Echoes From Times of the Green Journey / Echos Aus Zeiten Der Grunen Reise [Import]

A.R. & Machines, Achim Reichel | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 16, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Polyd
• ASIN: B000025N3T
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,985 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Psychedelic krautrock classic TIME OF THE GREEN TRIP, June 14, 2008

By 

W. T. Hoffman "artist and musician" (Pennsylvania, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Echoes From Times of the Green Journey / Echos Aus Zeiten Der Grunen Reise (Audio CD)

First off, this is a n Anthlogy CD composed from six albums composed between 1971 and 1975. A.R. is Achim Reichel, who was originally the lead guitar player with the German pop band THE RATTLES. After that band broke up, he was running THE STAR CLUB in HAMBURG. (yup, the Beatle's STAR CLUB.) Anyway, somewhere along the way, he must have been had his mind blown, because this is some far out music. Also, A.R found some money to buy the most advanced music machines around, mostly "ECHO" machines that would take a piece of guitar melody, and loop it on a tape loop real time. The guitar loops, as they layered, became a sort of rythym track itself. Over these guitar loop rhythms, many drums were overdubbed. This is the same technology that Robert Fripp used on 1984, and Fripp STILL uses when he plays his solo ambient gigs. However, after the first album A.R. made, called DIE GRUNE REISE (The Green Trip), he went on to make a series of very far out albums using this technology. (ECHOS, the second album, is probibly the most famous of all of these LPs.) Of course, the sound here IS NOT just guitar loops and drum machines. You have Melotrons, 8 string bass, all kinds of Indian Percussion like Tabla and Mridingan, mideval instruments like bass recorder, the SITAR (fantastic track, which has that on), tons of percussion, and on most cuts, CONNY PLANK, one of the star producers during Germany's prime 70s Krautrock music period. All in all, the sound is very difficult to discribe. Partly, thats because there are 6 albums providing songs. Secondly, its hard to discribe this music, because its just so original, altho you can place it as KRAUTROCK without a problem. If you can think of the upbeat songs by NEU!, or some of the percussion heavy songs by EMBRYO, maybe a bit of the prog/art rock scene in England as well, then you have an idea of where this CD is coming from. (Hamburg's music scene always was very close to England, which all the Beatles repeated over and over in their anthology series.) The MOST IMPORTANT REASON to buy this album, is because this music is truly legendary. Yes, yes, that is the most trite, overused discription in music history. However, recently when MOJO Music magazine listed the 50 most FAR OUT albums of all time, the ECHOS album (The album from 1972, which is well represented on this Anthology) was listed somewhere around number 30. Also, when new wave psychedelic meistro JULIAN COPE wrote his classic KRAUTROCK book, ECHOS was also listed as one of the best of the whole lot of Krautrock classics. Personally, its a crime the albums on this anthology, are NOT available anywhere on CD. I bought this CD years ago, when I was into buying all the Krautrock I could. And, altho many of those LPs that were recorded in Germany during the 70s arent THAT advanced, most of the songs on this CD truly are. Its amazing how much this sound is found now all over in the techno-ambient scene. I do have one IMPORTANT WARNING. The songs that AMAZON listed for this CD, are incorrect. (Arent those song titles spanish?) You have 17 songs on here, 5 songs from THE GRUENE REISE from 1971, two LONG songs from ECHOS from 1972, two songs from the third LP, three songs from the third LP in the series (my favorite song is from that LP, cos it has a wild sitar part, on one song), three songs from the fourth LP, four songs from the fifth LP called AUTOVISION, and two live songs from ERHOLUNG, the sixth and last album from 1975, represented on this anthology. Since all the songs have rather long titles in German, I dont think it would matter much to list the song titles. Just know this: for the money, you might just discover something remarkable, that you had no idea was in the world of music. As far as I know, the earliest songs on this CD, predate anything that FRIPP and ENO was experimenting with, by at least 2-3 years. (The music, and it's techno basis, must have reached Fripp and Eno, when A.R. & MACHINE's first LP, GRUENE REISE, reached number 6 on Britian's LP pop carts in 1971.) I just hope more people find this music, since it doesnt come up on AMAZON's search engine, when you type in A.R. & MACHINES, the actual title of this "Group".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A. R. & Machines - 'Echoes From Times Of The Green Journey' (Polydor), September 10, 2008

By 

Mike Reed (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Echoes From Times of the Green Journey / Echos Aus Zeiten Der Grunen Reise (Audio CD)

When I saw this posting here on Amazon, I remembered that I purchased a copy many moons ago. However, this pressing has only twelve tracks yet mine has seventeen. Possibly a mis-print? Either way, I loved this compilation of tunes performed by talented German composer Achim Reichel, from 1971-75 (pulled from six of Reichel's lp's). Best described as progressive electronic. Tunes I was digging the absolute most were the somewhat hypnotic "Warum Peter", the snazzy "Der Mann In Nappa", the sort-of Hawkwind-ish "Cosmic Vibration", "Jeder Tropfen", the wonderfully played "Als Hatte Ich" and "Thin Is The Skin Of Ecstasy" (great flute work). This is TRUE art. A must-have.