The Formative Years

Krautrock

What emerged in Western Germany the late 1960s as a deliberate, experimental departure from the tried and tested formula that was blues inspired rock music, took a while to really resonate with me as during my early teens what was presented to me as “kosmische Musik” by my music teacher could have not been farther from the immediate jolts I was looking to get from listening to punk and other forms of extreme music.

However, once I found access, the often improvised hypnotic, textured, repetitive ambient  rhythms courtesy of krautrock bands exerted a thrall that proved to be hard to resist. 

It was the odd melange of psychedelic and piston pumping Teutonic detachment that made krautrock an idiosyncratic and exciting style of music that was unlike anything else and thereby provided fertile ground for the development of art rock, electronic music and proto-punk.

Driven by what became known as the “motorik” 4/4 beat, bands like Can and Neu! took notes from avantgarde composers like Stockhausen, adapted rock standards from the like of Pink Floyd and the Beatles and fused them with concepts of jazz to venture away of conventional song structures into the unknown to create their own lanes.

The influence krautrock exerted served as a sheer endless source of inspiration for bands like Roxy Music, Hawkwind, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Cabaret Voltaire, new wave at large and through bands like Kraftwerk even on electronic dance music.

Looking back at the legacy of krautrock bands, I find the hugely influential sheer visionary potency of their depth and breadth astounding as it not only reverberates throughout current pop culture but has indirectly influenced almost every form of music.

It has become an inherent cornerstone and reference point of any classification-resistant spontaneous experimental musical endeavour, no matter the style of instrumentation.

If you have not yet been exposed to the genre, a treasure-trove of unearthly, crazed and genuinely experimental music awaits.