Rot

A pivotal figure in the development of German experimental music in the 20th century, Conrad Schnitzler was instrumental in bringing electronic music out of the academy and into underground popular music. As a student of both Joseph Beuys and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Schnitzler developed a highly conceptual approach to making art and music, unrestricted by dogmatism and heedless of traditional approaches. This liberated Schnitzler to pursue works such as 1973’s *Rot*, an album of stark electronic minimalism that stands as one of his most raw and uncompromising works. The album is two extended pieces: the throbbing, dreamlike “Meditation” and the more chaotic “Krautrock.” Of those, “Krautrock” is the more forward-looking. While “Meditation” is a brooding cauldron of abstract burbles that recalls the work of early electronic pioneers, the rushing mechanical percussion underlying “Krautrock” anticipates the metronomic pulse of early techno and house. Bureau B’s 2012 reissue of *Rot* appends a single bonus track, the 24-minute “Red Dream,” to the original track list.

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