Krautrock '70's: your favourite bands/authors?

Hi,

Especially their early material which I like to say was the Jimi that we never heard ... and will continue not hearing!!! 

I find their first albums (all the way to Flames) excellent, but for some reason, it seems to never had taken to a lot of fans ... Not sure why we love the antics Jimi and others did, and then think that what Ax Gernrich did was not very good ... the context with which it was done, was way more interesting and far out ... at least a couple of those pieces are still played by GG in their shows ... and probably will continue until Mani stops playing, if he ever does.

The changes they made, though are really tough ... After KANGURU (their 3rd album), they changed really hard to a guitar player that was Jon McLaughlin inspired, and it actually was a very good album with 2 long cuts that were outstanding ... but never played, or sort of like ... did anyone hear that? And, of course, the jazzier, and more KRAAN minded next album (TANGO FANGO) kinda took away the "progressive" feeling around GG for me ... even though there were some things in it that were outstanding ... but will never have the appreciation or the listen it deserves. The most impressive one is the one that is ignored which is also a satire on East German music at the time (schlagger) and a very obvious statement that the new inspiration was rock music, not the old crap. "Das Liebendige Radio" was done way before the Wall came down in Berlin, and it really shows what folks thought of a lot of the arts and politics before the Wall came down ... and it has been stated that this was a part of GG that was not appreciated by a lot of authorities in Germany ... the political tone was a problem, and I think that Mani had a hard time with it, and used a lot of his antics and fun for some political moments. Had he stuck to the guitar stuff, or his playing, things might have been easier ... but getting folks to listen to the stuff, nowadays, is a HUGE hassle ... folks pass up stuff left and right ... as is the case in the dramatic thread, where it was very obvious that the comment about one album meant the person likely did not listen to the album at all, or the comment would have been different, I think!

This is the sad part of listening to the earlier stuff in the annals of progressive music, and even the rest of "krautrock" that is being treated as a bunch of meaningless songs, with people really having bizarre statements about AD2's first album, as it is ignored that the whole thing is an attack on what the "commune" thing (that created AD1 from which came AD2), was simply an excuse to jump all the women, in these events and daily/weekly parties ... and though some had politics showing, in general, the "commune" simply was an open door policy to free use. Something that also started in SF, but did not end up well when everyone showed up with flowers in their hair!

CAN was better setup than AD2 and GG ... they were from the music school and were appreciated for their music knowledge and ability, which is not something new in "krautrock" ... there were many others including the band Agitation Free getting money to go abroad to create "new music". And several members of that music school that were graduates and later the professors ... something that rock music disdains horribly .... in "progressive" and "progrock" you can't have intelligent folks that know a heck of a lot more than a small staff and song! In this sense, both AD2 and GG were, or could be thought of, as being more representative of the populace than the idea of the well educated folks kinda becoming the main drive for what became "krautrock", which was extremely evident in the theater and film, which is very clear ... though completely ignored by the fans these days, it seems.

The most important part of "krautrock" is that this is not about "songs" ... it's about a new experience ... and I think we need to express that better ... and that might mean we have to stop thinking of these folks/bands as hit makers and industry darlings ... all of them had serious release issues .... and were (eventually) first appreciated outside their country which says a lot for the media and its politics after WW2 ... it did not want to go "forward" and change with the times ... but it was a bunch of film makers and musicians that stood up and made it happen ... and for this, they all deserve the credit.

There ia a book about all this ... and the fact that there were at least 5 or 6 DIFFERENT areas with very different music and ideas, that became, ultimately, a part of the "krautrock" thing, even if some of them couldn't give a damn about it. That book makes a suggestion that the whole thing can only be one, in our minds, as the ideologies in each different area was much more prevalent, than any ideal that we might wish to think about ... it is a very good read, but it kinda makes for the whole "krautrock" thing seem to be just an accident on our parts in discovering it ... and not give the German folks credit for their creativity ... and new freedom that helped bring about a lot of the arts!