An den Landungsbrücken raus...

And so the research semester begins. I've been thinking a lot about how my autobiography connects to my topic. I opened my second article about krautrock that got accepted, a piece on the musicians from Neu! for the Journal of Popular Music Studies, with some personal stories -- how I didn't know much about this music growing up in Hamburg and how I really only came to appreciate it by moving to the U.S. and realizing what a huge impact a band like Neu! had on musicians outside the U.S. (finding all of their three major releases at the Iowa City Public Library). But what's also important is that Neu! and many other krautrock groups also express a specific sense of national identity, something that has become so much more important for me after I became an expatriate. It's exactly what I'm struggling with right now, preparing for a three-month return to my "homeland." I've been reading Döblin's Berlin, Alexanderplatz, I've re-watched most of Edgar Reitz's TV series Heimat with my 13-year-old daughter who is excited about getting out of Laramie to a country she feels she belongs to although she left it when she was three years old, but, most importantly, I've been listening to a lot of German music, and not just what would be labeled as krautrock. The Hamburg band Kettcar, in particular, expresses the conflicted feelings I have for the place I've left behind but will be returning to. Hamburg, the city I love but the city that wipes the smile off your face. A city so globalized that you can see containers from its companies rumble by on the railroad right here in Laramie, Wyoming -- yet, a place so parochial that even moving to Berlin can be considered a sell-out. Kettcar is playing two sold-out shows while I'm over there. I'm still trying to get a ticket.

Bowie & Berlin

Although I've been researching Krautrock for about two years now, there are still many loose ends and much music to explore -- quite amazing, for instance, the underwater music of Jürgen Müller that has just very recently come to the surface (pun intended): http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15696-science-of-the-sea/  -- and in the last few weeks I have been listening to a lot of Ton Steine Scherben, a group from the squatter movement I disliked when I was younger but that I have become very fond of, especially their less agitative but nonetheless deeply political album Wenn die Nacht am tiefsten ist.
I have so much more to say about the Scherben but I also wanted to mention that I've been listening to a lot of David Bowie. Strong connections exist between Bowie and Krautrock groups Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster. Some of Bowie's best music was heavily influenced by Krautrock as was the music of Iggy Pop and Brian Eno -- there are collaborations between Eno and Cluster (and Eno and Harmonia). Bowie recorded two albums in Berlin and one other that also, at least in spirit, belongs to the Berlin Trilogy. Heroes was named after the Neu! song "Hero" and name-checks Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider on "V2 Schneider." Low has instrumentals that would have made Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother proud. And Lodger, while not recorded in Berlin, owes much to Krautrock as well. Just one example: "Red Sails," which completely rips off Klaus Dinger's Neu! beat. See examples below.

Of course Bowie is fantastic but Neu! deserves some credit as well. I've been spending an entire month with them and I will get back to the details later...