I’ve been listening to a lot of German music from the early to mid 70s lately – I’m trying not to get into the habit of calling it Krautrock (the word “Kraut” being of derogatory origin and “rock” being not nearly descriptive enough), but that’s what most people know it as. But anyway, Neu!, Faust, Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream (there’s plenty more, but I haven’t quite got there yet): it’s all good and you should totally get some ASAP.

But this post isn’t about those bands – instead it’s about a group that evidently been influenced quite significantly by that music scene, along with a lot of more recent jam/pop music such as Stereolab and LCD Soundsystem – groovy, but melodic. Danceable, but equally rewarding as a headphone album.

The band is Fujiya & Miyagi from the UK (no, not Japanese – despite their name!)and the album I’ve jumped onto the train with is called Transparent Things – it was released in 2006, but from what I can tell the album hasn’t really gone massive. That’s a shame, as the album is easily as good as its contemporaries, having a streamlined, catchy, occasionally funk-influenced sound with plenty of hooks while exploring some great sonic territory. It has an electro bent with enough organic matter to give it a wonderfully down-to-earth feel.

If you’ve listened to Neu! then you know all about the Motorik beat – that insistent, driving rhythm that propelled so much of that band’s music, and its characteristics were found in a lot of other German music of the time. Curiously, Transparent Things contains a lot of Motorik, and instead of sounding like it’s aping Neu!’s sound, it simply makes it more endearing for me.

To not draw things out too much, this is an excellent album and in my opinion it’s worthy of a larger audience than it seems to have received. Check it out.

Listen

• Multiple tracks
  (official web site)