Featured album: Organisation - Tone Float

[Trane]

http://www.progarchives.com/progress...11132017_r.jpg


Organisation - Tone Float

tone float.jpg


Tracks Listing:
1. Tone Float (20:46)
2. Milk Rock (5:24)
3. Silver Forest (3:19)
4. Rhythm Salad (4:04)
5. Noitasinagro (7:46)

Musicians:
- Florian Schneider / alto & electric flutes, electric violin, tambourine, triangle, bells
- Ralf Hütter / Hammond organ
- Butch Hauf / bass, percussion
- Basil Hammoudi / glockenspiel, bongos, conga gong, musical box, vocals
- Fred Monicks / drums, bongos, maracas, cowbell, tambourine
- Konrad "Conny" Plank / producer


Here is what John Davie (AKA Mellotron Storm) had to say about it on ProgArchives:

Ralf and Florian are perhaps famous for bringing the Electronic genre to the masses and making it popular, but their first band ORGANISATION were one of the first to put out a Krautrock album. So yes I would say these two men made some musical history in more ways than one. I need to thank Tom Ozric again for bringing this release to my attention not only for it's historical significance but because I like it a lot. This is experimental and often improvised music with percussion and drums usually beating away while other sounds like bass, organ, flute, violin and bells come and go. Conrad Plank produced this album and I should mention that Basil Hammoudi would go on to play with IBLISS.

"Tone Float" was originally the side long track to open the album at over 20 minutes in length. Not a lot going on for the first 4 1/2 minutes as different sounds come and go.Then we start to get a rhythm as the percussion beats away. A change 9 minutes in as organ from Ralf comes in as the drums and sounds build. Awesome section ! It then settles back down after 11 minutes. Organ is back 12 1/2 minutes in as drums and percussion continue. Flute 14 minutes in as another cool passage comes in around the 17 minute mark of catchy percussion and flute. Organ joins in too and begins to take over. "Milk Rock" is catchy as flute, organ and other sounds lead the way. Organ becomes more prominant 3 minutes in. It gets experimental sounding before 5 minutes. "Silver Forest" is slow paced and dark with organ and drum sounds. Very spacey 2 minutes in. I like this one. "Rhythm Salad" features a variety of percussion sounds throughout.

"Noitasinagro" opens with these experimental sounds that are joined by organ. A pleasant melody after 2 minutes of organ, percussion and other sounds that come and go. Violin 5 minutes in before it gets fairly chaotic after 6 minutes. Organ and a calm to end it. The bonus track is a live recording from The Beat Club in May of 1971. It fits in well with the style here. Experimental, noisy and spacey before becoming pastoral as we start to get a melody 3 minutes in. Nice. The tempo picks up 5 1/2 minutes in as we get a great sound with some excellent drumming. The tempo picks up even more 7 minutes in as they really rock out. An atmospheric calm begins before 8 minutes with sudden outbursts coming and going. The sound is slowly building until 10 minutes in they are letting it rip to the end of this 11 minute plus song. This track was a real eye opener for me, to hear them play live these experimental, spacey sections and then to really jam with some fury was just fantastic.

[Zappathustra]

Is it ok if I use the word masterpiece? Because that one is, it has to be. Recorded in 1969, it could be the first fully-fledged Krautrock album, combining all the disparate elements that would inspire the German music scene in the years to come: psychedelics, experimentation, jazzy improvisation, minimalism, - it's all in there already, and most importantly not as a product of electronics but with human instruments played with human passion. It sort of creates the same effect with electronic music just through the masterful use of percussion and hammond organ. Ahead of its time? Sure, listen to Milk Rock - who would guess that this shit was recorded in 1969?

A seminal album, and definitely essential listening for the music of the era.

[arturs]

It was fun to finally hear this album via the YT clips above. I have owned the red/green traffic cone albums since the 90s when the boots first came out. I have grown to like both of those a lot. I wouldn't say Tone Float is in the same league. It is all a little too languid and forgettable. Likeable certainly. Good atmosphere. But where are they going with any of this? Nowhere in particular and I suppose that is fine to a point. But it lacks the urgency and focus of contemporary krautrock debuts like Monster Movie or Phallus Dei or Electronic Meditation..

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Quite like this one myself

[Scrotum Scissor]

It is all a little too languid and forgettable. Likeable certainly. Good atmosphere. But where are they going with any of this? Nowhere in particular and I suppose that is fine to a point. But it lacks the urgency and focus of contemporary krautrock debuts like Monster Movie or Phallus Dei or Electronic Meditation.

I like it a lot now, personally. Yet I have to agree with arturs in an "objective" sense, if there's any such thing.

But it's still an important and very listenable vintage artifact.

[Trane]

It was fun to finally hear this album via the YT clips above. I have owned the red/green traffic cone albums since the 90s when the boots first came out. I have grown to like both of those a lot. I wouldn't say Tone Float is in the same league. It is all a little too languid and forgettable. Likeable certainly. Good atmosphere. But where are they going with any of this? Nowhere in particular and I suppose that is fine to a point. But it lacks the urgency and focus of contemporary krautrock debuts like Monster Movie or Phallus Dei or Electronic Meditation..

I'd love to see the chronological order of releasd of all those first album you mention, just to see who influenced whom.
RYM is normally useful, listing months of release, but not often when it comes to "krautrock"
Phallus Dei is the only one from 69, along with Monster Movies, but I don't either would've really influenced the contents of Tone Float.Not even sure Kluster's first album came out early enough to influence R&F.

[Zappathustra]

But where are they going with any of this? Nowhere in particular...

Although I understand your little appreciation - matter of taste? - for the music, I truly don't understand your argument. Where is music supposed to be going? Where did Electronic Meditation or Phallus Dei go? The psychedelic experience is at the heart of this project, and it's being deployed here in a very concrete, modern and clear way. The side long track has a harmonious and focused flow, unless you believe that writing coherent music just with percussion - a rare case in rock music - is something that can happen lightheartedly and with diminished focus.

It seems to me you're discarding this not because it fails at its objective, but because you don't care about its objective in the first place. Psychedelic music is by definition experimental and vague, and maybe unaware of where it's really going.

I will be in the minority to consider this as a great achievement of the music of its time. Anyway, only 3 people cared to comment.

[arturs]

^^^

Not much more I can say beyond what I said in the first post. To my ears Duul had something they wanted to say with Phallus Dei; it had a purpose. Similarly Yoo Doo Right, as silly as it may sound on the surface, had urgency, a sense of purpose. I don't hear any of that with Tone Float. I hear pleasant and sometimes interesting noodling.

Beyond that I would recommend that if you want to debate these issues online, which I am happy to do, please don't tell other people what they are thinking. Your second paragraph is your own fantasy. It is completely inaccurate and has nothing to do with what I do or don't care about.

[Zappathustra]

^^^

Not much more I can say beyond what I said in the first post. To my ears Duul had something they wanted to say with Phallus Dei; it had a purpose. Similarly Yoo Doo Right, as silly as it may sound on the surface, had urgency, a sense of purpose. I don't hear any of that with Tone Float. I hear pleasant and sometimes interesting noodling.

Beyond that I would recommend that if you want to debate these issues online, which I am happy to do, please don't tell other people what they are thinking. Your second paragraph is your own fantasy. It is completely inaccurate and has nothing to do with what I do or don't care about.

Despite the fact that you're happy to discuss these issues online, you reject me the right to evaluate your argument as so eloquently you evaluated mine as a fantasy. I am not trying to tell you what you think, I tried to open a discussion on the basis of your argument. But I will follow your recommendation - which isn't a trying to tell me what to think - and say no more.