The Krautrock appreciation thread

 

Please ignore those ratings ... those two albums of Tangerine Dream's have absolutely nothing to do with rock music ... at all! Or Progressive music whatsoever!

 

 

 

Based on the time frame and school of music I would listen to Nektar ... their early stuff is very good, and although "Sounds Like This" is not usually a selection that is mentioned as "prog" but it does show very clearly how popular music injected/impressed Nektar and how they ended up creating their own ... and I happen to like their long cuts in there as well.

 

Can ... better heard in sequence as it shows the band and its progress and changes ... start with Tago Mago, then Ege Bamyasi, then Future Days and then Soon Over Babbalooma ...  as much as I love those 4 albums, the next one is even more important ... as it shows how the band really went far out and experimental back to the early days with really far out and way off left field stuff that has more in common with Tago Mago (not the music/ears - but the experimentation) than otherwise ... but it is an album that few people can relate to ... it is weird, and funny and off the wall ... and so progressive that folks here can't handle it! It's kinda like heaing Gentle Giant the first time ... you go ... what is this?

 

Brainticket ... Cottonwood Hill was their first and it still is the weirdest and most fun to listen to ... I loved Celestial Ocean and still have the poster on my wall!

 

Ashra Tempel ... Join Inn is a really fine listen if you have the patience and care to close your eyes and just enjoy something in the dark. Janseits is really nice. Join Inn is better and the girl's seductive voice, considering I do not knwo what she is saying ... is a really soothing and relaxing meditation ... if you are expecting some prog bullpucky rock ... do not get this one ... this is two long cuts and a tripper's delight ... and most prog'rs (specially in this board) are not trippers at all!!!!!!!!

 

Popol Vuh is what New Age should have been but were afraid to be as far as I am concerned. Way more spiritual than the crystal bs that ended up in America as a commercial venture. Appreciate it for its beauty and definitly catch the Werner Herzog films with this music .... specially Aguirre and Heart of Glass and Nosferatu.  Herzog does know how to use the music and some of the subtle accoustic stuff on the album is in Aguirre and really effective and makes it seem scary and different ... really well done -- and the music is ... better! But the film is really good.

 

The others I do not feel qualified in discussing as I have not given them a fair listen. Except Agitation Free, but I prefer not to discuss that one at all ... at this time -- until I double check some more information on it. To me this is not Krautrock ... this is a serious attempt at mixing rock with eastern music via electronic instruments ... and as such fits better in the experimental areas than it does "krautrock" ... this is not a "rock band' per se ... as they were testing out other musical factors as well. No one can miss the eastern influences and obvious examples and how it was used in these albums -- with electronic instruments mixing in with traditional instruments. Much of the expanding of a note or wave with the synthesizer has a lot more to do with eastern concepts of meditation and "raga" than it does any western musical concept at all, and this we're not all willing to discuss or compare notes on. It is a very difficult topic to discuss. Agitation Free was not the only band that did this and they had an off shoot if I remember correctly ... Dissidenten. Which continued the eastern influence and style and also had electronics.

 

I would still get Guru Guru's first 4 albums (listen to them in that order) all the way to Tango Fango and even Dance of the Flames ... and it is really important that you realize how political "Das Liebe von Radio" (spelling) is specially in that time when Berlin was still split and East Germany was forbidden a lot of the western music ... I really think that these first 4 albums by GuruGuru are massive and a must in anybody's "kruatrock" collection ... in my mind they are much more kruatrock than we give them credit for ... I tend to not consider Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel krautrock at all ... and Brainticket is of Swiss origin I think, and it fits more into the experimental area than it does in krautrock ... at least it's a much better description of their work.

 

I do hope that you have Amonduuled yourself ... krautrock is not complete if you do not have Yeti, Dance of the Lemmings, Carnival in Babylon and Wolf City ... and if you can handle it Vive La Trance ... as the song "Apocalyptic Bore" is the end of the "definition" of krautrock ... it says it all ...  (and after you play this song you gotta get yourself a copy of the title song of Scorpions "Fly To The Rainbow" album ... they wrote the song pro=fun and drugs, right after AD2 had said goodbye to all that stuff...)

 

When you hear and realize that Ege Bamyasi, Wold City, A Tab in the Ocean, Atem pretty much came out at the same time ... (2 of these the same week!) ... you can imagine how some of us felt then ... we died and went to heaven!

 

 

 

 

Their debut is somewhat disturbing. I love it too!

 

They are definitely more in RIO terretory than other Kraut groups though. They even toured with Henry Cow back in the day although some years before the RIO name was coined.