Ash Ra Tempel / Gottsching The Best of The Private Tapes

Now that the original six CD limited edition 'The Private Tapes' is sold out Manikin thought it would be a good idea to release this double "best of" set. The tracks from the original CDs were all previously unreleased. Some were new tracks and others were different versions or live recordings of already known tracks. The six CD collection contained some amazing music but when you condense it down to just two CDs of highlights the resulting album is absolutely breath taking. If you are thinking of trying Ash Ra Tempel or Manuel Gottsching for the first time I really can't think of a better place to start than here. Ash Ra Tempel were one of the bands at the forefront of the Kraut Rock movement in the early 70s. As well as Manuel the group originally consisted of Klaus Schulze and Hartmut Enke. Manuel then moved on to form the group Ashra recording some stunning albums such as 'New Age of Earth'. He also had success as a solo musician with the album 'E2-E4'. OK so I might not have chosen the exact tracks that appear on this set but at least 75% of them I would. It should be pointed out that much of the music could not be considered as EM but it was from bands such as Ash Ra Tempel that the early EM was born. There is one track that was not included on the original series. That is 'Gedanken' which first appeared on the rare 'Kosmische Musik' compilation. This might piss off some of those people who own the original set and don't have the track already but look on the bright side, to purchase the vinyl compilation album would cost you significantly more than this budget price double CD. OK so it might be a marketing ploy but I have seen a lot worse. (DL)

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