- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
- Cosmic Jokers "Galactic Supermarket" 1974 (Germany)
- Cosmic Jokers (also known sometimes as Cosmic Couriers) are a legendary psychedelic "krautrock" group which was actually the brainchild of notorious producer Rolf Ulrich Kaiser. The apocryphal legend is that Kaiser invited hip musicians from the German scene to jam in his studio, and "paid" them in psychedelic drugs (Kaiser was a pal of Timothy Leary when he was on the run from the FBI and hiding out in Europe) -- and that the musicians only discovered that he had put out their jams as Cosmic Jokers albums when they found them in the stores! (Though some or all of this story is undoubtedly fiction, which parts are true depends on who you ask . . .) In fact the core group had actually previously recorded somewhat more disciplined (though still totally kosmik) sessions backing up "spoken word" records for Kaiser's label (Sergius Golowin's Lord Krishna Von Goloka and Walter Wegmüller's Tarot, both from 1973.) In total, the Cosmic Jokers sessions were milked for 4 proper albums plus a 5th label compilation LP -- all released in the same year! And at least three or four of them are classics, including this one which was the second to appear. The Kosmische Kuriere on this album include Manuel "Ash Ra Tempel" Göttsching and two of Germany's most legendary producers -- Klaus Schulze and Dieter Dierks -- as well as narration by Göttsching's girlfriend Rosi Müller. On later albums, Kaiser would add his girlfriend to the mix -- Gille Lettman who went by the name Sternenmädchen ("maiden of the stars"). Her wacky rapping all over the final Cosmic Jokers album Gilles Zeitschiff is apparently what caused Klaus Schulze to take Kaiser to court over the Cosmic Jokers albums -- which resulted in Kaiser not only losing his record label, but fleeing Germany altogether!
- Since Cosmic Jokers records are really just creatively edited spontaneous studio jams, there is no video footage of them (they never performed outside the studio as a group at all.) But here is a trippy fan video for the title track to "Galactic Supermarket" and here is Das Sternenmädchen doing her thing on "Gilles Zeitschiff". In other music news this week, living legend Neil Young has an interesting new album out called "Le Noise" (enjoy this 39 minute video version of the ENTIRE album!)