Definitive Krautrock album?

My two cents, after listening to the stuff for three decades (more or less)...

any CAN through Landed (but Tago Mago is definitive)

the first Neu! album (Neu! 2 if you're feeling really perverse)

any Faust through Faust 4 (I agree with Julian Cope that the sax solo at the end of It's a Rainy Day...Sunsunshine Girl off the Faust 2 album is to die for)

early (pre Autobahn) Kraftwerk

Cluster (when they spelled their name with a "K")

early (pre-sequencer) Tangerine Dream

Klaus Schulze's debut album Irrlicht (played so loud that it interferes with your brainwaves)

...and has anyone ever heard the Uberfallig album by Gunter Schickert? Great stuff: Like classic TD or Klaus Schulze but with guitars instead of synths.

Michael Neumann

I was introduced in kraut rock in my first college years with  Phallus Dei of Amon Duul II. After many years of searching this genre and many months of listening to all these "nutcases" i might say that is my favorite music of all.Nevertheless, i will not give you any list of unknown diamonds but mostly what i believe kraut classics,something that the "In-Rocks" and "Sgt. Peppers" of kraut.....

1.Yeti-Amon Duul II        &nbs p;         &nbs p;      

....absolute masterpiece in every way.From the spooky Pale Gallery, to the cacophonous psychedelic opera Soap Shop Rock, from the pervert riff of Cerberus to the improsivation of Yeti and Yeti talks to Yogi, a must, not only about anyone that want to learn more about Kraut Rock but also about anyone that don't think that music is about shaking his ass with the rhythm.

2.Grobschnitt-Grobschnitt

.....i agree, there are many records of Grobschnitt that are not kraut but not this. I have it in CD with the 30 minutes live version of  Die Sinfonie and anyone that have heard it must agree this is psychedelic rock in it's best.

3.Electronic Meditation-Tangerine Dream

.....i like this album a little little less than more spacey albumsd like Atem or Alpha Centauri but this is the most earthly album, it's the only one with the one and only Klaus Schulze in the band, and eventhough it's not so related with the later albums,it's a very fine introduction to their music (and your burning brain for these that prefer to listen to music after smoking some kind of tea...)

4.Faust IV- Faust

....again if i was ttalking to my self  i would say the first,selftitled album was the best but this may have disasterous effects to any neebie in prog-psychedelic music (such as not listening again anything less straightforward than Motorhead or more complicated than AC/DC)....so Faust IV. A minimalistic masterpiece with many musical surprises and more styles, even progressive reggae, if something like that can exist(the sad skinhead).Furthermore in this album exist the selftitled "national anthem" of krautrock.
 
5.Close encounter with their third one-Eiliff

....yes, Eiliff are not among the krautrock "stars"...yes this album is not even a record but something like a live show(a radio show if i remember correctly) ,but it's one
album with jazz-rock directly from  hell (as Frank Zappa would say), and with a "i don't mind what masses hear,as long as i am not one of them" kind of attitude that personally love...Coca-Cola  trickles  down your  Gibson and you  accept, it is  your heritage, your cup of meat, your bowl of Hallimasch, Hallimasch,Hallimasch is killing us (Hallimasch)

.....also checkout  Amon Duul II until "Made in Germany", "Tago Mago", "Ege Bamyasi","Future Days" from Can, "Neu 75" from Neu, anything from Tangerine dream(especially if you like ambient),Guru Guru from "UFO" to "Der Elektrolursch","Faust", "Faust so far" from Faust, Grobschnitt until "solar music live",anything from Ash Ra Tempel,"Malesch" from  Agitation Free,the  4 projects of Cosmic Jokers,"Klopfzeichen" from Kluster and anything from Popol Vuh when you ll get 35 years old...and then, if you still want to learn more about kraut,listen and to Kraftwerk....
 

Great! I really love that CD!

Kraan - Wintrup

Pell Mell - Marburg

Gomorrha - Trauma

Satin Whale - Desert Places

Rufus Zuphall - Weiss Der Teufel

mandrake wrote: I owuld say - all things considered - the LP for me that most epitomised krautrock is the huge sprawling monsterpiece known as YETI by AMON DUUL II. For me anyhow, the teutonic atmosphere of this LP, the organic improvisational spirit, the textured (and sometimes annoyingly lax) attitude to mixing levels & production and the great mysterious lyrics & cover just make this the definitve kraut LP! By the way, could I introduce myself as I'm new to the site - which is excellent by the way - espec. the mp3 d/loads available - I'm Dave Abel from Ormskirk, Lancashire, United Kingdom. (its near(ish) to Liverpool) and have been collecting & playing prog rock for many years - since about 1987. I especially like krautrock and European prog, like Italy's Celeste, Saint Just, and PFM. Also like a lot of Swedish stuff like Anglagard, Kaipa etc - and much German music - my all time fave being POPOL VUH.

What about Holderlin or Novalis? Suprised nobody has mentioned anything by these guys.

Hello,

Here's my top 5 list:

Amon dûll II/ Dance of the lemmings

Agitation free /Last (the choice is hard, as all of their albums are excellent)

Popol vuh/Einsjäger & Siebenjäger (here again, it's very hard)

Manuel Göttsching/Inventions for electric guitar

Dzyan/electric silence

 

 

 

YAY people!

For me it is Guru Guru UFO or Yeti by Amon Duul II. Or Grobschnitt`s debut.

philippe wrote: You are right Diddy...however the term Krautrock is difficult to define...some say that it simply refers to the german rock from the seventies, some others say that it is german prog rock, at last a few say that it is the old german electro music...for me it's acid rock from germany and all the underground rock scene which emerged at the beginning of the seventies and first signed on the ohr label... but I think the term came from the band FAUST