KRAUT ROCK PLAYLIST
CAN / FUTURE DAYS ( FUTURE DAYS 1973 )
Their 4th album, their last with shamanic singer Damo Suzuki &
the first Krautrock album that I ever bought & the perfect entry
point for the uninitiated. A psychedelic ambient atmosphere, repetitive
driving ethno based rhythm, widescreen instrumental interplay &
the lovely vocals of Suzuki combine into a summer pollenated dynamic
drift.
CAN / YOO DOO RIGHT (MONSTER MOVIE 1969)
Their bold debut featuring the confrontational deranged vocals of
black American singer Malcom Mooney whose personal problems caused
him to leave after this album, most notably on this improvised (or
instant composition) 20 minute track, edited down from it’s
original 6 hours with the band combining funk, garage & psychedelic
rock & jazz into a sonic stew years ahead of their international
contemporaries.
CAN / HALLELUJAH ( TAGO MAGO 1971)
From the sprawling groundbreaking vinyl double album that concentrated
& refined their experiments into group interplay & musical
conversation with Damo’s incantatory song/chants creating
an atmosphere of ritual & inner space explorations, culminating
in a massive song suite that peaks with this track.
TANGERINE DREAM / PHAEDRA / MOVEMENTS OF A VISIONARY
( PHAEDRA 1973 )
Band leader Edgar Froese’ fascination & innovation with
new instruments like the synthesizer & mellotron culminated
in this double album, the first to use sequencers, that gave them
a surprise UK chart hit with this eerily beautiful soundscape. They’ve
since released over 100 albums including many successful & lucrative
movie soundtracks.
KRAFTWERK / TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS ( TRANS EUROPE
EXPRESS 1977)
Their early albums featured free form flute driven jams until their
breakthrough with the electronic dominated vocoded vocal surprise
hit AUTOBAHN in 1974 with the alternately annoying & hypnotic
22 minute cybernetic Beach Boys title track edited down for airplay.
They then expanded & refined their musical & melodic pallette
upgraded the technology & produced this compelling motorik rhythm
driven musical mind journey across Europe. Their ultimate musical
masterpiece.
KRAFTWERK /SPACELAB ( THE MAN MACHINE 1978)
Their most diverse collection of pop ( The Model), techno ( Robots)
& synthetic spacescapes with a surprising European elegant melancholy
beauty, the mundane world could no longer contain their electronic
imaginations.
KRAFTWERK / DENTAKU ( COMPUTER WORLD 1981)
From outerspace to the inner workings of technology & micro
chips, they took their KlingKlang studio on tour ( including Australia)
& created a cool android attitude & droll humour that showed
up grimacing so called “ real” musicians as neurotic
misfits.
NEU / HALLAGALLO ( NEU! 1971)
Guitarist Michael Rother & Eno’s favourite drummer Klaus
Dinger deconstructed rock, avoiding verse/chorus structures, embraced
monotony as groove & harmonic drone & created an ambient
masterpiece.
NEU/ NEUSCHNEE ( NEU! 2 1972 )
The duo ran out of money & filled out the album with perhaps
the first remixes, this single & it’s B side at played
back at 3 different speeds!
NEU/ HERO/ E-MUSIK ( NEU ! 75 1975)
Their comeback & swansong , a side of quality ambient guitar/keyboard
mindscapes & a side that included the punk predicting HERO &
AFTER EIGHT sounding like manic Public Image Limited exploding into
a universe of their own making. A masterpiece of barely controlled
aggression & languid lullabies.
CLUSTER / GROSSES WASSER ( GROSSES WASSER 1979)
The Roedelius & Moebius keyboard duo predated ambient &
new age musics with their watercolour washes & the gentle ebb
& flow of their subtle rhythms , recording with Neu’s
Michael Rother as HARMONIA & 2 albums with Brian Eno acknowledging
their influence on his own work.
POPOL VUH / IN THE GARDENS OF THE PHARAO ( 1971)
Keyboardist Florian Fricke’s inspirational blend of electronics
& organic rhythms creates an intensely spiritual & meditative
listening experience that’s as much about the spaces between
the musical notes as the notes themselves. A thing of beauty &
a joy forever.
FAUST / IT’S A RAINY DAY SUNSHINE GIRL (
SO FAR 1972)
The most conceptual & experimental of German bands, utilising
the studio & tape editing techniques in such innovative ways
that they
managed to blend the primitive & the refined, structure &
chaos, the sublime & the ridiculous together, sometimes all
within the one song. Sophisticated cavemen unleashed with modern
technology!
AMON DUUL 11/ YETI ( YETI 1970)
The most political of the scene, they began as a part of a radical
commune & morphed into a wigged out free form improvisational
outfit that strove for ecstacy & surrender, finding it in this
blend of Velvet Underground & Pink Floyd droned out mindfuck.
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