Browse by Label: KUCKUCK (GERMANY)

Artist:	MURPHY BLEND
Title:	First Loss
Label:	KUCKUCK (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	KUCK 11005CD

New version of the reissue of this 1971 Krautrock album. "Strangely named after a pipe tobacco, the Berlin group Murphy Blend were always quite a mystery. They were also a rarity in early German rock, as they combined the psychedelic Krautrock sound with heavy rock, blues and classical musics. Their music had hints of early Jane and Pell Mell, but apart from that they had a unique style, with a strongly accented vocalist, topical lyrics and heady instrumentals, heavily featuring chunky Hammond organ. Singer/organist Wolf-Rüdiger Uhlig went on to Hanuman. Andreas Scholz went to Blackwater Park."

Artist:	OUT OF FOCUS
Title:	Wake Up
Label:	KUCKUCK (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	KUCK 11006CD

"Debut album of Munich psychedelic Krautrock masters. Existing for ten years or so, Out Of Focus were amongst the finest of German rock fusion bands. Formed in late 1968 in Munich, they rapidly established a stylish and refined blend of rock and jazz that drew in psychedelic overtones and also a profound socio-political awareness in Moran Neumüller's songs. The early albums exhibited that unique character of Krautrock (akin to Xhol, Thirsty Moon, etc.) with pure invention in a music that transcends boundaries, taking the rock song beyond its normal format with extended instrumentals featuring an abundance of solos and surprises. I would argue that Out Of Focus started excellent, and got even better with each album. Probably the finest of all their albums was the monumental double Four Letter Monday Afternoon, almost certainly a dedication to Soft Machine's revolutionary double Third, it similarly had mainly instrumental and lengthy tracks, although the first LP is a little more down to earth, the unprecedented surprise is the extended suite that encompassed the whole of the second LP. lt seems amazing that a band were able to start off with a masterpiece and better it with each subsequent album, yet that's what Out Of Focus did!"

Artist:	DEUTER
Title:	D
Label:	KUCKUCK (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	KUCK 11009CD

Late-90s reissue of the first Deuter album, originally issued by Kuckuck in 1971. Georg Deuter (pronounced Doy'-ter) was one of the leading figures in the startling growth of the New Age music field in the 1980s, but his earliest material is more interesting. D is all solo affair recorded via multi-tracked guitars, electronics, percussion, flutes, etc.. Very psychedelic processing, at times an almost ADII-like heaviness mixing with more Popol Vuh-like mystical spaciousness -- with parts reminding of birdsong and natural sound. Perfectly crafted headspace and always a pleasure to absorb, this is one of the finest and most unheralded albums of the early 70s German scene.

Artist:	DEUTER
Title:	Aum
Label:	KUCKUCK (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	KUCK 11017CD

The second Deuter album from 1972; this was his last record before moving to India and falling under the guru-ship of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The rock-related moves of D are eradicated, but beautiful atmosphere, echo guitar & experimental form are laid out with ease. Late night pleasure abounds."His first attempt at merging sitars, tablas and flutes to the sounds of birds, wind and water (reflecting Deuter's deep relationship with nature), resulted in an addictive, aesthetic music." -- Dag Erik Asbornsen.

Artist:	RILEY, TERRY
Title:	Descending Moonshine Dervishes/Songs For the Ten Voices...
Label:	KUCKUCK (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	KUCK 12047CD

...Of The Two Prophets. "2CD pairing two LPs released by Terry Riley on Kuckuck in 1982 and 1983 respectively. Descending Moonshine Dervishes is actually a live solo performance in Berlin from 1975, where Riley utilizes his signature tape delay device, the 'time lag accumulator', to process improvisations on a Yamaha YC 45D organ, chopped so it can be tuned to just intonation. His works 'Shri Camel', 'Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band', and 'Rainbow in Curved Air' all utilize this device on assorted instruments, but this piece has most in common with the classic 'Persian Surgery Dervishes' (Shandar, 1972) in process and intent. 'Descending...' is dedicated to Guruji a.k.a. Pandit Pran Nath, the masterful Indian vocalist with whom Riley started studying with in 1970, and though this is not a vocal piece, Guruji's influence shines through as it becomes apparent that not only does this music have a pulse, it breathes. With his left hand creating a series of drones, and his right comping on a pre-selected group of scales, it is quite easy to forget what instrument one is listening to after a while. Not as stunning as 'Persian...', this is a fine, fine listen nonetheless. The second disc is a group of three vocal and keyboard pieces (recorded 5/10/1982), with lyrics composed and sung by Riley himself. He rarely sings on his records, and judging from this it's a shame, he's an accomplished Eastern-style vocalist. With that said, the accompanying music played on a Prophet 5 synthesizer is actually a bit tough to take. It has nothing to do with the status quo ante position of 'back to analog', but there is something about this particular keyboard sound that puts me back in my yellow beanbag chair watching Space 1999.That said, it's still worth the price of admission for the first disc..." -- Billy Kiely

Artist:	VA
Title:	Der Klang der Fruhen Jahre: The Singles 1970-1974
Label:	KUCKUCK (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	KUCK 12107CD

"A sampler of all the Kuckuck Schallplatten Singles (both a & B-sides) released between 1970 & 1974. A double CD, it is presented in a tin box with a round clear window in the front showing the front cover of the booklet." Artists include: Johnny Tame, Archaeopterix, Sam Spence, Jack Grunsky, Bernadette, Ihre Kinder, Repairs, CWT, Tony Kelly, Bunter, Keith West, & The Scratch Band.

       "In the summer of 1969, in the midst of the upheaval of the '60s, a young man in Germany, then 25 years of age, started a record label in Munich -- his only choice in the absence of suitable employment: Kuckuck Schallplatten (Cuckoo Records). The young man was founder Eckart Rahn.
       The first releases appeared in January of 1970, the fledgling new operation partly funded by the market leader at the time, Deutsche Grammophon, whose A&R director Oscar Drechsler said to Rahn 'I don't know what it is that you know but you know something, and i want you to do it for us.' Originally, the label started up on two parallel tracks: German-style pop singles echoed by LP recordings of advanced German-language rock, later often referred to as 'Krautrock', for better or worse. During those early years, 20 7-inch singles were issued through Deutsche Grammophon; they are now -- for the first time in over 30 years -- made available again on a double CD in a tin box, remastered and transferred to the digital medium using the original reel-to-reel master recordings. The release arrives in time for the 40th anniversary of Rahn's music company, which presumably makes his the oldest surviving independent label that has continually been in operation for four decades. In translation entitled The Sound of the Early Years/The Best of Kuckuck Schallplatten, the release goes from Deutschrock pioneers Ihre Kinder to Canadian folkie Jack Grunsky by way of the Connecticut-based band Repairs and a few truly authentic Krautpop items, such as the tracks sung in German and English by Johnny Tame and his producer Mal Sondock, a Texas expatriate who understood German pop sometimes better than the Germans themselves did. some 'covers' of anglo hits, some TV tracks by Sam Spence (the first totally electronic recordings issued in Germany), a gem by Keith West of 'excerpt from a teenage opera'-fame, silly British pop by bunter and a breath-taking bonus track by Connecticut's the Scratch Band with Dusty Springfield's 'I Only Want To Be With You' in an unexpectedly introspective reading. A wild and completely incoherent mix, typical of the times and thus a mirror of what was going on in Germany and where it was headed."

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