[LingLing1337]

I've heard a lot of good things about the genre but I have no idea where to begin. Anyone want to suggest to good, accessible albums to start with? Thanks.

 

[diogenes]

Circle!

Check out Circle on the Bus in San Fransisco on youtube for a taste.

 

[priest]

Can - Ege Bamyasi

 

[rocker]

CAN - Tago Mago
Kraftwerk - everything - I originally started with 'Radioactivity'.
Tangerine Dream - 'Phaedra' & 'Zeit'
Neu! - self titled.

 

[Uncle Erik]

The only music in the genre I have is from Can, Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. I love and recommend them, but will look forward to the reading the rest of this thread.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Hynmen..........Karlheinz Stockhausen

http://www.geocities.com/krautrockgroup/



This is regarded as the first piece of pop electronic music.
This was the spark that had an influence in Krautrock thus Tangerine Dream and their first drummer Klaus Schulze, the whole 7-up Timothy Leary Cosmic Psi German Underground was already playing Stockhausen and dropping L just like Jesse Franco's Succubus movie soundtrack. What was to follow has fallen so far threw the cracks that it would take alot to dig it up. As Pink Floyd was just starting in England, Germany had a response like Can, Faust, Brain Ticket, Kraftwork, Cluster. The best place to start for most would be Julian's The Krautrock Sampler, or A Crack In The Cosmic Egg by Utima Thule Record Store folks in England. This stuff was the party music made to prolong the party experience just like erectile disfuntion aids do. The problem is, yes it was dance music, can you dance to it? Most people today apart from a mild uprising in
1999, just don't get get it. When Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells hit in the mid-seventies, there was a mainstream start-up. The real problem is this music does not sound that great unless your under an influence, or have a wide enough imagination to "get it". Even The Beatles made there secret homage to Hynmen on The Beatles (White Album} in the song Number 9. The Beatles even placed Stockhausen on the cover of St. Peppers as a clue as to how really compressed and "electronic"and Psi that album is. The really crazy thing is how much this music is the quiet-stepsister to New-Age Steven Halpern modular moog madness. To do this list right you need to start with a web pulled list of lables like Brain. Yes I spun Human League's Dare when it came out in 81. I spun Ultravox. Do you know who produced the early Ultravox? Conny Plank! Yes it really does all come full circle. Go get the Harmonia releases and the Neu releases from the mid seventies. That's what created New Wave, and in turn got Johnny Rotten to make punk rock. In the eighties I always thought New Wave was a watered down type of punk. Now I see how it was the other way around, Thanks Karlheinz!

 

[Redcarmoose]

Ash Ra Temple is a classic place to start.

 

[steviebee]

x2 Can - one of the best groups ever, no matter what genre/label. You really can't go wrong with most of their catalogue. Ege, Tago, Future Days are all great starts. Their first, Monster Movie, too - Mooney is a very different vocalist to the subsequent (& wonderful) Damo. Can also have one the great drummers of all time in Jaki Leibezeit. Check them on Youtube -some great live film.

Amon Duul 2 - try Phallus Dei, Yeti or Wolf City. Live in London is good too.

Popul Vuh - can be worthwhile but I always found them patchy.

x2 Ash Ra

Edit\ Almost forgot: Faust. Utterly great.

 

[Happy Camper]

Krautrock, a progressive rock music sub-genre

 

[BobMcN]

To truly understand Krautrock you need to start with the classics. Listen to this first...

Enjoy,
Bob