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Accomplished jazz practitioners hear the siren song of psychedelic rock and find themselves a young, ripping guitarist to plug in with.  Hold on: are we talking about Can again?

Not at all.  It's Guru Guru today: three amazing musicians laying down the soundtrack for when the aliens arrive.  Or put differently, "music that's intended to mess with the cerebellum."  (h/t David Stubbs)

The Pep Boys were Manny, Mo, and Jack.  Mani, Uli, and Ax brought some pep of their own.  Come listen with us to their second LP, Hinten.  Might just be we'll talk a fair bit about the debut album UFO, too.

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In the spring of 1973, guitarist Michael Rother looks in on two old acquaintances at their ramshackle farmhouse/ recording studio in Forst.  Rother hopes to tour the UK with his current band, Neu!, and he *thinks* Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius of Cluster might provide just the juice he needs for his live act ...

Now what was it John Lennon said about life and making other plans?  The Neu! tour never materialized, and Rother's trip to the country yielded only Krautrock's preeminent supergroup, in the form of HARMONIA. 

Harmonia introduced Rother's discipline, structure, and guitar to the Cluster duo's improvisational synth subversion, and boy, oh boy were the results terrific.  The clash of work styles meant it couldn't last, but for three years at least, Harmonia were arguably "the world's most important rock band"  (h/t B. Eno).

Join us as we tell the Harmonia story, giving specific attention to the band's sparkling 1975 release, Deluxe!

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Today we depart from our usual programming to post a LIVE SHOW ALERT.

Turns out Brad sneaked off to London last month to catch surviving member of Neu! Michael Rother's live performance at the Clapham Grand!  Joining Michael on stage were Hans Lampe (of La Düsseldorf, on drums), Franz Bargmann (of Camera, on guitar) and electronic composer and recent Rother collaborator Vittoria Maccabruni.

Special guests included Hot Chip, known Krautrock exponent Stephen Morris, of Joy Division and New Order, *and* Paul Weller.

Join us for a deep dive on the show.  Tangents and digressions of course abound -- we are who we are -- but this episode's lodestar and our guiding light is Herr Rother: cracking musician, King of Krautrock, and lovely human being.

Here's to you, Michael.  Get well soon!

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With Neu! in the rear-view mirror, Klaus Dinger stepped into his white overalls and reached for fame and fortune with his second act, La Düsseldorf.  

And boy oh boy did he find it.

Today we talk about LD's second LP, Viva.  Notable for its space-age guitars, synth washes, and of course "Dingerbeat," Viva serves up a shimmering blend of glam, punk, and electronica.  And that's not to mention the lyrics -- Klaus sings of life, love, the world, money, the birds, money again, and glorious revolution.  

Is it corny?  Cheesy?  Maybe, but so are nachos, and they're DELICIOUS.

The future is calling.  We're picking up on the first ring. 

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Eight episodes deep, and still we haven't checked in on The Most Important Band of All Time (This Side of the Beatles)?  That ends today.

It's time for Carla and Brad to talk about Kra[f]t[wer]k.  Kling-Klang, Ralf + Florian, "Precise and Maximum Expression."  Ruckzuck, Radio-Activity, Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine ... AUTOBAHN.

It's 106 kilometers to Düsseldorf.   We've got a full tank of gas and a half-pound of white asparagus.  It's dark, and we're carrying Geiger counters.  

Hit it.

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Well, it's back to the lab again, yo — that is, the Zodiak Free Arts Lab ... where today we find Edgar Froese, Conrad Schnitzler, and Klaus Schulze, banging out five-hour live sets in the first incarnation of Tangerine Dream.

**SUPERGROUP ALERT**
**SUPERGROUP ALERT**

Crackling raw acid rock with hammer-drop organs, shaken dried peas, and a train ticket read backward?  Klaus Schulze on drums?  Creation, cremation, rebirth, and a side journey through a burning brain?  Sign us up!

MACHT DAS OHR AUF, listeners, as we talk about TD's debut album, Electronic Meditation!

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Conrad Schnitzler, Brian Eno, Michael Rother, Conny Plank.  All the cool kids wanted to hang with Moebius and Roedelius — so naturally we do, too.
 
What time is it, listeners?  Is it time for the CBK bus to take a turn "im Suden?"  Is it time to tap into Roe's pastoral Romanticism and Moe's sparky bleeps and blips?  Time to put Eric Clapton into "the Krautrock meat grinder?"   (h/t Yorkshire Ned)
 
Is it, indeed, time to check in on CLUSTER?  
 
Damn straight, Brüder und Schwestern:  it's SUGARTIME.

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In this special double-length episode (!), modular synth guru Sean Rieger talks to Carla and Brad about the many technical and electronic sound elements that Krautrock artists applied to enrich their music.

• If you want to know about oscillators, ring modulation, sequencers, analog synths, tape overdubs, and vocoders ...
• If you're asking what was in Faust's "black boxes" ...
• If you've ever watched Florian Schneider twiddle knobs on YouTube while simultaneously playing the flute and wondered what he was up to ...

Then Sean, who writes and records electronic rock as File Transfer Protocol, is your man.  And ours, too.  Join us for Electronic Music 101 on this Episode 6 of CBK — and be sure to check out Sean's work on Instagram!  

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Are you worried about losing your time?  Your teeth?  Well, fear no more, listeners, because Carla and Brad are here to talk about Faust.  Eclectic, unyielding, forward-leaning, and fun — Faust brought their A-game to the studio, time and again.  Today we focus on their manic and beautiful 1973 masterpiece, Faust IV.

Irmler!  Sosna!  Wüsthoff, Zappi, Peron!  You're up!  FAUST FREAKING IV, PEOPLE!!!

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Fresh off their tour of Egypt, Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, Carla and Brad have landed in West Berlin!  In this episode we break down the synth-singed psych rock of Agitation Free's 1972 debut LP, Malesch.  Come for the wax figures, pyramids, and street recordings, stay (or not) for the Hammond solos.

You might say we're doing it for "the Lüülz."  In any case, we play for you today.  Deal?