The record that started it all for Squama Recordings, Mara is the debut from Munich-based jazz musicians Matthias Lindermayr (trumpet), Paul Brändle (guitar), Martin Brugger (bass), Simon Popp (drums), […]
Germany
On her latest full-length album Ulaan on Squama Recordings, Enji continues her seemingly exponential growth as she steps into a bandleader position, bringing together an international quintet featuring […]
One of the great early electronic albums, Roboterwerke is a concept album and the debut release by electronic music pioneers Supersempfft – three school friends Franz Aumüller, Franz […]
Somewhat an anomaly in the vast ECM catalog, composer, saxophonist and synthesizer player Ulrich Lask presents a fusion of new wave and electronic jazz on Sucht + Ordnung […]
German minimalist Jan Jelinek’s first album is among the most mesmerizing of the so-called clicks + cuts era of experimental techno. Propelled by dub’s heavy bass lines, glitchy […]
Avant-garde jazz composer and pianist Wolfgang Dauner was known for introducing provocative musical and cultural concepts through his work in jazz music, opera, and theater. His 1970 album […]
Folie 2 is an exciting new project from Düsseldorf-based musicians Marlene Kollender, Gregor Darman and Sebastian Welicki. Their debut self-titled album is a delightfully strange cosmos of sounds […]
Tri Atma was a German-Indian new age/fusion group dedicated to combining Eastern musical elements with Western electronic pop. Founded by guitar player Jens Fischer and percussionist Asim Saha, […]
A singular electronic record from the turn of the century, Isolée’s debut full-length album straddles genres, mixes tempos, generates wildly infectious tones and sound waves, all the while […]
Rhythm & Sound collaborator Paul St. Hillaire aka Tikiman delivers his first solo album in over a decade with the future classic Tikiman Vol.1. One of dance music’s […]
Tase is a hardware electronic project by Berlin-based artists Takashi Wada and Sven Rieger, 1/2 of Acido Records’ Dresvn and founder of SUED Records. Recorded on a 16-track […]
The latest from Munich’s Squama Records is a debut from multi-instrumentalist Julian Klaas. Centered around an old Wurlitzer piano gifted from his sister, Klaas’ Impromptu is a quiet offering […]
Liliental was a krautrock supergroup that included Dieter Moebius from Cluster, top engineer Conny Plank, Kraan musicians: Johannes Pappert and Helmut Hattler, and a couple of free radicals: […]
Munju was an instrumental jazz-kraut-fusion outfit formed by alto sax & flute player Jurgen Benz after quitting Missus Beastly. The group’s sound is very much in the same […]
Originally built to generate joy and dancefloor bliss, by the late 1990s house music had begun to broaden its emotional range. Alongside expressions of love, devotion, glee, and […]
Delayed guitar magic from the great Manuel Göttsching! Ashra’s Blackouts is an essential Berlin-school electronic album with Göttsching’s layered guitars and synthesizers building wonderfully hypnotic soundscapes that feel […]
Cologne-based artist Peter Graf York’s Expedition Bahn feels like a modern stew of K. Leimer’s minimalist Palace of Lights output, Mad Professor’s dubby studio wizardry, and Dieter Moebius’ […]
In the mid and late 1990s, the esteemed New York label Matador, which had earned acclaim for indie classics by Pavement, Liz Phair and Cat Power, commenced releasing […]
Niagara was a supergroup project envisioned by legendary German jazz drummer Klauss Weiss to create an orchestra made entirely of drummers and percussionists. Their 1970 self-titled debut is […]
In the late 1990s and early ’00s, a bunch of electronic producers tired of the big-beat house, trance, and techno music coming out of Europe and the US […]
A selection from Growing Bin’s Basso, Haindling 1 is the debut album by the Bavarian jazz-pop band led by Hans-Jürgen Buchner. The group is essentially a solo project […]
Featured in the “Psychedelic section” of Chee Shimizu’s Obscure Sound disc guide, Dr. Aftershave And The Mixed Pickles is technically the third studio album by Missus Beastly, a […]
Can bassist Holger Czukay aims for the charts with this simple, but addictive single from his 1984 avant-pop album Der Osten Ist Rot (The East is Red). Much […]
Featured in the “Psychedelic” section of Chee Shimizu’s Obscure Sound disc guide and reissued on Florence-based balearic label Archeo Recordings, Aqua Sansa is tripped-out electronic free jazz meets […]
A favorite of our good friend Justin Gage of Aquarium Drunkard, Cycles is the second solo album by cellist David Darling on Manfred Eicher’s seminal ECM Records. With […]
Featured in the “Cosmic” section of Chee Shimizu’s Obscure Sound disc guide, Pinnacles is the cult classic sixth solo album from Tangerine Dream’s Edgar Froese. Inspired by the […]
Dub, free jazz, field recordings and minimal music collide via water drum and techno beats on Pretty Sneaky’s debut album on Mana. Taking the “faceless techno bollocks” approach, […]
Can’s first album following the departure of vocalist Damo Suzuki is an experimental trip featuring looping hypnotic grooves that, at times, sound like proto-electronic-dance music. Guitarist Michael Karoli […]
The best-selling album in the storied ECM catalog, The Köln Concert is one of the all-time great solo piano performances captured live. Fully improvised without any prior planning, […]
Featured in the “Cosmic” section of Chee Shimizu’s Obscure Sound disc guide, Between the Universes by Tritonus is a progressive, psychedelic krautrock gem featuring warm, analog synthesizers and […]
Featured on Music from Memory’s excellent Uneven Paths: Deviant Pop From Europe 1980-1991, Härte 10’s Welcome To Germany is a delightful set of oddball tracks that can probably […]
American jazz saxophonist Robin Kenyatta meets German experimental pianist Wolfgang Dauner (who released the very first ECM record) on this underrated and somewhat out of place ECM classic. […]
Unexpectedly incredible sun-kissed electronic smooth jazz from duo Dancing Fantasy on Klaus Schulze’s Innovative Communication. Dancing Fantasy was originally formed as a smooth jazz variation on German synthesizer […]
The first part of German electronic music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius’ Selbsportrait (“Self Portrait”) series, Sanfte Musik (“Soft Music”) is a collection of raw and free-spirited pre-ambient works of […]
Reissued and compiled by Manfred Eicher on ECM, 1961 presents clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre at his finest alongside his chamber jazz trio featuring Steve Swallow on acoustic bass and […]
Kraftwerk’s first attempt at radio-friendly music was a 22-minute long track meant to capture the feeling of a car journey along Germany’s first autobahn, the A 555 from […]
Dub techno masters Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald present the fourth LP on their “Burial Mix” series featuring a collection of one-rhythm tracks with Jamaican legends Sugar […]
An EBM classic that influenced generations of artists from around the world, Liaisons Dangereuses is the debut and lone LP by Düsseldorf-based producers Beate Bartel and Chrislo Haas […]
Quite underrated, laid-back kosmische with acoustic guitars, synths, organs, piano, flutes, drum machines, extended solos and broken english from brothers Klaus and Rolf Fichter (formerly of Yatha Sidra). […]
“A psychedelic, dream-like state, with drones, opiated melodies and stellar visions,” Kashual Plastik’s No order in destiny is not your typical compilation. For one, it comes in the “most possible […]
How many great Eberhard Weber albums are there on ECM? A good amount… The Colours Of Chloë once again showcases upright bassist Eberhard Weber’s mastery of composition, space, […]
Thirsty Moon… we first heard “Südwind” on Chee Shimizu’s excellent “Follow My Dream” mix on the Lovefingers blog. Released on seminal kraut label Brain, Blitz features some seriously infectious […]
A classic obscurity from the legendary Lovefingers blog, What a Night is carefree, disco-rock from Austrian keyboardist Richard Schoenherz’s of the iconic Supermax. The Moog synthesizers, Rhodes, and […]
The debut solo album by Harald Grosskopf, the enigmatic percussionist behind Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, and Cosmic Jokers, Synthesist is a masterpiece electronic album that is widely […]
One of our favorite underrated ECM cuts… And She Answered by one time project AM 4 aka saxophonist and flutist Wolfgang Puschnig, pianist Uli Scherer, and vocalist Linda […]
Featured in the “Psychedelic” section of Chee Shimizu’s Obscure Sound disc guide, Phase II – Go Go Pongs is the second and last album by amateur guitarist Klaus […]
Featured in the “Experimental” section of Chee Shimizu’s Obscure Sound disc guide, Fluchtweg Madagaskar, which translates to “escape route to Madagascar,” is the cult classic debut album by […]
Happy Ambrosia is a little known kraut release by Alto, a side project by Kraan “alto” saxophonist Johannes Pappert. The band was apparently not a proper band and […]
Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother’s Neu! were one of the central groups of the 70’s krautrock movement. Their first record, simply entitled NEU!, created its own paradigm, and […]
On The Way To The Peak Of Normal is the second solo album by bassist, composer, mad scientist Holger Czukay. If you’re not already familiar, Holger was one […]
Between was an instrumental krautrock group in the 70’s formed by composers Peter Michael Hamel and Ulrich Stranz with the purpose of creating “music between the worlds.” While […]
Richard Schneider Jr.’s Dreamlike Land is a German rarity that has a distinct sound within the web of krautrock and Can offshoots during the 70’s. It may be […]
Walter Bachauer’s solo debut under the alias Clara Mondshine is a brilliant example of early ambient music born out of the 70’s Berlin School movement, an offshoot of […]
Generally regarded as a landmark electronic music statement, A Strangely Isolated Place is a study in multi-genre lushness. With its melodic swathes of blissed out guitars washes, and […]
Part of the so-called “clicks and cuts” minimalist movement of German electronic music in the early ‘00s, Stefan Betke’s Pole made its name through a breathtaking trio of […]
The one and only recorded release from the ambitious German jazz-rock group that would eventually share their name with a majorly successful US boogie outfit, Shake It showcases […]
Known for their hypnotic kraut sound, Ashra’s third record Correlations pushes them further into rock territory. Having made the first two records as solo efforts, band leader and […]
Deutsche Wertarbeit is the brilliant and lone solo release by Dorothea Raukes, ex-singer of the prog-rock group Streetmark, and one of very few female artists operating in the […]
Guru Guru’s Hey Du is a classic kraut record on Brain that we first heard on the legendary Lovefingers daily mp3 blog. A1 Starway was featured as a […]
Featured in the “Floating” section of Chee Shimizu’s Obscure Sound disc guide, Universal Ave is the sole album by Double Fantasy, a project by German duo Robert Schroeder […]
Stuck in traffic? Put on The Monks. Having a weird night? Put on The Monks. Having a magnificent day? Put on the Monks. Let the mood-shifting power of […]
A collaboration between English jazz vocalist Dianne Ford and German fretless bassist Manfred Lins, Lonely Shadow is the one and only record made by the low-profile duo. Mostly […]
An early contender for best of 2020, R_R_’s Train of Thought is the debut of Latvian composer, sound artist, and lecturer, Reinis Semēvics. Released on the always dependable […]
Harmonia were a Krautrock supergroup formed in 1973 by Michael Rother of NEU! and Dieter Moebius and Joachim Roedelius of Cluster. In 1971 an antiquarian, hoping to start […]
Prior to this Captured Tracks compilation, copies of Saâda Bonaire’s first and only single “You Could Be More As You Are” fetched a fortune, and their other songs […]
John Abercrombie’s first musical output as a band leader was in his own words originally conceived as an “organ record”. The product of persistent nagging from Manfred Eicher, […]
Germany’s Cass. and Gianni Brezzo turn in their first collaboration with Masala Kiss via Hamburg based label – a one we love – Growing Bin. Combining Gianni’s taste […]
A big favorite here at ISC and to all who were present during the hundreds of times we played it at the bar. It’s one of our most […]
E2-E4 is a one hour long improvisational piece split into two sides. Recorded in one take at Göttsching’s home studio in Berlin, the album is an accidental masterpiece […]
An often overlooked classic, Kraftwerk’s third album is a bridge between the experimental krautrock of the first two albums and the proto-synthpop and electro that would define them […]
Fluid Rustle is a subtle, beautiful piece of storytelling music – the themes and titles reflect on a passage from Richard Adams’ 1972 classic Watership Down. Through the […]
