Harmonia: Deluxe (50th anniversary edition, orange vinyl) [GROENLAND RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This limited 50th anniversary edition is remastered and pressed on 180g orange vinyl in a gatefold jacket. Deluxe teams Neu!'s Michael Rother with Cluster's Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, produced with Conny Plank.

This edition

• 50th anniversary edition
• Orange vinyl
• 180g vinyl
• Limited edition
• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

The krautrock supergroup idea sounds grand, but Harmonia was three friends in a farmhouse. Michael Rother of Neu! had moved to the village of Forst to work with Cluster's Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, and in June 1975 they recorded their second album right there in their country studio.

Conny Plank, who had produced both Neu! and Cluster, drove out with a 16-track machine and a mixing desk, and brought Guru Guru drummer Mani Neumeier along for several tracks. The title track opens on a soft motorik pulse with the trio's voices drifting over it, "Walky-Talky" stretches out for more than ten minutes, "Monza (Rauf und Runter)" picks up speed like the racetrack it's named for, and "Notre Dame" and "Gollum" glow with warm, looping keyboards. AllMusic heard it as a touch more song-focused than the first album and no less lovely.

Julian Cope put Deluxe in his Krautrock Top 50, and PopMatters called it a deeply beautiful record. The closing track is called "Kekse," which is German for biscuits, and we can confirm the album goes very well with them.

Also at Kops: more Harmonia on vinyl · browse Electronic

Tracklist

Listen

On Grönland Records / Brain (cat# LPGRON151X), a reissue of the 1975 album.