German Krautrock and Progressive Electronic in the 1970s

[Bake 2]

[QUOTE=Trane;1233762]

Guru Guru for sure did anyone addicted to audio psychedlics a big favor. I think Karpenkiel was in Kollektiv before joining Guru Guru.

[Trane]

Kollektiv's debut (love it) is from 73, Guru's Junk from 70 or 71

By the time Karpenkiel was in Guru 2, it was their 7th or 8th album.

[JKL2000]

The "Krautrock" label encompasses so many different (hard to define) styles that it's nearly impossible and meaningless to reduce it to a "top 10" list.

Just what I was going to say. Not to mention, many of these bands changed so much after their first couple of albums that they each have at least two distinct periods. It doesn't make the lists bad, but it can be a little hard to get guidance from a list of just 10 I suppose. Still fun to see what people chose.

[MIO Records]

If i must make a top 20 groups somehow i would vote for:
1. Faust
2. Neu
3. Can
4. Amon Duul II
5. Guru Guru
6. Agitation Free
7. Out of Focus
8. Krokodil - An invisible world
9. Dzyan
10. Kraan
11. Kollektiv
12. Gila - 2nd album
13. Brainstorn
14. My Solid Ground
15. Twenty Sixty Six
16. Nine Days Wonder
17. Ash Ra Tempel
18. A.R & Machines
19. Organization & first 2 Kraftwerk albums
20. Kedama

[Zeuhlmate]

I.D. Company aka "Inga Rumpf and Dagmar Krause Company




City Preachers (Dagmar Krause)

[veteranof1000psychicwars]

I will throw in a few of my favorites:
Message - From Books And Dreams
Gift - Blue Apple
Neuschwanstein - Battlement
Grobschnitt - Rockpommel's Land, and Solar Music (live)

[Rarebird]

... only if you like the more softer/lighter side of german progressive rock.

The first 3 records are good (in a light symphonic rock style) then they gradually took a more simplistic/commercial pop-rock songs oriented path (all sung in german).

Recommended: s/t (1975) and Sommerabend (1976)

Konzerte is good as well and I defenitly would add Brandung to the list. Vielleicht bist du ein Clown isn't bad and Flossenengel is conceptalbum. After that the music changed. Probably because the times had changed, so to stay relevant and be able to work, one had to go with the tide. Lutz Rahn also did a solo-album.

If you like Novalis, Anyone's Daughter might also be up to your alley.

I could also add Streetmark, but well they really changed during their short career. Dorothea Raukes also did a solo-album. And so did Wolfgang Riechmann, whose album was released after he died.

[Mr.Krautman]

Konzerte is good as well and I defenitly would add Brandung to the list. Vielleicht bist du ein Clown isn't bad and Flossenengel is conceptalbum. After that the music changed. Probably because the times had changed, so to stay relevant and be able to work, one had to go with the tide. Lutz Rahn also did a solo-album.

If you like Novalis, Anyone's Daughter might also be up to your alley.

I could also add Streetmark, but well they really changed during their short career. Dorothea Raukes also did a solo-album. And so did Wolfgang Riechmann, whose album was released after he died.

Yes, I forgot to mention "Konzerte" wich is also very good and recommended.

And I would also add "Visionen", a nice compilation of instrumental tracks.

[Rarebird]

Yes, I forgot to mention "Konzerte" wich is also very good and recommended.

And I would also add "Visionen", a nice compilation of instrumental tracks.

Well, considering I have all their regular albums, I don't think I need Visionen.
There also has been another group named Novalis, also known as Novalis Deux.

[Mr.Krautman]

Well, considering I have all their regular albums, I don't think I need Visionen.
There also has been another group named Novalis, also known as Novalis Deux.

Visionen is not really a "sampler" but a compilation of (only) instrumental tracks taken from various records. Some of them have been re-worked, edited, or re-played and can't be found on any other Novalis records in that form. Not essential ,but the album has a great spacey flow and excellent sound. It has never been reissued in CD format and is not included in the big "Schmetterlinge" boxset I own.

[Rarebird]

Visionen is not really a "sampler" but a compilation of (only) instrumental tracks taken from various records. Some of them have been re-worked, edited, or re-played and can't be found on any other Novalis records in that form. Not essential ,but the album has a great spacey flow and excellent sound. It has never been reissued in CD format and is not included in the big "Schmetterlinge" boxset I own.

Well, I have all albums on vinyl, exept Visionen (if I have seen it I might have considered it being a kind of sampler, with only titles I was familiar with) and I also have the Schmetterlinge boxset and a couple of albums on seperate CDs. Novalis I have 2 times on seperate CD.

[Progbear]

If you like Novalis, Anyone's Daughter might also be up to your alley.

Anyone's Daughter are a little more complex than Novalis. Most of the Canterbury influence had been leached out of the band by the time of Adonis (see "Ma chère Marquise de Sade," a live favorite in 17/8 that got recorded as a pre-LP demo that got tacked on to the posthumously released Last Tracks). But some of that sophistication stayed up until at least In Blau and arguably Neue Sterne. The perception of them as "proto-neo-prog" is, I think, blatantly unfair. I'd say they're more comparable to a band like U.K. or England, a last gasp of "real prog" before the Neue Deutsche Welle overtook everything.

I could also add Streetmark, but well they really changed during their short career. Dorothea Raukes also did a solo-album. And so did Wolfgang Riechmann, whose album was released after he died.

Streetmark's discography is even rockier and less consistent than Lucifer's Friend's. NONE of their albums is like the other! I think keyboardist Dorothea Raukes was the only common thread that united them all (with guitarist Thomas Schreiber appearing on all of them bar Sky Racer). Her solo album is an interesting solo synth record, and if you're interested in analog synth stuff it's worth checking out.

Incidentally, Riechmann's posthumously-released Wunderbar turned out to be Sky Records' biggest seller, to the point that it spawned some apparent imitators (Harald Grosskopf's Synthesist comes to mind, just look at that cover!). It also impelled Sky to release an abridged version of Eileen entitled Wolfgang Riechmann With Streetmark.