Krautrock Also-Rans: A Poll

Gila didn't bring in Fricke or Fischelscher until the "Bury My Heart" album--their first two, "Free Electric Sound" and "Nightworks" are quite different.

I see no reason why Agitation Free wouldn't walk away with this--Malesch is awesome.

Not that it would change my vote, but no Xhol Caravan or Brainticket on here.

Bury my Heart... is the only Gila album I've heard. It sounds like a lot like Popul Vuh, and I like that. I'm curious about the first two you've mentioned, but I have a feeling I wouldn't like them as much as the Vuh-worship.

I've heard one album by Embryo called Surfin'. It's quite good. Cool cover with a flying van. Some tracks are very funky with lots of sample-friendly drum breaks and vibraphone. I gather their other albums have more of an ethnic feel, which makes more sense when considering the NNCK collaboration.

Agitation Free will probably will this easily, but the Kollectiv album "SWF Sessions" is pretty fantastic in an early Kraftwerk kind of way. From what I remember, it's similar to the "Kraftwerk 4" live album with Neu!

the guys who put together a crack in the cosmic egg claim that yatha sidra's meditation mass is one of the greatest all time krautock albums

... which is a ridiculous claim. Occasional flashes of brilliance from various bands on here but nothing startling. Haven't heard Günter Schickert though. Agitation Free best band on here, though I don't like their 2nd album much.

Did Eloy move through a bunch of different styles? I see a lot of their records around for reasonably cheap, but something about the artwork rings warning bells. Particularly 'Performance'. Even though I do kinda like the artwork.

First couple of albums (Eloy, Inside, maybe Floating too) are pretty good krauty-hard-prog, after that they turned into an inept Floyd rip-off with REALLY bad vocals. Although there were some awesomely stupid spoken word sections by drummer Jurgen Rosenthal ("shpiwitsch...darken zer skyyyy") plus a load of rototom rolls all over the place. God I loved this band when I was about 14, but really they were terrible. They went more synthy into the 80s, a period notable only for them scoring possibly the worst film ever (Codename : Wildgeese).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

saying there's nothing startling on that list is a lot more ridiculous than this: MEDITATION MASS is actually one of the most magical albums ever made, a single cosmic suite, with ethnic and jazzy touches, pure cosmic Krautrock which really trips-out. I've often quoted it as my favourite all-time album, due to its uniqueness, that it has never dated, and is so charged. Few albums hold that same quality.

eloy have a track that made it to the Elaste - Slow Motion Disco comp

horizons

I went German Oak for the simple reason that it's the only thing on this list I actually own. Must do further research...

Nice pic up there. Were they waiting for someone to come back from the Cafe with the ice creams?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

people of ILX in right-about-something shockah

i am surprised dom did so well and german oak so poorly.

Gila deserved more votes

Sperrmüll
Satin Whale

You forgot Dzyan. So do most people.

maybe they were on the RYM list the OP mentioned. i don't know which on that'd be, but...

which ONE

(i like dzyan)

I might just have voted for Dzyan!

A friend just slipped me the first Bröselmaschine album, and it's kind of hitting the spot. Kind of a mix of the quietest parts of "Stairway to Heaven" and Fairport Convention. I could probably have this on a loop in the background all day and never mind it playing once (afraid it might all crash to the ground in pieces if I paid it close attention, though).

Didn't vote, but the only one I've heard of is Eloy. They would become rather OK from the mid 70s onwards.

ok this is amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9sscVftmDU

Going through a heavy Hölderlin's Traum phase atm

Anyone know much about Deuter? At what stage do his albums go bad? Maybe they're all good?

I don't know, I've got his 1st 2, but I don't think his 1st is very representative of his later work (I like the 2nd better anyway)

I have the first two too! Can't remember which is which though - is the second one the one with the birdsong and stuff on it?

Good grief, there's some hideous artwork on the latter albums.

First ("D") is more Krautrocky, I suppose, 2nd ("Aum") more acoustic/ ethnic. Later I think he went all New Age, but that's sort of hip now isn't?

Talking of which, and Also-Rans, there's always Between/Peter Michael Hamel.

I like what Hamel I've heard a lot - cool trance-inducing stuff. But very hard to find. Someone needs to be cool and reissue it.

Anyone know much about Deuter? At what stage do his albums go bad? Maybe they're all good?

"D" is pretty cool and definitely Krautrock, he gets more and more new age as time goes on. But if you don't mind that he's pretty good through the seventies. Even the 1981 release, Silence Is The Answer, is pretty cool. But it's not super plastic, clean 80s-style new age stuff, just peaceful jams from a Bhagwan-lovin' beard farmer.

i only have Ecstasy from 1979 and in my head it nestles in amongst the Ashra stuff from the same period

I don't know why I keep Embryo albums. On paper, I should like them as much as the other krautrock stuff I love, but the only albums of theirs I ever liked were the ones that are now impossible to find: the jazzier ones with Charlie Mariano. I always return to the others hoping they will click but they never do. Opal is supposed to be the classic, right? Every time I try to listen to it, within ten minutes I forget that it's playing.

"Opal" is the most "rock" one, I suppose. Wouldn't call it a classic, personally.

Yeah, that sounds right. The others I've heard touch on that sort of "ethno-world-fusion" stuff I also can't really deal with in these contexts. I wish someone would reissue the ones with Charlie Mariano, because, as I said, I remember enjoying those. I wonder how the No Neck Blues Band collaboration sounds.

Night Sun not really Krautrock, but a fucking great heavy rock album. I'm not super big into that genre as a whole but damn if Conny Plank's production doesn't elevate it to a whole nother level.

I bought the first two Agitation Free albums last year and they deserved to win this poll, great stuff.

I never noticed Grobschnitt on that list! I might have voted for them - a lot of filler/blandola in their catalog, but "Solar Music Live" at least is excellent & ludicrously overblown.

Too scared to listen to their other stuff but "Solar Music Live" is indeed pretty cool, very very very Floydian. Eroc is a great drummer too... and his first solo album is pretty good into the bargain.

I don't love the first two Agitation Free records, but I agree that they belong (somewhere towards the bottom) on the "real Krautrock" list rather than at the top of the also-rans. They're sort of a hybrid of a lot of the jam-oriented German bands without a particularly strong identity.

Otherwise I've only heard Eloy from this list, and they're pretty ridiculous symphonic prog.

That Dom album is pretty good.