From Julian Cope’s introduction…
In this mini-history, I’ve tried to explain who were these German underground heroes, spoken of in hushed tones, but unheard by most. Faust, Can, Neu!, Amon Düül I and II, Ash Ra Temple, Tangerine Dream, Cluster, La Dusseldorf, Harmonia, Popol Vuh, etc. Etc. Why did the whole West German rock scene continue to make LP’s of acid breakout music in wild op-art sleeves long into the ’70s? And why was a standard album by any of the above far more extreme that even the most extreme British and American equivalents, excluding such legends as Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray” (which some Krautrock fans would consider tame in comparison with certain tracks that could be mentioned, e.g. Ash R Tempel/“Amboss”).
This little history attempts to explain the reasons, but it can never explain the music of a whole Youth-nation working out their blues. There was a fire burning in the souls of post-war German youth that somehow needed to be, not fanned, not put out, nor added to with petrol — but rather that fire needed to be allowed to burn. And burn it did. With an intensity that could have changed the very fabric of the West had it taken place in Britain or the USA. But that was the nature of the fire, so it was never to be. Instead, we are left with the legacy of the daring German Youth-dance away with their past.. And Krautrock it is — some of the most astonishing, evocative, heroic glimpses of Man at his Peak of Artistic Magic.
