Carla and Brad Talk About Krautrock

Send us Fan Mail Today we talk about Krautfolk duo Bernd Witthüser and Walter Westrupp. These two budding musicians met on the Essen basement hipster folk scene, became fast friends, fell out (yeah: a girl), and reconnected after the Essener Songtage in 1968. After a first splash with their, um, Flipper the Dolphin single, W and W stole the show at Fehmarn. (Some might say Hendrix never recovered.) Tabs and joints and Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser soon entered the mix, and sessions wit...

Send us Fan Mail Eau de Cologne. Floh de Cologne. Oh, that Floh de Cologne! Blending old-time cabaret tradition and '60s radical left-wing politics, the Flohs brought biting wit and considerable musical range to bierkellers and Uni stages all across West Germany. And it wasn't long before they laid a concept album/ beat-show down to tape. That record, Ohr Records’ first release (!), was Fliessbandbabys Beat-Show. Rock along with your two favorite middle-aged Gen X Conveyor Belt Ba...

Send us Fan Mail Took a minute but we're back with a vengeance and a heaping helping of Synthy Berliner Klaus Schulze! We gushed about Klaus's drumming in our Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel episodes. Funny thing, though: Klaus's FIFTY-PLUS-YEAR career as a solo artist was a largely drums-free endeavor. Starting with 1972's Irrlicht, which he hacked together with a wonky amp, broken organ, some delay effects and a taped orchestral rehearsal, Klaus Schulze set aside conven...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode, Carla and Brad tip their caps to the ten or more young Bavarians who stood up to Mom and Dad, demanded money for a swank downtown apartment, and most assuredly drove their neighbors nuts with the ensuing band rehearsals. Well, maybe we tip our caps more to the parents who funded this grand and glorious adventure. Musical Münchner communards choose attitude over aptitude. Drum circles and pudding plots abound. Push the levels all the wa...

Send us Fan Mail Schoolyard friends Manuel Göttsching and Hartmut Enke loved the Beatles and the blues ... like everybody else in a Berlin rock band in the late '60s. But then they got hold of Blue Cheer's record and some blow-the-doors-off British amps. Soon wunderkind drummer Klaus Schulze was at their door, sniffing around the new equipment. Things were gonna get LOUD. Ash Ra Tempel's soundquakes and soundscapes show off a dynamic range that is unmatched in Kraut...

Send us Fan Mail We interrupt this podcast's regularly scheduled programming for a SPECIAL REPORT: We've made a Krautrock Playlist. The original idea was to have a "song draft": having dug deep enough into Krautrock, we would take turns claiming songs for ourselves. We figured this way we'd learn what each of us likes in particular, and what we like best. What happened is we came up with a list of 44 songs -- FORTY-FOUR -- that generally holds together not just as a cohesive cross-sec...

Send us Fan Mail Accomplished jazz practitioners hear the siren song of psychedelic rock and find themselves a young, ripping guitarist to plug in with. Hold on: are we talking about Can again? Not at all. It's Guru Guru today: three amazing musicians laying down the soundtrack for when the aliens arrive. Or put differently, "music that's intended to mess with the cerebellum." (h/t David Stubbs) The Pep Boys were Manny, Mo, and Jack. Mani, Uli, and Ax brought s...

Send us Fan Mail Today we depart from our usual programming to post a LIVE SHOW ALERT. Turns out Brad sneaked off to London last month to catch surviving member of Neu! Michael Rother's live performance at the Clapham Grand! Joining Michael on stage were Hans Lampe (of La Düsseldorf, on drums), Franz Bargmann (of Camera, on guitar) and electronic composer and recent Rother collaborator Vittoria Maccabruni. Special guests included Hot Chip, known Krautrock exponent Stephen Morris, of J...

Send us Fan Mail Eight episodes deep, and still we haven't checked in on The Most Important Band of All Time (This Side of the Beatles)? That ends today. It's time for Carla and Brad to talk about Kra[f]t[wer]k. Kling-Klang, Ralf + Florian, "Precise and Maximum Expression." Ruckzuck, Radio-Activity, Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine ... AUTOBAHN. It's 106 kilometers to Düsseldorf. We've got a full tank of gas and a half-pound of white asparagus. It's dark,...

Send us Fan Mail Conrad Schnitzler, Brian Eno, Michael Rother, Conny Plank. All the cool kids wanted to hang with Moebius and Roedelius — so naturally we do, too. What time is it, listeners? Is it time for the CBK bus to take a turn "im Suden?" Is it time to tap into Roe's pastoral Romanticism and Moe's sparky bleeps and blips? Time to put Eric Clapton into "the Krautrock meat grinder?" (h/t Yorkshire Ned) Is it, indeed, time to check in on CLUSTER...

Send us Fan Mail Are you worried about losing your time? Your teeth? Well, fear no more, listeners, because Carla and Brad are here to talk about Faust. Eclectic, unyielding, forward-leaning, and fun — Faust brought their A-game to the studio, time and again. Today we focus on their manic and beautiful 1973 masterpiece, Faust IV. Irmler! Sosna! Wüsthoff, Zappi, Peron! You're up! FAUST FREAKING IV, PEOPLE!!!

Send us Fan Mail Did anybody see this snowman, standing in the wind alone? Damo did ... and Holger, Irmin, Jaki, and Michael, too. Today we're talking about Can — and specifically, their 1971 double LP, Tago Mago. John Cale, "I Am the Walrus," and Aleister Crowley get their due, but in the end this is all about the mad genius of five men jamming in a castle. We are all mushroomheads.

Send us Fan Mail Today Carla and Brad talk about Amon Düül II -- and specifically, their signature 1970 double album, Yeti. Mind-mashing psychedelia sprung from a Munich radical art commune? Virtuoso bongo play wrapped in otherworldly guitars? Count us in. (But don't call it prog-rock ...) Don't be left out in the cold! Join us today, as we begin exploring the peaks of Krautrock.