Navigating through Krautrock

Cool in the Pool by Holger Czukay!

Kraftwerk - "Ruckzuck"
Harmonia - "Dino"

Can's 'Ege Bamyasi' lp has several great options for this.

is 8 mins too long? if not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Iks5VYXfI

I Want More by Can, surely?

"Caramba" by Cluster

Oh, chill out time? Anything off Zuckerzeit, it's all short and popsy

"Aspectacle" is a great funky late Can deep cut

"Isi" is just tremendous - several of their other tunes like "Neuschnee" are also mighty chill. Also if you want to go to La Dusseldorf please find the track "Lilenthal" (off La! Neu? - Blue, which is kind of the fifth La Dusseldorf album), it's really one of the most beautiful, stunning pieces Dinger has ever done

yeah, along with "isi", i was thinking of recommending "neuschnee" (4:07) and "weissensee" (6:46). the latter's especially suitable for chill out.

man cool in the pool just owns this q!

I just reposted a bunch of krautrock articles (inc ones by Simon Reynolds. Or from The Wire, Mojo ) on this thread 1970-1979 WTF - The Hard 'n' Heavy 'n' Loud + Krautrock, Arty, Noisy, Weird, Funky, Punky Shit - Albums Poll! - VOTING THREAD! Closes Mar 8th 11.59 PM UK Time - All ILXORS/LURKERS WELCOME

Links to other krautrock articles here. The articles are quite big so dont want to repost them again here.

Soul Jazz has a pair of 2CD krautrock compilations. I've never really dug deep, are they a good starting point or are there better options?

Vol. 1: http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/releases/?id=18676
Vol. 2: http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/releases/?id=31014

as far as comps go those are pretty good, definitely cover a lot of the high points/key tracks

Yeah, I got the first one and it's pretty good. A good balance of well known and less known stuff. Didn't know until now that htey put out a volume 2.

The 2nd one pretty good as well! I don't know abt only 4 min of halleluwah but its good to encounter those a.r & machines tracks outside of crackly vinyl rips.

Those Soul Jazz comps are spectacular - a perfect gateway for me.

I don't know why but it's all just clicked for me after years of dabbling in Can and Kraftwerk. I'm ready to dig deeper. I've found a scanned copy of Copey's book and Fastnbulbous's krautrock guide is very helpful. I'm still not sold on the long flutey jams but the kosmische musik is where it's at.

were there any good krautrock bands from Berlin?

Not really krautrock but Tangerine Dream were from Berlin

Agitation Free possibly?

weird that the biggest city in Germany produced so little krautrock

Well it wasn't quite so big when it was chopped in half.

it was still the biggest by population

weird that the biggest city in Germany produced so little krautrock

Never heard of the Berlin School (of Krautrock) (not a physical school, of course) - which was T. Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ashra? There's lots who were based there though whether they were actually from there I know not: Agitation Free. Kluster. Conrad Schnitzler. I'm sure there's more.

Ash Ra..forgot about them..

It's not that bad a representation, 'cos all of those artists are good, there are probably a 100 more terrible ones I can't think of right now

I mean, Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany, and what have they got? Faust... I'm struggling beyond that.

And by the way, I was in Hamburg earlier this year, and none of the people I talked to there had even heard of Faust! I'm talking musicians and people who are into music.

so which city was the krautrock capital?
i had a theory for a second it was a suburban movement..

which music are they into?
xpost

There wasn't one, there was was no movement (xp)

I don't know, sort of indie people I suppose. Germans (I've met) don't seem that interested in German music tbh

how old are they?

it's logical if they are young

current german music isn't what it used to be.

30-40 I'd say.

maybe Faust is relatively more popular abroad than in Germany.

Lots of the well-known bands were from Dusseldorf, Cologne or Munich... Frankfurt was poorly represented though I think.

awesome stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LneduxXyt9I

I thought I'd read that you could loosely separate the genre into two camps - the Berlin School and the Dusseldorf School (with various outliers of course). Berlin = Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream; Dusseldorf = Neu!, Kraftwerk, Can, Cluster.

Dusseldorf wind, easily

wins

Yes. Plus by default you can add Harmonia and La Dusseldorf to that camp. And Faust is an outlier. Where were ADII from? Popol Vuh? Probably they just complicate my simple binary distinction.

both from munchen

Berlin = Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream; Dusseldorf = Neu!, Kraftwerk, Can, Cluster.

Can and Cluster have got nothing to do with Dusseldorf though. Cluster started in Berlin!

s.y.p.h. - "pst!"(1980) & "s.y.p.h."(1981) they're both available one one CD on the captain trip label. holger's on board for french horn , prod & edit duties. a sloppy, punky, minimalist step sideways from the CAN template. sounds like it was recorded yesterday & released on psf.
both moebius / beerbohm (aggro 2 note synth/ drum ambient chocolate-monk stomps)& moebius / renziehausen (toytown keyboard presets create virtual reality senile muzak weirdness) discs also essential although by no means ROCK.

Anyone looked into the 6CD boxes called "Krautrock: Music For Your Brain"? There are *5* of these boxes. Here's the first one: http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=14856

No one's familiar with the boxes I mentioned?

tracklist for the first looks thrown together almost at random. can't see why one wouldn't just want to buy the original albums the songs are taken from.

I heard the first box - it's mostly German hard rock and early prog. Moving on to albums from Copey's list.

This series looks quite promising! I'm in for the first couple of volumes at least.

To provide an overview of the various musical styles in which Bureau B specializes, the label launches a new compilation series entitled Kollektion. Each release in this series will be curated by a musician perfectly suited to the task. The first kick-off release will be: Kollektion 01: Sky Records, compiled by Tim Gane. The erstwhile Stereolab mastermind delves through the archives of the legendary German Krautrock label. More projects to follow: Kollektion 02: Roedelius -- Electronic Music -- Compiled by Lloyd Cole; Kollektion 03: Bureau B -- Compiled by Richard Fearless (Death In Vegas) -- Double Album; Kollektion 04: Populare Mechanik -- Compiled by Holger Hiller. About Sky Records: The record company was founded in the year 1975 and went on to become one of the few German labels to reap international acclaim. It was run by Gunter Körber, who quit his job at Metronome where he and Bruno Wendel had spent four years developing and managing the legendary Brain label. About Tim Gane: No less a figure than Tim Gane, the man behind Stereolab, has delved into the Sky Records archives for the Kollektion series. Gane has never hidden his love of Krautrock; many a Stereolab song has its foundations in the typical "motorik" beat, while his latest band, Cavern Of Anti-Matter wallows in Klaus Dinger rhythms. Experimental sounds hold no fear for him, as early noise cassette releases under his Un-Kommuniti alias testify. His selection of tracks fits the pattern seamlessly: Asmus Tietchens, Cluster, Moebius, Roedelius, Michael Rother, Riechmann, Gunter Schickert, etc. All names writ large in the avant-garde scene of German progressive music, as well as underlining Gunter Körber's audacity in offering such music a forum with his label. In the booklet, Asmus Tietchens, who released four albums on Sky Records, looks back on collaborating with Gunter Körber.