Dies Irae - The Trip. What a video! 

I don't know where the track is from. According to my immediate memory, it's not featured on this, the only album I know by them (First, 1971)

Very recommended stoney hard rock. 

At the not so trippy, but very political,  end of the kraut spectrum is Floh de Cologne. Their debut "Fliessbandbaby's Beat-show " (1970) is a particular favorite of the genre. 

This bizzare video features a track from their second album "Rock-Oper Profitgeier" and is called "die Luft gehört denen, die sie atmen." The air belongs to those who breath (it)

  

How about the song "Krautrock" from Faust!

 

 

 

 

(removed ... incorrect)

 

Seriously love it and I have to post this as a starting point for alL those who are not initiated...

 

Forgive my indulgence but thats how I operate at the best of times... and the worst...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KW4EVER

 

 

Here's the best of Krautrock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of the softer and far out things ... Tanned Leather and Cherubin ... both bands always had some very nice things in the albums, and specially Cherubin's album is worth having ... and that little train song is excellent.

Finally got a chance to see that documentary on Krautrock and here are some observations.

The first one is the crappy lousy sound on the 6th piece that is out of sync and totally screwed up ... and it goes off track and just about David Bowie, who has never really acknowledged the musicians or the influences. Eno, at least, did a few things with Cluster, but went his own way.

Love the start of the whole thing with Popol Vuh in the background, and immediately making the connection to film (though it does not mention theater at all, which it should have!), which I have always said was very important, and the three folks that helped cement this scene, were Fassbender, Wenders and Herzog. Fassbender's films are a bit tougher to deal with, and they are not known for using music much, but they have a sense of new-ness and open mindedness that is very similar to a lot of the Krautrock material ... you don't always get a resolution that is satisfactory, but you know that ... this is it, this is life, this is what happens ... and that's that. Wenders is, sometimes, a philosopher looking for his philosophy. And he tries to color his ideas with music and has done so very well over the years. And Herzog, of course, made all kinds of films using Popol Vuh's music, and I like the interview that Archie Patterson allowed PA to post, showing how Werner found the music "in the closet" and probably went out and created a film around it! ... that is his style, and he did the same thing with Klaus Kinsky, it seems, let him run loose until it all explodes ... and voila ... you have an amazing something. For all you "prog'rs", if you have the chance, do see "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" and see how the music was so well used and defined ... and that opening shot is one of the most memorable ever in film.

Next is "the revolution", and I have always said how important it was, and how vivid it was, ALSO, in London and how much music it gave us, including King Crimson's first album (my review of it here on PA), and a lot of stuff in America that is not considered a part of it all, but is. For example, in one of the Faust albums, there is quite a discussion and mention of Frank Zappa and his work ... and he figures in a lot of the bands like Amon Duul 2, specially. And my kudos, is ... using Jimi ... right away ... awesome ... totally important and valuable, and amazing ... and you must remember ... this was a Bob Dylan song! ... 

I also mentioned once, in an article here and in the Cakewalk board, that got some folks upset, that a lot of the work and definition of the music that was being created was trying very hard to not follow or define itself by "Anglo-American" styles and definitions of music, and I always thought that was very important to the process, despite some people preferring to think that drugs were what helped it and defined it. I doubt that some folks could be that creative instantly, and do something that we still love dearly, if they did not have something to say and express, which showed and came up in the music. 

Fabulous and neat is the Zodiac stuff and seeing Edgar talking about it. Totally lovely, and far out to hear Roedelius and Rother and Moebius, and saying nice things about it. I have a lot of these solo albums and have always loved them, and thought that there was a logic and something else in these that ... was not totally visible here, and these images and interviews helps clear it up. These guys might not have known of each other, but they still worked together and did things together.

One other idea, and it has to do with the "creation of music", was that the words used were ... music created by non-musicians, and this was probably the way in the early days, for example, of the communes when people just joined in and added to the whole thing. And right away, you get Edgar Froese talking about the wars and total destruction and the fact that people lost everything ... and "no form", or "free form" was all that was left. That is a very nice wording and really helped define a lot of the work that was done ... people basically discovering themselves and their art by experimenting and learning what music could be, for example, and Faust is good about this, and playing around with the cement mixer is an excellent example ... try to get that exercise going at the Cakewalk board and see where it gets you ... yeah !!!

One other bit, and I had never really thought about it with Can, was the so called minimalism, all of a sudden being defined as "monotonous" in drumming, and his saying that "the old had to be destroyed, and we didn't want to play rock'n'roll" ... and in the end, it showed how well he used his "minimalism" when doing Bel Air, or side two of Soon Over Babballoma, when the long cuts extend and he uses the simplest of touches for transitions, and it shows how much drumming you can do with so little ... a lesson that now I would like to extend to the many "progressive" drummers that simply can not maintain a piece of music without the 4th beat on the snare drum ...

All in all a fabulous program, and it was magnificent to see those folks and them talking about it, and especially Klaus Schulze and Edgar Froese ... both of whom probably can tell you more about the music, the history and it's development ... and there even is a story on the net about Edgar and his tapes, that used to be used for echo effects in those days ... the stories of which would make up for a most fascinating and entertaining book.

If there is a miss here, and it should have been included in the earlier stuff, is that Guru Guru was a part of a lot of these demonstrations and another group and commune altogether, and the stories Mani has, as well as Helmut are quite entertaining, and the last song on the "Tango Fango" album is such a monumental piece, and after you see these 6 parts, go listen to that song ... it will make sense ... it will help ... the new music is rock music, not the old stuff. And guess what this special was about.

A similar special could easily be done about London, and it's "progressive" scene, but it would take a David Lean, or a John Schlesinger, or a Ken Russell (to bring out the dolls to laugh at us, of course!), to be able to show us, what the scene was like in London with the IRA bombs going off, and anti-VietNam war protests going around ... and a Buffalo Springfield song as a theme, that was echoed later with many other things questioning our political sense and sensibilities (In the Court of the Crimson King) and later how we looked at many things (The Endless Enigma), all of which showed how we were looking at things, and also ignoring them. Yes' Tales of Topographic Oceans, for me, was trying to take all this "revolution" into a more spiritual place, and then Genesis, by comparison, had a rather complex take on English this and that (opening lines of Selling England By The Pound) and then "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" pretty much showing how we had become so isolated from it all ... and in the end, it's just rock'n'roll ... 

You decide!

Lovely work ... absolutely tops!

oliverstoned wrote: %20" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eB-sl6ZLpo&feature=player_detailpage

It appears that the link is either broke, or incorrect. 

Thx ... gotta have all these links, you know ... 

After seeing all this, now go listen to that last song on "Tango Fango" ... everyone of the folks here ... and see the commentary about "the new music". And mark the date this was done, which was BEFORE the Wall came down!

Guru Guru, is a "major" in this discussion, not a secondary band. Kraftwerk became the biggest because it took its own work and turned it into pop music ... not necessarily because it was the most creative, or original.

I am coming to think that one of the main reasons why a lot of this music did not "succeed", is because many of them don't really talk about it ... it's very rare to hear Klaus talk about that time, and you can also hear him talk to Steven Wilson about it, in the Rheingold DVD with Lisa Garrard. Edgar, doesn't like interviews and (sometimes) I think that he is becoming a bit of an old stooge that doesn't care for the business or the whole thing ... I think he is really more worried about what will happen if he takes this fork and sticks it into this piece of music ... and how to show that with the instruments and sounds. But he has millions of stories and has a sense of humor that is out there, and can come off rather obtuse, weird, and nasty. His words on Chris Franke, could be said to not be nice, but I think that he is saying that in good jest, not because he wants to be mean. 

The rock music journalism, is the problem here. They are, for the most part, too much into the "star" and into the "fame", which happens to be the very same image that we were all fighting against in those days (The Endless Enigma), but too many people are afraid to speak out and be themselves, instead thinking that a green t-shirt is what makes them different, or themselves, but still saying the same thing within the commercial/corporate structure of things. And of course, when KC/Fripp say "Deconstruct" ... we don't get it, and go back to saying how important the band is based on a couple of albums and ignoring the rest of the material.

Reviews, are the same for me. I can not write the same thing as everyone, because that is not what I see. I try to be faithful to that inner sight, vision, and thoughts that I was privy to, when this music was available. I can not say that 35 years later that experience is not valid, IT IS, but the TIME, that it took place, when no one else was "getting it", is very important, despite some folks still going around saying ... so what ... like Snow Dog usually does on many of my posts ... which is ok with me ... keeps me in line, and I don't mind!

But many of us knew at the time, what the "struggle" and identification was all about, artistically, or otherwise, and I think that many of us do not mind discussing it and showing it better, specially since all of a sudden it is starting to come off as a very important and expressive artistic era, which the rock press doesn't give a sh*t about! It doesn't have stars to kiss up to. And sometimes, too many of the "kids" in this board, do the same thing ... eventually they will learn, but most of them will never see, or have, events this massive question ... "who are you?" ... to yourself and your generation ... and this is what is missing from the discussion of "progressive" music, and how, in many ways, the "krautrock" thing is way more important than the London version, which was mostly "reactive" to the situations at hand ... and I personally believe that music is probably the single greatest peace weapon of all ... and even U2 deserves credit in that area.

 

 

Brave New World - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta (1972):

 

 

 

 

Just heard a bit more of the Dies Irae thing, and ... ohhh my gawd ... Fillmore West is alive and well and ... still heard ... after all these years!

 

A tough one in my book ... because it is so much about ... where does the sound itself take you? ... and that is something that is hard for many people, that rely on lyrics to get somewhere ... in listening to Klaus, there is no road sign telling you where to go, or do ... and this is its beauty ... and he's still the best at it, and the only one that is still doing it, and the day he goes, will be a sad day for music ... no one out there, has been able to do what he does, and work with it to create another new experience.

 

I used to say that there is music that leads you, and then there is music that allows you to "lead yourself" ... music for "adepts" ... and this is what Klaus does for you. Later, he did play around with some sound effects, but they are merely catalysts that tend to throw you off ... (Beyond Recall) ... or you can listen to Sebastian in Traum (Audentity) and the sound that is like a door opening and closing, is almost like ... taking you somewhere else ... and it is exciting as heck ... the feeling of allowing your mind to go ... anywhere and everywhere at the same time, is magnificent and very difficult to top all around ... there is very little music anywhere, in this world, that is that good, at doing something like this.

 

 

 

Someone else posted this recently on another thread and I am indebted to that person (I can't remember who it was so sorry and a big thanks)

 

I love it.  But I love Can and AD and Faust and Guru Guru and if you count them Tangerine Dream (I do count them).

 

and Kraftwerk.......

 

 

 

 

 

That was priceless! Very funny parody of Kraftwerk. Ironic that BillBailey did this as he was the cynical voice behind the Prog rock doco! keep posting these hidden gems 

Just remember one thing ... a lot of the krautrock stuff, and specially the likes of Klaus Schulze, Cosmic Couriers, Popol Vuh and the like, are not about "songs" ... EVER.

It's about the experience. As time goes by, you will learn to appreciate it more and more, including the subtleties in them. 

 

 

Agitation Free - "Ala Tul":

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many Can fans have heard this song:

 

 

 

 

I think I have a fairly complete CAN catalogue, but I can't see this link right now and check later.

 

I also have lots of Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay ... in fact as much as I live Can, Holger's first 2 solo albums are totally out of this world and still listed in the top of my favorites ... and he once told me he didn't like them ... !!!!

Limbus 3 - Oneway-trip from the record New Atlantic: Cosmic Music Experience (1969)

Inside the gatefold of the record you read a German extract of Francis Bacon's novel Nova Atlantis (1623) wherein is emphasized the unlimited possibilities of music-making as well as some notes written by the band member Gerd Kraus: "Es geht nicht um virtuose Beherrschung eines ausgeprägten Instrumentes, sondern um geistige Polyphonie. Das is eine Arbeitsmethode. Mandalas, Katalysatoren der meditation, feingewobene Teppiche, auf denen man sich unendlich weit tragen lassen kann"

Which means that it (music) is not about mastery of a well-known instrument, but about spiritual polyphony. Kraus gives hints how to listen to the record - you'll need a finely woven oriental rug and a meditative state of mind - perhaps catalysed by engaging in designing mandala (I use yoga postures) then you're ready to be taken infinitively far away by this cosmic music experience.

It's all very serious, and few records can bear titles like "cosmic music experience" without being subject to ridicule. This one is great, they know what they are doing - and it's probably my favourite meditative record. It's uncompromising, perhaps a difficult listening (little melody, loosely structured..) but it's very unique - primarily due to the many exotic acoustic instruments, for example the valiha - a Madagascan folk instrument.         

 

In 1970 Limbus 4 (addition of a band member) issued the follow-up Mandalas on the no. one kraut label Ohr. Even more instruments, better production and a little more focus on structure - just as good

 

If you like Limbus, there are a couple of others you might want to listen to that are very serious meditation stuff ... Wolff and Hemmings, of course, have a nice series with "Tibetan Bells" and all of the albums are excellent, and a total meditation.

 

Even better, and far more meditative and for the initiated and adept ONLY, would be Frank Perry's 2 albums, Deep Peace and New Atlantis ... and these are intense enough that I have only met one person that could listen to them at length before they freaked out and had to say something because they could not trip any further without distracting themselves, or getting away from it.

 

I have a whole bunch of Stephen Micus albums, and they are similar, but I can not tell you right now the connection, or if it is merely experimentation, which I don't think it is. I think his name is D. Parsons and has a pair of CD's relating to the Himalayas, whose title fails me right now. Lovely meditations!

 

Now you know why "progressive music" (and long cuts) are not appreciated by many folks ... they are not used to "concentrating" and "staying there" ... in order to learn more about the experience ... go ahead and ask Jean about that ... and in many ways, for me, this was the special side of "krautrock". You get Popol Vuh doing the meditations with hardcore electronics, and then you get Guru Guru and others doing it with rock music, and then this and that doing it with a little jazz ... and it was far out for me ... it was the "modern meditation" for me ... and I loved it with all my heart and then some.

 

In the end, it is an important "experiential" thing ... the rest, including my words ... not always valuable, because most people have never experienced to have any idea what I am talking about. And I consider myself a highschooler, when it comes to meditation and internal things -- but because of language and culture changes in my teens and later ... guess what my talent is ... "translating the unknown" ... and I love the internal life and living and loving ... and music that lives there is truly special.

 

One other German with music that is also out there ... Deuter ... although he says he devotes the music to the Rajneesh and his people, in the end, it is excellent music and very well attuned to the internal trip.

 

Most of us in the western world are not tuned to enjoying a raga or an internal trip ... we're way too mental to be able to get there -- and rock/jazz/classical/popular music, is not "free enough" to allow it to happen, at least not within the context we talk about here for the most part. There are some exceptions on the ECM label, but they are hard to find and understand.

 

Like the dreamers love to say ... it's about "the unknowable" ... and our communication with it!

Thanks - sounds interesting - will check out on occasion. 

moshkito wrote: One other German with music that is also out there ... Deuter ... although he says he devotes the music to the Rajneesh and his people, in the end, it is excellent music and very well attuned to the internal trip.

 

And this is the only album that could/should/would be described as "krautrock", or at least it has passages in it that fit the description really well.

 

Eberhard Schoenner ... is gonna be tough for this place ... because he is all over the place, and very good, although in my book his later stuff went down hill a bit for my tastes. I think, can not verify it, that he is responsible for helping The Police come together.  Bali Agung is great, but one of my all time favorite albums for meditation ... is .... you got it ... Tranceformation ... it was the first album to mix Gregorian Chants, Electric Guitar and Electronics, I think. And the guitar? ... Andy Summers! ... and in the next two or three albums ... you got Sting singing.  ... "Why Don't You Answer?" ...

 

I would like to add Eberhard to this group here, but writing about him is gonna be tough ... not sure I have seen a whole lot about him ... I'll see what I can do about this.

 

There are a lot of electronic and experimental folks in the mid 70's, that was really exciting, and I hope to make a small list of them and the things I have ... both German and French were massive in this area.

Yeah ... I don't have the albums, but have them on the Space Pirate Radio shows ... only problem is ... I have no idea which it is as there is about 10% of the material played in there that I have no idea what it is.

 

But it is on my must get list.

 

I also have several solo albums from many Japanese folks. Imai is the one that comes to mind right away. And I think that he came from the Sadistic Mika Band ... that whole family had some awesome musicians around them. I want to get Sadistic Mika Band's first album for Dean on his birthday ... if he doesn't have it ... and then play "Picanic Boogie" out loud for him ... psychedelic fun!

The video is black in the beginning, picture will come later.

 

The last album of his that I have, was the one where he did electronics around birds flying and the sound that their flying made ... that was kinda neat ... and sounded nice. It is quite close to the sounds I hear when flying around the planets and galaxies and meditating ... not the same, but somewhat similar ... with the space wind sounds in "In Search of Ancient Gods" and from the Nasa archives mixed in some. Very similar to the desctiptions that Robert Monroe has on his own first 3 books.

 

The biggest issue, is that he belongs with experiments and attempts at creating new music and to him, it didn't matter what it was, or what the results were (how krautrock that is!) ... and in that sense a lot of what he did was interesting, and a lot of what he did was NOT interesting.

 

What I have not heard is the stuff that he did with Deep Purple ... it seems strange that Jon Lord would have learned something from Eberhard, but it could be possible, or maybe it was just background noise or other. I, personally, am not a Deep Purple fan, and think the music was too much "middle of the road" like most radio stuff. One song here or there ... is not important for me.

Great idea to get some Kraut out there - alongside RPI, electronic and psychedelic - the German scene is probably one of my all time favorites. Great videos posted in here - Krautrock on Youtube?

Do you guys know of Bobby Beausoleil´s Lucifer Rising? The guy was associated with Charles Manson back in the 60s and went on to kill a drug dealer for selling him bum mescalin. This album was supposedly written by Bobby during his incarceration - and somehow the band managed to cook up a true masterpiece of transcendental music. I´m mentioning this, because I personally feel the album has a distinct Kraut flavor to it - halfway between Gila´s first and Solar Suite Music by Grobschnitt, but entirely original. The record is from 1976-1979 (no real certainty there...) and made in the US as a soundtrack for the Kevin Anger movie bearing the same name. Maybe that is why it´s listed here under electronic. 

Anyways if you love Krautrock, be sure to check this mother out!

Great thread. 

I know, but that last track comes very close to Kraut IMO. 

I don´t know anything about a new release of old material - That sounds really interesting. Thanks for the heads up

 

I highly recommend that you see the Krautrock Special that is on the net in 6 parts ... that first part is incendiary ... like those days.

 

What you will find, is that your start is gonna change, since you could quickly connect this to film, painting, theater and other arts ... the connection of which we don't like to investigate ... as it is way too big ... but it explains a lot of things.

 

All in all, after you hear Edgar's words about this, think of Jean Luc Godard a few years earlier doing what he called "anti-film" ... and in the end, my term is that almost all of this is "anti-music" ... with a heavy accent on what Edgar Froese was stating ...

 

You have to start with "nothing" ... instead of an idea ... and that was the point that got many of these going ... and it's hard for us to accept because we think that "nothing" means we're dead or stupid! The idea is ... that when you start with "YOU", you can find something in the mirror ... if you are starting with an idea ... the image in the mirror is out of focus and mixed ... because any idea is a filter! (using an analogy for you!)

 

I don't think that the bands themselves are more important than the rest of the arts around them ... and this is the most important part of it all ... with the difference that there were more artists that helped make this whole thing visible, and establish it, than otherwise ... and the media and press be darned and damned ...  and check out the names of the music folks, classical and otherwise, and then the names of the writers and film makers. And then realize how many people here have not seen much of anything in that area to get a stronger perspective. Peter Handke was doing with words and letters the same thing that Damo did - which suggests that Damo was well aware of the theater and film scenes and this is what he wanted to try and do, and he had amazing courage to go out, and then do it!

 

Please see that special ... by the time you hear the strands of "All Along the Watchtower" ... I had tears in my eyes ... it was hard to believe that someone could ... with a few images ... explain a lot of this work so well! AND so clearly, which is something that we have a hard time appreciating and studying ... and imagine ... what an anthem Epitath is with the same image and situation!

 

 

 

Enjoy this amazing documentary.

 

 

Krautrock Rules!