Krautrock noob needs advice ... - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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krauthead

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Joined: May 30 2005
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Posted: August 11 2005 at 11:23

MikeEnRegalia wrote:

I'll see where I can get the more "obscure" items ...

Mike, there's something named "online shopping"

There's this one in Sweden and they ship worldwide: http://www.recordheaven.net/

And for the Germans I guess there's lots of online places, this though have great albums and you can also listen to samples on some of their albums, but I haven't bought from them: www.mydvdbox.de/

For example Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei (2005 remaster with bonus tracks and listening samples): http://www.mydvdbox.de/show3572508.html

Happy hunting Mike

*Dancing madly backwards on a sea of air* - Captain Beyond

krauthead

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Posted: August 11 2005 at 11:33

BaldJean wrote:

if you have any questions about krautrock, ask philippe, who has an excellent knowledge there. krauthead hasn't chosen his name for nothing either. Dallas Bryan also comes to my mind. and of course you can always ask BaldFriede and me, who know a little bit of krautrock too

Just a little you say?

*Dancing madly backwards on a sea of air* - Captain Beyond

MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down

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Posted: August 11 2005 at 12:19

krauthead wrote:

MikeEnRegalia wrote:

I'll see where I can get the more "obscure" items ...

Mike, there's something named "online shopping"

There's this one in Sweden and they ship worldwide: http://www.recordheaven.net/

And for the Germans I guess there's lots of online places, this though have great albums and you can also listen to samples on some of their albums, but I haven't bought from them: www.mydvdbox.de/

For example Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei (2005 remaster with bonus tracks and listening samples): http://www.mydvdbox.de/show3572508.html

Happy hunting Mike

Thanks, I will - but in the record store I can listen to the CD's as long as I want and browse the booklet, so first I see what they offer, and then I go for the online stores.

So far I really like CAN - Future Days ...

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Progbear

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Posted: August 11 2005 at 14:35

Future Days was my first Can album, and it started a big time love affair with the group. I was really into Pink Floyd at the time, and FD was most Floydian (particularly “Bel Air”, which was practically “Echoes II” and thus manna sent from heaven for me).

My other favourite Can album is Ege Bamyasi. A harder-edged sound on this one (check out “Pinch” and “Soup” for Can at their most raucous and abrasive, particularly that nasty, growling fuzz-organ on the latter). Considering your love for the more “out there” edge of their sound, I see no reason not to recommend their sprawling double album Tago Mago to you. There’s moments there that are too much even for me (hello, “Aumgn”), but it’s for the most part excellent. “Halleluwah” is Can at their hypnotic best.

Amon Düül 2 are definitely a bizarre group. They have a thing for wacky vocal parts, particularly when Chris Karrer gets into his freaky falsetto mode. Some of the early albums also feature guest appearances by avant-garde weirdo Rolf Zacher who...well, it’s kind of hard to describe what he does. You just have to experience it for yourself.

I think Wolf City would probably be your best starting point for them. It’s basically all they are in the most concentrated package. Yeti and Dance of the Lemmings are both expansive feature-length discs that were originally released as deluxe double LP’s. The former has some of their hardest-edged guitar-oriented stuff on Disc One and some of their most sprawling improvisations on Disc Two. The latter is all over the map, starting off deceptively with a suite that’s close to “conventional” prog, then going off into some of their most freaky and bizarre music. It’s grown to be my favourite, so diverse is it.

Phallus Dei is a good debut, definitely bizarre with a tribal feel. Carnival In Babylon is more of a “mainstream” prog album with psych-folk tendencies, but it’s well-done, with a great spacy album-closer in “Hawknose Harlequin”. Vive La Trance is on the border, with a decided turn towards shorter songs and more conventional musical constructs, but some of these songs are still quite weird (“A Morning Excuse”) and there’s a couple of fantastic, more epic pieces in “Mozambique” and “Apocalyptic Bore”.

[IMG] http://www.denness.net/rpi/u/Progbear/fs/8/w/500/cp/2/s/5/si g.png">

Minstrel X View Drop Down

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Posted: August 22 2005 at 10:21

Try Popol Vuh and Grobschnitt... you won't be disappointed

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Vibrationbaby View Drop Down

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Posted: August 31 2005 at 10:34

I own tons of German rock here are a few of my favourite titles:

Solar Music Live - Grobschnitt
Ballerman- Grobschnitt
Grobschnitt-Grobschnitt
Dance Of The Flames- Guru Guru
UFO-Guru Guru
Live-Guru Guru
Journey to the Center of Their Third One- Eiliff
Clouds & Clowns- Hoelderlin
Made In Germany ( double )- Amon Duul II
Hijack- Amon Duul II
Yeti- Amon Duul II
Live In London- Amon Duul II

There`s just too many to list.

robertplantowns View Drop Down

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Posted: August 31 2005 at 10:55

Annexus Quam- Osmose
Amon Duul II _ Phallus Dei
Can -Ege Bamyasi
Can- Future Days (my favorite)
Can - Tago Mago
Neu! - Neu! 75
Neu! - Neu 2
try out the Neu! if you want a change from typical krautrock in the Can or Amon Duul vein

krauthead

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Posted: August 31 2005 at 13:20

Vibrationbaby wrote:

Grobschnitt-Grobschnitt

Journey to the Center of Their Third One- Eiliff

Beautiful albus there, the best by Grobschnitt for sure IMO and Eiliff is such a band, these guys knows how to pull off progressive acid jazz... SUPER!

*Dancing madly backwards on a sea of air* - Captain Beyond

Syzygy

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Posted: August 31 2005 at 17:24

Lots of good recommendations so far - for a slightly more relaxed vibe, go for Cluster (Sowieso, Zuckerzeit and Grosses Wasser are all fine albums), Harmonia (Cluster plus Michael Rother of Neu!) and the Cluster and Eno albums.

If you enjoy Tangerine Dream's mid to late 70s output, check out Klaus Schulze's solo albums and New Age of Earth and Blackouts by Ashra.

For really far out avant prog, try Faust - as awesome as Can were, even they sounded like the Carpenters compared to Faust. So Far is probably the easiest of their albums to get into.

'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'

Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom

Eetu Pellonpaa View Drop Down

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Posted: September 01 2005 at 04:39

Rufus Zuphall!

Rob tha bank View Drop Down

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Posted: September 06 2005 at 19:02

i'm surprised no one mentioned monster movie by Can !!!
exellent piece of work, its the one that got me hooked
heard it on the john Peel show in 1970, bless his cotton
socks.

BePinkTheater View Drop Down

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Posted: September 06 2005 at 20:58

what exactly is it? just german prog rock? or..what?

EDIT:i jsut downloaded oh yea off this site from CAN..and...what the hell?!

Edited by BePinkTheater

I can strangle a canary in a tin can and it would be really original, but that wouldn't save it from sounding like utter sh*t.
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Rob tha bank View Drop Down

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Posted: September 07 2005 at 03:32

I believe monster movie was Can's first album,
track listing: 1- father cannot yell 7:01
                2- mary,mary so contrary 4:16
                3- outside my door 4:06
                4- you doo right 20:14
the forfathers of avant-garde progrock,track 4-you doo right is stunning!! check it out ,happy listening

Alucard

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Posted: September 09 2005 at 10:54

BePinkTheater wrote:

what exactly is it? just german prog rock? or..what?

EDIT:i jsut downloaded oh yea off this site from CAN..and...what the hell?!

'Krautrock' was a slightly pejorative term for the first wave of german rock groups in the end of the 70'slike Embryo and Amon Düll .The Pilz/ Ohr productions were still labelled 'Krautrock' in spite of their psychedelic orientation . I would say with the beginning of the 'Brain' label the term changed to 'German Rock'. 'Brain' organized 'German Rock Festivals' to support their label bands : 'Grobschnitt', 'Novalis', 'Jane',and others. Like for Italian Prog the 'german rock bands have very different orientations from psychedelic : Ammon Düll/ symphonic : Triumvirat /folk Ougenweide, Jazz_Rock : Kraan / Hard: Jane and bands you can't classify like Neu, Can and Faust.

Tadpoles keep screaming in my ear
"Hey there! Rotter's Club!
Explain the meaning of this song and share it"

italprogfan View Drop Down

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Posted: September 09 2005 at 14:33

my overall krautrock recommendations:

Agitation Free/At The Cliffs of River Rhine 1974
Popol Vuh/Einsjager & Siebenjager 1975
Agitation Free/Malesch 1972
Ash Ra Tempel/Ash Ra Tempel 1971
Grobschnitt/Ballermann 1974
Grobschnitt/Solar Music Live 1978
Triumvirat/Illusions on a Double Dimple 1974
Agitation Free/Second 1973
Agitation Free/Fragments 1974
Eloy/Floating 1974
Grobschnitt/Grobschnitt 1972
Grobschnitt/Jumbo (mit Deutschen Texten) 1975
Popol Vuh/Letzte Tage Letzte Nachte 1976
Popol Vuh/Singet Denn Der Gesang... (aka Couer De Verre) 1977
Triumvirat/Spartacus 1975
Amon Düül II/Yeti 1970
Aera/Humanum Est 1974
Amenophis/Amenophis 1983
Amon Düül II/Tanz der Lemminge 1971
Ash Ra Tempel/Join Inn 1973
Eloy/Ocean 1977
Eloy/Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes 1979
Epitaph/Epitaph 1971
Epitaph/Stop, Look And Listen 1972
Guru Guru/Kanguru 1972
Missing Link/Nevergreen! 1972
My Solid Ground/My Solid Ground 1971
Mythos/Strange Guys 1977
Trikolon/Cluster 1969
Wallenstein/Blitzkreig 1972
Xhol Caravan/Electrip 1969

guru guru may be of particular interest in the 'improv' area, but in a lot of cases, a lot of krautrock is about that.

some great stuff in the classics are the ash ra (1st), agitation free, popul vuh, wallenstein, and grobschnitt.

for those who are into more straight forward stuff, you may want to start on triumvirat - spartacus & illusions and eloy - maybe a little easier to get you arms around first off... amenophis/s/t is a symphonic masterpiece.

aera's a relatively unknown band, but a great listen - i believe there's a legit release of the first two on one cd that i'd also recommend highly.

anael

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Posted: September 09 2005 at 22:15

all are good recomendations but there's nothing of kosmiche music:

-The Cosmic Jokers: Planeten Sit In
-Ash Ra Tempel: Join Inn
-Sergius Golowin: Lord Krishna Von Goloka
-Walter Wegmüller: Tarot

BaldJean

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Posted: September 10 2005 at 04:37

Rob tha bank wrote:

I believe monster movie was Can's first album,
track listing: 1- father cannot yell 7:01
                2- mary,mary so contrary 4:16
                3- outside my door 4:06
                4- you doo right 20:14
the forfathers of avant-garde progrock,track 4-you doo right is stunning!! check it out ,happy listening

"Monster Movie" is indeed the first release of Can, but their oldest material can be found on "Delay" (which is rightfully named, because it appeared with a delay of over a decade)

A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta