Trippy Crossroads: U.S. Psychedelia & Krautrock

GuruCan wrote: Lothar and the Hand People were a Denver psychedelic rock band whose music spread into broad, eclectic sonic territories back in the 1960s.  ...

The song by The Doors that could have helped shape the sound of early Krautrock bands is The End. It was a very popular song among odd fellows in Europe at the time and had the feeling that perfectly corresponded to what krautrock is all about. The End fuses a haunting ambiance, including instrumental elements occupying a large part of the track that is over 11 minutes in total. The track's composition reflects the frequent focus of krautrock musicians on mood and texture rather than the conventional structure of a song.

Back in the late 1960s, there was a cool cultural exchange happening between American experimental musicians, like the electronic music duo comprising Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, and European artists who were on the hunt for fresh ways to express themselves after World War II. This interaction played a decisive role in the crystallisation of what contemporary music then would be for young experimenters in the Old World, as it absorbed influences from American avant-garde styles while carving out its own distinct sound.

moshkito wrote: GuruCan wrote: Lothar and the Hand People were a Denver psychedelic rock band whose music spread into broad, eclectic sonic territories back in the 1960s.  ... however, I'm not exactly sure that these would even come close to influence the German scene at all ... mainly because in those days, the LP's that had all the "foreign" music were IMPORTS, and only available in a few specialty stores (in my case Moby Disk in Van Nuys and the Tower on the Strip, and The Warehouse in Westwood) ... and they were expansive ... already in those days each import was about $12/$15 dollars each.

West German record stores are the story within a story! The cities of former West Germany did have a high number of record stores during the late 60s and 70s, with releases of non-German artists printed under license in West Germany, as well as huge imports, including from the U.S. Actually, it was a surprising web of record stores that covered all of West Germany—some stores in big cities were really huge and were advertising that they offered "every record in the world"—that actually played a crucial role in shaping the musical landscape of the time. These shops have created social places for the music aficionado, not simply retail. Most of these stores offered live performances as well. Record stores, in West Germany, were very essential organs of an emerging youth culture, which embraced all new forms of music. Very big record stores, some well-known, now often legendary, have come up in cities such as Berlin and Hamburg in the late 60s and early 70s. Unmistakably, they could have been recognisable because of the extended collection of vinyl records. 

Starshiper wrote: I, for one, would attribute the influence of the New York City psychedelic electronic duo Silver Apples and their first two albums on Krautrock as the most significant of those influences that came from the United States in the late 1960s. Silver Apples innovative use of synthesisers, hypnotic grooves, and repetitive rhythms parallels Krautrock's avant-garde ethos.

Silver Apples, with their freakin' use of synthesizers and looping rhythms, truly laid the groundwork for the Krautrock movement by inspiring German bands to explore experimental music that fused psychedelic rock of the era with avant-garde techniques!

GuruCan wrote: Back in the late 1960s, there was a cool cultural exchange happening between American experimental musicians, like the electronic music duo comprising Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, and European artists who were on the hunt for fresh ways to express themselves after World War II. This interaction played a decisive role in the crystallisation of what contemporary music then would be for young experimenters in the Old World, as it absorbed influences from American avant-garde styles while carving out its own distinct sound. Beaver and Krause's albums from the late 60s, as well as their works for film scores—e.g., "Rosemary's Baby" from 1968, directed by Roman Polanski—created a strong driving force in the development of electronic music in Europe, especially in West Germany. Beaver and Krause actually became pioneers of electronic kosmische Musik, leaving their heavy mark on the genre as their "cosmic"—not without a dash of psychedelia—use of synthesizers not only chimed with the counterculture movement; it directly paved the way for influential Krautrock bands such as Cluster and Kraftwerk, to name a few.

Absolutely! Beaver And Krause had a huge impact on musicians worldwide. No doubt. The Grace Cathedral recordings were influential to many artists and super innovative in the sense that acoustics with a second delay or even half a second became experiments in sound by combining instruments and producing a "floating " or "flowing" vibe through melodic ...exotic improvisation. The way this came across differed from other people attempting to capture a kind of ambience.