the Cluster projects with Roedelius – warmly melodic, and very understated – every bit that picture perfect approach to analogue electronics that Kraftwerk first brought into the scene, and which guys like Moebius perfected even more with records like this! Titles include "Nervos", "B 36", "Immerhin", "Sinister", "Furbo", "Etwas", and "Transport". LP, Vinyl record album

The first collaboration between Dieter Moebius and Conny Plank – and one of the best! The pair come together here in modes that are a lot more playful than some of the other German projects of this nature at the time – not as spare and sensitive as some of the others, and with a bolder sense of rhythm, and willingness to drop lots of odd elements into the mix – a style that almost makes the record come across with similar tones to the Brian Eno/David Byrne collaborations of the early 80s! Each tune has a basic structure, and a few key elements – fuzzy guitar, odd electronics, offbeat rhythms – and they each state their existence quickly, laying out a basic concept right away, then playing with it in cool ways as the tunes roll on. Apart from some found spoken bits, the whole thing's instrumental – and titles include "News", "Feedback 66", "Landebahn", "Solar Plexus", "Two Oldtimers", and "Missi Cacadou". LP, Vinyl record album

The brilliant solo debut of Martin Rev – a set that feels like it's peeled away all his best contributions from the first Suicide album, then found a way to serve them up with a slightly different vibe that really sets the album apart! There's lots of analog fuzz and echo – that same spacey style that made Suicide so great – but the keyboards dominate even more than before, as only one tune features vocals – which lets Rev do all these really cool things with the electronics – continuing his way of taking earlier prog, avant, and Krautrock experiments and fusing them into a leaner, meaner style for the punk generation! The album's got a very seminal sound – a key text in the cold wave generation – and titles include "Jomo", "Mari", "Baby O Baby", "Nineteen 86", and "Asia". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most experimental records we've heard from the prog era – and that's saying a lot, given the contemporary vibe of the time! Gunter Schickert here creates a marvelous blend of guitar sounds and space – even more stretched out and sonically-directed than any of the work on the Brain label at the time – in ways that almost preface Glenn Branca, and a host of other early 80s New York experiments we can think of! At times, Schickert's almost a one man Sonic Youth (from the early days) – although with perhaps a bit less full-on blast, as a solo artist – but at other points, the guitars are even more abstracted, and stretched out in these minimalist modes that are highly rhythmic, and extremely hypnotic! Titles include "Wald", "Apricot Brandy", and "Kriegsmaschinen Fahrt Zur Holle". LP, Vinyl record album

The really great debut album from Sprung Aus Den Wolken – a group who got a bit more tuneful in later years, but who here are still very much at the forefront of the early German industrial scene! The set is full of noise, and vocals that are spoken more than sung – yet also is never too completely over the top, as like some of the best of their generation, such as Throbbing Gristle, the group really know how to make music from unusual sources, and not just create noise for noise's sake. The starkness of the album is wonderful – dark fuzz, heady echo, and a raw power that still holds up over the years – on titles that include "Que Pa", "Warte", "Als Ware Nichts Gewesen", "Langst Fallig", "Gong A Minute", "Begehre Dich", and "Sei Still". LP, Vinyl record album

One of those totally cool records from the German new wave – a set that's every bit as cartoony as you might guess from its cover, and which resonates strongly with work at the time from artists like Pyrolator or Der Plan! The music is in the territory of cold wave electronics, but warmer and more playful too – almost like some of the Japanese work that sprung up at the end of the 70s, but with some of the quirkier elements that makes us love the German new wave so much! There's plenty of cool keyboards and processed vocals – and titles include "Butterfly Baccanal", "I Can Sing", "Wutt Wutt", "Bubbles & Smoke", "Shine On Me", and "I See Stars". LP, Vinyl record album

The wonderful debut of Supersempfft – a set that originally appeared on a major label, but seems to prefigure all the hip sounds to come on German indie labels in the early 80s! The vibe here is not unlike that of Pyrolator – in that Dieter Kolb handles most of the instruments and voices himself, but in a playful style that's as cartoony as the cover – lots of cool electronics, but warmed up and more whimsical than work from the cold wave generation to come! The whole thing is wonderful, and the individual tracks work together flawlessly – with titles that include "Pipedreams On A Lilypad", "Let's Beam Him Up", "Be A Man You Frog", "Out Of Time", "The Best Thing Is To Get High", and "I'm Gonna Make You Big". LP, Vinyl record album