Motorik

[IdleRich]

Whenever I think of the post-Stereolab attempts to make a killer kraut album, I'm also reminded of another even bigger band from the 90s whose follow-up band seem less celebrated, but on the evidence of the solitary seven inch of theirs I have, are actually much better at frantic quasi-krautrock. I love this seven so I honestly have no idea why I never got around to checking out the rest of their stuff.



To me that is an absolute banger - I might be alone in this but I much prefer it to anything that Portishead did, arguably it's more derivative no doubt but it's a LOT of fun. The combination of THAT beat and the weird noise that accompanies it seems somehow to plug directly into a nerve I didn't know I had and create a dangerously addictive rush that I find undeniable.

And now I look at their back catalogue with dismay as it seems that yet again I took my eye off the ball for a few seconds and they released eight albums and about fifteen singles - how did that happen?

Again, I don't suppose anyone has any insight into which of their releases happen to be killer motorik bumpers do they?

 

[IdleRich]

My requests in this thread may appear to be growing more and more desperate, if so that's cos it looks as though for our next show on Mutant Radio we are going to do nothing but motorik tunes. That's the plan at least, as long as we have the time to do it properly, cos this music is particularly close to my heart I don't want to do something rushed and half-arsed. I honestly don't think I've ever heard a mix that is entirely motorik (I'm sure that there must be some out there) and so I really want to have a go at doing something really good.

Problem is, the show is only an hour long so it can only fit about three songs from this thread on it. So my solution is to see if we can do a kind of rapidly cut together thing with, say, approx two minute extracts of approx thirty different motorik songs spliced together into one long - hopefully THE long - motorik tune.

What do you think @william_kent, @Benny B, @Leo, @DannyL and anyone else who likes this sound?

It's really two questions... is it a good idea at all? And even if it is a good idea, will we be able to do the idea justice or will we fuck it up?

 

[IdleRich]

Whenever I think of the post-Stereolab attempts to make a killer kraut album, I'm also reminded of another even bigger band from the 90s whose follow-up band seem less celebrated, but on the evidence of the solitary seven inch of theirs I have, are actually much better at frantic quasi-krautrock. I love this seven so I honestly have no idea why I never got around to checking out the rest of their stuff.



To me that is an absolute banger - I might be alone in this but I much prefer it to anything that Portishead did, arguably it's more derivative no doubt but it's a LOT of fun. The combination of THAT beat and the weird noise that accompanies it seems somehow to plug directly into a nerve I didn't know I had and create a dangerously addictive rush that I find undeniable.

And now I look at their back catalogue with dismay as it seems that yet again I took my eye off the ball for a few seconds and they released eight albums and about fifteen singles - how did that happen?

Again, I don't suppose anyone has any insight into which of their releases happen to be killer motorik bumpers do they?

Flipping through their back catalogue in no particular order, it seems that (after Mono) the best I've found yet is a Can-style cover of a PF tune


... yet....

 

[william_kent]

It's really two questions... is it a good idea at all? And even if it is a good idea, will we be able to do the idea justice or will we fuck it up?

in theory it's a great idea as it's all the "same beat", so you should be able to mix in and out easily

 

[DannyL]

There was an article in a recent issue of The Wire Rich, the one with Neu! on the cover that was a kind of primer to lesser known motorik tracks. They listed like 30 tracks or so?

 

[DannyL]

This one: https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/463

 

[IdleRich]

in theory it's a great idea as it's all the "same beat", so you should be able to mix in and out easily

Well, I couldn't sleep so I just made a rough count of the BPM of the thirty odd tracks that I was thinking of using. I reckon that i have a group of tunes around the 120bpm mark, a load more around 135, a load more on approx 150 something and a few more nearing 170.

I'm thinking that that suggests making four kinda mini-mixes, one at each of the above tempos, then just need to find a way to join each group together - the first one could be done quite neatly by Neu!'s Negativland which happens to suddenly pick up tempo by 10 bpm or so towards the end. So I'm thinking four little mixes, some kind of cunning noise or break or sample to join each bit and then we will end up with what I want. Of course the hard part will be selecting the correct two minutes or so of each track so that overall each bit sounds coherent and kinda builds.
I guess what I'm saying is that if I have seven tracks between 130 and 139 bpm then I can put them all at about 135 and mix them together and that will be fine I guess, but if I took the start of the first track and the next bit of the next and so on, then that could work quite nicely with each individual mix having its own tempo but also having the structure of a motorik song created from a number of motorik songs.

Does that make sense to you WK? I honestly think it could work. Just need to get my laptop fixed, I'm raring to go now. I'm also thinking it would be fun to do a one hour mix and maybe a two hour mix too - either with longer extracts of each song, or simply with more songs...

 

[william_kent]

Does that make sense to you WK? I honestly think it could work. Just need to get my laptop fixed, I'm raring to go now. I'm also thinking it would be fun to do a one hour mix and maybe a two hour mix too - either with longer extracts of each song, or simply with more songs...

makes sense to me

 

[IdleRich]

There was an article in a recent issue of The Wire Rich, the one with Neu! on the cover that was a kind of primer to lesser known motorik tracks. They listed like 30 tracks or so?

Cheers mate, will check it out when I get a sec. Though for this particular mix, we already have a million songs that are just right, all good to go. The question this time, or, let's say, the obstacle between where we are right now and our intended end result of the greatest mix ever is the question of how we put them together. I have a vision in which the listener feels as though she or he is racing through a condensed history of the driving beat, safely strapped into their seat they can relax and enjoy a 200mph charge down the autobahn zick-zacking between other vehicles that appear almost stationary as we fly by, unexpected tunes appearing and disappearing too quickly to grasp due to a mixture of cunning cuts and smooth blends so tightly efficient that you wonder if they have themselves been created by a German robot. An effect akin to experiencing change after change in regional radio as we roar into infinity riding a guided missile with wheels at unimaginable velocity.


Unfortunately though, as both Liza's laptop and mine have just given up the ghost (and then my phone decided to throw in the towel at the same time just for the fuck of it) AND because of the limits to the time we have available to us to put the thing together I have a feeling that the gleaming edifice of my dreams is rapidly receding into the distance and although we're going to use those same forty or fifty songs, instead of their being slotted effortlessly together creating an air-tight three-dimensional jigsaw, I fear the actual result will be a rust covered steam punk looking rat-rod of a car with songs randomly crammed together, at times on top of each other, at other times with huge gaps and ungainly bits of metal flapping around in the wind as she wonkily put-puts tragically down the very slowest of lanes, a pathetic cloud of dirty steam following her every move.

 

[IdleRich]

Either way though, I really do want to put together a cool motorik mix and if technical problems end up making it untenable at the moment, I will get the laptop fixed and do it then.

 

[Leo]

Go for it.

 

[woops]

i know krautrock != motorik but

 

[Mr. Tea]

i know krautrock != motorik but

I'd say it's more a case of krautrock ∩ motorik ≠ Ø.

 

[IdleRich]

Haven't had one of these for a while...

 

[william_kent]

a couple of recent, described as "motorik" in reviews, but not quite there..

motorik near misses:

this one almost gets it, 90% there, but something is a bit off


Black Helium - Summer of Hair ( 2023 )

whereas the one below suffers from the Soul Jazz hype machine

sounding like the bastard offspring of CAN meets HAWKWIND!!

Space Race pts 1 and 2 - Another insane motorik -beat fuzzed out guitar MONSTER that builds and builds! SUPER FRESH, SUPER HEAVY!

Brown Spirits - Space Race ( 2023 )

the bass player nails a variation on Mother Sky, but the drummer does far too many fills and misses the motorik beat

( edit: ^ the drummer totally fuck this one up )

this tune off the new Kosmischer Laufer album self-identifies as "motorik" in the sleeve notes:

The motorik gallop of ‘Der kosmische Strahl’ (1980)

Kosmischer Laufer - Der kosmische Strahl ( 2023 )

 

[droid]

Well, I couldn't sleep so I just made a rough count of the BPM of the thirty odd tracks that I was thinking of using. I reckon that i have a group of tunes around the 120bpm mark, a load more around 135, a load more on approx 150 something and a few more nearing 170.

I'm thinking that that suggests making four kinda mini-mixes, one at each of the above tempos, then just need to find a way to join each group together - the first one could be done quite neatly by Neu!'s Negativland which happens to suddenly pick up tempo by 10 bpm or so towards the end. So I'm thinking four little mixes, some kind of cunning noise or break or sample to join each bit and then we will end up with what I want. Of course the hard part will be selecting the correct two minutes or so of each track so that overall each bit sounds coherent and kinda builds.
I guess what I'm saying is that if I have seven tracks between 130 and 139 bpm then I can put them all at about 135 and mix them together and that will be fine I guess, but if I took the start of the first track and the next bit of the next and so on, then that could work quite nicely with each individual mix having its own tempo but also having the structure of a motorik song created from a number of motorik songs.

Does that make sense to you WK? I honestly think it could work. Just need to get my laptop fixed, I'm raring to go now. I'm also thinking it would be fun to do a one hour mix and maybe a two hour mix too - either with longer extracts of each song, or simply with more songs...

Why not start at 120 and then slowly pitch up to about 128, then pitch down your first 135 and then again, slowly pitch up to 140+ etc.? You should have a lot of space to do it almost imperceptibly. The only insurmountable gap there is the leap from 150-170.

 

[IdleRich]

Could do that, I sort of like the idea of something that is not quite one cts track though. Negativeland by Neu is gonna be useful of course cos of the way it changes tempo... anyway project is on hold cos my laptop broke so no mixes of any sort from me for the immediate future.

 

[william_kent]

zero day motorik *


Planet Bit: from the Krautasmagoria cassette: track is called Overtürer Dürer

side project of Ukrainan psych band "Sex Blender"

lo-fi motorik

* you missed my edits, too slow, etc

* edit: this was released today, but by the time you read this it will be tomorrow, time lapse magick

 

[phil.]

Not sure if this has already been discussed upthread but what do we make of the chief example of ur-motorik rhythm, The Velvets "Sister Ray," being a faster rendition of The Everly Brothers "Love Hurts"?

Moe Tucker's lack of chops kinda causes you to hear the motorik rhythm as a dumbed down RnB beat, doesn't it?

 

[IdleRich]

Ha never noticed that so can't really add anything but it's a dead ringer for sure.