Words by Justin Turford
The mighty Compost Records are releasing a brand new compilation of ‘Krautrock’ inspired sounds on September 1st and it’s a beauty. For those that don’t know, Krautrock was an umbrella (and frankly, a perjorative one) term used for the new West German bands appearing from the revolutionary hothouse of the late 60s’ onwards. The post-WW2 generation of young West Germans were throwing off the psychological shackles of their country’s involvement in the monstrous war and carving out their own new identity. Many of the artists labelled as Krautrock hated the term unsurprisingly but many also accepted it, taking out the sting in some ways of the word ‘kraut’ - which had been used as an insult by firstly the British then the American soldiers from WW1 onwards. Even though, musically, the bands were as diverse as they were geographically distanced from each other, there was a commonality between them. An urge to make a new future utilising technology and rhythm.
The word ‘rock’ may be visible but this wasn’t the blues based rock’n’roll template that had existed since the youth explosion of the 50s’; the Germans were not just being radicalised politically, their music was a complete upending of the given tropes of rock music. Instead of Little Richard and The Kinks, we had the minimalist masters Stockhausen and Terry Riley, musique concrète, free jazz and the skeletal funk of James Brown as inspirations. And it was a success pretty much from the off, influencing fellow travellers such as Hawkwind through to The Fall and Andrew Weatherall. The relentless ‘motorik’ grooves of Can and Neu!, the future-shaping of Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream’s ambient synthesiser waves were the vanguard of so much music that we take for granted now - the foundational stones for much of our electronic music present.
“Future Sounds Of Kraut Vol. 1” is an inspired look at newish bands inspired by and taking the krautrock sound onwards. International in scope, there are French (I:Cube, Baikonour), Brazilian (Abrão), British (Higamos Hogamos presents SPACEROCKS), Greek (Organza Ray) and more nationalities amongst the German acts, and like the original ‘scene’, they all have distinctive identities but share the experimentalism and the hypnotic, repetitive pulse that more than anything defines Krautrock.
The brainchild of Fred und Luna, a pair of mannequins that are the creative muses for Rainer Buchmüller, I pinged them a few questions..
JT - Is Krautrock still a difficult term in Germany?
Fred - I would say: no. It’s not controversial anymore. World War II and the resentments towards Germans are ancient history, classic “Krautrock” is well respected all over this planet and has had a big influence on the music scene since many years.
Luna - I agree with Fred. Kraut has furthermore become fashionable, which is a result of its timelessness. What bothers me more is the “Rock” part of the term. I have never connected bands like Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Cluster, Neu! and Conrad Schnitzler with rock music. So I prefer to use the name “Kraut”, it’s more tasty.
JT - I have always believed that there has been a lot of humour in the Krautrock scene - it burst the myth of the humourless German (especially with the British) - are Fred and Luna as funny as their Instagram?
Luna - Our Instagram being funny is due to the humour of our friend Rainer Buchmüller (aka Sugar Ray Buckmiller) who does all of the compositions and lyrics and is maintaining our internet presence. Plus, he represents us on live shows wearing a wig and reading amusing concrete poetry.
Fred - Rainer is the crazy part of our formation. I don’t know, if Luna and me are basically humorous, but it seems so as we are Rainer’s muses and, as he describes it, we are the ones who inspire him to do all the things he does.
JT - How did you choose the music for the comp? There must be a lot you left out!
Fred - There’s indeed a lot we left out and we had to leave out, at least for Volume 1. Kraut is a music genre full of stylistic diversity. So we started with the idea to not only release a single volume, but a series of Future Sounds Of Kraut albums. This would offer enough space to feature the different influences of classical Kraut on modern music. Not all at once, more like slowly but surely.
Luna - Another intention is to present a mixture of established and upcoming musicians, plus the plan to encourage musicians who are not basically connected with Kraut to contribute a song that represents their idea of a futuristic Kraut sound. It’s a very exciting and forward-looking concept.
JT - This is more international in scope than I was expecting - the artists are not all Germans. Warum? Was it always planned to be more international?
Luna - Yes, we wanted to be as open as possible from the beginning. Since the days of early Kraut the world has changed a lot. With the advent of the internet worldwide musical exchange has more and more become the standard. Concentrating on German acts would limit our basic intention too much.
Fred - Especially in times that see narrow-minded nationalist movements grow everywhere, it is particularly important to feature an unlimited and international way of thinking and acting.
JT - Which are the exclusive tracks (assuming the first and last are)?
Fred - Including the two Fred und Luna pieces (Intro and Outro) there’s six exclusive tracks that were especially recorded for this compilation. We are happy to be supported by Pyrolator (one of the most important representatives of German electronic music since the late 1970s), Halwa (a hitherto unknown band from Hamburg)...
Luna - Organza Ray (which is Eleni Poulou of The Fall and her musical partner Hilary Jeffery), plus an improvisation project from France and Germany called Lionel, Julien, Marceau et Rainer.
JT - Krautrock came out of the politics of the late 60s, do you think there is still a political angle to some of the ‘Kraut’ inspired music being produced now or is it really just an established musical aesthetic or way of creating?
Luna - This is an aspect we have thought about recently, because the idea came up to add some commentaries on society to our music. As we did on “Wir atmen digital” and “Morgen” from our latest album, where we mention digitisation and the belief in the future.
Fred - Moreover, some of the songs Rainer is currently working on include lyrics about present ongoings and new developments. Concerning other musicians, there are, as far as we found out, not many Kraut inspired bands who are known for their political statements. It seems to be a movement concentrated on the music itself. But we would be happy to be taught a better way. So if you or anybody out there has some more specific knowledge, let us know.
A superb collection of tracks that are full of surprises, playfulness and groove. Kraut is back once again. 9/10.
Future Sounds Of Kraut Vol. 1 - Compiled by Fred und Luna is out on Compost Records on 1st September 2023.
Order here! https://www.juno.co.uk/products/future-sounds-of-kraut-vol-1-vinyl/960064-01/