Krautrock

[ed miliband]

West Germany in the late 60s / early 70s produced some of the greatest music ever recorded. Without what is loosely labelled 'Krautrock' we perhaps wouldn't have popular electronic music, punk, post-punk or new wave (and countless other genres and scenes).

Neu! blow me away. The following track comes from 1972 and still sounds so fresh and modern. With other Krautrock acts it's easier to trace their influences, but Neu! sound so unique it's as if they were created in a musical vacuum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbAWBElA6dA

CAN are a lot more funky and warm; weed to Neu!'s speed. CAN stands for communism, anarchism, nihilism apparently, although I'm sure they were lifestylist hippies by our standards. Anyway, they were an unbelievably excellent band and it astonishes me that some of the funkiest music ever emerged from West Germany in the early 70s...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNvJiIvitBQ

Popol Vuh show yet another side to Krautrock - blissed out jams with some spiritual mumbo jumbo thrown in. They're probably best known for soundtracking a number of films by Werner Herzog (who is amazing, of course) and this is one such track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMvG9W1HASs

Some other bands worth mentioning...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDcvKyZqdyw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHOMO3iOSR4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yprybdd-LDE

There's a whole lot more.

Any fans?

[ulises]

I really love NEU!, just listening to NEU! 2 when i saw this thread and it's seriously brilliant. Some Krautrock is amazingly good but then it's saw a large style that you can't really generalise about. However, i must admit to disliking some of the more ambient or progressive-rock-stlyle tendencies as in Tangerine Dream.

While they moved beyond krautrock so don't strictly count Kraftwerk can't be praised enough, Trans-Europe Express and The Man Machine are, if anything, underrated and even Techno Pop is enjoyable.

so yeah, krautrock fur immer :thumbup1:

[palotin]

I'm curious about the politics of the groups themselves. A lot of it is pretty psychedelic or New Age oriented, which is fine. I still love the sound. But the focus is either almost exclusively hedonistic or a kind of ersatz mysticism that is equally unappealing. My German skills are paltry at this point, so it's hard from to tell just by listening to lyrics. Some of them must have been pretty left-wing. But in what a way and which groups, I do not know.

[pierrotlefou]

I'm curious about the politics of the groups themselves. A lot of it is pretty psychedelic or New Age oriented, which is fine. I still love the sound. But the focus is either almost exclusively hedonistic or a kind of ersatz mysticism that is equally unappealing. My German skills are paltry at this point, so it's hard from to tell just by listening to lyrics. Some of them must have been pretty left-wing. But in what a way and which groups, I do not know.
Can lived in a commune in east(i think) germany and were once visited by andreas baader and co so I hear.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5lwRjLd_4
cluster is another good one from that time.

[Communist]

Any fans?
Well I guess my username answers that question. :thumbup1:
Amon Düül was originally a commune, and the people were apparently into some kind of radical politics (among other things). Don't know or care much, I'm into music for the music. Krautrock certainly produced some great stuff. Birth Control, Faust, and of course Tangerine Dream stand out as well. Many great artists came out of that movement, although many of it's participants have said it wasn't a movement at all, just labeled one; and indeed many of the artists have nothing in common other than coming from Germany.

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