Richard Fearless

Kollektion 04b: Bureau B Compiled by Richard Fear Richard Fearless

Part 2 of 3 LP versions. Bureau B sees itself as a platform for exciting varieties of electronic, free-spirited music, ranging from pop to avant-garde. The label has amassed an impressive catalog of reissues and new productions, including electronic music classics from the 1970's and early 1980's popularly classified as krautrock (Cluster, Roedelius, Moebius, Plank, Schnitzler), alongside new recordings by such formative artists as Faust, Kreidler, Roedelius, Tietchens, and Moebius, to name just a few. To provide an overview of the various musical styles in which Bureau B specializes, the label has created the Kollektion series. Kollektion 04 is curated by Richard Fearless, who listened his way through the label's entire (!) archive and now presents his own very personal selection from the catalog. Richard Fearless is best known as the leader and founder of British band Death in Vegas. German electronic music can be heard as an influence on many of his albums; indeed, even in his song titles, like Sons of Rother. Richard Fearless has worked with Iggy Pop, Bobby Gillespie, Paul Weller, Liam Gallagher, and Hope Sandoval and has developed into a successful producer and remixer. To me the bands and labels in the Bureau B archive, current and past, were looking to distant lands, their own 'Neuland,' whether in the future with bands like You and Riechmann, or from a more remote past, like medieval folk band Ougenweide. They were creating something radical and experimental, something that didn't draw on the same rhythm and blues, Anglo-American rock that was saturating the airwaves at the time. They were pioneers in every sense of the word. With all due respect for the music that forged these paths, it was on hearing the mental guitar on Faust's 'Herbstimmung' that I knew to look not only at the so-called golden years of this era, but to look at what these artists were doing later, as well as the new bands that were emerging from those schools. Artists who are still creating, still innovating. I hope you enjoy the journey -Richard Fearless. Includes tracks by Phantom Band, Gunter Schickert, Faust, Ougenweide, Riechmann, Asmus Tietchens, 39 Clocks, Der Plan, You, Solyst, Moebius Plank Neumeier, Moebius & Beerbohm, Thomas Dinger, Moebius, Gregor Schnitzler, Kreidler, Cluster, Roedelius, Qluster, Pyrolator, Automat feat. Lydia Lunch, and Moebius & Renziehausen.