Faust Cover Jennifer by Freddie Wadling

 

Jennifer dit hår brinner is a Swedish Faust cover, recorded by Freddie Wadling, and probably just as brilliant as the original.

Jennifer from Faust's fourth album is one of their most accessible tunes, even when it's still pretty haunting and disruptive. It's almost rock. One of Sweden's most fascinating musicians, Freddie Wadling, made a remarkable Swedish version of it for his 2009 album The Dark Flower.

Latin Kraut by Monoambiente

Argentina seems an unlikely place for krautrock but Monoambiente proves different.

Originating from the province of Tucumán, the band released two mini albums that blend krautrock influences (think Neu! and Can) with laidback latin pop. An unusual combination and that's how it sounds: unusual, but absolutely beautiful if you ask me.

The first EP Sin Música which I post here will appeal more to diehard krautrock fans, particularly the opening track El Nuevo Kraut. Buy it and you will also get an interesting video.

The second mini La Fábrica de Éxitos Cerró is more song oriented. There are still strange, disruptive elements but they're more subtle. It contains a Spanish cover of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World.

I haven't found much information about Monoambiente on the Net except for a few more songs posted on Pure Volume. I actually don't know if they are still active - the minis are from 2009. Whatever, enjoy their music. They're worth every second of your attention.

Michael Rother with Erlkönig

Krautrock in the 1970s had many faces. It could be experimental, spacey, punky, noisy, hypnotic, melodic... Michael Rother was one of the few musicians who could switch from one mood to another and create music that explored almost every possible direction, and never sounded out of place. As a member of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Harmonia he was a key figure in krautrock.

But let's not forget his solo work. It was (well, is .... he's still active) more melodic and accessible and (obviously) focused on his delicate guitar work. Rother's mother played Chopin on her piano when Michael was a kid and you can hear it in his playing.

Atlantis - Krautrock In Metal Outfit?

Atlantis was a German prog rock band, most famous for their line up with singer Inga Rumpf and drummer Udo Lindenberg. Today there's another Atlantis: een Dutch post-rock band that are about to release their new album Omens.

The 10-minute song Rapture has been released as a teaser. It starts noisy with dramatic keyboard accents and guitars that are bigger than life, but becomes more subtle after a while and almost melodic. And it never manages to lose your attention. Like krautrock in a metal outfit. Promising.

Omens will be released on Burning World Records, a label named after a Swans album. It gives an idea of what to expect.

Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser Saw Music As A Revolutionary Force

I finished the Dutch edition of Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's book De Nieuwe Popmuziek (original German title: Das Buch der neuen Pop-Musik). Written in 1969, it gives a pretty accurate description of musical developments since the early 1960s, seen through the eyes of the man who helped so many krautrock bands release their first albums.

Kaiser started his career in the world of music as a journalist. He wrote a number of books on this topic which are all hard to find now, but luckily, I  managed to get hold of a copy.

In his book, Kaiser regarded pop music not just as art or entertainment, but as a revolutionary force that would help create an entirely new society based on anarchist ideas. His biggest hope was Frank Zappa, the most intelligent and politically conscious musician around according to Kaiser.

When reading his work, you get the impression that he almost despised artists that did not sing about relevant social topics or did not make "psychedelic" music, a kind of music he felt you could only understand if you had a revolutionary soul.

For this reason, Kaiser saw musicians like Leonard Cohen or supergroups like Led Zeppelin as marionettes of the record industry, a business that he felt had no other objective than to manipulate and silence "progressive" young people in order to save the political establishment.

No Krautrock Without The Pink Floyd?

Read an interview with first generation krautrockers and many will mention the first Pink Floyd (then still The Pink Floyd) album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn as an influence. And it's not difficult to hear.

It's kinda ironic that these German artists who didn't want to reproduce anglo-saxon examples fell in love with a British band that was named after two American blues musicians. But listen to this legendary debut album and you understand the appeal of The Pink Floyd.

It was the sole album that the band recorded with their founder, Syd Barrett, who was not only the singer and guitarist but also the main songwriter.

Tangerine Dream - Zeit

 

For a long time I thought Tangerine Dream was one of the most boring bands in the world. Until I heard the stuff the Berlin-based band did before they specialized in endless sequencer symphonies.

Their albums Zeit (1972) and Atem (1973) are different. Both contain dark and menacing, ambient drone music, created with electronics but also with organs, cellos, guitars and other instruments. Haunting, unpredictable and only describable as undescribable.

These albums are actually much more powerful than the esoteric soundscape of Phaedra which followed Atem and became the blueprint of their later work.