Krautrock - A Quickie Quiz To Pass The Time

Answer: Zweistein

One of the precious few truly great (well... at least I think it is) THREE LP sets. This 1970 release on the Philips label has one of the most amazing covers you will ever see: the entire thing is foil paper with intricate embossing and etchings (and even a tiny mirror) on the front and psychedelic imagery on foil paper in the gatefold.

The music is accordingly trippy and the band has been cloaked in mystery since day one (somewhat cleared up nowadays if you are willing to do a tiny bit of legwork online).

Answer: Tangerine Dream

A wonderfully downbeat 2 LP set from 1972 issued on the ever reliable Ohr label. Once of the more unique albums by Tangerine Dream. This album features the band and a bunch of cellos (to give you an idea of what is going on here musically). The perfect record to accompany a gloomy day or the soundtrack for a downbeat, depressing afternoon. With beautiful cover art to heighten the mood.

Answer: Floh De Cologne

This bizarrely beautiful package came out in 1971. The cover is a black and white drawing of a turkey. With die cut pull out innards (and the record is on poultry blood red vinyl). I never much understood non-Germans bothering with this band as SO much of what they do is 100% lyric oriented and they sing in German exclusively.

This rock opera has moments of Farfisa organ driven semi garage rock with their usual socialist pro union, pro worker, anti government lyrics. This has pretty much always been my favorite record by them.

Answer: Can

Ege Bamyasi has always been one of the best albums by Can to get your feet wet with. Not only did it have their one bona-fide hit on it (Yes: a 100% Krautrock song that went right to the top of the charts when it was used as the theme song for a wildly popular TV mini series called 'Das Messer' (The Knife) and immediately released as a single when the first episode of the series had near record setting viewer numbers. Oh yeah.

The song was called "Spoon"). So you got a hit single, a cool eye catching cover with printed inner sleeve and a full color huge poster in the first pressing. What's not to like? What's not going to appeal to your average German teen that is ever so slightly inclined towards something a hair out of the ordinary? Released in 1972 on the United Artists label.

Answer: Amon Düül

A personal childhood favorite of mine: The wonderful Amon Düül (not to be confused with the far more musical offshoot band Amon Düül II) and their second album from 1969 on the Metronome label. I used to think this was the perfect record for anybody around the age of 10 or younger. Creaky, squeaky, noisy etc.

When I attempted to play this at one of my third grade class parties in the USA, and half the girls in the room started crying and the teacher told me to put on something nice like Chicago instead. I realized I was going to be in a minority when it came to music later in life.

A hard and bitter lesson for a ten year old music fanatic to have to learn. Amon Düül did NOT impress the ladies. Ever :-(

Answer: Jane

This great release from 1973 on the Brain label is quite simply the best "Pink Floyd In A Hard Rock Mood" type album ever released. I am extremely cautious when it comes to recommending any Jane album to a novice as they can be great and lousy on the same record.

This album is 100% great. Not only that but I will even go so far as to recommend the beautifully re-mastered CD issue with the two bonus tracks over a vinyl issue (something you will hear me say maybe 4 or 5 times total in this lifetime). Seriously: if you like your prog with a good hard rock edge then this is the album for you.

It's that good.

Answer: Frumpy

'Frumpy?' you sneer? Oh hell, yeah Frumpy I say! First off you have one of the greatest collections of top notch German rock musicians all in one band together but they are fronted by the great Inga Rumpf on vocals as well. And this, their second album, is perhaps only surpassed by their double live album when it comes to showing off every single thing that made them great. Trust me when I say that if you want to talk smack about Frumpy to German music fanatics of a certain age in a bar you might well walk away with a bloody lip.

This band was loved dearly by their fans back in the day. This one was their second album on the Philips label from 1972 and it was pressed on green and black vinyl and packaged in a round multi gatefold cover that came in a custom clear plastic bag that snapped shut (their first album was also a doozy on the packaging front - 100% collector bait for this here tweener).

It features only four great self penned tracks ranging in length from seven and a half minutes to a tad over twelve minutes but not one note is wasted.

Answer: Air

Ok ok I get it when people say this is kind of a lightweight album to put in a prog or kraut quiz. But I genuinely DO like it and think it is rather underrated. Even if I did pay a lot for it simply because the title made me laugh (Basically "Kinda crappy...

But in Stereo"). This very difficult to find indie release. It came out in 1973 on the Eigenbau label. Much more prog than Kraut but in my opinion a hundred times better than highly rated (and highly priced) 10th rate mediocre Uriah Heep 'abklatsch' (as a German would say) such as Paternoster or Necronomicon. If you have a chance to listen to it give it a shot.

It ain't bad at all.

Answer: Exmagma

Issued in France (!) on the Urus label in 1975, this is Exmagma's second album. Far more accessible to most people than their first album (and for many decades substantially easier to find). This is another one of those bands I genuinely liked a lot that nobody else seemed to like at all (If I had a dollar for everybody who told me that their first album was amongst the very worst albums ever made I... well I would have at least maybe another 25 more LP's in my collection!). Mostly they are known for being Andy Goldner's old band (or amongst jazz lovers for being Fred Bracefull's rock band). Give them a shot before you listen to "the word" on them.

They are not bad at all.

Answer: Embryo

I know it's not even close to their best album. But for the sake of this match quiz it's their best album title! Released in 1975 on the BUK label, this amazing normaly proto-world music band (AGES before that was a hip thing to be) really jumped onto the jazz fusion bandwagon with this release. Featuring jazz great Charlie Mariano on sax this album showed that Embryo could make music that'd get some serious booty shakin' going on. No: it's not Embryo's "Rache" or "Opal" or even "Steig Aus" but this album has nothing to be ashamed about.

It's just a somewhat different Embryo rockin' the house on this album. And they rock it mighty nicely in my opinion.

Answer: Cluster

I know... I'm being a smarty pants with this one. It's the re-issue of the first Cluster album that was originally entitled "Cluster", but was renamed "'71" for the reissue (and given a hideous cover on the reissue vs the gorgeous original sleeve it had when it first came out on the Philips label in 1971).

This ugly reissue came out on the Sky label in 1980 (after an original copy was neigh on impossible to find for many, many years - yes it absolutely needed and deserved a re-issue, but did Sky have to do such a lousy job when they decided to do it?). Regardless let's talk about the music: this eerie early electronic masterpiece (done without a single synthesizer in sight) is one of the greatest "krautrock electronic albums" ever released by anybody. I'll take your first two Kraftwerk LP's and smack you upside the head with the first two Cluster LP's (note that I did not say Kluster) and you'll thank me for doing so!

Answer: Conrad Schnitzler

Do not even think of pm'ing me to tell me that it's 'Konrad' instead of 'Conrad'. I have numerous letters from him signed 'Conrad' and most of his catalogue goes by that spelling.

Alright. This mighty three LP (plus a completely unique single sided cassette) was issued in an edition of 100 copies by Edition Block in 1977. It contained three LP's ('Schwarz', 'Rot' & 'Blau') along with a unique 30 minute one sided cassette ('Detail Aus Work In Progress') each copy of which consisted of a completely different 30 minute excerpt of the "work in progress". And if you bought it from him directly (which was just about the only way to get it at the time) and sent him a nice letter with your order chances are good that you got a really nice and long letter in return from him, inside of your box. I got into a multi year long correspondence with him and he was a super nice guy and VERY encouraging of other people's work with electronics. This is one rare box and since he sadly passed away in 2011, it has shot up in value.

Answer: A.R. & Machines

Nope. Not 'Achim Reichel' (which is what I have this filed under in my collection) but rather 'A.R. & Machines' This stunning 1972 release on the Polydor label really is a no-brainer as far as "Krautrock" albums that are in most collector's Top 20 lists".

This album is very rightfully beloved by just about every kraut fan who has heard or owned it. A stone cold classic and I highly doubt many would ever argue that point. If an echoplex used wisely turns you on you came to the right place.

Answer: Popol Vuh

This great Popol Vuh's eighth album from 1976 was on the United Artists label. I was originally going to choose Aguirre, but there are too many variations of that album for that to have been a good choice. So instead you get what might well be their most flat out blatantly "religious" album of their early output (then again pretty much all of their albums have heavy spiritual themes running through them).

This album has some of their most gorgeous tracks on it (the wonderful "Haram Dei Raram Dei Haram Dei Ra" as the most obvious example that recurs over the course of the record). If you are unfamiliar with this band get this one, "Aguirre" and "Affenstunde". New Age without sleep-age.

Answer: Deuter

Here we go. For all intents and purposes the founder of what is now called New Age music. But... before that, there was this: his first album. Which is about as new age as the first album by Fear. Usually considered an electronic album simply because... well... what else are you going to classify this as? Released in 1971 on the Kuckuck label. To me, after the whole Japa-noise thing started back in the 90's, I tended to look at this record as "Masonna - Unplugged". My thoughts vis-a-vis this have not changed much since.

A unique, weird and wonderful slice of Krautrock.