Cluster – Zuckerzeit
I suppose this is the first record I heard that had the word ‘Krautrock’ attached to it… and it opened that door from the strict tempos and timekeeping of Kraftwerk to this much more organic sound world of drum machines and a loose, almost demo feel to people just playing and jamming, but still with electronic instruments. It’s strange given how we’re living right now, to think that they made the record in a kind of isolation, in two halves. They used an Elka Drummer One drum machine for lots of the record and for a while, around the time of Awake But Always Dreaming, say, my music had that sound all over it, from listening to Cluster non-stop.