Barring the UK, no nation on this earth produced more classic progressive rock than Germany. In addition, their particular brand of Prog rock is quite different from any other, distinguishing itself by the weird. This month, Germany will be the country of honor.
"Krautrock" is a term coined by the British Press and is often rejected by the bands the label applies to. It's not a very specific tag, with a vast variety of artists under the genre. It it's most pure sense, the term means prog rock from Germany, but there is much German prog that isn't Krautrock. There are three main indicators of something fallin into this genre. First, there is a raw, underpoduced feel to the Krautrock albums. Secondly, minimalism, whether in the sound itself or in the composition itself, often features. Lastly, there is a large electronic element to the music. The organic mood of many symphonic prog or folk prog albums will be absent from Krautrock almost without exception.
This still leaves room for a great deal of variety. This is Krautrock:
As is this:
The first kind, exemplified by bands like Neu!, Kraftwerk, and Popol Vuh, is what I call "Soft Krautrock", and beat Brian Eno to the creation of Ambient Music by a good 6 or 7 years. The latter by bands like Gila, Amon Duul II, and Guru Guru, is "Hard Krautrock", which is more guitar driven. To complicate it, a great number of the bands did some of both.
Some of the most wacky, avant garde, and silly progressive rock came from Germany. With just three album reviews, I can just barely scrape the surface of all the wonderful music the country has to offer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment