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Krautrock - A Beginner's Guide

xorn [Edit] [Delete] 14 replies 23:00 March 26th, 2009

I've recently really been enjoying the latest Portishead album, the Eine Kleine Nacht Musik album and that new Horrors single which are all apparently influenced by Krautrock. Can anyone recommend me some classic krautrock albums to help explore a bit further?

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Neu! - Neu! and Neu!'75
Can - Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi
Harmonia - Musik von Harmonia
Faust - Faust, Faust So Far, Faust IV

charliepanayi | 26 Mar '09, 23:04 | X | ^ This | Reply
Have a read of this

http://www.midsuffolk.unisonplus.net/Top%2050.htm
It covers all the bases.
I'd suggest that Faust IV is a pretty good place to start with Krautrock.

JGJug | 26 Mar '09, 23:09 | X | ^ This | Reply
List Time

I'd start with Ege Bamyasi or Tago Mago by Can or Neu! by Neu!

After that it depends really if you are interested more in the early electronic, synth based stuff or the more conventional guitar stuff.
Anyway a list or classic albums, probably a bit similar to Julian Copes in Krautrocksampler, in fact try to get hold of that:

Anything by Can until Soon over Babaluma
Every other Neu album
Every Faust album (start with So Far or the S/T)
Every Harmonia album
Cluster I or Zuckerzeit
Anything by Ash Ra Tempel (start with the S/T or Schwingungen, probably my favourite Krautrock band but not the best band to start with)
Yeti or Phallus Dei by Amon Duul 2
Kanguru by Guru Guru
In den Gärten Pharaos by Popol Vuh
The first 2 Kraftwerk albums which are Krautrock, after that they move away from Krautrock but are obviously still pretty ace.

tom_from_sparks | 26 Mar '09, 23:12 | X | ^ This | Reply
Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

More electronicy than the albums listed above, which are more rock, but certainly important and worth listening.

Here's a spotify playlist of more rocky krautrock from a thread i did a few day ago, some good places to start here. http://open.spotify.com/user/posthuman_1000/playlist/33Ro3UTEN1TZxj000MZPGb

theseabass | 26 Mar '09, 23:13 | X | ^ This | Reply
- contrary to popular belief
  
  there is no such genre in the sense of any obvious musical characteristic connecting the music that is often described as 'krautrock'. If you're just looking for cool West German rock or electronic music from the 60's/70's however....
  
  Night Sun - Mournin' is a fucking cool heavy album from '72 I think.
  
  Guru Guru knocked out three excellent albums (UFO, Hinten, and KanGuru) before going a bit crap. Hinten is my favourite.
  
  Can and Neu! get most of the praise and I think the sound of Neu! is what most people associate with the word 'Krautrock'.
  
  Can were great up until 1974 or so. Keep an eye for live bootlegs from the early '70's cos they were fucking sick around then. Neu's self-titled debut and third album (75) are both beautiful.
  
  Cluster and Harmonia both made great albums as did Popol Vuh, Agitation Free, Amon Duul I and II, Faust, Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, La Dusseldorf, Tangerine Dream, Cluster (and briefly, Kluster!) as well as Kraftwerk who you probably know already.
  
  The Cosmic Courier supergroup albums featuring dub cut-up's of Ash Ra Tempel, Sergius Golowin and various other dudes jam sessions often nicked from other LP's are also all essential!
  
  Here's my personal top ten West German LP's of the 60's and 70's and I would totally recommend as good a starting place as any! Enjoy!
  
  1. Cosmic Jokers w/ Gilles aka Sternmadchen - Gilles Zeitschiff
  2. Amon Duul II - Phallus Dei
  3. Faust - s/t
  4. Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen
  5. Neu! - Neu!
  6. Cluster - Sowiesoso
  7. Night Sun - Mournin'
  8. Hairy Chapter - Can't Get Through
  9. Guru Guru - Hinten
  10. Tangerine Dream - Zeit
  
  HurricaneTommy @theseabass | 27 Mar '09, 00:03 | X | ^ This | Reply
- listening now to your playlist...
  
  wow! this is really amazing
  
  xorn @theseabass | 27 Mar '09, 08:56 | X | ^ This | Reply
i've got a lot of shopping to do!

the point about krautrock not existing is interesting, i've been told that in Germany the term 'krautrock' doesn't exist and could possibly be offensive. The music we refer to as 'Krautrock' is often called 'cosmic rock', which sounds a bit silly...i'm not sure if this is true.

really appreciate these recommendations and will definitely explore further.

xorn | 27 Mar '09, 07:21 | X | ^ This | Reply
- Glad you liked the playlist
  
  feel free to add to it. Krautrock is indeed a clumsy definition, it's about as useful a definition of genre as 'world music' is, it doesn't really have any meaning other than 'music from Germany'. The main thing, to my mind, that the term 'Krautrock' connotes is the uses of the 'motorik' 4/4 rhythm, which is common, but by no means universal.
  
  theseabass @xorn | 27 Mar '09, 11:27 | X | ^ This | Reply
  - i dunno
    
    this is Klaus Dinger's thing...that motorik beat he sort of invented with Neu! and then took it to the power of 10 with La Dusseldorf. I've heard more recent drummers use it, most notably Andy from Stereolab, as well as Josh Homme reference it on the first QOTSA album but generally as far as the 70's stuff goes, that was Klaus Dinger's trip.
    
    HurricaneTommy @theseabass | 27 Mar '09, 11:53 | X | ^ This | Reply
    - this ^
      
      when people describe something as "krautrocky" these days, they normally mean motorik, but you don't hear it in 60s/70s Krautrock too much outside of Neu/La Dusseldorf (there are exceptions - "Krautrock" by Faust and Can's "Oh Yeah" are both pretty motorik).
      
      S'funny, though, cos when I first became aware of krautrock through bands referencing it in the 90s, it seemed to be that Can were far more influential on things than Neu.
      
      Battlecat @HurricaneTommy | 27 Mar '09, 12:00 | X | ^ This | Reply
    - Ah, ok
      
      so I was wrong. Motorik is what I think of when I hear the term Krautrock, but that is presumably something which has been attached to the meaning of the term later on due to the prominence and influence of Neu and Can. Would I be off the mark to assume that?
      
      theseabass @HurricaneTommy | 27 Mar '09, 12:11 | X | ^ This | Reply
      - no, not really
        
        I'm fairly certain the term was first used by lazy British journalists to group Amon Duul, Can, Faust etc; into a little fake genre and I've noticed the term has been used over the years usually to describe contemporary music that's quite repetitive and groove-based and seems to be influenced by Neu! or Can.
        
        HurricaneTommy @theseabass | 27 Mar '09, 12:23 | X | ^ This | Reply
tom_from_sparks pretty much nails it above

though I'd pick UFO over Kanguru for a Guru Guru album. If you want a really brief intro, I'd suggest these 3:
Neu - Neu
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Faust - Faust IV

Also, no-one has mentioned the rather wonderful "Paradieswarts Duul" by Amon Duul (i.e. the original Amon Duul, not Amon Duul 2). Most of their other stuff consists of near-unlistenable chaotic jams, but this is some truly lovely mellow pastoral psychedelia. One of my favourite hangover albums.

Battlecat | 27 Mar '09, 10:36 | X | ^ This | Reply
- Yeti by Amon Duul II as well plzzzz
  
  to the list of awesomeness
  
  i love the cosmiche musik eeeee
  
  RockNRollMassacre @Battlecat | 27 Mar '09, 12:40 | X | ^ This | Reply