POX: Krautrock

Can Soundtracks
Can Ege Bamyasi
Can Future Days
Cluster Sowieso
Cosmic Jokers Cosmic Jokers
Faust So Far
Faust IV
Harmonia Music Von Harmonium
Tangerine Dream Electronic Meditation
Tangerine Dream Atem

amon duul II - yeti (duh)
dom - s/t aka edge of time
can - soundtracks
agitation free - malesch
brainticket - s/t aka cottonwoodhill
conrad schnitlzer - rot
achim reichel & machines - echo
silberbart - 4 times sound razing
sand - golem
popol vuh - anything after affenstunde, before the 80s

haha xposts with God Punch...

richard wahnfried - time actor
reinhard lakomy - das geheime leben/electonics
harald grosskopf - synthesist
manuel göttsching - e2e4
michael rother - flammende herzen
lilienthal - lilienthal
din a testbild - programm 1
la düsseldorf - düsseldorf
can - 1973-75 - the peel sessions
günther schickert - samtvogel

(That motorik beat, forever and ever)

Popol Vuh - Aguirre Wrath of God

(Epic hippied out soundtrack)

Harmonia - Music Von Harmonia
Cluster - Zuckeriest

Bloopy circular keyboard riffs

Can - Tago Mago
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Can - Future Days

Their best three albums (ducks flames), the masters of the genre?

Kraftwerk - Organization

When they were still a bit 'rock' before they became their own genre, in which case go directly to 'Autobahn'

Faust - BBC Sessions

An excellent sampling of these heavy duty dudes at the peak of their powers.

faust - so far
ash ra tempel - join inn
agitation free - malesch
amon duul - psychedelic underground
popol vuh - bruder des schattens sohne des lichts
can - tago mago
witthuser & westrupp - trips und traume
kalacakra - crawling to lhasa
xhol caravan - hau-ruk
kraftwerk - ralf & florian

Except German Oak.

naah!...

Can - Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, Soon Over Babaluma
Faust - Tapes, IV
Guru Guru - Kanguru
Harmonia - Deluxe
Ash Ra/Gottsching - Inventions for Electric Guitar
Cluster - II, Zuckerzeit

I think the latter day Can albums are probably a *little* bit underrated, tho Flow Motion is actually the best imo. There are parts of Saw Delight and Can that I like, but there are also some pretty boring, skippable parts. The reunion album is very strange, because the production completely turns me off, but the actual quality of the material isn't bad -- probably as good as any of the other latter day Can records anyway.

I feel exactly the same - its a shame they went for that awful sound, but most of the songs are quite good though.

xhol caravn - electrip
floh de cologne - fleissbandbaby beatshow

also, are kraan anygood? and what about those arktis reissues that have popped up? and dies irae? i think they're all produced by conny plank.

well, yeah. truth be told i'm tired of recommending the same 10 albums over and over and this thread seemed to be more about whatever people felt like mentioning, not whatever was more canonical.

though i would also say cluster and TD aren't exactly the best introductions to krautrock either. kosmische, suckers.

exactly - soundwise Rite Time was just a step further in a direction that I don't like that much: that said, there are great songs on the lp. I guess I would have preferred a slightly rawer approach.

Amon Duul II's 'Yeti' is essential, and La Dusseldorf should get more props, 'La Dusseldorf' is one of the best records ever of any genre.

And 'Cottonwoodhill' by Brainticket is brutally brilliant. Vandroogenbroek is a fearsome bandleader.

also, are kraan anygood?

No

the unfortunate thing about "krautrock" as a label is it excludes EVERY COUNTRY THAT ISN'T FUCKING GERMANY. so these krautrock discussions put people on a rail and similar bands from other countries just go by the wayside.

And these are all quite obvious, but great.

Can 'Future Days' 'Haleluwah''You Doo Right' 'Mother Sky'
Faust 'Krautrock'
Amon Duul II 'Archangel Thunderbird'
Neu 'Hallogallo' 'Leb Wohl'
Manuel Göttsching 'E2-E4' (counts as a track, yeah?)
Tangerine Dream, 'Rubycon' (side 1).

The first time I heard/saw La Dusseldorf was on some cheap bootleg DVD that had videos from Can, Kraftwerk, La Dusseldorf, Popul Vuh, and Klaus Dolinger's Passport. The La Dusseldorf video, for "Viva", is really strange. It's three guys standing in some fake arctic set, with random cuts to these three coked-out women waving their arms in front of neon lights, some guy in a bull costume clapping his hands over his head while staring at his feet. The drummer plays standing up, the guy on the left plays a gigantic keytar, and the guy on the right wears sunglasses. It also randomly cuts to scenes from some German comedy that I can't understand, for obvious reasons. The song itself is just as bizarre. It's an anthem for the 69th dimension.

Damn, sorry. This video rules though.

I disagree with this re: Kraan. Really only Krautrock by virtue of home country and era, and not the same as Tago Mago or Yeti AT ALL, but if you like the space/jazz/rock of, say Shamal-era Gong, they're worth a search.

You see, I grew up thinking the motorik/kosmisch stuff was Krautrock, I didn't really know that much about the other stuff, tho I knew about Guru Guru and few other things, I just thought that was 70s hippy music like Gong or Hawkwind or something. But since "Krautrocksampler", that jammy freakout kinda stuff seems, if anything, to have become more associated with the term "Krautrock", as if something can't actually be called Krautrock if it doesn't have a ROCK element to it (so Kraftwerk are now out f'rinstance) - whereas I always thought about it the other way round, i.e. the less rock elements to it the more I thought of it as Krautrock! But, then it's just a silly made-up term anyway.

Amon Duul II - Wolf City
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Cluster - Zuckerzeit
Faust - So Far
Harmonia - Deluxe
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
La Dusseldorf - s/t
Neu! - '75
Popol Vuh - Bruder des Schattens, Sohne des Lichts
Tangerine Dream - Zeit

"Krautrocksampler" is entertaining, but at the same time a full-of-shit decal job - a (somewhat successful) attempt to rewrite history.

I Popol Vuh - "Dah Hohelied Salomos"
II Gila "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee"
III Amon Duul II "Yeti"
IV-X The remaining seven best picks from Popol Vuh's back catalog.

that could be etched on cope's tombstone one day.

BUmping this, really to show off cos I've managed to book Damo Suzuki backed by Drum Eyes to play in my sleepy little town in March and I'm well excited, but am conscious that Kraut's a big gap in my knowledge. I only have Tago Mago but can anyone give me a ten track idea for a comp to get into it?

it really depends if you are in the mood for somewhat shorter poppier tracks (which I would LOVE to see a top 10 for) or longer jammier krautrock (which is mostly everything)

heh "poppier" - opium poppies

I'll get you started on a non-annoying shorter poppier mix - because I would like to see what people would add
1. Can - Fall of Another Year

Regarding the previous quibbling over name, German Kosmische Music seems to work.

I listed my 80 faves - http://www.fastnbulbous.com/krautrocksampler.htm

Well as far as Damo is concerned, outside of Tago Mago, there's only Mother Sky and She Brings The Rain off the Soundtracks LP, and then the Ege Bamyasi and Future Days LPs.

still the most kraut groove ever

Marshall Gu's 33 1/3 Genre Krautrock book features a list of ten essential tracks:

"Paperhouse" Can
"Für Immer" NEU!
"Eye-Shaking King" Amon Düül II
"It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" Faust
"walky-talky" Harmonia
"Sowiesoso" Cluster
"Kyrie" Popol Vuh
"Phaedra" Tangerine Dream
"Sunrain" Ashra
"Autobahn" Kraftwerk

The three acts which did not make this list but that did have chapters in the book were Agitation Free, Guru Guru and Embryo, none of whom I would choose over the ten acts that are on the list.

I listened to this as a playlist, and it's a bit heavy on the electronic side with Amon Düül as the only song emphasizing the guitar jam aspect of the genre. The Faust song is also too much of a "novelty" for me, I might have included one of the two shorter pieces from the first album to show the range of their collage aesthetic.

I've heard good things about "Neu Klang," a krautrock oral history. Anyone read it?

That list is almost canonical. That being the case, I might've selected "Krautrock" for the Faust contribution

Xp

yeah same can't argue with anything there besides the Faust track

Many more interesting Harmonia tracks they could have picked; I'm no fan of Deluxe, doesn't have the magic the rest of their output has. More rock than Kraut. Walky's eastern inspired guitar riff nearly makes me eat my words, but then the B section of the song comes in with the boring climbing chord changes and elementary guitar riff tone. Keep chord changes out of krautrock!!!!!!!!

Sorry I really love Harmonia, I've just been forcing myself to try and like Deluxe for a like a month now based on my love for the rest of Cluster/Rother and I need an outlet for my dissapointment that it did not happen!

Really recommend "Tika-Taka at harmonia studio in Forst (1975)" from their Document-1975 release. Its like a music von harmonia version of walky talky and it is incredible.

Amon Düül as the only song emphasizing the guitar jam aspect of the genre.

Plenty of guitar on the Can track - though it's absolutely not the Can track I would have chosen.

"Deluxe" is great and the title track is pure genius.

Aw, I really like that Faust track.

But why you'd choose Eye-Shaking King over Archangels Thunderbird is a mystery to me! If we're talking canonical tracks rather than deep cuts

Thunderbird has an all-timer of a riff - nearly Zeppelin-esque - but Eye-Shaking King has this sort of off-kilter evilness to it that I think makes it really unique

I like the Faust track too but I always thought it was kind of a piss-take? like they were trying to make the dumbest pop song possible. I can't think of another thing that sounds quite like it, while "Krautrock" has had a number of imitators.

as for Harmonia I really love Walky-Talky, I agree it's not particularly innovative but it's got such great summertime vibes. the title track may be a better pick. or something like "Sonnenschein" or "Dino"

i like the Faust song on its merits, but also feel strongly that a list trying to capture the essence of krautrock would be incomplete without one token kinda-annoying semi-novelty song

I think "Rainy Day" gives more diversity to the list and is more representative of Faust's unique qualities. "Krautrock" (as good and classic as it is) would just be another motorik jam on a list that already has "Für Immer" on it.

xp

true but the megafuzz guitar and the way the drums don't enter until 6 minutes in I think makes it a bit more unique. it doesn't really have the clean feeling of Fur Immer, instead it demonstrates some of the wild directions you could take this kind of music. that said I might pick something from Side 2 of Faust IV instead - always thought "Psalter" (the one with the violins and that impossibly weird rhythm) was something only a band like Faust could produce

"J'ai mal aux dents" from The Faust Tapes would have done the trick. "It's a Rainy Day" works well enough though, I always thought it was their take on the Velvets.

speaking of which a label called Muenster Records just reissued Faust So Far on vinyl, seems like a big deal given the only other reissue is on the notoriously crappy 4 Men With Beards label, and I can confirm it sounds like garbage. have heard good things about this one though.

The annoying novelty song?

"The Sad Skinhead" ?

I've heard good things about "Neu Klang," a krautrock oral history. Anyone read it?

I enjoyed it a lot. It has the typical strengths and weaknesses of an oral history -- lets the participants tell their own stories, doesn't attempt to smooth out contradictions between accounts, but also doesn't fact-check or qualify some tall tales that sound as though they've been repeated and improved over many decades. It's good on German youth culture of the 50s and 60s, context that helps explain why krautrock evolved differently than rock in the US and UK. It doesn't replace other books on the subject but it's a great addition and one that needed to be made while participants were still around for interviews.

"Neu Klang, wenn sie noticen der stripen"

...

...

das tut mir leid

(would have picked "Jennifer" for Faust tbqh)

Keep chord changes out of krautrock!!!!!!!!

Since they'd already selected one-chord pieces by Harmonia's other projects, they may have been aiming for a bit of musical diversity.

Plenty of guitar on the Can track

Right, but I was thinking of the "Amboss" / "Journey Through a Burning Brain" kind of guitar freak-out that's an important part of the genre.