Zuckerzeit is the third full-length album by German electronic music outfit Cluster

Cluster (band)

Cluster is a German experimental musical group who influenced the development of contemporary popular electronic and ambient music. They have recorded albums in a wide variety of styles ranging from experimental music to progressive rock, all of which had an avant-garde edge. Cluster has been...

. It was co-produced by Michael Rother

Michael Rother

Michael Rother is a German experimental Krautrock musician and composer.- Early life and education :Born in 1950, Rother went to school in Munich, Wilmslow , Karachi, and Düsseldorf. He also lived in Pakistan in the early 1960s where he was exposed to Pakistani music that would influence his own...

, their bandmate in Harmonia

Harmonia (band)

Harmonia is a Krautrock supergroup from Germany. They formed as a collaboration between Michael Rother of Neu! and Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Möbius of Cluster and later included the British musician Brian Eno.-Musical style:...

 (whose two releases Zuckerzeit fell between). The music on Zuckerzeit is different than any other Cluster work and clearly shows Michael Rother's influence, with clearly defined melody and beat and a very rhythmic sound, at times approaching the Motorik

Motorik

Motorik is a term coined by music journalists to describe the 4/4 beat often used by "Krautrock" bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk...

 style of Neu!

Neu!

Neu! was a German band formed by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother after their split from Kraftwerk in the early 1970s...

. John Bush, writing the review for Allmusic, described Zuckerzeit as: "...a vision of electronic pop, fusing the duo's haunted melodic sense with crisp, scratchy drum programs..."

Among its fans are Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

 and Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

, which ranked the album number 63 on their "Top 100 Albums of The 1970s". Eno was to later work with Harmonia on Tracks and Traces

Tracks and Traces

Tracks and Traces is the one and only album credited to Harmonia '76, but it is generally regarded as the third album by the highly influential Krautrock/Kosmische Musik group Harmonia. Harmonia was formed by the addition of Neu! guitarist Michael Rother to Cluster, the duo of Hans-Joachim...

and the duo on the albums Cluster & Eno

Cluster & Eno

Cluster & Eno is a collaborative album by the German electronic music group Cluster and British ambient musician Brian Eno. The style of this album is a collection of gentle melodies: a mixture of Eno’s ambient sensibilities and Cluster's avant-garde style.In June, 1977 the duo of Hans-Joachim...

and After the Heat

After the Heat

After the Heat is a 1978 album by Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius . The album represents the second collaboration by the trio, the first being 1977's Cluster & Eno...

. Julian Cope

Julian Cope

Julian Cope is a British rock musician, author, antiquary, musicologist, poet and cultural commentator...

included Zuckerzeit in his Krautrock Top 50.

Track listing

1. "Hollywood" (Roedelius) – 4:48
2. "Caramel" (Moebius) – 2:58
3. "Rote Riki" (Moebius) – 6:18
4. "Rosa" (Roedelius) – 4:13
5. "Caramba" (Moebius) – 3:57
6. "Fotschi Tong" (Roedelius) – 4:21
7. "James" (Moebius) – 3:21
8. "Marzipan" (Roedelius) – 3:14
9. "Rotor" (Moebius) – 2:40
10. "Heiße Lippen" (Roedelius) – 2:23

External links

• Bush, John [ Allmusic review]. Retrieved August 18, 2007.
• Curry, Russ A Curious History of Cluster. Retrieved August 18, 2007.