Organisation (band)

Organisation (band)

Organisation was an experimental Krautrock band, that was the immediate predecessor of the band Kraftwerk. In addition to the founding members of Kraftwerk, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben, Organisation consisted of Basil Hammoudi, Butch Hauf and Alfred "Fred" Mönicks. Charly Weiss, Peter Martini and Paul Lorenz were sometimes also included in Organisation.

A video recording by German TV broadcaster WDR exists of the band performing "Ruckzuck", a piece that appeared on the first Kraftwerk album in 1970. The performance took place at the Grugahalle in Essen on 25 April 1970 as part of the Essener Pop und Blues Festival. This was their last performance as Organisation, Hutter and Schneider-Esleben (later just Schneider) went on to form Kraftwerk, leaving Hammoudi, Hauf and Mönicks to go to university. Their only album, Tone Float, produced and engineered by Konrad "Conny" Plank, was released on the RCA Victor label in the UK in the summer of 1970. As it was available in Germany only as an import, sales were poor and RCA opted to drop the band shortly afterwards, at which point they disbanded. Hammoudi, Hauf and Mönicks returned to university to complete their studies, leaving Hütter and Schneider-Esleben to continue as Kraftwerk.

According to Mönicks (interviewed in the mid-1990s) the quintet had already begun to perform under the name Kraftwerk some time after Tone Float had been recorded, but RCA had been keen for them to have a band name more appropriate to the English market, since the album was to be issued only in the UK, so the name Organisation was used.

Hammoudi was later a member of jazz-rock band Ibliss, along with former-Kraftwerk drummer Andreas Hohmann.