Harmonia - Live 1974

The collaboration of three of krautrock's leading lights - Roedelius and Mobius of Cluster and Michael Rother of Neu! – meant that Harmonia's work was consistently permeated by a confidence and experimentalism borne of faith in their own abilities. This live recording sees them set up in a converted railway station in the former West Germany. Analogue loops and beats swell amidst droning melodies as engagingly simplistic keyboards provide the krautrock equivalent of hooks. Harmonia's leanings towards accessibility enable this album to be appreciated both actively or passively, sending clouds of its own hypnotic, electronic atmospherics billowing. Though perhaps ultimately overstated as "the world's most important rock band" by their latter-day fourth member, Brian Eno, the faint whiff of Harmonia's swirling legacy can still be felt today in the works of modern greats like Aphex Twin and a thousand purveyors of psychedelic electronica and trip-hop. (Chris Cusack)