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.
 

 
Blistering live version of Can’s Mother Sky on German television, 1970.  Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, the human metronome Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli and the most singular vocalist in all of rock history, Damo Suzuki. From the album, Soundtracks.
 

 
What an unsavory looking bunch ! What a truly odd video ! What a lovely/ trippy/ timeless jam this is ! It’s Dies Irae, another in a fine line of one album wonders from glorious early seventies Europa. Produced by Conny Plank, no less. I can’t stop playing it.

(thanks Ustad !)

 
Happy Crimble everyone !

 
Since Dangerous Minds seems to be trading the Stones for Krautrock (thanks, Brad Laner!), I thought I’d chime in with this BBC documentary, Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany:

Between 1968 and 1977 bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk would look beyond western rock and roll to create some of the most original and uncompromising music ever heard.  They shared one common goal—a forward-looking desire to transcend Germany?

 
My brother Josh pointed out another perfect one in the form of “She Brings The Rain” by the venerable Can. DM reader Jason W points us in the direction of this description of the film from which it originally came. Somebody needs to dig that film up, pronto !