Inner Spaaaaace

I have pledged allegiance to various music genres described as space musics/head musics/psychadelic musics and the such (and generally will want to hear and judge for myself anything defined as 'space rock') but that does not mean I subscribe to all the mumbo-jumbo space and spirits BS, and it's questionable if the 60's space rockers did too, but it does mean I luv bands like Hawkind, UFO (early), Ash Ra Tempel, the Cosmic Jokers, Spacemen 3 and I'd even throw in some songs by the Thirteenth Floor Elevators & the Byrds and newer bands like Om and lots lots more (but not so much groups like Bardo Pond, Flying Saucer Attack, less-and-less-with-each-passing-day-Stereolab, Spiritualized, etc.)

But lets not talk about that, but instead a whole other kind of Space music, or better said space *in* music. In the larger scope silence itself as a musical element is pretty standard issue, often as a gimmick or a song-wrencher/a point of change, but that's not the particular I'm concerned about here. I'm talking about use of space in a repetitive manner and even more particularly two groups I think explore it the greatest: Black Sabbath & Kraftwerk.

With Sabbath it's most apparent on the first side of "Paranoid" between the twin towers of "War Pigs" and "Iron Man", both songs that push the past the six minute mark, but could easily be longer. The power of the riffs work because of both their simplicity and the space between them. Black Sabbath isn't slow, they just know how to make their point.

Kraftwerk were hip to this too and you can see it as they develop it over the course of their first six records. Their first record is experimental heavi-ness and has huge breaks and "breaks" all over it, but never really fall into a groove. 2 -> autobahn, they fall in love w/ repitition, but w/o much space. (I've never like Autobahn as much as the records that came before and after it.) Until they hit it with their electro masterpiece "Trans-Europe Express". The beat gets broken down to 3 points in space and the melody/riff three more. Kraftwerk then lose the thread as they start to write 'pop' songs, but you can still hear it in the electro-funk of "Man Machine."

And the two are tied together not just in method but in theme. As in it's not about ghouls and goblins nor is it about driving and mechanization. It's about Boredom.

It's then not surprising that a '71 era radio recording (on the boot Ruck Zuck!) of Kraftwerk sounds like nothing if not Black Sabbath. (Granted that it's not Rolf & Florian era Kraftwerk, but effectively Rolf + Neu!, but you can hear it still in later Kraftwerk and later Neu!) Heavy space rock indeed. You can hear this era Kraftwerk on youtube clips; it's highly recommended.

And they weren't by far the only people working on this axis and frankly it wasn't a new thing. Early rock'n'roll rocks more the fewer the elements, the fewer notes. And if you listen to enough James Brown, especially the early 70's heavy funk, the funk comes not from the adding but from the taking away. Creating space in the riff opens it up and locks it in. Ditto w/ Led Zepp. Ditto w/ Dub (or Can - and as sidebar I think this is key to Can's greatness and not any connect w/ Stockhausen-esque experimentalism. The noise collages on Can's mid Damo era records are the worst parts!) (or Joy Division (on record at least) a la the famous Hannett quote "only this time make it faster, but slower?" and when in 24 hr party people Hannett is introduced - he's recording silence). Just to me they're, Kraftwerk & Sabbath, the first ones to put it in the Front. As in w/ them it's not a piece but the Point.