The Krautrock Thread

Zargus wrote: Im not the one who ceares for sub genres very much but.. Tangerine Dream & Kraftwerk are not Krautrock they are Progressiv Electronic.

that could be argued; the first albums of Tangerine Dream (up to "Atem") are definitely Krautrock, and I would even include "Phaedra" and "Rubycon" into Krautrock too. the reason is that on these albums the music is freely flowing, which is one of the characteristics of Krautrock. the instrumentation is rather conventional on the early albums too.  "Ricochet" is a borderline case; from "Stratosfear" on the albums became composed through, and I agree with you that Tangerine Dream's music should be classified as "progressive electronic" after that
some may argue that the early albums were composed though too and point out that there is a score of "Alpha Centauri" on the inner sleeve of the original vinyl version of the album; that score, however, was written after the album had been recorded

Agreed with BJ and Ddean, the early movement of Tangerine Dream can be considered kraut rock, till at least the transition of Atem (and Green Desert, who sounds like an exploitable sort of dark sequence music). To a slight difference, this period won't reflect the drone-like machine-traums of Schulze, nor the great schizmas of reality and dark fantasy of Ash Ra Tempel, but surreal, scorching and penetrating cosmic analogies, sound-experimentalism and ambience-distortion.

Electronic Meditation seems to me a totally independent sound-music taste, I mean the brink of alienation is very close, even for those that aren't purists of the kraut/electronic lascivious development.

And while Klaus Schulze is on the agenda what about his drumming on Ash Ra Temples' 1st and Join Inn and Code III !

Jesus!

 

BaldJean wrote: Zargus wrote: Im not the one who ceares for sub genres very much but.. Tangerine Dream & Kraftwerk are not Krautrock they are Progressiv Electronic. that could be argued; the first albums of Tangerine Dream (up to "Atem") are definitely Krautrock, and I would even include "Phaedra" and "Rubycon" into Krautrock too. the reason is that on these albums the music is freely flowing, which is one of the characteristics of Krautrock. the instrumentation is rather conventional on the early albums too.  "Ricochet" is a borderline case; from "Stratosfear" on the albums became composed through, and I agree with you that Tangerine Dream's music should be classified as "progressive electronic" after that some may argue that the early albums were composed though too and point out that there is a score of "Alpha Centauri" on the inner sleeve of the original vinyl version of the album; that score, however, was written after the album had been recorded

I am totally agree with this description.

In my opinion the 70's TD Krautrock's albums are one of the best music that I listen to!!!


Edited by Mandrakeroot - August 19 2007 at 10:51

Ricochet wrote: Jesus! meaning bad or good?

Yukorin wrote: Ricochet wrote: Jesus! meaning bad or good?   Jesus as in good. Very good. Farkin' amazing actually. Listen to him on Ash Ra Tempels' first. Impossible! Geezer is a legend!

Ash Ra Tempel's first is monumental and uniquely artistic. The others suffer from less perfect music and less repeatable such wild achievements of sound and cosmic perforation.

But I do enjoy the albums with Rosi, Seven Up or Le Berceau Du Cristal (the latter being electronic and dark ambient). Good Ash Ra!

Yukorin wrote: We are probably hitting the same band from different directions.   What makes me crazy about Ash Ra (and you can throw TD and Kraftwerk and Popul Vuh and Vangelis and Jarre and anybody else you care to mention) is the sheer don't give a fuuck atitude they were all brazenly displaying at the time.   Makes the scene even more enjoyable for me

You mean that they had the proper...psychedelic and acid rock attitude of revolutionizing the music?

Absolutely!!

You guys should really dig some Kluster. What they do in Eruption (practically the trio's composition with a more special mix done by a fourth musician) is purely brilliant; one of the greatest albums that are made of pure noise, scorching experimentalism and hallucinant emotions.


Edited by Ricochet - August 19 2007 at 14:58

did you know that John L., the guy who sings on Ash Ta Temple's "Schwingungen", used to appear naked and with a painted penis on stage and had himself whipped there during the performance?
another one who appeared naked and with painted body on stage was Limpe Fuchs of Anima. in another thread someone said that Hawkwindf's Stacia was the first to do so, but these two beat her by 2 or 3 years

philippe wrote:   CAN is the most overestimated band in krautrock history , 3/4 of their music is garbage. I wonder what a genius as Holger Czukay is doing in this band

Can released virtually no garbage until Landed, which was about 50% good and 50% mediocre.  After that it's garbage, but they put out 6 brilliant albums and one solid album, which seems like a damn good career to me. 

I ordered quite a bit of kraut this weekend including Agitation Free's Malesch, Popol Vuh's Affenstunde and Earth & Sky, and Mythos's debut.  Haven't been into kraut for too long, maybe 3 months, but I know quite a bit already.  Before that, I never gave it much a chance, but now I'm looking forward to explore it some more (among other things).

BaldJean wrote: did you know that John L., the guy who sings on Ash Ta Temple's "Schwingungen", used to appear naked and with a painted penis on stage and had himself whipped there during the performance? another one who appeared naked and with painted body on stage was Limpe Fuchs of Anima. in another thread someone said that Hawkwindf's Stacia was the first to do so, but these two beat her by 2 or 3 years

Sounds quite bizarre to say the least... it'll be hard to listen to those bands the same now