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Zuckerzeit
Cluster
Zuckerzeit
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Alternative Rock, International Music, New Age, Pop, Rock, Classic Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (10) - Disc #1

The most important and consistently underrated space-rock unit of the '70s, Cluster (originally Kluster) was formed by Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler as an improv group that used everything fr...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Cluster
Title: Zuckerzeit
Members Wishing: 4
Total Copies: 0
Label: Revisited / Brain Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/2007
Re-Release Date: 7/17/2007
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Alternative Rock, International Music, New Age, Pop, Rock, Classic Rock
Styles: Electronica, Europe, Continental Europe, Progressive, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 693723495422

Synopsis

Product Description
The most important and consistently underrated space-rock unit of the '70s, Cluster (originally Kluster) was formed by Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler as an improv group that used everything from synthesizers to alarm clocks and kitchen utensils in their performances. Continuing on as a duo, Moebius and Roedelius eventually recorded many landmark LPs - separately, as a duo, and with all manner of guest artists from Brian Eno to Conny Plank to Neu!'s Michael Rother - in the field of German space music, often termed kosmische. Cluster also continued to explore ambient music into the '90s, long after their contemporaries had drifted into tamer new age music or ceased recording altogether.

Zuckerzeit (Sugar Time) is a well titled release; after the stark and (at times) testing Cluster II, this is an altogether sweeter affair. The music here is much denser, with more colour and a much greater degree of poppiness, all lending the album a pleasingly light and upbeat feel. One very obvious difference to Cluster II is the extensive use of drum machines, meaning that where tracks had previously consisted of layers of synthesizer noise, they now have a definite rhythm, seeming to free the melodic side of the band. Actually, Zuckerzeit is an album put together by two separate artists operating under a collective title, with Moebius and Roedelius each contributing five tracks and while this kind of behaviour rarely produces a unified outcome, here the album holds together nicely. Although Cluster are less well known than the likes of Kraftwerk, this material deserves to be considered as being as influential and important in the development of electronic music. This is powerful and creative music and for anyone looking to venture into the less Rock side of Krautrock, or into groundbreaking electronic music, it s a very fine place to start.

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CD Reviews

The sounds of today (and tomorrow) from yesterday.
squarehawk2 | Wisconsin | 01/05/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Zuckerzeit ("Sugar Era") proves to be a classic upon first listen. The album was a progressive move forward for Roedelius and Moebius who began to compose with rhythmic structures by way of an early drum machine and a stronger emphasis on harmony, a great departure from "Cluster II". What results is a fresh and warm analog experience which many to this very day are trying to recapture but so very few do. Re-mastering seems to have been well done.



I wonder why this release is not as well known as the classic "Autobahn" considering they both came out in 1974."