The Krautrock Space

 

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: 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 ... 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

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.......