Cluster - Cluster II
Cluster - Cluster II (1972)
XLD Rip | Flac (Tracks) Cue, Log, m3u, md5, st5, ffp | complete Artwork 300 dpi | 322 MB
Electronic, Ambient, Experimental, Krautrock | 2004 | Brain/Universal Japan | UICY-9557
Cluster II is the second full-length album by German electronic music outfit Cluster and their first album with the band reduced to a duo. Conny Plank, who was credited as a member on the first album, decided to concentrate on production and engineering. Plank is still credited as a composer together with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius on all tracks.
Cluster II was recorded at Star-Studio in Hamburg, Germany in January, 1972. It was Cluster's first release for legendary Krautrock label Brain Records, a relationship which would last until 1975 and include the subsequent album Zuckerzeit as well as the first two Harmonia albums, a group which included both remaining members of Cluster and Michael Rother of Neu!.
Cluster II continued the transition away from the discordant, proto-industrial sound of Kluster towards a more electronic sound. It was the first album to feature relatively short tracks and it was the first album in which tracks were named. (Earlier Kluster albums as well as the eponymous first Cluster album had unnamed pieces.) Julian Cope included Cluster II in his Krautrock Top 50.
The album was first reissued on CD in 1994 on the Spalax label with subsequent reissues on Universal in 2004 and Revisited in 2007.
Cluster's second album finds them still in their Berlin phase, that of the amorphous analog electronic passages without the reference points of any actual rhythms. The tracks move along based on circular synth sequences that provide structure without the addition of overt tangible beats, such as what they would explore on subsequent albums after moving to the German countryside and collaborating with Michael Rother from Neu!, who would also join them in Harmonia and provide his trademark motorik rhythms for both bands.
"Plas" starts out like churning machinery, then lifts off dramatically into expansiveness, evoking the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the astronauts circle the moon in slow rotation to slowly reveal the sun in an ominous deep space daybreak; its analog shimmerings and pulsations are the obvious precursors to the ambient passages in Orb and Aphex Twin songs before the depth-charge bass and breakbeats drop in. "Imsüden" is monotonously repetitive, with a woozy spy flick guitar figure inducing vertigo over a swelling and ebbing synth motif and panning helicopter sound effects for over 12 minutes. The aptly named "Für die Katz'" is a brief playful interlude that is the aural equivalent of making a cat jump and chase after a laser pointer. The 15-minute centerpiece "Live in der Fabrik" comes closest to the UFOs-piloted-by-aliens-on-acid themes of their contemporaries Tangerine Dream, and manages to be space rock without the rock.
Whether seen as frustratingly nebulous or trance-inducingly hypnotic, Cluster are nevertheless one of Krautrock's true electronic pioneers, and this is headphone candy at its finest.
Brian Way - allmusic.com
Cluster - Cluster II
Tracklisting
1. Plas – 6:00
2. Im Süden – 12:50
3. Für Die Katz – 3:00
4. Live In Der Fabrik – 14:50
5. Georgel – 5:25
6. Nabitte – 2:40
Personnel
Hans-Joachim Roedelius – electronics
Dieter Moebius – electric organ, guitars, effects & electronics
Conrad Plank – producer
X Lossless Decoder version 20100323 (116.7)
XLD extraction logfile from 2010-03-24 11:41:16 +0100
Cluster / Cluster II
Used drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06A (revision Q631)
Use cdparanoia mode : YES (CDParanoia III 10.2 engine)
Disable audio cache : OK for the drive with cache less than 2750KB
Make use of C2 pointers : NO
Read offset correction : 48
Max retry count : 100
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 00:00:00 | 06:20:16 | 0 | 28515
2 | 06:20:16 | 12:53:68 | 28516 | 86558
3 | 19:14:09 | 03:09:00 | 86559 | 100733
4 | 22:23:09 | 14:53:06 | 100734 | 167714
5 | 37:16:15 | 05:40:08 | 167715 | 193222
6 | 42:56:23 | 02:40:34 | 193223 | 205256
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Track 01
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->Accurately ripped! (confidence 3)
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Track 03
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End of status report
XLD extraction logfile from 2010-03-24 11:41:16 +0100
Cluster / Cluster II
Used drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06A (revision Q631)
Use cdparanoia mode : YES (CDParanoia III 10.2 engine)
Disable audio cache : OK for the drive with cache less than 2750KB
Make use of C2 pointers : NO
Read offset correction : 48
Max retry count : 100
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 00:00:00 | 06:20:16 | 0 | 28515
2 | 06:20:16 | 12:53:68 | 28516 | 86558
3 | 19:14:09 | 03:09:00 | 86559 | 100733
4 | 22:23:09 | 14:53:06 | 100734 | 167714
5 | 37:16:15 | 05:40:08 | 167715 | 193222
6 | 42:56:23 | 02:40:34 | 193223 | 205256
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->Accurately ripped! (confidence 3)
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End of status report