Tag Archives: krautrock

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Last week, we asked you for your favourite entry-level Krautrock tunes,

At stake was a mint-condition voucher for €25 to spend at any outlet of renowned music emporium Golden Discs.

You entered in your dozens.

But there could  be only one Führer

Optimus Grime wins the voucher with this simple yet precise offering.

To introduce the uninitiated to Krautrock, I would play the subtle 10 minute opus Hallogallo by Neu!, for that quintessential feeling of cruising along the autobahn at top speed, in some finely tuned, precise German engineering.

UPDATE! The Broadsheet Competition Regulatory Authority has ruled in favour of extra runners-up this week, following heated discussions in the comments.

Ploppy: “When introducing the delicate beauty of Krautrock to the uninitiated, I always play Vitamin C by Can because if Jaki Liebezeit’s propulsive, decades-ahead-of-their-time cyclical drum rhythms don’t get your blood pumping, then it’s already too late for you, as you are most likely clinically dead.”

Dudley: “The full on bananas version of Mother Sky by Can, has it all,amazing riff, motorik drums, goes on for days.”

Pat Walsh: “When introducing the delicate beauty of Krautrock to the uninitiated, I always play them something by Kraftwerk and, in particular, Autobahn, because it motors along quite nicely.”

Starina: “I always go with Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy by Einstürzende Neubauten. It’s not technically “krautrock” but as it’s German and it’s rock and it’s seven-and-a-half minutes of wonderful white noise and the screeching howls of industrial pixie Blixa Bargeld, I think it fairly qualifies. This was the first Neubauten song I heard when I was 16, sent to me on a cassette mixtape, and it definitely changed something in me forever. Krautrock’s avant-garde elements played heavily in Neubauten’s early deconstructions, played with literal industrial instruments – wrenches, sheetmetal, chainsaws, etc – all wrangled into something delicious that walked a fine line between pure nihilistic noise and beautiful melody.

And when I introduce someone to Neubauten, I always mention Blixa’s second job as guitarist for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – it’s his jarring noise and deep German voice you hear on the first few albums – and how he famously quit the Bad Seeds during a recording session of a cover of some godawful blues standard, throwing down his guitar and declaring, “I didn’t join this band to play this awful shite”. (quote approximate) Legend.

If I win the voucher, I shall be ordering in the vinyl of the album this came off of: Halber Mensch.

Lorcan Nagle: “When introducing the delicate beauty of Krautrock to the uninitiated I always play Die Interimsliebenden by Einsturzende Neubauten. I was introduced to Neubauten by Der Tod ist Ein Dandy via mixtape, but Interimsliebenden is by far my favourite track of theirs. There’s an incredible amount of intricacy in the music, especially when you consider how it was created.”

Mr. P: “It can be no other than Peter Schilling – Major Tom. It has everything…the drama, the tension, the excitement, the fantastic 80’s reverb… 4-3-2-1…”

Golden Discs

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“We Are Brothers” by Baddy Paris and Rufus Starlight – a krautrocky message to their older sibling, who had asked them to be best men at his wedding and got this – possibly the most fabulous best-man speech ever – in response. They sez:‬

At his wedding we pleaded for our brother not to leave us, in the only way we knew how to say it; through the the medium of 80s music and video. We thought we’d done ok, but he left us anyway.

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