50 days of Krautrock

I was a middleaged Krautrocker.

Here’s Julian Cope on rediscovering the high magic again and again:

…in 1984, when I met my then new manager Cally, a Krautrock disciple supreme: and most recently since 1991, when my guitar tech Rizla Deutsch put Neu 2 on in the tour bus. Here we go again, I thought, and here we surely have. — Julian Cope, Krautrocksampler §Introduction

I had a similar experience with Neu! the other day. I listen to a ton of Krautrock, but Hallogallo – which I’ve heard hundreds of times – somehow cut through as something startlingly (ahem) new – alien, sui generis. I wonder if this is everyone’s experience of the first time they hear it? (Actually, it’s more likely to be What’s wrong with my phone? as it takes ages to fade in.)

▶︎ Hallogallo by Neu!

Anyway, this got me thinking it would be fun to rediscover this music, perhaps through this blog. A 100 days of… challenge, perhaps? But what to choose? Where to start?

In Krautrocksampler Cope shares his top 50 albums, so why not listen to each one in turn? There’s a few I haven’t heard in there, and 50 days of… is more achievable.

That does mean starting with Paradieswärts Düül by Amon Düül I, which I remember as being OK rather than out of this world. But this should be a voyage of (re)discovery, nein?