Krautrock, which emanated from West Germany during the late-1960s, fused The Velvet Underground’s white noise experiments and Pink Floyd’s psychedelic rock with the free-form jazz aesthetic and funk-based rhythms. Avoiding the dull virtuosity of progressive rock and the sanitised R&B pop of the late-1960s, Krautrock’s grand vision of reinventing the rock guitar as well as exploring the untapped possibilities ...
listener to guess what the next chapter will be. ‘I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.’ John Cage Styles Ambient Krautrock Electro Trip Hop New Age Electronic Style Synthesizers opened up a new universe of sounds. Styles & Forms | Ambient | Electronic ...
(Experimental vocal/instrumental group, 1973–94) Founded in Sheffield by Krautrock fans Chris Watson, Richard H. Kirk and Stephen Mallinder. The trio manipulated tapes and played conventional instruments against and over them. Signed to Rough Trade in 1978, an underground hit ‘Nag Nag Nag’ emerged. The group became more interested in danceable beats, but still retained an experimental edge. ...
10 and a good self-titled debut album followed in 1978. Their second collection, 1979’s Metal Box (packaged in a metal box) was extraordinary: a beguiling mix of dub, Krautrock and Eastern-inflected weirdness and Lydon’s inspired, spooky rants, it was released as Second Edition (1980) in the US, and amazingly made the UK Top 20. Two more ...
with his family. Buck, Mills and Stipe threw the rule-book out of the window to experiment on the radical set of Up (1998) that veered from the drum machine Krautrock of ‘Hope’ to the poignant ballad ‘At My Most Beautiful’. R.E.M. returned to festivals, stadiums and venues as unique as London’s Trafalgar Square for a South Africa ...
known as Johnny and The Self-Abusers, Glaswegians Jim Kerr (vocals), Charlie Burchill (guitar), Derek Forbes (bass), Mick McNeil (keyboards) and Brian McGee (drums) took on board the experimentations of Krautrock and Brian Eno for their second album Real To Real Cacophony (1979). They gently sloughed off their weirder tendencies over their next two albums, before 1982’s New Gold Dream ...
Callis, ex-Rezillos (guitar). Adrian Wright (synthesizers, visuals) and Ian Burden (bass, synthesizers) completed the personnel who made Dare in 1981. This superb album combined the arty, Krautrock beginnings of the band with an irresistible pop feel. The group had already charted big with ‘The Sound Of The Crowd’ and ‘Love Action’, but Dare unleashed the transatlantic No. ...
of ambient composers often consists of slowly evolving textures over a simple repetitive pattern, which can induce a trance-like state of consciousness. Introduction | Electronic Styles & Forms | Krautrock | Electronic ...
(Vocal group, 1969–79) An experimental German outfit, Can were significantly influential on both rock and dance music. The band was founded by students of avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen: Holger Czukay (bass) and Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), with Michael Karoli (guitar), Jaki Liebezeit (drums) and, briefly, David Johnson (flute). American singer Malcolm Mooney joined for Can’s debut album Monster ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1970–present) This German electronic group’s pioneering use of synthesizers made them one of the all-time most influential bands. Co-founders Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter set up Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf in 1970, where the pair made three albums. They were augmented by electronic percussionists Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos on a tour to promote the band’s ...
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