Customer Reviews

Deluxe

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off...I can't believe I'm the first person to a review of this album! Where are all the Cluster/Eno/Krautrock connaisseurs when you need them? But I digress..on to the subject at hand HARMONIA and specifically their 2nd album DELUXE. Why is it that whenever Krautrock or ambient music is being talked or written about CAN.. TD.. NEU! and KRAFTWERK are always praised so glowingly yet Moebius & Rodelius are always mentioned as side players or sometimes not metioned at all. When they and their various incarnations have made the most succesful music in the simple fact that theirs is a song based music and completely timeless. Nowhere better to find ample proof of this fact is DE LUXE. An album so summery and aglow with delight one would be hard pressed to find anything that rivals it. From the first strains of De Luxe (IMMER WAIDER) to KEKSE these songs and I stress the fact that these are SONGS in the truest sense of the word are absolutely flowing, calculated experiments with shimmering luscious melodies to take you back to June 1975 when these songs were recorded but to also make you feel that it could be the soundtrack to any event of your current life. And not sounding dated in the process, a pretty hard task indeed. That something so beautiful come out and for it to not be recognized even by people who enjoy this music is a crime. DE LUXE is a must have for anyone who wants to get more out of life and its various pleasures.

The major difference between the two Harmonia albums is that, in this marriage of Krautrock giants Neu! (in the person of Michael Rother) and Cluster (Roedelius/Moebious), on Musik von Harmonia, the influence of Neu! seems to hold sway, while Deluxe is much more a Cluster-sounding record. On tracks like Dino, the first album showcased some of the pulsating, motorik guitar grooves you recognize from Neu!'s three records. Those grooves that make for great driving music, and which Stereolab so shamelessly borrowed from on the song "Jenny Ondioline" and their whole sound at the time of that song. Cluster records, like Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso, are more things you want to play with the headphones strapped on, and you sprawled out on the floor, letting the music take your mind wandering to places unknown. With the exception of the one uptempo track, "Monza (Rauf Und Runter)," which could have come straight off of Neu!75, the whole here feels like Cluster with Michael Rother as a guest musician. If anyone of this sounds like a complaint, it's not meant to be. If you twisted my arm and made me choose between Neu! and Cluster, I WOULD take Neu!, but I love them both. And I love the look of the three guys on the back cover, an image which, I think, says it all: three cool dudes hanging out by the water, lawn chairs, beach umbrellas, bikes, a dog and musical instruments in their midst. How great it must have been to record music like this in your own studio, in a little village, and you are making the music just the way you want to make it. Shimmering beauty.

I just had to go back and listen to this release and previously I may have given it a three star rating,but now I have discovered that it's nearly AS GOOD as the band's 1st lp 'Music Von'.As 'Deluxe' was originally put out in 1975,it most certainly displays some of Michael Rother's somewhat dominating guitar work,on a few of the tracks anyway.Starts off with the title cut,which reminds me of the 'Neu! 75' lp but also lets me know what might've very well influenced the music on the first two Gary Numan albums."Walky Talky" is pretty decent with Guru Guru drummer Mani Neumeier as guest."Monza" has the synth work over floating it's boundries.Chalk up yet another genius effort for the Rother,Moebius and Roedelius team.'Deluxe' would be best described as experimental mind music.Will appeal to fans of Faust,Cluster,Can,Neu! and early Guru Guru.

I wanted to write a review on this phenomenal masterpiece, but after reading what Juan S. Alemparte wrote I was left with nothing to say. He is 100% right on in every aspect. This record can change your life. I recommend everything by harmonia, but this should be your first.

As a big NEU! fan, I picked this up hoping that Michael Rother could deliver the goods with another band, and I was pleasantly surprised with what I got.

The opening track, 'Deluxe (Immer Wieder)', actually sounds an awful lot like Kraftwerk's classic, 'Autobahn' - complete with the sing-song chanting and a bobbing synth beat. 'Monza (Rauf und Runter)' is a sort-of-reprise of the first track that winds up sounding almost exactly like 'After Eight' from the 'NEU! 75' album. The rest of the tracks are just good ambient synth-pop that at times reminds me of Mouse On Mars and even Herbie Hancock.

Overall, it's a very groovy album. If you like 'NEU! 75', I can't imagine why you wouldn't like this one, too. NEU! fans should also check out Klaus Dinger's spinoff band, La Dusseldorf.

This record is so far ahead of it's time it's crazy. 1975 and it sounds absolutely contemporary. treat yourself and listen to how influential it is.

Apparently, the 1970's saw the birth of much ambient experimental synth music. You can listen to this actively on headphones and have a different experience than driving in your car. But either way I find it very relaxing. My first experience with ambient. The more I listen to this one the more I like it. It's the album I wish Orb/Gilmour could have done instead of Metallic Spheres.

This is an excellent album of atmospheric, synthesizer heavy music released in 1975 with a lineup that reads like a "who's who" of the German experimental music scene including Cluster members Hans-Joachim Roedelius (keyboards, vocals) and Dieter Moebius (synthesizers, keyboards vocals); Neu! member Michael Rother (guitars, keyboards, vocals); and Guru Guru member Mani Neumeier (drums).

The six tracks on De Luxe range in length from 4:15 to 10:35 (Walky-Talky) and present a nice mix of spacey synthesizer pads and slowly drifting electric guitar parts beneath which subtle drum parts bubble and churn (the drummer favors the bottom part of the kit e.g., bass drum, toms etc.; cymbals and hi-hats are rarely used). This album is largely instrumental, although there are a few vocal parts (in German) that are soft and non-intrusive - they simply melt into the wash of sound. Though much of the album is very relaxing, the pace does pick up a bit with Monza (Rauf und Runter) which features "tribal" drumming and some great lead lines on the electric guitar. This is however, the most vigorous part of the album. Bright and sunny melodies are scattered everywhere making De Luxe an absolute pleasure to listen to. There are found sounds on the album too, and the last track features what sounds like an amphibian breeding chorus. Like the vocals, this is a subtle effect and blends seamlessly with the atmospheric synth and guitar parts.

This album was remastered/reissued as part of the German Rock Collection series distributed by Polydor K.K. (Japan) and features the original LP art along with the cool-looking Brain label logo (Brain was the original German label that distributed a number of the German experimental groups). The sound quality is great and although there are liner notes, they are in Japanese. There are no other extras (photos , bonus tracks etc) however, which is too bad because this is a fairly expensive reissue. This reissue is not a mini-LP replica as the product description notes above suggest.

This may very well be one of my favorite albums from the German experimental scene and is very highly recommended. Other albums in a similar vein include Future Days (Can, 1973) and New Age of Earth (Ashra, 1977).