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With Understanding Comes Appreciation Yes, this album sounds nothing like any other Ash Ra Tempel album. Yes, this album is light and frolicking. And yes, this is one of my favorite AT albums, and it's so good! Almost 10 years ago, I discovered this LP on other hot day. What a summer album! Is it because of the cover? The lively intro? I have no idea. The music is fascinating. A far cry from Krautrock, which is at times somewhat dull, with its endless jamming and guitar thumping. Here, structures shine through the summer evening freshness. The guitars shimmer here, acoustic and electric. The Wah Wah pedal has to do its job faithfully, the drums are airy, loose and lightly beaten, they even swim in milk. The synths drone their way through the undergrowth and support the string instruments wherever they can. The bass stays discreetly in the background but is still present. Rosemarie Müller with her crisp voice does the rest. The bases were loaded with their previous albums and this little gem here just hit a Grand Slam for the fans. Including more vocals (from guest Rosi Mueller) than any early Ash Ra LP, Starring Rosi spans guitar-virtuoso experimental rock (on Laughter Loving ) fairy-tale acoustic pop (on Day Dream ), and cosmic philosophy (on Interplay of Forces ). Though it smacks of a school lesson or kind of (with Göttsching showing off his skills in a number of different styles), the album holds together surprisingly well, to the point that has become one of my fav albums not only in the Krautrock scene, but in the whole Prog-Rock realm. Unlike their previous work, as can be seen, this album is made of shorter tracks that don't venture directly off into space but instead present a range of styles, in shorter not always very developed tracks that possess song-structure characteristics to mild and varying degrees. A broader variety of instrumentation here (sometimes acoustic guitar, synthesizer, female and male vocals, hand drums and shakers, psychedelic effects, mellotron...) and a generally mellower sound as well. Drums are not always present and jam qualities are less overt, though they do permeate the album. Definitely worth a listen for fans of Krautrock, and different in interesting ways from their so called "better albums" Schwingungen , and Ash Ra Tempel . Let's take a look at the content & credits. Songs / Tracks Listing 1. Laughter Loving (8:00) 2. Day Dream (5:21) 3. Schizo (2:47) 4. Cosmic Tango (2:06) 5. Interplay of Forces (8:58) 6. The Fairy Dance (3:07) 7. Bring Me Up (4:33) Total Time 34:52 Line-up / Musicians - Manuel Göttsching / electric & acoustic (6- & 12-string) guitars, bass, electric piano, Mellotron, synthesizer, congas, vocals, producer - Rosi Müller / voice & vocals, vibraphone, concert harp With: - Harald Grosskopf / drums - Dieter Dierks / bass & percussion (7), chorus arrangement (2) Starring Rosi is Ash Ra Tempel's 5th album, and a departure from the density, cerebral, complexity and intensity of the previous 3 studio albums as well as the drugged out live Seven Up outing. Göttsching recruited Dieter Dierks (Scorpions, a million others) not only for his usual superb production ability, but also for bass guitar duty. As well, Kosmische Kourier / Wallenstein standby drummer Harald Grosskopf makes his presence felt (and would later join Manuel in his Ashra trio format of the late 70s and early 80s). As stated in the premise, the album's contents are completely different from the emotional workouts of their previous studio offerings. The mood is light and carefree but arguably more sophisticated and refined. And it appears as if Manuel and Rosi are just having a fun date here (she does glow radiantly on the album cover, one must admit). The guitar style shown on the latter half of Join Inn's Freak N' Roll makes its presence on Interplay of Forces and Laughter Loving . Schizo recalls the intensity of the earlier albums but is sadly all too short. Through it all we have Rosi's lovely spoken voice (in English verse the German of Join Inn ) and a bit of ill-advised singing from Manuel (something he fortunately gave up quickly). The album sounds a bit like a precursor to some Ashra albums ( Blackouts and Correlations ) in guitar/melody territory, and indeed the only instrumentalist present on any of the other Ash Ra Tempel albums is Manuel Göttsching (Rosi Mueller, Göttsching's girlfriend, did provide vocals on Jenseits on Join Inn ). Only Day Dream , Schizo and Interplay of Forces really contain much resemblance to prior albums, and while generally less accessible than the rest of the music on this album, they are much more accessible than earlier material, so this could serve as an excellent entry to the music of Ash Ra Tempel —accessible yet complex. My favorites are Interplay of Forces (a nice melodic rhythmic kraut jam) and Schizo (a sad and compelling spacey almost Jane-like trip out). Interplay of Forces is actually my favorite Ash Ra Tempel song —it is psychedelic, spacey, melodic, rhythmic, jamming, and varied and I'd have to listen to the whole of their s/t or Join Inn to get all that I get from these 9 minutes. The piece starts with an ethereal and acid introduction, while Rosi recites some esoteric psychedelic lyrics on an inspired tone, alternately in English and German language, creating a fascinating atmosphere. Then it takes off with a stunning drum /guitar flight. This piece is an absolute gem of the genre, sublimated by fantastic sound quality on this very piece. Manuel Göttsching shows his impressive guitar skills throughout the album, like in the excellent first piece, Laughter Loving , a joyful opener with stunning acid and fluent guitar parts. All the short pieces feature solid rhythmic and excellent guitar. A very good album, ranging from lively pieces to space cosmic rock summits. Ash Ra Tempel's Starring Rosi is a definitive trip into cerebral space land. Starring Rossi is a clash of Space & Psychedelic influences and is one of the most accessible spaced-out recordings of all time. Featuring the original space-guitar compositions of Manuel Göttsching smothered in the female narration of some cosmic chick named Rosi. An excellent album from start to finish and in my opinion an essential album. By the way, there are good news for Ash Ra Tempel fans and newcomers; since the digital and streaming era began a couple of decades ago, the discography of Ash Ra Tempel wasn't available in any plataform until few months ago. Fortunately, Apple Music for the first time, offers the music of the band in lossless resolution at 44.1 kHz/16 Bits (CD Quality) including Starring Rosi. Unfortunately, as far I know, it is the only streaming platform offering most of the catalog of the band.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation “Fast and bulbous! That's right, The Mascara Snake, fast and bulbous! Also, a tin teardrop! Bulbous also tapered? That's right” —Pena, Track 15. I wanted to start with this quote, because it is a classic dialog among fans, which shows a sort of camaraderie and a “sense of belonging” when you start exchanging this apparently “nonsense," specially with another unknown fan. Knowing the latter, somehow says that you are “special” and “belong” as well to the Captain's beautiful bizarre absurdness. Trust me, in the comments of every review of Trout Mask Replica , you’ll inevitable see fans exchanging these lines. This album is memorable for me in so many ways, but specially because it opened me a new brand world musically speaking —Civilization Phase III by Frank Zappa, Disaster by Amon Düül, Unlimited Edition by Can, The Maria Dimension by The Legendary Pink Dots, Schwingungen by Ash Ra Temple, Cobra & Game Pieces by John Zorn, the whole “Island Records” Albums by Tom Waits and a bunch more of the so called “the weird” ones. In addition of reviewing this piece of art, I wanted to share my two cents since this masterpiece has been largely misunderstood, underrated, and bashed without an apparently fair reason by plenty of people, who don’t really understand or realize what is behind this gem. It's probably the weirdest thing you will ever hear. No, it has no keyboards if you are prog-rock fan. Heck, do not expect anything which could come with a label in music as you know it. It is jagged, sharp, dirty, impenetrable, questionable, disgusting, odd, and dissonant. It may sound like a bunch of idiots bashing their instruments into the wall against a growling and howling vocal by a drunken crackpot, but it really isn't. Behind all that disgusting weirdness is actual music, trust me. I'm not saying this just to "show off my tolerance" or say Captain Beefheart is making some artsy point here which "mere humans can not understand" or some crap like that. I'm talking about actual music. It just takes a little effort and an open mind. This music isn't improvised or recklessly done. It is well planned out and executed. The way the guitars, bass, drums, horns and sax interlock, can not be improvised. This sounds much weirder than anything could possibly be if it were improvised, actually.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation The first time I listened to Tom Waits, which was randomly from a radio station btw, I thought that I had missed a song or an album made by one of my fav artists of all-time; the peerless, a blues belter straight out of the school of Howlin' Wolf, a cat who breathed and bathed in the free jazz of Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman, a painter and sculptor by nature, a rock and roll titan as leader and frontman; the one and only Captain Beefheart… and I said, wait (half drunk, half sober), this can’t be him, I mean, I know and have all made by the Captain. Few days later (100% sober this time), I realized that I was correct; that song played by the radio station was the music of a fan, who is in fact one of the more, if not the most, influenced musicians by Don Van Vliet, Tom Waits; …and Oh boy! a new pleasant and eclectic door opened to me that day. BTW, the song played that day by the radio station was " Diamond and Gold " from his Rain Dogs album. The rest is history; I dug more, and instantly got hooked by his incredible music.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation While it is focused on rarefied, intellectualized, long-form composition in an era when abstraction and complexity really meant something in the rock milieu, these diverse pieces have a direct emotional power, linger and replay themselves in the mind long after their most recent hearing. This is a sophisticated and beautifully crafted recording. This is probably one of the most, if not the most, accessible and digestible Rock-in-Opposition album you’ll find out there, yet It is still quite challenging for the casual and even for some more experienced listeners; while odd time signatures and dissonance are plenty present here, the way it was arranged makes it more appealing to the listener than other albums of this music style, so arguably this album could be the safest point of entry to it. An absolute masterpiece, and definitely my favorite Henry Cow album, and it has to say something, because their condensed yet wonderful flawless inventory set the bar not only for the Rock-in-Opposition movement, but the whole prog-rock realm.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Okay: You're all alone on the desert island with your ten essential prog albums. The solar-powered stereo overheats, the hut bursts into flames, and you've only got time to grab three discs before it's just you, the ashes, and "Wilson." Is this one of the three to escape the inferno? Hugh betcha! Absolutely masterful from start to finish; all meat and no filler. Prog doesn't get any better than this genre-defining recording! Marvelous, majestic, mesmerizing, mighty, momentous and moving must-have music. A masterpiece that showcases some of the most perfect songwriting of the 70's —even the production is flawless— quite a feat for the times. It shows Genesis at the peak of their musical creativity.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Some of the words that arguably describe better this gem might be elegant, sophisticated, intimate, melancholic, spiritual, playful, desert, warm, and mysterious, which also sports majestically chamber jazz, avant-garde classical music, klezmer and modern composition. For a man who's arguably got 90% of his reputation (at this point, in 1996) through making noisy, abrasive, inaccessible, and chaotic music, this masterpiece is quite the opposite; it is relaxing, serene, calm and sublime. It's also fairly ironic to me, because I feel like it's the best piece of work he's ever done, and it has to say something, mostly when you stop and think about his absurd endless catalog. I do have them all. Yes, I’m a freak. My collection is up to 335 albums and counting —there’s no way John stops releasing new material. Yes, I do love John Zorn’s music. The whole thing; the wild, the weird, and the sublime —I’ll be pleased to share you a guide of his prolific catalog in other post, so stay tuned sharks.

With understanding comes appreciation First things first since no many people are familiarized with the Dots. The Legendary Pink Dots are an influential, staggeringly prolific group led by enigmatic frontman Edward Ka-Spel. Emerging from the early-'80s post-punk underground and sometimes categorized as industrial due to associations with bands like Skinny Puppy, the group's music is nearly impossible to pin down, drawing from Krautrock, ambient, folk, synth pop, and numerous other styles. The Dots' music is by turns melodic pop and exotic psychedelia, with classical influences, sampling, and relentlessly dark, violent, apocalyptic lyrics. Ka-Spel's rhotacistic vocals are instantly recognizable, and somewhat resemble a cross between Syd Barrett and Coil's John Balance. Aside from the group's only two constant members, Ka-Spel and keyboard player Phil Knight (also known as the Silverman), the Dots have consisted of a shifting supporting cast over the years, including Canadian dub reggae producer Ryan Moore (Twilight Circus), engineer Raymond Steeg, and guitarist Erik Drost.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Sounds and impacts only like itself, like no-one before or after. An attempt to achieve in 80 minutes a mystery trip from light to darkness and return. Three months recording with sessions often lasting up to 16 hours a day. Telepathic improvisation leading to instant compositions. Shamanic avant-funk trance. Unrestrained ecstasy and weirdness. Beauty and violation of any sense of beauty. Fear danger chaos mystery magic lost and found. Jaki Liebezeit’s mantric drumming triggering hallucinations seals majestically this timeless masterpiece. The latter is just an introduction to this state-of-the-art piece of music.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation First off, look at this ridiculous unit: -John McLaughlin / electric guitar (One of fusion's most virtuosic guitar soloists. He placed his blazing speed in the service of a searching spiritual passion that has kept his music evolving and open to new influences) -Herbie Hancock / electric piano (He will always be one of the most revered and controversial figures in jazz, just as his employer/mentor Miles Davis was when he was alive) -Chick Corea / electric piano (A masterful and creatively wide-ranging jazz pianist. He was a celebrated performer whose influential albums found him exploring harmonically adventurous post-bop, electric fusion, Latin traditions, and classical) -Tony Williams / drums (One of the most influential drummers in jazz history. His open style implied the beat rather than rode it via the use of metric modulation and polyrhythms. Tony’s playing was articulated by his wide-ranging interests in jazz, rock, funk, and blues) -Wayne Shorter / tenor saxophone (One of jazz's leading figures in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as both a composer and saxophonist) -Joe Zawinul / organ, electric piano (Joe belonged in a category unto himself -- a European from the heartland of the classical music tradition (Vienna) who learned to swing as freely as any American jazzer, and whose appetite for growth and change remained insatiable) -Dave Holland / double bass (An acclaimed, ever-evolving jazz bassist. He is a gifted improvisor and composer whose work has touched on acoustic post-bop, avant-garde jazz, and fusion) and the star of the show... -Miles Davis / trumpet (A monumental innovator, icon, and maverick trumpeter. He helped define the course of jazz as well as popular culture in the 20th century, bridging the gap between bebop, modal music, funk, and fusion) LOL! I mean, should I have even made a review of this record after putting this? Literally you should be already sold, and start listening to this gem (again)… but for those who are not that familiar with the genius or the album and ultimately, for the sake of my love to this treasure (top 10 in my all-time book), here we go…

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Gargantua & Pantagruel come to life! The entire classic era oeuvre of the British progressive rock titans Gentle Giant, founded by the three Schulman brothers in 1970, is indeed the perfect musical embodiment of the cheerful Rabelaisian spirit, colorful and picturesque as a fancy miniature from a manuscript, brought to life by the moving nature of the sound. Founded on the wreck of an unsuccessful and now totally forgotten soul-influenced pop outfit Simon Dupree & The Big Sound, Gentle Giant was a very different story for the Schulmans right from the start, and by the time of Acquiring the Taste the new band dared to move completely onto the uncharted land of its members' natural idiosyncrasies. It was the first of the six classic albums released by Gentle Giant, and while the band hadn't quite reached their peak of arranging perfection, crafting the music with still a slightly unfirm hand (rather very slightly actually), Acquiring the Taste still possesses something that makes it stand out. Maybe it's about the nocturnal atmosphere, this evening air that surrounds every song (on the edge of twilight whispering, as it says the lyrics of one of the best songs here)? Quite possibly so.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation This was the watershed album in Frank Zappa’s career in late 1973. The avant-garde, experimental rock, fusion & doo-wop musical elements he used to flavor his previous 16 albums (yes, 16 already at this point) do not predominate here, however, Zappa's music does not lose its complexity neither its virtuosic musicianship, and as a bonus (for some that may not be), his humour is even more present than previous releases. In fact, after his jazz-rock instrumental masterpieces, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, the master went back to the sexual and social humor formula he applied with his so called Flo & Eddie band a couple of years earlier, but this time, he wrapped the apparent callousness and stunning sexual explicitness lyrics (" Camarillo Brillo ," " Dirty Love ," and especially " Dinah-Moe Humm ”), and the absurd shaggy-dog stories (“ Montana ”), with technically accomplished heavy guitar riffs, hard rock feelings, jazzy chord changes, and funky & soul rhythms. The result? another masterpiece by the master which btw became his first gold album.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Through the trials and tribulations that life has to offer, a vast wealth of inspiration and karmic balance surge; it was the case for the members of Amon Düül II, who were collecting the honey of triumph while having a series of setbacks. One of the most terrifying events was at the Keks Club in Cologne, Germany in 1971, when a fire not only destroyed all of their musical gear, but snuffed out four youths in attendance, and then soon thereafter their new equipment was ripped off, which lacking any insurance and not totally paid, ended up bankrupting the band as royalties for their previous two records were garnished to pay off creditors. As can be expected, such incidents create extreme tensions with members of a fledgling band, simply trying to make their way in the cult recesses of the music scene, and as a result, bassist Dave Anderson was the first to bail and immediately hooked up with Hawkwind, while founding member Chris Karrer (violin, guitars) would take off to join Embryo. Meanwhile Renate Knaup who never really left the band, only contributed when she felt like it, and pretty much sitting this one out with the exception of the one teeny weeny track “ Riding On A Cloud , ” which she clearly was and found that more interesting. Likewise Falk Rogner stuck around on a part-time basis and as a result organ playing duties are shared. So after all said and done, the line-up, musicians and their roles, who are credited on this album this time as Amon Düül II were: