Sour Kraut

Tracklisting:
01. Agitation Free - Pulse (4:51)
02. Harmonia - Monza - Rauf Und Runter (7:07)
03. Paternoster - Paternoster (3:56)
04. Gila - Sundance Chant (4:10)
05. Walter Wegmüller - Der Wagen (5:16)
06. Vinegar - Sawmill - Teil I (5:25)
07. Faust - It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl (7:32)
08. Witthuser & Westrupp - Lasst uns auf die Reise gehn (3:50)
09. Neu! - Lila Engel (4:38)
10. Amon Düül II - Archangels Thunderbird (3:32)
11. Sand - On The Corner (4:30)
12. Eloy - Floating (4:00)
13. Guru Guru - Next Time See You at the Dalai Lhama (5:58)
14. Brainticket - The Space Between (3:03)
15. La Düsseldorf - Time (9:28)


Only in MP3 (V0): Grab here!

To quote from wikipedia: "Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scene that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. BBC DJ John Peel in particular is largely credited with spreading the reputation of krautrock outside of the German-speaking world." More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krautrock

My interest in krautrock began when I first heard Can. Probably one of the most influential bands of the past 40 years, they're sometimes unlistenable, other times just purely sensational. I recommend any of their albums up to "Soon Over Babaluma". Their album "Future Days" is in my top 3 albums of all time.  You'll notice I haven't included any Can on this mix. This is a deliberate mistake, I truly believe that they need to be heard on their own. Plus, I might just come up with a Can compilation of my own!

Anyway, to save you from my tedious babble, here are a few brief descriptions of some of the bands on this mix:

"There is no group more mythical than Faust," wrote Julian Cope in his book Krautrocksampler, which detailed the pivotal influence the German band exerted over the development of ambient and industrial textures."

"One of the first active Krautrock units, Amon Düül grew out of a multimedia artist commune in Munich that mixed radical political criticism with a unique vision of free-form improvisation tied to American psychedelic rock."

"While little known and relatively unheralded during its brief existence, the Krautrock duo Neu! cast a large shadow over later generations of musicians and served as a major influence on artists as diverse as David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Pere Ubu, Julian Cope, and Stereolab."

"Though Harmonia began as a sideline excursion for Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius of Cluster and Michael Rother of Neu!, the group became one of the most legendary in the entire Krautrock/kosmische scene with the release of several mid-'70s LPs. Brian Eno had proclaimed Harmonia "the world's most important rock group."

Note: This compilation was made using a program called mixmeister, so all the tracks segue into each other...So best played from start to finish!