Krautrock

Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental bands who appeared in Germany in the early 1970s. It was originally a somewhat derogatory term coined by the British music press from the slang term "Kraut", meaning "a German person" and taken from the traditional German dish of pickled cabbage, Sauerkraut. However, because much of the music produced by these bands has since come to be very highly regarded, the term "krautrock" is now generally seen as an accolade rather than an insult.

Typical bands dubbed "krautrock" in the early 1970s included Tangerine Dream, Faust, Can, and others associated with the celebrated Cologne-based producers and engineers Dieter Dierks and Conny Plank, such as Neu!, Kraftwerk and Cluster. Bands such as these were reacting against the post-WWII cultural vacuum in Germany and tending to reject Anglo-American popular culture in favour of creating their own more radical and experimental new German culture.

Mostly instrumental, the signature sound of krautrock mixed rock music and "rock band" instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums) with electronic instrumentation and textures, often with what would now be described as an ambient music sensibility. It also featured a pulsing rhythm section so steady that its practitioners dubbed it "motorik" -- a mongrel word meaning, roughly, "mechanical music."

By the end of the 1960s, the American and British counterculture and hippie movement had moved rock towards psychedelia, heavy metal, progressive rock and other styles, incorporating, for the first time in popular music, socially and politically incisive lyrics. The 1968 German student movement, French protests and Italian student movement had created a class of young, intellectual continental listeners, while nuclear weapons, pollution and war inspired protests and activism. Avant-garde music had taken a turn towards the electronic in the mid-1950s; the roots of electronic music, however, extend into the 19th century.

These factors all laid the scene for the explosion in what came to be termed krautrock, which arose at the first major German rock festival in 1968 in Essen. Like their American and British counterparts, German rock musicians played a kind of psychedelia. In contrast, however, there was no attempt to reproduce the effects of drugs, but rather an innovative fusion of psychedelia and the electronic avant-garde. That same year, 1968, saw the foundation of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab in Berlin by Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler, which further popularized the psychedelic-rock sound in the German mainstream.

Originally Krautrock was a form of Free art, which meant that Krautrock bands gave their records away for free at Free Art Fairs.

The next few years saw a wave of pioneering groups. In 1968, Can formed, adding jazz to the mix, while the following year saw Kluster (later Cluster) begin recording keyboard-based instrumental music with an emphasis on static drones. In 1971, the bands Tangerine Dream and Faust used electronic synthesizers and advanced production techniques to make what they called kosmische musik. The band Ash Ra Tempel and the project Cosmic Jokers were experimenting with these new sounds as well.

In 1972, two albums incorporated European rock and electronic psychedelia with Asian sounds: Popol Vuh's In Den Gaerten Pharaos and Deuter's Aum. Meanwhile, kosmische musik saw the release of two double albums, Klaus Schulze's Cyborg and Tangerine Dream's Zeit (produced by Dieter Dierks), while a band called Neu! began to play highly rhythmic music. By the middle of the decade, one of the most well-known German bands, Kraftwerk, had released albums like Autobahn and Radio-Activity, which laid the foundation for electro, techno and other styles later in the century.

The release of Tangerine Dream's Phaedra in 1974 marked a divergence of that group from Krautrock to a more melodic sequencer-driven sound that was later termed Berlin School. In that same year Klaus Schulze delivered one more LP of pure Krautrock, Blackdance, and began to release more hypnotic versions of what TD was doing.

Influence of Krautrock on later generations

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the resurgence of electronic music and a new generation rediscovering much of the early work of German music in that period, Krautrock came to be considered a style in and of itself. Artists such as Stereolab, Laika, Boredoms, Mouse on Mars, and Tortoise working under the post-rock and electronica rubrics have often cited bands in the Krautrock canon as being among their more significant influences. Radiohead has done a cover of Can's song "The Thief" and cite them as one of their influences. The band Wilco has shown a growing Krautrock influence in their music, specifically on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and several songs on A Ghost is Born, especially on songs like Spiders (Kidsmoke). In interviews Jeff Tweedy (the band's lead singer/songwriter/guitarist) has often spoke of his admiration for bands such as Can and Neu!. Julian Cope has always cited Krautrock an influence, even going as far as to write a book on the subject.

Samples

Hallogallo.ogg, the lead track off Neu!'s debut, and a definitive Krautrock track.
Green_Bubble_Raincoat.ogg from Amon Düül II's album Wolf City.

Notable artists

External links

Krautrock | Progressive rock | Electronic music genres

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Krautrock

Influence of Krautrock on later generations

Samples

Notable artists

External links