Best Krautrock Band/Record ?
 

Im still fairly new to this genre and i want to explore it more. I have Can's Monster Movie and Tago Mago and like them both, but i now there are dozens of krautrock bands and albums out there.

So i want to hear some opinions on who you all think are the best and which albums are worth tracking down

Gila- S/T
Agitation Free - Malesch
Guru Guru- UFO, Hinten
Code III - Planet Of Man
Neu! - 1st 2 LPs
Ash Ra Tempel - 1st LP
Popol Vuh - Aguirre soundtrack


These are just a few, but some great ones to get started on.

your list is spot on but this one is one of amazing, very overlooked though

i'd add faust - so far
that s/t german oak album too.
golem - orion awakens

i kinda of spaced out, can't really think of others except the obvious (can, neu!, ash ra temple, klaus schultze, etc.)

I was just about to recommend Can....Tago Mago....and Future Days.

Definately my favorite Deutcheland tuneage....


Don't turn around....o' uh o'.....Der Kommisar's in town....o' uh 'o.....

Hide the stash !

That Golem album is actually fake "vintage/lost" krautrock perpetrated by Julian Cope if I'm not mistaken. A damn fine album nonetheless.

as far as i know, it's some weird mysterious thing which genesis p-orridge produced (way before tg) and much is unknown. it could be a farse, though.

and as you said, authentic or not, it's an amazing album.

I have heard varying reports on the origins of this album. GPO's name does appear in the liner notes though, as both producer and co-writer of the tracks. Claims to be from 72/73.

Pretty decent Krautrock review resource here:
http://www.thesoundprojector.com/exc_krautrock.html

Can't believe I didn't mention Yeti and Phallus Dei by Amon Duul II!

i was just rocking to yeti the other day and i didn't mentioned it either!

one of the few bands i have heard who were better in the studio than live.

what's the best music to hear before going to bed or when trying to sleep?

Sleep music-
Cluster, or one of the first three or 4 Tangerine Dream LPs. They were excellent when they first started.

As for Brainticket, they are great, but I prefer "Cottonwood Hill" to "Psychonaut." I also believe they were Swiss and not German.

Never an expert,mind.Neu 2.

Tago Mago

Savage Clone & Everyneurotic are experts at this genre/subject.

So, that being said, I'll risk exposing my fundamental ignorance & go with

Can -Tago Mago
Can- Ege Bamyasi

my personal favourite is the first neu! album:



neu! also being my favourite krautrock band...

These are rock-solid choices.

atari knows shit all

recently i've been listening to zuckerzeit by cluster a lot

Nothing else really to recommend.
I may add, though, that recently I came upon an article which stated Guru Guru to be the first krautrock band. Whether this is true or not, it sparked my interest and now I'm searching for a place to begin listening. Suggestions are welcome.

UFO is the best Guru Guru; Hinten is also very good, but less heavy. "This Is Guru Guru" has a lot of great ones too, like "Der Elektrolurch." There is also a great new live recording that has resurfaced from Essen 1970 that I can highly recommend. Great sound, great period. A lot of their stuff later on is pretty cheesy fusion stuff, but the early records rule like few others.

Hootie and the Blowfish

most ended up like that, didn't they? ash ra, amon düül II, popol vu, even can.

i think guru guru are the first band to be referred to as krautrock by the german music press, and it was used as an insulting term.

feeling funny, i gather...

I would say Popol Vuh and Ash Ra Tempel wound up being proto-New Age, but yeah, most tended to cheese out after a while if they went on long enough...

along with tangerine dream.

Mos def.....I love everything through Exit.

Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen
Can - Tago Mago
Faust - Faust
the first Kraftwerk record
Xhol Caravan -Electrip
Amon Duul - Psychedelic Underground
Harvester - Hemat
Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill

when people mention kraftwerk as krautrock, it reminds me of EDIT::actually, stupid poseurs, who mention every german band as krautrock, regardless of the music they play, like:

"the scorpions were a terrible krautrock band but kreator were a good one...rammstein are also bad within the new wave of krautrock bands".

The early, pre-Autobahn Kraftwerk and Organisation albums definitely qualify as much as anything. Kratwerk certainly departed from that style earlier than most, but I would say they were right in the thick of it at one time, especially as they played with Dinger and Rother of Neu.

and isn't the first scorpions record supposed to be both good & kraut?

nawh! the scorpions were always playing american and british-inspired hard rock.

but the first couple of albums were quite good, especially since they contained either michael schenker or uli john roth on guitar; they were certainly more intricate and composed than their "rock you like a hurricane"/"wind of change", more visible phase.

about kraftwerk, yeah, they started on that wave but they completely renounced to the term and association with those bands a long time ago, and when people (at least the ones i know) talk about kraftwerk as kraut, they refer to the autobahn and beyond period ("the model" and that crap, making a point how superior the other bands were to kraftwerk).

but something like autobahn isn't that different to cluster, and i don't think anyone would contest their kraut credentials.

that's like the controversial point of kraut. kraftwerk's music is hugely influenced by the movement (until they started doing singles, really) and their music might have never sounded like that had they started somewhere else in the middle of another scene, but they did speak against it and denied association with any of those bands (maybe they wanted the critics to give them good reviews or maybe they just hated labels). so...

i don't know, musicalwise, yeah they are kraut; but if you ask them, they'll probably tell you that all those bands broke up or cheesed out and they are still going strong, whatever.

I don't have much krautrock. I have the first Neu album and like that a lot, though. I haven't even heard Can. Or Kraftwerk.

Kraftwerk also said in a recent interview that no one inside Germany actually uses the term 'Krautrock.'

well i'd be suprised if any germans refer to themselves as krauts

it was a derogatory, insulting name used by the music press, they hated all those bands. then it was used by music fans abroad to separate the german bands from the genesis/elp/jethro tull set of progressive rock bands of the day.

some people today don't think krautrock bands have annything to do with progressive rock.

well what do they have to do with prog?