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I'm sooooo green: The Beginner's Guide to Krautrock

'We’re not musicians, we are universal dilettantes'

Kraftwerk

Though having released hardly any new work in nearly three decades, Ralf Hütter plus three session robots still gig as Kraftwerk, currently touring Europe playing the same set in 3D complete with glasses for the audience.

Kraftwerk concert 2012

Showroom dummies? Hütter and his henchmen perform in 2012

Herr Hütter, who is quoted in Future Days as saying: “Mr Adolf from Austria” made Germany wary of a “cult of personality” now seems to run Kraftwerk as a kind of totalitarian de-personality cult.

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More info Kraftwerk

Neu!

Harmonia De Luxe

The great trilogy of Neu!, Neu 2 and Neu 75 have finally found a home on Grönland records after years of bootlegging and unavailability. Don’t bother with any of Klaus Dinger’s shambolic later incarnations of the Neu! moniker, though do bother with the two bands the members of Neu! formed afterwards.

Klaus Dinger’s first three La Dusseldorf albums La Dusseldorf, Viva and Individuellos are a blast, as are both Michael Rother + Cluster’s two original Harmonia albums: Harmonia and De Luxe. La Dusseldorf and Harmonia are only available in the UK on import at the moment via Warners and Universal respectively.

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More info NEU! 2010

Tangerine Dream

Tangerine Dream Mala Kunia EP

Tangerine Dream’s best moments are decidedly in the past, though they live on. Alpha Centauri, Zeit and Atem are the business for kraut purists, though the following few sequencer albums are not without their charms.

There were a few good soundtracks in the 1980s but not much interesting of late. If you're keen to hear how the Dream lives on, the latest touring line-up of Edgar Froese, Ulrich Schnauss, Thorsten Quaeschning and Hoshiko Yamane has very recently released Mala Kunia, a seven-track EP as a taster for a CD/vinyl release this spring.

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More info Tangerine Dream

Manuel Göttsching, Klaus Schulze, Ashra and The Cosmic Jokers

Ashra Blackouts record cover

Klaus Schulze is still locked away in his Schloss making ambient Wagnerian epics. Manuel Göttsching still occasionally plays as himself and with Ashra. Both are generally considered to have completed their best work in the classic era of Krautrock.

Here are my faves amongst the sometimes confusing early oeuvre of Messrs Göttsching & Schulze. Most of these were reissued on CD via Spalax Records, but some are getting to be rare and occasionally stupidly priced, the best place to start looking is on the artist’s sites:

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More info Ashra and Klaus Schulze

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