"Krautrock"?

Let's start at the beginning... in the beginning was the word, and the word was krautrock. The term itself is heavily contested. Someone in the UK came up with it. It doesn't really matter whether it was radio DJ John Peel or somebody at the New Musical Express -- the term has stuck even though most musicians associated with it don't like it and even though the German music press didn't use it until 1974. Kraut of course comes from sauerkraut and it's a not-so-nice term Brits use to call Germans -- in the same spirit of labeling all Americans yanks. In German, kraut can refer to many things, among them herbs, weeds, drugs... all said, the term is now used in reverent tones by U.S. music publications like Pitchfork and has even gained some acceptance in Germany... blame it on Julian Cope and his seminal but flawed book Krautrocksampler.


I'm starting this blog to exchange ideas about Krautrock -- and all its related styles, from kosmische Musik to Deutschrock -- so anybody else who is interested in this topic is welcome to chime in. I will have more to say about Neu!, Kraftwerk, Can, Cluster, Faust, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Amon Duul II, Popol Vuh, Ton Steine Scherben, La Dusseldorf -- and I will figure out how to use the umlaut on here -- but I just wanted to get this blog rolling.