Krautrock!!

[Matt Till]

... crazy Germans....


Anyways, I picked up this DVD at Media Play for a fraction of the price due to Media play going out of business. And I gotta say, it was awesome and sad at the same time.

Krautrock is basically German progressive rock... and yet some of the bands just weren't that great.

Guru Guru stole the show, without a doubt. Crazy stage antics and great songs to boot. Then the Amon Duul II perfomance is what had me confused...

Did the 80s take their toll on some of these bands?

I ask this because... Amon Duul II is one of my favorite prog bands, and all I really have is Yeti. Amon's performance on this DVD contained two awesome spaced out jams... and the rest... pretty terrible, is this "newer" material.

I'd argue that the 80s is what killed prog. It turned Rush into synth crap (sorry, IMO), Genesis from being one of the best prog bands into a pop joke, Yes into... Owner of a Lonely Heart.... and a lot of prog bands just fizzled out. In order to survive, these bands turned into what I'd consider crap... good crap, but crap none the less... shadows of their former selves.

So my question, the following is a list of the bands, let me know if you know any of them, and your favorite albums from them. A lot of the bands sounded like cheesy English "cock rock" bands. I got a Spinal Tap vibe more than a few times

Kathargo
Guru Guru - I gotta get some Guru!!
Peter Panka's JANE
Epitaph
Amon Düül II - Greatest Krautrockers ever!! Sorry Can
Birth Control

[brianrost]

None of those bands are what most people think of as "Krautrock" outside of Guru Guru and Amon Duul II. The "big" names of Krautrock were Can, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Popol Vuh and Faust.

The term "Krautrock" was invented by music writers in the USA and UK. Other than being from Germany and primarily recording for the UA and Virgin labels the bands had little in common.

TD was perhaps the closest to UK prog bands but they weren't very interested in "rock" since they seldom used drums. TD and Kraftwerk's use of sequencing had a massive influence on modern dance music (Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express" was much sampled by early hiphoppers). Latter day TD and Popol Vuh is very much in the "new age" arena.

Can is much better known today than when they were active because like the Velvet Undergound they influenced a lot of modern bands. Another thing they share with the VU (and Frank Zappa) is adaptation of avant garde musical techniques to rock music...two of the band members worked with German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Amon Duul II in their early days were similar to early Pink Floyd or Hawkwind. "Tanz Der Lemminge" is recommended to those who love "Ummagumma" and "Space Ritual" but their later period albums like "Hijack" are quite pedestrian and boring mainstream rock.

[Matt Till]

Thanks for the post Brian, that cleared pretty much everything up for me. Even during the interviews a lot of the bands said, "We don't consider ourselves KrautRock."

The interviews were pretty awesome actually and made the disc worthwhile to me. It gave me an insight to German music. It also explained something I asked in an earlier thread, "Why conform your musical language to English." They said more than anything it had to do with phrasing... which makes a lot of sense. A lot of the bands said they tried German, but since the music they based off was English/American... it sounded awkward.

I figured Amon Duul II "sold out" because some of those songs were just... really awful. All in all, for the good songs, the disc is worth it for any fans.

[page]

Faust!!! I resurrected this thread because I just finished listening to Faust/Faust so far.HOLYSONOFAKRAUTROCKINGBEEOTCH!!!!!

Very evil and mystical type stuff. They made industrial rock and post rock and even predated Radiohead on this stuff! Great band that I'm definitely gonna dig more into.

Also Props to Amon Duul II's Yeti and CAN's Tago Mago , both great albums.

Im gonna dig into mor CAN and maybe Amon Duul ( not II, the first one) and probably Guru Guru.

Suggestions would be good.

[page]

Also gotta add Julian Cope. Not really German, but he really digs Krautrock , and has written on it and could fit into the style himself. His solo stuff is real weird and spacey. His band The Teardrop Explodes is like crazy devo/Adrian Belew stuff with dueling trumpets . I haven't checked out his other two bands Brain Donor and Crucial Three yet but certainly will.

[DiG]

Faust is AMAZING
I absolutely love them
So creative and out there
Totally unique

[MysticMichael]

One pleasant discovery for me has been Kraan (http://www.kraan.de/). I heard them perform a few years ago at the ProgDay festival in North Carolina (http://www.progday.com/), and liked them a lot. I wouldn't say they're very psychedelic, but they're good, tasteful players who can cover a variety of styles. And the best part: their leader, Hellmut Hattler, is a bass player!

MM

[Syeknom]

I'm an absolutely HUGE fan of Krautrock, bands like Neu!, Can, Cluster, German Oak, etc. It's so easy to get lost in the hypnotic grooves for ages and ages.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by brianrost

Can is much better known today than when they were active because like the Velvet Undergound they influenced a lot of modern bands. Another thing they share with the VU (and Frank Zappa) is adaptation of avant garde musical techniques to rock music...two of the band members worked with German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Can were pretty well known in England - I bought "Soon Over Babaluma" in 1974 , when it received a tremendously positive review in "New Musical Express" - it was one of my favourite albums of the time and I went back and explored all their back catalogue - like "Future Days".

Can actually had a hit single in Britain and were on Top of the Pops UK TV - with "I Want More" from the album "Flow Motion" !!!

But Prog Rock was killed off in Britain by the Punk Movement from '76/77 onwards!

[Bruce Lindfield]

This thread inspired me to look up the Can TV appearances and I found there is a DVD which includes these, as well as live concert footage !! I just ordered a copy from Amazon!

Ahhh....Nostalgia!!

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

This thread inspired me to look up the Can TV appearances and I found there is a DVD which includes these, as well as live concert footage !! I just ordered a copy from Amazon!

Ahhh....Nostalgia!!

Well, I'm sure this will be included, but:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvkIi...n%20Paperhouse

That's Can on Beat Club. Their bassist has the strangest technique, and the singer does this awesome dance during the instrumental stretch. Makes me long for the days when looks weren't everything. But a very awesome performance of a very awesome song.


My Current favorite Krautsong: "Meadow Meal" by Faust. Unreal... completely unreal.

[courderoy guy]

I am on a huge CAN kick right now since they've been releasing the remastered CD-SACD versions of their albums. They sound so much better than the first round of CD's and maybe even sound better than some of the vinyl i've heard (sacrilige, i know...)

TO THE GUY WHO ORDERED THE CAN DVD: You will not be disappointed, although you might wish there was a little more raw footage in it. Great stuff though. I had always heard that Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi were the only "good" CAN albums. Stupid me for listening to that person. Even the disco track wasn't all that bad!

Let me give you my two cents on the order to get introduced to CAN:

1. Tago Mago - if you can't handle this disc then CAN probably isn't for you.
2. Unlimited Edition - great overview of their stuff
3. Future Days - Mellow and funky
4. Soundtracks - great psychedelia
5. Ege Bamyasi - More "standard" rock stuff than many of their other albums and also fairly accesible but also great.
6. Soon Over Babaluma - Great second-period album of the band and shows they didn't totally need Damo Suzuki
7. The rest............

[courderoy guy]

Oh, and thanks to the above poster who provided the link to the video. AWESOME!!! more, please...

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by courderoy guy

Oh, and thanks to the above poster who provided the link to the video. AWESOME!!! more, please...

only can vid I could find, but if you search www.youtube.com for "Beat Club" you can find a bunch of awesome Beat Club performances, featuring tons of prog/psych type bands.

[page]

I just picked up Faust's collaboration with the avant hip hoppers Dalek



Awesome .

[Matt Till]

Whoa! That has to be insane!

[page]

Imagine From the Tongues of Gods and Griots , that style mixed with King Crimson & Amon Duul II on a deadly combination of Heroin and Moose Blood with the bong that belongs to the guys from Acid Mothers Temple.



It's a trippy, evil , industrial storm .......with soul power!

[Matt Till]

My brain threw up reading that... but then it started rolling around in the vomit and then it put on a cape and played a Rick Wakemen esque keyboard solo.

[page]

Originally Posted by Matt Till

My brain threw up reading that... but then it started rolling around in the vomit and then it put on a cape and played a Rick Wakemen esque keyboard solo.

It's only Rick Wakeman esque if your brain knocked out a couple bottles of JD first.

[Matt Till]

Bump... because as of late, Krautrock is almost all I listen to:


German Oak
Faust
Drum Circus
Ash Ra Tempel
Amon Duul I and II
Can
Cluster
Faust
Tangerine Dream
Faust
Neu!
Early Kraftwerk
Faust
Faust
Sand
Popul Vuh
Xhol Caravan
and of course, Faust


Honestly, when people refer to The Doors and Jefferson Airplane as "trippy" I can't help but scoff. I can appreciate the Haight Ashbury scene and it's influence and ideals to some extent. But Krautrock when done right, is psych rock taken to extremes.

That DVD I got is a joke, it's kind of doomed from the start. It lacks the tonality of krautrock that makes it great. They were all playing through modern, toned down gear, and a few of the bands admitted to not having played in years. I'd avoid the DVD I mentioned at the beginning of this thread.