Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen. 1972 Germany

Here is the last of the classic Ash Ra Tempel albums that I hadn't added to UMR prior. Many years ago I wrote: 

Schwingungen, Ash Ra Tempel's second effort, is a vastly underrated album even by ardent fans of the band. Perhaps it's due to the absence of Klaus Schulze? The controversy here surrounds John L., Ash Ra Tempel's one and only vocalizer (singer just isn't an appropriate term here). He is, to say the least, the Krautrock movement's supreme example of a paranoid schizophrenic. For those who are familiar with the LSD ramblings of Dawn on Brainticket's Cottonwood Hill, then John L. is her male equivalent. 'Darkness: Flowers Must Die' just about says it all. And boy does John L. say it all! While a steady rhythm section chugs along (not near the intensity Schulze brought on the debut however) - there are sax bursts, fuzz guitar flashes, tribal drums, and other phased sounds and noises creating a very edgy atmosphere. Through the chaos, John L. is screaming and anguishing (through electronic effects) about the decay of cities and the Earth. Flowers must die, flowers must die", "Die, die, die, die ,die..." and all hell breaks loose. Here, Manuel Göttsching pulls off the most angry and concise guitar solo of his career, and at the end, if the listener is not left in a heap in the middle of the floor - well, they're just not getting involved! In keeping with Ash Ra Tempel's wild side/mellow side theme introduced on the first album, the flip 19 minute composition is an exercise in choral, tranquil electronic beauty - recalling Pink Floyd's Saucerful Of Secrets at their most cosmic and trippy. An album that should leave one emotionally exhausted if paying careful attention.

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All these years later, and I still get a charge out of this album. The album itself perfectly represents a time and place (early 70s Germany). And my personal history created another time and place experience with the album (this would be the later 1980s for me). Timeless.

Ownership: LP: 1972 Ohr. Gatefold. Acquired at the Sound Exchange in Houston (1988). It was on their wall and it was $20 which was a fortune back then. But I had to have it. My copy is not a cutout like the Discogs sample.

CD: 2004 Arcangelo (Japan). Papersleeve edition as part of the Ash Ra Tempel promo box set.

1//88 (first listen); 1992; 2/9/01 (review); 2004; 12/31/23 (new entry)