Moebius & Plank - Rastakraut Pasta

'Rastakraut Pasta' is the 1980 album of odd studio experiments from the legendary Conny Plank and Dieter Moebius (also ov Harmonia/Cluster/Kluster etc). In the scheme of things, this album appeared after some of Dieter's best works with Eno and Roedelius, and at the start of a fruitful pairing with seminal studio engineer, Plank, before they would go on to create the frankly awesome 'Zero Set' album together with Cosmic Courier, Manfred Neumeier. Obviously influenced by Jamaican dub and perhaps tired with lovely kosmiche trips, this album just reeks of smoke and heated circuitry, keeping the pace to a lethargic waddle throughout. The title track is basically a weirdo dub pattern scrawled with skronky Teutonic melodies and fizzing electronics from all corners of the studio and sounds like they had a wicked time making it. With 'Feedback 66' they version Ramones style punk at halfspeed with warped vocals, while there are a couple of more typical synthesizer workouts on 'Two Oldtimers' and 'Solar Plexus', but these both have a playful sense of humour that's generally not found in their other material. A landmark LP of late krautrock experimentation, then!