Music

It’s easier for today’s music fans to understand the rhythmically repetitive Krautrock oeuvre after years of exposure to dance music – something Krautrock influenced in the first place. This acceptance has meant that the old guys are back in business. Faust played a number of London shows last year, Tangerine Dream performed ‘Phaedra’ here in June 2005 and 72-year-old Hans-Joachim Roedelius (who formed Cluster) has released a retrospective on Gronland. He reckons the acknowledgement of Krautrock was inevitable.

‘Because it’s not mainstream and has never had the help of major labels, it’s taken a little longer to bleed through.’ he says. ‘If record companies had pushed my music I’m sure we would have sold much more because the music isn’t that difficult.’ Feature continues

Neu!’s Michael Rother, an early member of Kraftwerk, is enjoying new-found glory too. On Thursday he plays the ICA with his friend Dieter Moebius (of Cluster fame). It follows collaborations with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante (‘he’s a magician on the guitar’, says Rother) and his recent appearances onstage with Secret Machines. ‘It really made me think about listening to young bands and trying to move forward again,’ says Rother.

There’s plenty of Krautrock-inspired newbies too. Emperor Machine (check out 2004 album ‘Aimee Tallulah Is Hypnotised’) tie the machine-music of Neu! to the loose-limbed appeal of Can. Elsewhere, Queens Of The Stone Age have cited Rother as a major influence and London’s The Early Years craft euphoric psych rock. In August, Steve Webster (aka The Black Neon) will release a debut album (‘Arts And Crafts’) displaying his own love of the era’s music.

‘Krautrock still sounds like nothing else,’ says Webster. ‘Full of ideas and inspiration, it links up with so much other music. “Musik Von Harmonia” [by Harmonia] sounds like Aphex Twin with elements of Neu! and ’80s electro pop. And it came out in 1974!’

While these artists replicate the sound, the maverick spirit of Krautrock – communal living, a rejection of conventional pop songs, Faust playing hydraulic drills – exists elsewhere. Faust themselves recorded an album with experimental hip hop outfit Dälek in 2004 (‘Derbe Respect, Alder’) and the likes of Liars, The Boredoms, Animal Collective, Black Dice, Lightning Bolt and They Came From The Stars I Saw Them are pushing the boundaries in a way that would please the old guard.

‘It’s important to feel free to change your music,’ says Rother. ‘I would love to sell a lot of albums but I know you lose freedom once you’re on the pop treadmill. At one point, Kraftwerk decided to stand still and were afraid of change. I thought that was a pity.’To hear these more experimental acts, go to London’s Kosmische Club. They’ve been attracting ‘18-year-olds bored with the Kaiser Chiefs to 60-year-old druids’ for ten years and celebrate their birthday at the Corsica Studios on Friday. One of the organisers, Mark Pilkington, suggests some more ‘out-there’ acts to check out.

‘Six Organs Of Admittance’s new album is very Popol Vuh,’ he says. ‘There’s more than a hint of Amon Düül in Sunburned Hand Of Man. And Circle, from Finland! One of their gigs consisted of a single, 90-minute riff that never once got boring.’

So, whether you opt for pop or weirdy underground rock, you’ll hear the growing influence of Krautrock. And don’t be afraid. Gone are the days when it was just music for nerds. As Webster says: ‘I never want to keep it a secret. I want to play it to everyone. And when I do they’re always, always blown away by it.’