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palotin 
Forum Newbie 
Joined: August 27 2010 Location: Denver Status: Offline Points: 2 |
 Topic: Good Books On Krautrock?Posted: August 27 2010 at 04:04 |
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I'm looking for quality tomes on Krautrock. In addition to histories of the bands and scenes, I'd be particularly interested in any works that discuss in detail how the various bands made the sounds they did, especially the more strictly electronic ones.
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edible_buddha
Forum Senior Member 
Joined: September 16 2005 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 195 |
Posted: August 27 2010 at 04:37 |
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A good CD-Rom that is widely recommended is 'A crack in the Cosmic Egg' by Steve and Alan Freeman. I have found that this website; http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ultimathule/crackrom.html contains links to where you can purchase it and some information about it. Hope this helps.
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I really like this jacket, but the sleeves are much too long.
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Paravion
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 01 2010 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 470 |
Posted: August 27 2010 at 04:42 |
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^true. Here is the link to the "light version". A very good and free internet source containing bios and discography. < ="-" ="text/; =utf-8">
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The Hemulen
Special Collaborator 
Honorary Collaborator Joined: July 31 2004 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 5964 |
Posted: August 27 2010 at 05:13 |
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I've heard many good things about Julian Cope's "Krautrock Sampler" but I've not read it myself.
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CPicard
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 03 2008 Location: Là, sui monti. Status: Offline Points: 10841 |
Posted: August 27 2010 at 06:03 |
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Not bad, but a bit subjective, with very "personal" ideas (including a comparison between Neu! and the Stooges, if I remember well...) If you read French, there's also Eric Deshayes' Au-delà du Rock which works a bit like a dictionary of many, many, MANY bands. |
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Adams Bolero
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 07 2009 Location: Ireland Status: Offline Points: 679 |
Posted: August 27 2010 at 06:15 |
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''Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy'' is a pretty good overview.
Here's a link to it on Amazon:
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''Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.''
- Albert Camus |
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Neu!mann
Prog Reviewer 
Joined: January 21 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 689 |
Posted: August 31 2010 at 13:07 |
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I'll second the mention of the Nikos Kotsopoulos book (Krautrock: Cosmis Rock and its Legacy): it has some nice articles and lots of pictures in it. Julian Cope's Krautrocksampler is of course the classic reference...it's long out-of-print, put I recently found a link to a blog with a downloadable .pdf copy of it, in two parts. And when I say 'copy', I mean a not always legible duplicate pressed page-by-page onto a scanner, but it's still better than nothing (although I noticed one page of the original book is missing!)
Here's the link:
Pascal Bussy has a couple of specific band biographies worth reading...Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music, which has a brief overview of the early krautrock movement, and Future Days: the Can Story (which I never bought when I had the chance and is now out of circulation)
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"we can change the world without anyone noticing the difference" - Franco Falsini
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moshkito
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 17511 |
Posted: August 31 2010 at 19:41 |
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Hi,
I have one book ... Peter Michael Hamel's "From Music to the Self" ... which is actually a fine book other than the fact that he spends his time trashing popular music and most of all these bands!
I have kept and will make some jpegs of these things, many articles and press releases and information on many of these bands, and all in all the history is fine, but severely lacking.
For example, in the Egg CD the AD2 information is highly unsatisfying and gives no hint that while the band may not be political, they are very strong in the sentiment and almost violent in their aproach to their work. And "Phallus Dei" makes no sense in any of those terms except something about musicians that are so stoned that they would not know the difference about what they were playing, which of course is not true and was one of the reasons why Kris wanted to leave ... and "Phallus Dei" is a massive dig at the commune thing ... it was all about fun and drugs ... nothing else! Penis God! ... how much more obvious do you want to be? Suggest that they left so they could go worship sex? When the commune thing in Europe and America was mostly about free sex in the first place? ....
And then there are things elsewhere ... like some of the interviews here in PA with Florian Fricke, that help clarify a lot of other things that the CD is not doing ... like Florian saying that it was a tape of left over music on the floor and Werner decided that he could use it! And he used Popol Vuh left overs for what ... 7 films? ... and it worked in all of them!
There is a lot more. It just bothers me that some of these descriptions are taking out the human element in them and if there is one thing in the "krautrock" that highly evident is the effect of the human spirit ... good or bad ... and it has been a major part of germanic arts for hundreds of years.
Likewise, the fear of discussing Tim Leary and the effect on the Cosmic Couriers, although some people probably want to have nothing to do with Tim and probably disliked him sleeping with all their women! And Tim dis-honored them all by nothing being mentioned in a lot of things about Tim later ... nothing like ignoring one part of one's life ... that helped create and focus a MASSIVE music scene ... it might have been by accident, but usually arts, theater, film, music, tend to walk hand in hand ... unless your name is "star" in the Hollywood Blvd!
Julian Cope's words are nice. They are overly excited and stoned words about the music and while that's ok with me, it is something that not many people can understand and appreciate. All in all, the one thing that we can not say ... since it is too simple ... is that the music has massive passion, love, hate, and that expression is quite vivid in the instruments themselves (as if they could speak!) and in many of the lyrics. It might not be important to you, but Brecht and Weill were very much like this too? And a lot of other works ... even if we do not know them!
The important thing in all this is that if Germans have not shown the work, to say something in words is NOT enough ... and they tend to stretch the instruments and expressions to help emote what they want to do and say ... unlike a lot of rock music that tends to have a singer do that and the guitar simply adds a hook and a small solo under it ... by comparison the krautrock way, you're gonna sit here and feel the guitar cry and shudder and die!
Too many of these "krautrock" notes are afraid to help it stand out for the true cultural revolution that it was ... lest you are afraid to let people know that some bands did solos because they were too stoned to do anything else, be it MM Chamsin Soundtrack, or Klaus Schulze or AshRa Tempel or Guru Guru or any other band. That would be a total discredit to the person's ability and their desire to take music further in any form ... which has been a part of Eastern cultures for thousands of years, but the commercial and popular "sound" is now dictating that music can not be your opiate ... just money and the drugs that they want you to take before you die!
Sorry ... music is not empty, never has been ... and I really feel that a lot of people writing these things have not listened and are ignoring major parts of the work that many people put together.
And what magnific work it was, and still is compared to so much other pop/prog music out there! Edited by moshkito - August 31 2010 at 20:15 |
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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ALotOfBottle
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 17 2016 Location: Lublin, Poland Status: Offline Points: 1990 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 02:03 |
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Bumping this thread.
Prices on the "classic" krautrock books are ridiculous. Krautrocksampler costs about 180$ at the least, Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy costs 71$ used, A Crack in the Cosmic Egg costs 180$ used, I have downloaded a few pages in .pdf of the Krautrocksampler (something that Neu!mann recommended), but it's not the full book, plus it's not on paper (which I would appreciate). There is also Cosmic Price Guide to Original Krautrock Records, which costs a bit less, at about 30$. But than again it's a guide for collectors... It is however something I might be interested in, due to "A total of more than 2500 brilliant coloured pictures of original KRAUTROCK record albums will give you an in-depth impression of the fascinating KRAUTROCK cosmos.", which seems incredibly neat and tempting to me!  Has anybody had any experience with this one?Now that it's 2016, six years later, are there any new books on Krautrock that you could recommend? The ones that don't cost a fortune? Any help highly appreciated. |
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Saperlipopette!
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 20 2010 Location: Tomorrowland Status: Offline Points: 11621 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 02:18 |
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I came here to recommend the same book as Adam Bolero and Neu!Mann
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ALotOfBottle
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 17 2016 Location: Lublin, Poland Status: Offline Points: 1990 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 02:21 |
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Quite affordable, isn't it?  https://www.amazon.com/Krautrock-Cosmic-Rock-its-Legacy/dp/1906155666?ie=UTF8&qid=1282907498&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1 Edited by ALotOfBottle - July 04 2016 at 02:24 |
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Saperlipopette!
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 20 2010 Location: Tomorrowland Status: Offline Points: 11621 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 03:16 |
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Oh, these kind of books tends to become collectors items. I personally wouldn't say its worth more than what I payed for it - ca. 25 €. I'm glad I own it but its not flawless or feels like "the definitive" book on kraut. The introduction chapters are a great read though. Here's a cheaper one at Abe Books (who btw also got one for sale at £ 164.93 + an additional £ 56.46 for shipping)
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BaldJean
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 28 2005 Location: Germany Status: Offline Points: 10387 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 03:26 |
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if you understand German I recommend "Tanz der Lemminge" by rock journalist Ingeborg Schober. it deals chiefly with Amon Düül 2, but there are also some insights to the Krautrock scene in general.
 Schober was a close friend of the Düüls (her boyfriend Rüdiger Nüchtern made a short movie titled "Amon Düül 2 plays Phallus Dei") and hence her book has a lot of inside information on them that you won't get anywhere else. some of the scenes she describes in the book make you think "this is awesome and should be made into a movie". here a link to the Rüdiger Nüchtern movie: the movie was made with a very basic equipment, so the aural and visual quality is not the best. but it gives a good impression what the band was like in their wild days Edited by BaldJean - July 04 2016 at 09:13 |
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 A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta |
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CPicard
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 03 2008 Location: Là, sui monti. Status: Offline Points: 10841 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 04:38 |
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^I could always ask to my brother and my sister to translate it for me... If I can find it!
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ALotOfBottle
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 17 2016 Location: Lublin, Poland Status: Offline Points: 1990 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 05:32 |
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I can make a basic sense out of German, but not to the extent of being able to read a book in German, sadly.
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BaldJean
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 28 2005 Location: Germany Status: Offline Points: 10387 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 05:48 |
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I will describe two scenes which made me think "this should be made into a movie". scene 1: Amon Düül 2 played at a festival in Paris. before them Hawkwind had played their gig, and they needed a lot of time to get their gear off the stage, so the audience grew impatient. one spectator broke off the back of a chair and threw it on stage where it hit synth player Kalle Hausmann, a very thin guy, on the shoulder. this made bassist Lothar Meid mad, and he threw it back into the audience where it hit a spectator right in the face. the audience really became angry after that, and to save the situation Meid plugged in his bass and played the Marsellaise. what followed was one of the best Amon Düül 2 gigs ever. scene 2: Amon Düül 2 played a concert in Frankfurt. when they returned to their hotel a buffet for bankers and businessmen took place on the ground floor, and the Düüls in their totally stoned condition decided to crash the party in their hippie clothes, picking up chicken drumsticks and other food stuff with their hashish-stained fingers. a fight broke out. one of the bankers went mad shouting "you just hit my brother who is suffering from a lung complaint". the stoned Düüls decided to take a powder and ran into the streets, but the bankers and businessmen were really angry now, got into their cars and tried to run them over or squeeze them to the walls. hours later Ingeborg Schober and Rüdiger Nüchtern drove all around Frankfurt picking up the frightened Düül members who had hid themselves in the streets. I think you will agree that these episodes would be great scenes for a movie Edited by BaldJean - July 04 2016 at 07:39 |
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A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta |
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HosiannaMantra
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 14 2016 Location: Croatia Status: Offline Points: 206 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 08:11 |
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There was a great German 6-episode series "Kraut und Rüben" that deals with German seventies scene overall, but unfortunately I haven't found any English translation.
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ALotOfBottle
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 17 2016 Location: Lublin, Poland Status: Offline Points: 1990 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 08:34 |
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I think I'll be getting this one. I just fell in love with that "2500 albums" thing. Surely a lot of new stuff to discover!
Edited by ALotOfBottle - July 04 2016 at 11:47 |
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Saperlipopette!
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 20 2010 Location: Tomorrowland Status: Offline Points: 11621 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 09:49 |
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ALotOfBottle
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 17 2016 Location: Lublin, Poland Status: Offline Points: 1990 |
Posted: July 04 2016 at 11:48 |
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Anyway, it's this: https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-price-original-Krautrock-records/dp/3981010922?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 |
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