What is Krautrock?

Well, tough to say, but I'll tell you this much: it isn’t a genre. Rolling Stone has been lying to us for years.

From the flickering, cybernetic synthscapes of Kraftwerk, to the more natural, motor-driven guitar rock of groups like Can, even stretching as far to the fringe ambience of Tangerine Dream, I like to think of it more of as an umbrella term for a school of musical thought that had its golden age sometime in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s in Germany.

Let’s give it a deep dive, shall we?

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Having been raised at the cusp of a perennial dark age, the first generation of German baby boomers were never fully captivated by that first high-spirited, rabble-rousing wave of Rock and Roll - at least not in the way the same generation had been in England and the States. Instead, they waited a few years, went to college, became poets, read up on their Camus, discovered the Velvet Underground etc…

Only then did they decide to bless us with their take on a genre that - in their eyes - had become a commodity. While the West remained hooked on the overindulgent, production-line sound of “radio rock,” the Germans ran in the opposite direction, away from the noise; they economized rock and roll by stripping the genre to its barest necessities: a static 4/4 backbeat. Single-note bass lines. Zero swing whatsoever. Pick a sequence, and stick with it. Slowly add layers, take them away, emphasize dynamics. Choruses were simply selling points, a byproduct of capitalism, and therefore deemed irrelevant.

Here are some of the essentials.

CAN - FUTURE DAYS

The Beatles of krautrock. The masters of Motorik. Technically not the first to do it, but certainly the most representative of the genre as a whole. The band claims to have discovered their singer Damo Suzuki busking on a street corner, before inviting him up onto stage at a gig later that evening - because that’s their style. No structure, no patterns, no plans; predictability is a cold, hollow thing…

The Malcolm Mooney years are great too, but the group became fully-realized unit on Suzuki-era gems like Tago Mago and Future Days.

Side note: Jaki Liezebit is the most underrated drummer of all time, IMO. And his last name - the one he was born with - literally translates to “Love Rhythm.” How cool is that?

NEU - NEU! ‘75

If Can were the Beatles… these guys were the Stones. A little raunchier, a little rougher around the edges, especially on their third album Neu! ‘75, whose track “Hero” is considered just might be the first punk song ever recorded. Their first album is a classic too, but you can tell they’re really just trying to do their best Tago Mago impression.

KRAFTWERK - COMPUTER WORLD

Ever wondered where all that droning, repetitive, migraine-inducing house music you listen to originated from?

Well, turns out the original formula was much more tolerable; you can thank “the robots.” No, not those ones.

AMON DUUL II - YETI

Equal parts the Who, early Pink Floyd, and Salvador Dali, Amon Duul were certainly the most unhinged of their contemporaries. They were also the heaviest, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Every single one of the tracks on their seminal album Yeti would make a fantastic band name: “Halluzination Guillotine.” “Archangels Thunderbird.” I’ve got dibs on “Flesh-Coloured Anti-Aircraft alarm.”

A.R. AND MACHINES - DIE GRÜNE REISE

Now we’re getting weird. Maybe a little too weird, but when has that ever stopped us?

Information on this band is scarce. All I know is that their first and only album Die Grüne Reise is one of the strangest slates of recorded music that I’ve ever heard; it sounds like a fucked-up version of Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. See: “Station 1: Globus.” — Jackson Todd