ASH RA TEMPEL - Schwingungen LP

Authorized 50th anniversary edition of one of the most important German krautrock albums. Re-cut carefully overseen by Manuel Göttsching himself.

Gatefold sleeve with sticker.

Includes original release sheet and inlay.

Born out of the late 1960s Berlin underground, Ash Ra Tempel began as a trio featuring Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream and the brilliant guitarist Manuel Göttsching. Though they only released a handful of albums before disbanding in 1976, their legacy as one of the most inspired "kosmische musik" groups is undisputed.

Schwingungen – the second Ash Ra album originally released in 1972 – blends West Coast psychedelia a la Love with Stooges-esque freakouts, phased guitar experimentalism and the funkiness of German contemporaries like Can into a indelible mix all their own. This is, hands down, one of the greatest albums to come out of the 1970s German scene.

"'Beware of Schwingungen!' That should be the large sticker on the front of all copies of this record. For it is dangerous to be casually introduced to something that is life-changing, as I found out to my cost when first listening to this record. It all starts fairly simply – 'Look at Your Sun' begins with a Doorsy lone groover guitar... pedestrian blues, beautiful. Then the most crushed voice, a cross between Johnny Rotten & Tiny Tim, preaches its way into the proceeds. God, it is beautiful – John L. repeats over and over, 'We are all one, we are all one,' until a howling fuzztone solo guitar blows the whole one chord 'Signed D.C.' ringing-cymbals torture to an end. And then the most far out track of all begins. This is called 'Flower Must Die' and it is a free-rock giant that transcends everything else in its field (there are no contenders.) As I've written before, PIL sounds like this. John L. was John Lydon in a previous incarnation. After a slow weird build, a frantic streamlined one-chord mantra kicks in and it's like the Stooges' Funhouse period but in a Righteous Vision Zone..." - Julian Cope (Krautrocksampler, 1995)