Every rock snob loves them their Cans, their Kraftwerks and their Fausts, but what about Amon Düül II? Amon Düül II’s thunderous psychedelic Krautrock sound has influenced bands from The Dead Kennedys to The Fall to the early sound of The Psychedelic Furs. They even lived in a commune together like Gong. What’s not to like?

Fans of acid-drenched hard-rocking underground freakout music, you cannot possibly go wrong with either their 1968 debut album, Phallus Dei (“God’s Cock”) or their sprawling two-record set, Yeti.

Pre-YouTube, I’d have assumed that very little footage of Amon Düül II existed—it certainly wasn’t reaching bootleg stalls in American flea markets—but there’s actually tons of great stuff out there. Jammy, druggy riff-rock and wonderfully anarchic. Listen LOUD.

A massive live jam of their “Between The Eyes” single from 1970:
 

 
Much more Amon Düül II after the jump…

 
A few months or so prior to American vocalist Malcolm Mooney joining them, in 1968, the core members of Can (Irmin Schmidt, Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit) and flutist David Johnson, under the name The Inner Space, recorded some songs and audio cues for a low budget German political satire titled Agilok & Blubbo. Directed by Peter F. Schneider and starring counterculture feminist icon/groupie Rosemarie Heinikel (aka Rosy Rosy), it would be the first time “experimental” music would be used for the soundtrack to a German film.

Rosy Rosy would go on to sing with Guru Guru, produce radio and children’s programming and write her autobiography (which included details of her trysts with Donovan and Frank Zappa). In 2009, the complete music for Agilok & Blubbo was released by Wah Wah Records.

“Kamera Song” (vocals by Rosy Rosy):
 

 
“Flop Pop”:
 

 
The ten-minute-long proto-krautrock workout of “Apokalypse”:
 

 
Another early Can soundtrack rarity, from the 1968 film Kama Sutra. The band, still billed as The Inner Space (but with Malcolm Mooney at this point and still with David Johnson) back vocalist Margareta Juvan, performing “I’m Hiding My Nightingale” as a band in a nightclub, before they start their own “Man Called Joe” number (from Delay 1968) at the clip’s end.
 

 
A friend of mine burned me a 4-channel quadraphonic version of Tiger B. Smith’s 1972 Tiger Rock album recently. The hirsute fuzzrocking, boogie-happy German trio (when they’re good) recall Slade, The Sweet, Hawkwind, The MC5, The Edgar Broughton Band, and especially Jimi and Black Sabbath, but about half the album is just bloody awful.

Thankfully this unsung group left behind this boffo clip, all dressed up and rocking out at the top of their game (with a stuffed animal in the shot the whole time, which makes it somehow even better).
 

 
After the jump, more from the wild men of Tiger B. Smith….

 
Seemingly searching for a new musical identity, Can performed “I Want More”—their only hit single in the UK, it got to #26—on Top of the Pops in 1976.

Smarmy TOTP presenter Noel Edmonds makes a terrible pun when he introduces them: “I wonder if Can will get into the top tin!”

Then afterwards he “jokes”: “We wanted to have them on at the beginning of the show, but then realized we couldn’t have a Can opener.”

It’s a testament to the greatest drummer who ever lived, Jaki Liebezeit, that this doesn’t totally suck. That still doesn’t mean that it’s not embarrassingly catchy!

“I Want More” hails from their Flow Motion album. More vintage Can can be heard on The Lost Tapes, a recently released box set from Mute Records.
 

 
The Future Is Now!

Fairy Tales - Kin Ping Meh
Queen Of Spades - Curly Curve
A Place To Go - Embryo
China - Electric Sandwich
It All Depends - The Scorpions
Ride The Sky - Lucifer’s Friend
No Freak Out - Spermuell
Norderland - Eroc
Gammy Ray - Birth Control
Castle In The Air - Eloy
So Far - Faust
Watussi - Harmonia
 

 
You have to love someone who scans every single page of their favourite book just so they can spread the wordy magic with their friends on the internet. So, big thanks then to Evan Levine at the Swan Fungus blog for doing just that with the rare-as-hens-teeth Krautrocksampler by Julian Cope. A history and compendium of German rock from the 60s and 70s, Levine says of the book:

Back in the great, distant era of erm…the mid-’90s, there was a chap by the name of Julian Cope (ex-Teardrop Explodes/music-writer geek), who decided he wanted to chronicle the history of the Krautorck genre. So, he wrote an excellent book, called Krautrocksampler, in which he not only tells readers exactly when and wear he bought all these much-sought-after-now-sadly out-of-print LPs, but paints a great picture of West Germany in the ’60s and ’70s. When he’s not waxing (his bikini) poetic, he recounts crazy stories, and draws very cool connections between projects and personalities. Cope even proclaims that Klaus Dinger “directly influenced David Bowie to take his Low direction” and “had a direct effect on the Sex Pistols, via Johnny Rotten”. Thassalotta influence!

Having wanted this for a while, now I can read it while I try to track down a copy. In case of imminent yankage I recommend anyone else who wants it gets it now too.

Thanks to Pee Six.

 
An all-out, 15-minute-long aural assault by Can on Ege Bamyasi’s “Spoon,” here turned into an epic jam ala “Sister Ray” during the Can Free Concert at the Cologne Sporthalle on February 3, 1972 (Available on DVD).

Fun fact: “Spoon” was the theme tune to a popular German crime drama titled Das Messer (“The Knife”).
 

 
Via Exile on Moan Street/Other People’s Props

 
Krautrock meets political theater in Floh de Cologne’s anti-capitalist rock n’ rant “Die Luft Gehört Denen Die Sie Atmen” (The air belongs to those who breathe it) recorded in 1971.

Floh de Cologne’s anarchic politics and free-form musical experimentations evoke The Fugs, Beefheart, Lothar And The Hand People and Frank Zappa, while visually resembling something concocted by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

The lyrics of “Die Luft Gehört Denen Die Sie Atmen” essentially make the case that the earth we live upon belongs to all of us or to no one and cannot be owned by entities like corporations or institutions. Not a new idea but one drolly communicated through the deadpan Floh de Cologne. 
 

 
A tantalizing teaser for a truly rare (as in I can’t find the complete thing on the innerweb) 1971 doc about husband and wife free-improv duo Paul and Limpe Fuchs (and their two small children) d.b.a Anima Sound. The Fuchs’ toured greater Europa in a most odd fashion: in a caravan pulled by a tractor going 20 kilometers an hour with the purpose of bringing their primitive musical expressionism to remote, uncultured public places. Looks utterly fascinating. Evidently this film did a tour of college film festivals last year. Won’t some kind soul in possession of a copy put the whole thing for us all (OK, a handful of weirdos) to view ?
 

Anima Sound: Europa Tournee Mit 20km/h TRAILER from naomi no umi on Vimeo.

 
More Limpe Fuchs after the jump…

 
Kraftwerk before Autobahn.
 

 
Bonus clips of early Kraftwerk in performance after the jump…
 

 
The undeniable universal groove of Can. It’s got a groovy beat and you can dance to it.

 
Relatively new to Youtube is this 2008 documentary in its three hour (!) entirety. I’ll admit I haven’t watched the whole thing yet so can’t vouch for quality, though it evidently touches on the whole beloved Krautrock spectrum. Hell, I’d watch a documentary about plumbing if it had something about Can in it, so I’ll be diving right into this one shortly.

 
Here’s an essential and intriguing missing piece of the Krautrock puzzle : A German man known simply as Alex (Alexander Wiska) plays Turkish pop music on his electric saz backed and produced at Inner Space studios, on his first two LPs, by most of the members of Can ! Below is an entertaining fan made clip for the song “Derule” which is a cover of a popular Turkish tune propelled by the incomparable drumming of Can’s Jaki Liebezeit.
 

 

 
Mutant Sounds: Alex Oriental Experience
 
Previously on DM : THE DANGEROUS DISKOFOLK OF DERDIYOKLAR

 
Live version of Kanaan, the bone-crunching opening number from Amon Düül II’s 1968 Krautrock classic Phallus Dei (i.e. God’s Cock). Crazy, communal-living Amon Düül II’s thunderous psychedelic sound has influenced bands from The Fall to the Dead Kennedys to the early sound of the Psychedelic Furs. If you like really heavy acid-drenched freakout music from the 60s, you cannot possibly go wrong with either Phallus Dei or their next album Yeti. Jammy riff-rock and wonderfully anarchic. Listen LOUD.
 

 
This 12” single, the only release by Czukay and Plank under the Les Vampyrettes guise, is one of my favorite slabs of vinyl, period. Deep, dark, menacing, surprising, timeless, tantalizingly brief. Play loud, startle your cat.