A disembodied voice above a clattering rhythm gives way to a sawing guitar, only to return accompanied by the sound of metal being tortured by squeals of feedback and wittering synths. At the time, Virgin refused to release Punkt or to foot the recording and hotel bills, so the band smuggled the tapes out and then sat in prison until two of their mothers paid up! Eventually it sputters to a halt, but since I have been playing the album on repeat, it all starts over again.
Faust, Can and Tangerine Dream, are the bands which pretty much defined krautrock for many in the UK. They each made very different music from the others, but all went on to damage their reputations and musical legacy with inferior albums, endless line-up changes and more mainstream, commercial or self-derivative work. The spectre of Prime Ministers and Presidents awarding themselves demagogic powers of over-reach to force their citizens to comply with the prison persuasions of a police state β represents outright war on humanity.
Brutal acts of thuggery that, in one fell swoop, smash what until now most have considered sacrosanct civil codes of justice and basic human rights.
The precipitous events in Ukraine have stolen the focus from the swelling voices of reason amongst citizens under the Covid cosh. A war that is essentially as repressive and vindictive as classical weapons based wars of attrition.
Evoking such powers to brutally enforce absolute control over peace loving citizens is a crime of truly heinous proportions. The major question raised in the minds of all sentient humans is who could possibly be so devoid of humanity as to be able to enforce such a crime?
