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Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
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ballerman
5 posts

Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 15:36
Hi there after a long absence

I personally have been colleting krautrock since about 1970 and when I first heard it, though that it was an refreshing/intelligent change from the hard rock that prevailed in the UK music scene.

This led me to buy almost anything that came from Germany from Amon Duul 1+2 to Extrabriet. I never ceased to be amazed at the diversity and creativity of the Germans and, the fact that it took guts to release what to many was not very commercial from a sales point of view.

I still posess almost all of it from the glories of Faust (who were brilliant a few years ago in London) to the more obscure like Iris.

Never kept any Neu, which I found tedious and sold to a mate (but highly collectable now!).

My all time favourite Can who I saw at Newcastle City Hall in the very early '70's ( 0nly about 300 People turned up and Damo was sensational)

Anyway, enough of my rantings: Give me your favourites and hates.

Ballerman
geoffrey_prime
geoffrey_prime
758 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 16:29
Outside of almost anything by Amon Duul, Faust and Can, I would favour Guru Guru's "Kan Guru" and also, one of the best live albums EVER (imho) GroBschnitt's "Solar Music". Agree with you...not too keen on Neu....strangley, to me sounds very "Alt".
Dog 3000
Dog 3000
4611 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 18:45
Recently I have been discovering Guru Guru and Silberbart, who are on the heavier end of Kraut and are both pretty great (tho I suspect Guru kinda petered out in lame worldbeat jazzrock -- not heard anything beyond their 1973 LP's, and those are a step down from the first few.)

I think the first NEU! album is a classic, though to be honest I think they were just sort of repeating themselves on the next couple.

Can, Faust & Kraftwerk are among the all-time greats of 20th century music, period.

Some German groups I don't dig nearly as much are Tangerine Dream and Popul Vuh -- just a little too drifty for me. (But very good for "drift music.")
sakedelic
sakedelic
936 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 20:02
In '82 I took an acid trip with a friend, went on a long hike to the only cool record store around and came home hours later with Faust IV in my hands. hearing "jennifer" & the rest of that LP that afternoon was an amazing, fun time which comes back to me everytime I hear it even over twenty years later.
I had some Tangerine Dream & had heard Amon Duul's Yeti when my older brother got it later & had Guru Guru's Kanguru soon after...Then a few years after that a guy with a record store in my college's vicinity sold his entire, amazing LP collection to favored customers of his store, (like me!), for a flat $5 per LP & I scooped up the other Faust lps, lots of Can lps, Magma, etc.
Faust were always far & away my personal favorites for their sheer audacity & propensity for creating magical sounds. I do love Ege Bamyasi/Tago Mago/Future Days era Can a whole lot too and they're great, and more recently (last 15 years...)I've gotten into Cluster II & Zukerzeit, Agitation Free and the 3 Neu lps which are also all very cool, but Faust are still (despite their releases of the past decade which are irrelevant to me)the absolutely unequaled Super Stars of krautrock.
keith a
9565 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 20:04
Not a completist by any means, but I'd go for Can '68 as my fave, followed by Neu '75.

Perhaps it's a date thing ; )
Cock-a-Doodle
803 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 21:37
Love...the following

Faust - all, even the new stuff
Neu! - 3 perfect albums
Cosmic Jokers - maybe a joke, but a bloody good one!
Ash Ra Tempel - Join Inn & 7 Up especially
Guru Guru - UFO, Hinten & Kanguru are classics
Tangerine Deam -from Electronic Meditation to Phaedra
La Dusseldorf - Viva & Individuellos (never heard s/t lp)
Amon Duul - only really like Wolf City
Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill
Can - from Monster Movie to Landed

Thats all i can remember for the mo!
Beebon
1375 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 22:23
Well, i discovered Krautrock when i was 17/18 in 2000. I saw record collector magasine had an article which i read and it inspired me. First i heard was Live in London by Amon Duul II (vynil, borrowed off my then girlfriend's father).

Anyways, i like most of what i heard, though i really dislike Brainticket's "Cottonwood Hill" (bloody annoying woman!) and i aint overly keen on the likes of Grobschneit (or hoever you spell it) or any of that jazz/rock fusion shite which came out of germany at a similar time.
Lawrence
9547 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 22:38
I mostly got into Can/Faust/Neu mostly in reference to the post-punk groups inspired by them. Picked up on Can just 'cos I heard PIL were influenced by them -- first one I got was Can '68 which didn't impress me at first. Was probably more into their later albums really...

Faust I remembered from reading a review somewhere, so I got Faust IV and then So Far, both took me longer to get into -- didn't seem as left-field as the other stuff I was into at the time, at first... But grew to like it.
Riddley Walker
174 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 01, 2004, 23:19
The first four Can albums have really changed the way I view music, and I'm a massive Damo Suzuki fan.

I like Neu, especially the heavier stuff like 'After Eight', I can't say I found Hallo Gallo as amazing as Cope did on first listening, but then I heard it about 20 years later.

While I enjoy some of Faust's stuff, I find them a bit self-consciously 'experimental' at times, never in a boring way though.

'Yeti' is amazing, one of my favourite albums. The other Amon Duul 2 records are OK but imo they never quite achieve the same atmosphere as Yeti.

Best of all though is Walter Wegmuller's 'Tarot'. It has such an incredible variety of musical styles and I think the concept works brilliantly. I just wish my German was a bit better so I could understand more of the narration.
stevenD
6 posts

Re: Krautrock: Love it or Hate it!
Sep 02, 2004, 00:39
I'm only 45 but I love it, loved ADII, Can, Eloy, Mythos, Neu, Tangerine Dream, Xhol, Ash Ra Temple, Kraftwerk, RMO, Thirsty Moon, the FIRST Scorpions, and many more, I have sold off most all of my old LP's and have replaced many of them on CD.

I also totally dig the Far East Family Band release Nipponjin (with Klaus Schultz) and I did see them in concert (wow)...
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