Krautrock is a British term for the experimental rock scene in West Germany existent between The '60s and The '70s.
Since it's a catch-all term, some of the bands lumped under the genre have nothing in common with each other, and the term could be used abusively to refer to all German rock music. Generally, the musicians themselves dislike the "Krautrock" label and prefer the term "Kosmische [Cosmic] music." There was no real Krautrock "scene" (the only thing in common between some of the bands listed here was the Record Producer of some of their records, Conny Plank, and, on the other hand, a madcap entrepreneur called Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser - more on him and the movement as a whole in Julian Cope's wonderful book Krautrocksampler. A BBC documentary on the genre also described him as a "Teutonic Tony Wilson."). The main distinguishing features of Krautrock are its experimentalism - musically speaking the bands of the genre drew from Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, avant-garde rock bands (Frank Zappa, the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd), Funk, Jazz, Classical, and world music - and its focus on repetition and minimalism. Krautrock bands were among the first to seriously adopt electronics and explore world music influences, and represented a significant influence on Alternative Rock (especially Post-Punk, Post-Rock, and Alternative Dance), Electronic Music, Ambient, and Progressive Rock. The driving rhythms of bands like Can and Neu! were a major influence on various forms of dance music.
Bands commonly cited as Krautrock:
- Achim Reichel
- Agitation Free
- Amon Düül II
- By extension, Amon Duul and Amon Duul UK as well.
- Ash Ra Tempel
- Ashra
- Klaus Schulze (his first album - later records are Electronic Music and/or Ambient)
- Brainticket
- Can
- Cluster (especially back when they were still called "Kluster"- starting with Zuckerzeit, they turned to Electronic Music)
- The Cosmic Jokers
- Embryo
- Eruption
- Faust
- Floh de Cologne
- Frumpy
- Gila
- Guru Guru
- Harmonia
- Michael Rother
- Improved Sound Limited
- Jane
- Kraan
- Kraftwerk (their first three albums, before they switched to pure Electronic Music. Autobahn still has some traces left over, such as guitars and non-electronic instruments.)
- 1974 - Autobahn
- Monks (an American Garage Rock / Protopunk band based in Germany, whose minimalist, repetitious take on the genre is considered an Ur-Example, having been cited as an influence by members of Can and Faust)
- Organisation, a band containing the two key members of Kraftwerk which released one album in 1969.
- Neu! (yes, with an exclamation mark) and its successor:
- Mythos
- Out Of Focus
- Popol Vuh
- Tangerine Dream (especially on the early albums- later records are Electronic Music and/or Ambient)
- Thirsty Moon
- Wallenstein
- Xhol Caravan (Though they are more like a bridge between this and more "conventional" Psychedelic Rock, and released their debut album in 1967)
Later artists and bands who were greatly inspired by Krautrock:
- David Bowie (particularly his output from Station to Station to Lodger)
- Chrome
- Clinic
- Brian Eno
- The Fall
- The Flaming Lips
- Hawkwind
- Joy Division
- New Order
- Gary Numan
- Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
- Iggy Pop (on The Idiot)
- Portishead
- Public Image Ltd.
- Radiohead (from Kid A onwards)
- R.E.M. (particularly their early output, from the 1981 version of "Radio Free Europe" to Murmur)
- Stereolab
- Talk Talk (on Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock)
- This Heat
- Ultravox
- Wire
- Frank Zappa
