KRAUTROCK VIA BBC
I came across a rad BBC documentary about Krautrock when looking for a beloved old Neu song on YouTube, which I highly suggest you check out. Roughly an hour long, this retrospective look at a rich creative scene in the past has many endearing bits about partnerships between individuals as it is informative about the bands' work. After viewing I have a somewhat different understanding about some artists that I've long been familiar with. To have listened to Cluster's Zuckerzeit for over a decade and know their connection to Brian Eno via After the Heat LP... our English culture emphasis has long upheld Eno as a "founder" of ambient music but we have not really thought about the influence Krautrock may have had on him.
Was David Bowie's Low just a pop appropriation of Krautrock that had happened in the years before? His Berlin trilogy is well known, maybe more so than the inspirational musicians who influenced him to make these records in the first place. The documentary emphasizes some bitterness German musicians felt knowing they did it first but these British powerhouses with press were taking the credit. (Of course, Eno and Bowie weren't available for comment though there's some nicely eloquent interjections from Iggy Pop who spent time with Bowie in Berlin.) Apart from these German musician's influence, not only are the bands surrounding the Krautrock scene badass, Krautrock is a particularly interesting genre due to the circumstances the young musicians at the time faced: growing up post-WWII in a country where the Nazi past was often hidden from (or completely supported) by their parents, the divide between West and East Germany, craving to set themselves apart from English/American music during this time frame of experimental freedom.
Krautrock (termed by the English media) of course had roots in subculture from the '60s. German "hippies" were somewhat different than other flower children around the world despite the major similarities of experimental music making, drugs, art and "free love". American hippies were more rock'n'roll based (Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead) and British hippies seemed to extend more from Beatles on LSD pop music (following a lot of cutesy fantastical folk acoustic/bongo boys, Donovan and pre-glam T. Rex known at the time as Tyrannosaurus Rex). Germany embraced a different sound, a sort of calm intensity, incredibly meditative, perhaps focused on recreating elemental natures (as psychedelic music tends to do) but full of monotonous beats. The most important thing to note about German experimental music in the late '60s and early '70s is there was a major presence of synthesizer.
Was David Bowie's Low just a pop appropriation of Krautrock that had happened in the years before? His Berlin trilogy is well known, maybe more so than the inspirational musicians who influenced him to make these records in the first place. The documentary emphasizes some bitterness German musicians felt knowing they did it first but these British powerhouses with press were taking the credit. (Of course, Eno and Bowie weren't available for comment though there's some nicely eloquent interjections from Iggy Pop who spent time with Bowie in Berlin.) Apart from these German musician's influence, not only are the bands surrounding the Krautrock scene badass, Krautrock is a particularly interesting genre due to the circumstances the young musicians at the time faced: growing up post-WWII in a country where the Nazi past was often hidden from (or completely supported) by their parents, the divide between West and East Germany, craving to set themselves apart from English/American music during this time frame of experimental freedom.
Krautrock (termed by the English media) of course had roots in subculture from the '60s. German "hippies" were somewhat different than other flower children around the world despite the major similarities of experimental music making, drugs, art and "free love". American hippies were more rock'n'roll based (Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead) and British hippies seemed to extend more from Beatles on LSD pop music (following a lot of cutesy fantastical folk acoustic/bongo boys, Donovan and pre-glam T. Rex known at the time as Tyrannosaurus Rex). Germany embraced a different sound, a sort of calm intensity, incredibly meditative, perhaps focused on recreating elemental natures (as psychedelic music tends to do) but full of monotonous beats. The most important thing to note about German experimental music in the late '60s and early '70s is there was a major presence of synthesizer.
AMON DUUL II
The original Amon Duul was an art commune. Amon Duul II is a musical extension of that - performance artsy fartsy and all. They are one of the first late '60s bands to have encompassed some of the beginning sounds of the genre.
CLUSTER
Cluster is AMAZING. They are super wonderful synth engineers - beautiful sounds and mood changing sweeps of symphonies. Harmonia, a side project, is also mentioned in the documentary. Boards of Canada seem to be highly influenced by these guys.
TANGERINE DREAM
TANGERINE DREAM
Tangerine Dream is purely instrumental and similar to Cluster in many ways - very ethereal with lots of syncopation. They had a very lucrative career in the '80s and went on to do some really amazing soundtracks (including music my childhood fav, Ridley Scott's Legend, and another "starring Tom Cruise" flick, Risky Business, which completely changed the tone of the films, if not improved them).
CAN
Not your typical hippie dudes, Can stands for Communism-Anarchy-Nihilism. Great 7 minute long jams, somewhat dancey at times regardless of common rock'n'roll grooves in true '70s psychedelic fashion. Put a stoned Asian dude as the front man with a voice that goes from sweet soft whispers to howling yelps, you have a cartoonishly weird '70s gem. Semi-funky but spaced out to the max.
NEU!
Two dudes who split from the early flute playing days of Kraftwerk, Neu! is somewhat post-punky sounding at times but before post-punk even began. It's like they could read the future or were the future or something magickal like that but more a spaceship-from-the-forest sort of future. Said to have invented the "Motorik" beat. They had a re-emergence in the early 2000s; there is even a Neu! homage record.
FAUST
I know very little about Faust - oops.
KRAFTWERK
Kraftwerk touches on the "music worker" idealogy more than any other group. Musicians in lab coats but now mixed with industry and back to the uniform and less of the mad whimsical scientist. I feel like their uniformity in aesthetic definitely had a somewhat nationalistic vibe now transformed into the scientist or the business man yet their music is not aggressive or unpleasant. Music nationalism has come full circle but in the pre-New Wave form? Not really but Kraftwerk at least put Germany on the global map with their insanely catchy electronic genius. Computer Love remains one of the best electronic records ever. They probably should have sued Coldplay for stealing their shit.
LINKS:
Kraftwerk touches on the "music worker" idealogy more than any other group. Musicians in lab coats but now mixed with industry and back to the uniform and less of the mad whimsical scientist. I feel like their uniformity in aesthetic definitely had a somewhat nationalistic vibe now transformed into the scientist or the business man yet their music is not aggressive or unpleasant. Music nationalism has come full circle but in the pre-New Wave form? Not really but Kraftwerk at least put Germany on the global map with their insanely catchy electronic genius. Computer Love remains one of the best electronic records ever. They probably should have sued Coldplay for stealing their shit.
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