It was during that time in Cologne, that Toby, along with Fluxus artist Robin Page, gave birth to the mysterious and controversial Pyramid label, for which these tracks were originally made for.' Recorded and remastered from the original master tapes and comes with insightful liner notes by Alan Freeman (Ultima Thule, The Crack In The Cosmic Egg). Including lost-in-time bands/studio projects like Astral Army, Fuerrote, Spirulina and Baal among others, the music here ranges from killer proto-new wave kraut psych to wild space rock, proto-ambient electronic, dark psychedelia and raw kosmische sounds with lots of analog synths/Moog. Most of these sessions were recorded by Toby, and they feature Toby himself plus a revolving cast of friends and musicians (some of them apparently big kraut names under pseudonym). Bands would come in for practice sessions, to record demos, and during slack periods, impromptu jams would happen. The recordings included here were made between 19 using studios in and around Cologne, produced by Toby Robinson for his own amusement. Orridge, is well-known to krautrock collectors as one of a number of engineers working at Stockhausen's WDR and Dierks Studio in Cologne in the mid-1970s, where he assisted on recordings by many famous kraut bands such as Can, Birth Control, Mythos and Dzyan. From the label - 'Toby Robinson, aka The Mad Twiddler, aka Genius P.

I have to admit, I've never even heard of any of the bands featured here (despite having a decent pretty krautrock collection), so this comp should be a revelation to even veteran diggers. The tracks here go far beyond stuff from Can, Neu, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul, etc., delving into the true underground rock sound of experimental Germany circa the mid-70's.

RARE KRAUTROCK SOUNDS ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! For Cologne Curiosities, Mental Experience digs deeper than the rest and collects a trove of unpublished/un-reissued material, originally only available on the out of print Unknown Deutschland - The Krautrock Archive CDs from 1996.

The message 1976 cast