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Krautrock

195 articles

Amon Düül (I & II): Amon Duul II: Phallus Dei (Liberty).

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 March 1970

JUST TO prove that the Continent is taking some of the initiative, here comes a really interesting German band who appeared with the Nice and ...

Can: The Can: Monster Movie (United Artists)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 May 1970

THINGS ARE certainly beginning to happen in Germany. ...

Alrune Rod, Amon Düül, Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Can, Xhol Caravan: Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Can, Amon Düül et al: Is It Euro-Rock Next?

Overview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 June 1970

Richard Williams takes a Common Market-minded guess at a future trend in pop... ...

Amon Düül: Amon For All Seasons

Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 12 December 1970

IN THE BEGINNING there was Amon Duul, and A.D. was a musical community of about a dozen people of varied musical backgrounds. Gradually, some of ...

Amon Düül (I & II): Amon Düül: A Science Fiction Rock Spectacle

Sleeve notes by Lester Bangs, unpublished, 1971

Part One: The Aluminium Revolution IT HAD TO HAPPEN! It's been some seven years now since the impact of American popular music first rebounded ...

Amon Düül (I & II), Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Floh de Cologne, Guru Guru, The Maxwells, Pan (Denmark): Amon Düül II et al: Eurorock

Overview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 January 1971

Richard Williams on the European bands who are rejecting the traditions of Anglo-American rock. ...

Can: Tago Mago (United Artists)

Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 29 January 1972

AS DUNCAN Fallowell says in his sleevenotes, Can could not be anything but German. ...

Can Can... And They Will

Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 5 February 1972

OF ALL the heavy German bands Can are perhaps the most interesting and could prove the most influential. Next month they tour Britain and, judging ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972

COMPOSER, MYSTIC, visionary, a prophet for the Age of Aquarius. There he sits in the portrait gallery on the front sleeve of the Sgt. Pepper ...

Amon Düül, Tasavallan Presidentti: Amon Düül II, Tasavallan Presidentti: Imperial College, London

Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 9 December 1972

A CULTURAL ANECDOTE: It's early 1967 and The Soft Machine are having a little trouble getting it together — particularly Mike Ratledge. Finally, Daevid Allen ...

Amon Düül, Can, Faust, Kraftwerk, Nektar: Krautrock: Germany Calling

Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 9 December 1972

TIME WAS WHEN a sudden loud crash around West Germany was probably just an other F-One-Eleven. These days it's more likely to be the local ...

Amon Düül, Ash Ra Tempel, Can, Guru Guru, Kraftwerk, Neu!, Tangerine Dream: Krautrock: Germany Calling #2

Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 16 December 1972

BOMB BLASTS AND THE BEAT: PART TWO OF IAN MACDONALD'S DEFINITIVE SURVEY OF GERMAN ROCK ...

Amon Düül, Faust, Popol Vuh: Krautrock: Germany Calling #3

Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 23 December 1972

From Amon Düül to Faust's new sound-world ...

Can: Communism, Anarchism, Nihilism

Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 24 February 1973

CAN: A GROUP defined by their very lack of an image? A Few heavy theories have been batted to and fro about the formidable space-rock ...

Can: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 24 February 1973

CAN IS not a band which lends itself easily to review. At the Rainbow on Sunday night they drew a nearly capacity audience, which in ...

Can: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 24 February 1973

THE STAGE WAS filled with manic, shadowy figures: three guitarists, two drummers, two singers, and a saxophonist. Through the barrage of noise, one could distinguish ...

Faust and Foremost

Profile and Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, March 1973

IT IS TWELVE noon, and in the smoky sunshine of a London afternoon a group of German longhairs are unloading a huge Mercedes truck full ...

Faust: The Sound of the Eighties

Comment by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 3 March 1973

A LOW buzzing sound, at first almost subliminal, emanates from a position somewhere between the twin stereo speakers. It wavers, hesitantly, from side to side ...

Faust: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, June 1973

LONDON'S RAINBOW looked like a Berliner Ensemble production of a rock musical version of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. The stage backdrop had been raised, revealing ...

Faust: Town Hall, Plymouth

Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 2 June 1973

I'VE NO CLEAR idea of what was going on at this concert at all. Faust, hardly the most publicised of bands, appear suddenly at Plymouth ...

Faust: The Helmet of the Policeman is on the Head of the Musician: Faust In Britain

Report by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973

FAUST WERE bored. Bored with the set they'd been playing on tour, feeling that they'd much rather lounge around all day in their London flat ...

Can: Ege Bamyasi (United Artists UA LA 063-F)

Review by Howard Wuelfing, Zoo World, 13 September 1973

AH! FINALLY another platter full of stuff to sear the audial nerves clean of all the CS&N/America/Eagles slush that's been fed to them almost without ...

Faust, Slapp Happy: Faust: Machine Heads

Report and Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 6 October 1973

THE MACHINES are taking over. My cassette recorder has started talking back at me and a minute ago my typewriter savaged my left hand. And ...

Faust: Faust IV (Virgin)

Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 13 October 1973

FAUST IV is the chronological successor of So Far (The Faust Tapes being from the period of the transparent album) and, as such, represents the ...

Faust, Henry Cow: Faust: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 27 October 1973

I SENSED something weird was in the offing the moment I was met in the foyer of the Rainbow by a lady dressed as a ...

Faust: Faust IV

Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, November 1973

I WAS SURPRISED when Faust's third album, The Faust Tapes, became a chart hit (even at only 48p.) because it seemed so wilfully arbitrary and ...

Faust: Guildhall, Plymouth

Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, November 1973

"I NEVER EXPECTED anything like this," exclaimed a small enthusiastic person who occupied the seat next to mine in Plymouth's famous Guildhall on May 19 ...

Faust: "We're Just Trying to Be Here Now"

Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 3 November 1973

FOLLOWING A PAPER TRAIL, IAN MacDONALD TRACKS DOWN FAUST TO A DISUSED CAR LOT OUTSIDE SOLIHULL WHERE THEY REVEAL DRAMATICALLY... ...

Can: Future Days (United Artists)

Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 26 January 1974

I'VE HAD MY paltry reservations about Can in the past, but their previous album, Ege Bamyasi, allayed most of them and this, the group's fourth ...

Can: Future Days (United Artists UAS 29505, £2.25)

Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 16 February 1974

DESPITE THE title, which invites trouble, there's nothing futuristic about this album. It attempts nothing that hasn't already been done, often to death, before. Future ...

Can: Ve Give Ze Orders Here

Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 16 February 1974

NICK KENT slinks unobtrusively into the back-room for something a little stronger ...

Amon Duul: Vive La Trance

Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Shakin' Street Gazette, April 1974

GERMANY IS HARDLY the center of the rock universe. So the only rock and roll that seeped in during the late 60's were from those ...

Tangerine Dream: Exclusiv interview mit Tangerine Dream

Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974

They were in Oxfordshire, mixing it at the Manor and sunbathing with scantily clad ladies in the presence of fully clad FRED DELLAR, who here ...

Can: Limited Edition

Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 14 September 1974

Can in Curio City ...

Can: They Have Ways Of Making You Listen…

Profile by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 9 November 1974

ONE NIGHT IN NOVEMBER 1969 the phone rang in Irmin Schmidt's Cologne home. Schmidt got out of bed to answer it and found himself talking ...

Tangerine Dream: Is This The End Of Rock As We Know It?

Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 16 November 1974

EVER HEARD of a group who would rather not be visible to their audience and let the music work on its own? Seems peculiar even ...

Can: Imagine 20 bulls and cows going up a hill...

Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 30 November 1974

...or learn guitar the avant garde way! MICHAEL KAROLI of Can, talking to CHRIS SALEWICZ ...

Tangerine Dream: Rubycon and Alpha Centauri

Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 5 April 1975

IF I'VE ASSESSED the vibe correctly, it would seem that the appropriate critical response to Tangerine Dream is to dismiss Edgar Froose, Chris Franke and ...

Tangerine Dream: 1983 — A Synthesiser I Will Be

Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975

Do TANGERINE DREAM, wizzkids of organic electronic rock, play their instruments?Or do the instruments play them? ...

Amon Düül (I & II), Ash Ra Tempel, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream: Kraftwerk et al: Germany invades U.S.!

Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 April 1975

Three years ago German rock bands like Can and Amon Duul took Britain by storm. Now Kraftwerk are spearheading an assault of new Kraut-Rock groups ...

Kraftwerk: Keystone, Berkeley CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 13 May 1975

German robots of sound ...

Kraftwerk: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 1975

Kraftwerk — 'Fun, Fun' at Civic ...

Kraftwerk: Autobahn

Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 19 June 1975

NOT TO TAKE anything away from Ralf, Florian, Klaus or even Wolfgang – who are probably real nice geezers once you get to know them ...

Kraftwerk: The Final Solution To The Music Problem?

Interview by Lester Bangs, New Musical Express, 6 September 1975

In the beginning there was feedback: the machines speaking on their own, answering their supposed masters with shrieks of misalliance. In the music of KRAFTWERK we ...

Kraftwerk: Mayfair Ballroom, Newcastle

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 13 September 1975

FOR THE past couple of days Kraftwerk had been rehearsing in the pleasant and appropriate surroundings of Newcastle's City Hall. Yet, strangely, for the opening ...

Kraftwerk: 2 a.m. Newcastle Hotel

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 20 September 1975

'We not only try to brainwash people... we succeed' ...

Kraftwerk: Synthetic Rockers

Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 27 September 1975

Kraftwerk are happiest when surrounded with technology and artificial items. Karl Dallas reports ...

Tangerine Dream

Interview by Miles, New Musical Express, 29 November 1975

YOU WON'T GET all sweaty or break a leg while listening to Tangerine Dream, but you will not be unmoved. You see, they haf vays ...

Tangerine Dream: Ricochet (Virgin) 38 min*****

Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 29 November 1975

THE TANGS RULE. Jamie had seen it spray painted on walls all over town. In underpasses. On the back walls of railway sidings – 20 ...

Can: Tales of the Supernatural

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 6 December 1975

I WAS SITTING in a standard hotel bedroom the other day, chewing the fat with a citizen by the name of Irmin Schmidt. ...

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity (Capitol)

Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 20 December 1975

Kraftwerk: too mechanical ...

Amon Düül (I & II): Amon Duul II: Made In Germany (Atco)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1976

NO ONE BUT this X-th generation German-American seems to have remarked on the profound ironies of Kraftwerk's recent boast that they're the first German pop ...

Kraftwerk: Exceller-8, Radio-Activity

Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 31 January 1976

EXCELLER 8 IS a 'best of album taken from the three Vertigo albums that Kraftwerk have released in this country and it's a good selection ...

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity (Capitol)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1976

DOES ANYBODY out there remember 1962's top ten screamer, 'Telstar', by the Tornadoes? I really loved it at the time. Not only was it one ...

Can: Unlimited Edition

Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, July 1976

THIS IS ONE for hardened Can-atics, being basically a collection of snippets which haven't made it onto past Can albums. ...

Can: Unlimited Edition

Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 11 September 1976

CAPITOL RADIO are blitzing Can's top-40 commercial rock number 'I Want More' right now; it is typical that the band would choose to issue it ...

Can Laundered

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 23 October 1976

"IRMIN Schmidt was transporting a washing machine down the stairs, and it fell on top of him." ...

Tangerine Dream: Singalongatangs

Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 6 November 1976

YOU WANT a picture of prosperity?Take a gander over there, then. Yeah, that guy sitting on the floor at the back of the audience. That's ...

Tangerine Dream: Twilight of the Dream

Report and Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 4 December 1976

TANGERINE DREAM seem to have strange ideas about off-duty entertainment. ...

Can: New Victoria Theatre, London

Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 11 December 1976

VIEWED IN isolation, Can's recent singles seem like some kind of sell-out. What, after all, is a "serious" German rock band, whose members include former ...

Can: New Victoria, London

Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 11 December 1976

DOWN THE stairs and into the hall... and into a time warp. With the powerful aroma of smouldering illicit substances and the subdued, attentive audience, ...

Tangerine Dream: Palais Des Sports, Paris

Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 11 December 1976

T-DREAM had no support and so they started cold, but soon as the lights dimmed the Palais Des Sports audience roared and cheered and lit ...

Can: Free Trade Hall, Manchester

Live Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 18 December 1976

IN ONE OF the most glorious cases of mismatching ever seen on a British stage, Can are preceded tonight by an agonisingly kitsch comedy jug-band ...

Kraftwerk: Deutsche Disko

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, 1977

KRAFTWERK is Germany's top pop group, and that's saying something because plenty of original sounds have been emanating from Deutschland since the psychedelic era. But ...

Can: Saw Delight (Virgin V2079) **

Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 4 June 1977

SOMETIMES it's nice to get phone-calls, sometimes it isn't. Know what I mean? ...

Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, Tangerine Dream: The 120 Decibel Dream - Warning: This Page is Heavy

Interview by Miles, New Musical Express, 16 July 1977

TANGERINE DREAM have released an album — Stratosfear — written a movie score for Friedkin, completed a successful American tour and two members have released ...

Guru Guru, Uli Trepte: Uli Trepte

Interview by Archie Patterson, Eurock, September 1977

"Making music in the long run is a matter of character, not talent" – U.T. ...

Ash Ra Tempel: Regents Park, London

Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 3 September 1977

IT WAS a warm, moist evening — ideal for sitting on damp grass and peering at laser beams through your wineglass. A perfect bring-along-the-doggie-and-the-kids hippie ...

Kraftwerk talks to Caroline Coon

Interview by Caroline Coon, Ritz, November 1977

KRAFTWERK: RALF HÜTTER (composer, vocalist, electronics). FLORIAN "V2" SCHNEIDER (lyricist, vocalist, electronics) KARL BARTOS and WOLFGANG FLÜR (electronic percussion). ...

Kraftwerk

Interview by Mark Bliesener, Rocky Mountain Musical Express, December 1977

FEW BANDS are as truly contemporary, precise, efficient, and emotionally controlled as Germany's Kraftwerk. The quartet's name aptly translates to "electronic power plant," and they ...

Tangerine Dream: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 1 April 1978

TANGERINE DREAM got what must surely be the greatest ovation of their career when they played at Hammersmith Odeon last Monday. ...

Kraftwerk: We ARE Showroom Dummies

Report by Jane Suck, Sounds, 22 April 1978

Kraftwerk's hottest platter gets poseur preview ...

Kraftwerk: The Man Machine

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 29 April 1978

SEE THE record cover. See the four men in red shirts and black ties. See them stand in line. See them in profile in the ...

Kraftwerk: The Man Machine (Capitol)

Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 29 April 1978

IT IS RATHER unfortunate that Kraftwerk's current popularity is based, to a large extent, on the chic appeal of David Bowie's favour. True, such favour ...

Kraftwerk: Terminal Weirdness à Paris

Report by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 29 April 1978

(Airport terminal, that is. Meanwhile somewhere up in some posey skyscraper, KRAFTWERK are boring everyone stiff...) ...

Kraftwerk: The Man Machine (Capitol EST 11728(1)

Review by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 6 May 1978

KRAFTY KRAUTS REALLY WERK! ...

Tangerine Dream's Grey Days

Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 20 May 1978

EDGAR FROESE reflects on days of hope and dissipation, and wonders why the photographer's hiding behind a pillar. ...

Kraftwerk: The Man Machine (Capitol EST 11728)

Review by Danny Baker, ZigZag, June 1978

Springtime for Kraftwerk ...

Can: Out Of Reach

Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 15 July 1978

Reach Out, We'll Be There (Ha, Ha – Fooled You) ...

La Düsseldorf: La Düsseldorf (Radar RAD 7)

Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 15 July 1978

The Kraft of Düsseldorf ...

Kraftwerk: You're never alone with a clone

Interview by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 29 July 1978

Tim Lott observes the kraft of Kraftwerk ...

Kraftwerk: The Man Machine (Capitol)

Review by Bruce Malamut, Circus, 17 August 1978

THE MAIN thing that separates Kraftwerk from the rest of its electronic German contemporaries is the band's sense of melody and rhythm. ...

Can, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream: Techno-Rock: Six Teutons And What Do You Get — A Programmed Sequencer And The Doppler Effect

Overview by Jeff Walker, Waxpaper, 15 September 1978

IN JAPAN, LOCAL bands copy both the look and sound of Western rockers – an imitative art form which thrives while the fans wait for ...

Kraftwerk: The Man Machine (Capitol)

Review by Stephen Demorest, Rock Scene, October 1978

MORE UNIVAC rock from the Berlin brainiacs. These geeks (you want a definition of 'geek', just look at this cover) nicknamed themselves "the man machine" ...

Popol Vuh: Nosferatu (Egg)****

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 7 April 1979

SHROUDED IN mystique since their inception in the early 70's, Popol Vuh are arguably the least known exponents of Teutonic 'rock' music in this country. ...

Popol Vuh: Nosferatu

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 5 May 1979

POPOL VUH'S extended title for this soundtrack to Werner Herzog's remake of Nosferatu is 'On The Way To A Little Way'. That says a lot ...

Nina Hagen: The Euro Woman Cometh

Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 June 1979

THE LOBBY OF Blake's Hotel in Kensington is a hive of useless activity. As I walk through the open glass doors with the just-so scrolling ...

Nina Hagen: West Is Best

Interview by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 16 June 1979

Can Nina Hagen become Germany's most important contribution to radical pop culture since Brecht? CHRIS BOHN learns about growing up on the wrong side of ...

Neu!: Neu: Neu '75

Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 21 July 1979

IF I WERE to tell you that a record you've probably never heard of was the album that David Bowie's been trying to make these ...

Can's Malcolm Mooney (1980)

Interview by Archie Patterson, Eurock, 1980

Can's first singer Malcolm Mooney talks about joining Can, the writing and recording process, gigging with Stockhausen, and the decline of his mental health and ultimate breakdown.

File format: mp3; file size: 56.1mb, interview length: 1h 01' 40" sound quality: ***

Tangerine Dream: Santa Monica Civic, Santa Monica CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 November 1980

ROCK MUSIC has undergone some major upheavals in the 3½ years since Tangerine Dream last played in Los Angeles. The German trio appeared untouched by ...

Kraftwerk: Computer World (EMI EMC 3370) ***

Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 16 May 1981

Deutschmark doublethink ...

Kraftwerk: A Computer Date with a Showroom Dummy

Interview by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 13 June 1981

And we'll fahr'n, fahr'n, fahr'n auf der Autobahn — until big daddy takes our Volkswagen away. Chris Bohn and Anton Corbijn do the Spanish hustle with Kraftwerk ...

Kraftwerk: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 1 August 1981

WHEN KRAFTWERK played the Santa Monica Civic in 1975, the German quartet's electronic music seemed like an academic aberration from the rock norm, and the ...

Kraftwerk: Rock's Mad Scientists

Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 2 August 1981

Kraftwerk Moves Electronic Music Out of the Lab and Onto the Dance Floor ...

Popol Vuh: Popol Music — A Clearer Vuh-Point

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 26 September 1981

RUN SILENT, run deep. Like still waters, like Greta Garbo, like Charlie Parker said about his man Thelonious: "The Monk runs deep". ...

Kraftwerk: Art & Kraft

Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 4 February 1982

TWELVE YEARS OF PRACTICAL ELECTRONICS FINALLY PAY OF WITH THE SUCCESS OF 'THE MODEL'DAVE RIMMER TOURS THE WERKS ...

Kraftwerk: The Model Life

Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 6 February 1982

"I'm not nuts," says RALF HÜTTER of mighty Germanic megastars KRAFTWERK. "Blimey," gasps MARK COOPER (PHD Engineering and Knitting) in disbelief. Well, is he or ...

Can, Holger Czukay: Holger Czukay: Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal

Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 20 February 1982

AN AMBIENT tape is burring in the background. "I made a special cassette for a new kind of radio programme," explains Holger Czukay as we ...

Can, Holger Czukay: Holger Czukay: Ode to normailty

Interview by Mick Sinclair, Sounds, 17 April 1982

Mick Sinclair in spontaneous discussion with HOLGER CZUKAY ...

Trio: Three's Company

Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 10 July 1982

AHA AHA AHA...Video didn't kill any radio star who wasn't already tottering dodo-like on the edge of extinction anyway. The best and brightest radio stars ...

Can, Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, Neu!: A Trance In Tatters: Krautrock und Beyond

Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 27 November 1982

Can: Delay 1968 (Spoon); Holger Czukay: Canaxis (Spoon); Irmin Schmidt: Filmmusik Vol 2 (Spoon); Neu!: Black Forest Gateau (Cherry Red) ...

Can: Malcolm R. Mooney: An Interview

Interview by Archie Patterson, Eurock, 1983

WITHOUT A DOUBT Germany's Can was one of the pioneering groups of what has become known today as EuroRock. Malcolm Mooney, a black American, was ...

Einsturzende Neubauten: Acklam Hall, Notting Hill

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, August 1983

IT IS THE professed aim of Einsturzende Neubauten to exhaust music, to drain it until it implodes into a single catastrophic moment. This, however, is ...

Holger Czukay: The Lunatic Has Taken Over The Asylum

Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 12 May 1984

"WHEN I WAS 39 it was a very special year for me," reminisces Holger Czukay. ...

Kraftwerk: Electric Café

Live Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 8 November 1986

IT BEGINS with a word that sounds like BOING! The BOING! Triggers a controlled BOOM!, blanketed by a downbeat TSCHAK! In case you didn't catch ...

Holger Czukay (1987)

Interview by Mark Sinker, Rock's Backpages audio, 1987

Herr Czukay talks about his friend Jah Wobble; Damo Suzuki's life after Can; using exisiting music; what he listens to, and his hatred of political music; his LP Movies and the similarity between his music and film; on the German soul; Rome Remains Rome, and music journalism.

File format: mp3; file size: 23mb; Interview length: 23' 57"; sound quality: ***

Faust: Return of a Legend: Munic & Elsewhere

Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, January 1987

MEPHISTO CALLING. Good news – Faust are back. Released from a devil's pact with silence, they're noisily celebrating the repossession of their souls. A new ...

Kraftwerk: Electric Café (Warner Brothers)

Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, March 1987

Platter du Jour ...

Einstürzende Neubauten, Showaddywaddy: Kilburn National, London

Live Review by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 19 September 1987

SAY WADD? ...

Einstürzende Neubauten: A Berlin of the Mind

Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 19 September 1987

As EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN return from their two years of self-imposed exile, group-face Blixa Bargeld tells DELE FADELE why they remain the best burst on the ...

Einstürzende Neubauten: Fünf Auf Der Nach Oben Offenen Richterskala (Some Bizzare/Relativity)

Review by Howard Wuelfing, Spin, November 1987

AT THE CORE of the Neubies' schtick is a knee-jerk rejection of every last element considered essential to rock music: guitars, drums, blues-based chord changes, ...

Tangerine Dream: Quiet Please! Musicians Sleeping!

Report and Interview by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 10 March 1990

2019 Note: Tangerine Dream were the first band to play in East Berlin after the fall of the Wall. It had been ten years since ...

Holger Czukay: Radio Wave Surfer

Review by David Cavanagh, Select, February 1991

THE MAESTRO'S really gone on an extended lunch hour this time. Radio Wave Surfer, the latest in a sporadic series of album bulletins from rock's ...

Kraftwerk Redux

Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, The New York Times, 16 June 1991

WHEN VOLUNTEERS are needed for the first brain chips – surgically inserted microcircuits that, the theory goes, will boost brainpower – Kraftwerk will be first ...

Kraftwerk: Barrowlands, Glasgow

Live Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 20 July 1991

THEY SMILE. That's the first surprise. Dressed in black, the four Kraftwerk-ers briskly stride on stage to take their places behind the giant computer consoles ...

Kraftwerk: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by David Toop, The Times, 23 July 1991

FOLLOWING THIS year's release of a remix album, a greatest hits by any other name, Kraftwerk fans have been forced to ask themselves whether this ...

Kraftwerk: Ralf Hütter

Interview by Mark Dery, Keyboard, October 1991

Keyboard: THIS IS your first tour in almost a decade. Why now? ...

Julian Cope: Krautrocksampler: One Head’s Guide To The Great Kosmiche Musik - 1968 Onwards

Review by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, December 1995

Since it deals with that most fetishised of genres, Krautrocksampler is appropriately enough an intensely fetishisable object. Purportedly the first of a whole line of ...

Amon Düül (I & II): Communing With Chaos: Amon Düül II

Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, February 1996

WHEN THE GERMAN rock explosion (now recognised as Krautrock) first hit these shores in the early 70s, the temptation to label it as a thriving ...

Cluster, Julian Cope, Hans-Joachim Roedelius: Hans-Joachim Roedelius: Harmonic Convergence

Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, November 1996

When Cluster's Hans-Joachim Roedelius met his number one fan Julian Cope, Rob Young was there to hear the exchange. But first, he spoke to Roedelius ...

Amon Düül, Faust, Neu!: Welcome To The Machine: Kraut Rock

Overview by John McCready, The Face, November 1996

Julian Cope has championed it, new Nineties bands are ransacking it and the ageing German hippies that first created it are now packing in techno ...

Can: Art Terrorism! Sensory Derangement! Holistic Vomiting! Available Weekends…

Retrospective and Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, April 1997

CAN ALWAYS added to more than the sum of their experience and influences. When the group made the seminal Monster Movie in 1968, three of ...

Faust: Deconstructing the nuts, bolts and girders of rock - or simply having a smashing time?

Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, April 1997

A DAY OR TWO after their Queen Elizabeth Hall concert, my ears are still ringing when I go to interview Jean-Hervé Peron, one of the ...

Kraftwerk

Retrospective and Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, April 1997

Do the men play the machines? Or the machines play the men? How four humanoids with one vision revolutionised pop. ...

Faust: Krautrock

Retrospective by Andy Gill, MOJO, April 1997

IT'S SOMETIME IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER OF 1973-4, and Faust are playing Sheffield City Hall. ...

Tangerine Dream

Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, April 1997

Chilly symphonies and misty synth-scapes: the Gothic revival starts here ...

Kraftwerk

Profile by John McCready, The Independent, 23 May 1997

IT IS inevitable and happens to everyone. James Brown's new bag is now full of holes. David Bowie, a former ideas factory, is reduced to ...

Can: Automation For The People

Guide by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 1997

A DEEP DISTANT DETONATION ECHOED by an aftershock and a seething high-frequency fallout of fire and rain. Out of this drizzle rises a robotic one-bar ...

Can: The Albums

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, August 1997

A considerable portion of the German experimentalists’ output re-released on CD and limited issue vinyl: 24 albums spanning 1968-1994, including original issues, anthologies, compilations, and ...

Kraftwerk play Tribal Gathering

Report and Interview by Toby Manning, Jockey Slut, December 1997

HOW ON EARTH DID UNIVERSE ENTICE THE TECHNO INNOVATORS BACK ONTO A STAGE? LET'S FIND OUT. ...

Can (1997)

Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, Spring 1997

In order of their first replies, Michael Karoli, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay revisit the early days of Can: the first time they played together; how they shared everything; their homemade studios; how they met; drummer Jaki Liebezeit and the rituals of repetition; the group's social environment; the importance of original American frontman Malcolm Mooney, and meeting his successor Damo Suzuki; the latter's unforgettable first gig with the band. Oh, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats... (Please note that there are approximately 10 minutes of annoying tape hiss from about 29 minutes in to about 38 mins.)

File format: mp3; file size: 69.5mb, interview length: 1h 12' 26" sound quality: ***½

Holger Czukay: No Borders Here: Holger Czukay’s Movies and On The Way To Peak Of Normal

Review and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, March 1998

Mute’s admirable disinterring of the entire Can-related catalogue reaches Holger The Bassman’s first two solo albums. ...

Kraftwerk: Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 1998

Techno-Rocking Kraftwerk Charges Up In its first L.A. concert in almost 15 years, the German quartet shows the influence of its ground-breaking circuit-driven music. ...

Ash Ra Tempel, Can: Krautrock Revisited: Life After Can and Ash Ra Tempel

Essay by Richard Gehr, Spin, 20 July 1998

EVEN BEFORE KRAFTWERK'S great mid-'70s cars, trains, and airwaves trilogy, Krautrock was largely about getting away – especially from Germany itself. The band Can in ...

Rammstein: Nude Power Generation

Report and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 21 November 1998

Last month, German shock metallers RAMMSTEIN were branded Nazis by the British press. We have flown to America to uncover the truth. We will subsequently ...

Can: Hildegard Schmidt and Wolf Kampmann: Can Box: Book

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, February 1999

IN 1968 CAN walled themselves up in a Cologne studio and, give or take the odd defection, stayed there for the next nine years making ...

Can: Can Box: Book By Hildegard Schmidt & Wolf Kampmann (Medium Music Books PBK £16.99)

Book Review by Biba Kopf, The Wire, March 1999

IN ITS COMPLETE form, Can Box will contain a live double CD and a video concert, alongside the generically named Book. Amazingly, the live recording ...

Can, Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt: Can: Paladium, Cologne, Germany

Live Review by Don Watson, The Wire, May 1999

DURING THEIR heyday in the mid-70s, Can put great emphasis on the subjugation of the individual to the sound of the group. At their best ...

Can, Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt: The Can Founders: Columbiahalle, Berlin

Live Review by Richard Cook, MOJO, May 1999

Running order: Holger Czukay/Michael Karoli's Sofortkontakt/Irmin Schmidt & Kumo/Jaki Liebezeit's Club Off Chaos ...

Can Solo Projects: Barbican, London

Live Review by David Stubbs, New Musical Express, 30 October 1999

KRAUTROCKERS CAN'S influence on modem music has been more profound perhaps even than Kraftwerk's. Way back in 1973, with 'Moonshake' they were making prototype techno, ...

Amon Düül: Hallucination on Sustain: 25 Years of Amon Düül II

Retrospective by Scott Fischer, Eurock, 2000

AS AN ESTABLISHED trend of musical non-adventurism became the keynote of the early '70s, an alternative motif of sonic exploration became necessary and was provided ...

Guru Guru, Uli Trepte: The Beat Has Gone: Thoughts and Opinions 'bout a Long Forgotten Scene

Retrospective by Uli Trepte, Eurock, 2000

IN 1968 A mutated kind of mindset emerged in then West Germany to form a scene that turned the tide of times, after the war ...

Ash Ra Tempel, Coil, Julian Cope: Julian Cope's Cornucopea: South Bank Centre, London

Live Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000

BILLED AS "a festival of plenty" by its curator Julian Cope, the two nights spent in the company of his various label mates, old mates ...

Faust: The Faust Tapes: Faust Epiphany

Retrospective by Don Watson, The Wire, September 2000

ONE OF THE EFFECTS of the rabid reissue programs that accompanied the CD revolution was to offer shrinkwrapped package tours into your teenage bedrom. Music, ...

Faust: Nosferatu Soundtrack, Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, October 2000

Interludes With A Vampire   ...

Faust: The Wumme Years 1970-1973

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, November 2000

A 5-CD BOX SET comprising the band’s first two Polydor LPs, Faust and So Far, and two further compilations of rarely heard material, BBC Sessions ...

Faust: The Wumme Years 1971-73

Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, May 2001

THERE'S STILL nothing quite like the first side of Faust's eponymous debut album, recorded in 1971 and released by a bemused Polydor in 1972. These ...

Current 93: Invisible Jukebox: Current 93

Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, May 2001

Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...

Neu!: Reissues

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2001

Krautrock revisited and remastered: Bowie, Eno, Thorn Yorke, Damon Albarn, Stereolab and Sonic Youth pay sleevenote homage to the Lennon And McCartney of Teutonic boogaloo ...

Neu!: Die Neu! Artikal

Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, June 2001

The colossal early '70s Krautrock groove of Neu! has influenced everyone from David Bowie to Radiohead. Now, 30 years on, they're back. "We had no ...

Endgame: Avatar

Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001

ENDGAME ARE a trio from Leicester, featuring brothers Alan and Steven Freeman, with musician, engineer and designer Jim Tetlow. ...

Can, Damo Suzuki: D.A.M.O. Interview

Interview by Archie Patterson, Eurock, 2002

DURING THE MONTH of October Damo Suzuki and band made a short tour of the US in support of the excellent new album Odyssey. They ...

Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by John L. Walters, The Guardian, 29 June 2002

WHAT A TREAT — to sip a cup of Assam in the Festival Hall ballroom while Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto play Kraftwerk cover versions ...

Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 October 2002

WITH THEIR 1974 international smash hit 'Autobahn', Kraftwerk had coolly demonstrated that an experimental electronic group from Dusseldorf, Germany, could kick out perfect pop on ...

Can's Irmin Schmidt (2003)

Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages, 2003

The Can keyboard player on the recording of Future Days: The mood of the band at the time; the difference between singers Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki; recording ‘Bel Air Suite’, and the meaning of the cover artwork, the I-Ching hexagram for Ting (The Cauldron).

File format: mp3; file size: 13mb, interview length: 13' 31" sound quality: * (phoner)

Can: Future Days

Review and Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, March 2003

IT SPEAKS volumes for Can's protean, constantly-changing sound that fans, indeed the band members themselves, rarely agree which is their best album. ...

Kraftwerk: Tour de Force

Retrospective by David Hemingway, Record Collector, October 2003

Kraftwerk regularly appear in lists of the most influential artists of all time. David Hemingway takes the digital pulse to find out exactly why. ...

Faust: Epiphanies: Faust

Memoir by David Stubbs, The Wire, March 2004

David Stubbs recalls early arousals caused by Faust's "wonderful wooden reason". ...

Kraftwerk: Triumph Of The Machines

Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 March 2004

KRAFTWERK'S MOST recent record, the long-waited Tour de France Soundtracks – their first album of new material since 1986's Electric Café, and a variation on ...

Kraftwerk: OK Computer

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 2004

KRAFTWERK's impact on electronic rock is incalculable, from Bowie's Low to Radiohead's Kid A. In this rare interview, mainman Ralf Hütter reveals all about this ...

Can: Monster Movie/Tago Mago/Ege Bamyasi/Soundtracks

Review by Frances Morgan, Plan B, September 2004

MY MEMORIES aren't sepia-tinted; they're midnight-blue and smile-white, fleet-footed but with ash on my toes and holes in my tights where I kicked off my ...

Harmonia's Hans Joachim Roedelius: The man music tried to forget

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 18 February 2005

Before Kraftwerk, there was Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Meet the neglected pioneer of German electronica. ...

Kraftwerk

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2005

FEW BANDS in pop history are quite as mysterious, elusive and maddeningly eccentric as Kraftwerk. But few remain as enduringly influential either. In 2005, even ...

Kraftwerk: Paranoid Android

Retrospective and Interview by Simon Witter, MOJO, September 2005

2009 NOTE: This is a 9000-word "Director's Cut" version of a 5000-word piece written for MOJO in September 2005. ...

Can: Monster Movie/Soundtracks/Tago Mago/Ege Bamyasi

Review by Mike Barnes, bbc.co.uk, Winter 2005

Can's forays into rock music were ego-free, expressionistic and pared down to the bone... ...

Tangerine Dream: The Essential Collection (Metro Doubles) ****

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, AllMusic.com, 2006

DISTILLING the essence of a force as monumentally influential and prolific as the German electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream to a two-CD checklist of essentials ...

Can: Recycled Cans

Retrospective and Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, May 2006

Among the great German bands of the '60s and '70s – kosmiche avatars Amon Düül and Ash Ra Tempel, motorik pioneer Neu!, synth wunderkind Tangerine ...

Faust: Faust IV

Review by Rob Chapman, The Wire, May 2006

IN DECEMBER 1972, when the late Ian MacDonald wrote the first authoritative, and still near-definitive, guide to German experimental rock for NME he sorted the ...

Kraftwerk: Ralf Hütter – He's More 'Aaaaaah'

Interview by Simon Witter, Dummy, Spring 2006

2008 Note: When I met Ralf Hütter in London in early 2006, it was ostensibly to hear about the release plans Kraftwerk had for that ...

Julian Cope: Stone me!

Interview by Jon Savage, Observer Music Monthly, 10 August 2008

Julian Cope believes in music made by outsiders for outsiders. Now 50, and still incandescent with his passions for Krautrock and stone circles, he tells ...

Can, Cluster, Faust, Harmonia, Kraftwerk, Neu!: Krautrock

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, Record Collector, January 2009

In the early 1970s a revolution in sound occurred that was as influential in its own way as the birth of rock'n'roll or reggae. John ...

DAF: 02 Academy, London

Live Review by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, 1 April 2009

IN A YEAR in which it would be almost easier to count the bands not reforming, and in which a startling percentage of pop newcomers ...

Kraftwerk at the Manchester International Festival

Report and Interview by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2009

The unlikely rock star Ralf Hütter talks about cycling and the Kraftwerk concert at Manchester. ...

Kraftwerk: The Elusive Kings of Digital Pop

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 September 2009

AFTER FOUR DECADES spent standing guard over one of the most secretive and enigmatic bands on the planet, it seems that Ralf Hütter is loosening ...

Kraftwerk: Album By Album

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, October 2009

HE MIGHT have spent most of the past two decades cocooned in the Kubrickian perfectionism of his secret Kling Klang studio in Düsseldorf, but Kraftwerk's ...

Cluster, Tortoise: Tortoise / Cluster: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2009

CURRENT DEFINITIONS of jazz are clearly somewhat flexible, judging by the avant-rock double bill that closed this year's London Jazz Festival on Sunday night. The ...

Can: The Making of Tago Mago

Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, April 2011

SUMMER 1971. The five members of Can are huddled around a bottle of wine and a stereo suitcase Revox A77 tape recorder, listening to the ...

David Bowie, Kraftwerk: Taxi zum Klo's Berlin is a sexual playground

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 21 April 2011

Bowie, Christiane F and Taxi zum Klo: these are the things that made Berlin so alluring to the British pop culture of the late '70s ...

Can: Tago Mago – 40th Anniversary Edition

Review by Luke Turner, bbc.co.uk, November 2011

The blueprint for much of the leftfield music of the past 40 years. ...

Can: The Lost Tapes

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, June 2012

Can do: quintessential krautrock rescued from the archives. ...

Kraftwerk: Ladies und Gentlemen, the future has arrived

Retrospective by David Stubbs, The Independent, 27 January 2013

To the unenlightened (i.e. most of us), they were just naff. Now, with good reason, they are hailed as prophets. David Stubbs hails synthpop pioneers ...

Kraftwerk: Why Kraftwerk Are Still The World's Most Influential Band

Retrospective by Jude Rogers, The Observer, 27 January 2013

Kraftwerk's fusion of art, beats and electronics has become a template copied by musicians everywhere. Now they plan to take London's Tate Modern by storm ...

Kraftwerk: Is Kraftwerk still a functioning pop group?

Comment by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 6 February 2013

On the eve of Kraftwerk's eight sell-out concerts at Tate Modern, Ben Thompson tries to give comfort to the ticketless. ...

Kraftwerk: Autobahn at Tate Modern

Live Review by Paul Morley, Daily Telegraph, 7 February 2013

WHEN I SAW Kraftwerk 38 years ago, as much as they were about the future, I didn't think they would actually make it into the ...

Can, Conny Plank, Kraftwerk, Neu!: Conny Plank: The Soundtrack Of Our Youth

Profile by David Stubbs, The Quietus, 13 February 2013

As Gronland release a four-disc box set of the music of Conny Plank, David Stubbs remembers the "midwife of Krautrock"... ...

What's In a Word: "Krautrock" as a Term

Book Excerpt by David Stubbs, 'Future Days' (Faber), August 2014

"THE GERMANS have every right to be critical of the word 'Krautrock',"  says Wire's Colin Newman, and it's hard to disagree. It would be one ...

David Stubbs: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany

Book Review by Stuart Maconie, New Statesman, 22 August 2014

Krautrock is a term that is bandied about alarmingly freely by bloggers, hipsters and, most of all, bands, desperate for its reflected cool — but ...

Edgar Froese, Tangerine Dream: Edgar Froese 1944-2015

Retrospective by Jim Sullivan, Rock's Backpages, January 2015

THE GUYS in Tangerine Dream — leader Edgar Froese, plus more than 20 others over the years — always gave us the silent treatment in ...

Cluster, Harmonia: Dieter Moebius, 1944-2015

Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 July 2015

THOUGH BORN IN Switzerland, Dieter Moebius, who has died aged 71, was destined to become renowned as one of the pioneers of so-called Krautrock. ...

Acid Mothers Temple: Hope & Ruin, Brighton

Live Review by David Bennun, The Guardian, 29 September 2016

NON-STOP head-melting psychedelia — each pulsating, echo-drenched disco-rock groove excels the one before, ending in a collective instrumental howl: AMT are hot, sweaty cool sonic ...

Can: Ulrich Adelt: Krautrock: German Music In The Seventies (University of Michigan Press)

Book Review by Rob Young, The Wire, April 2017

AS ULRICH ADELT points out in his introduction to this sweeping survey of German music, there have been relatively few books on krautrock, even fewer ...

Tangerine Dream: Union Chapel, London

Live Review by David Stubbs, The Guardian, 25 April 2018

For their first UK show without founder member Edgar Froese, the synth pioneers enlivened their proggy ambience with techno, but still created the same cosmic ...

Can: Truth at 33 rpm

Book Excerpt by Rob Young, 'All Gates Open: The Story of Can' (Faber), May 2018

ONE OF THE many resonances of Can's name is the canister housing reels of celluloid film, a precious container protecting that most flammable and crumply ...

Michael Rother: "I Enjoy Silence!": Michael Rother's 13 Favourite Albums

Interview by Patrick Clarke, The Quietus, 27 February 2019

With a show at London's Under The Bridge on 5 April, Michael Rother of Neu!, Harmonia, and a newly-boxsetted solo career takes Patrick Clarke through ...

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