Faust

Faust IV + Outtakes and Alternates- 1973Because even one of the most adventurous albums of all time starts to sound "tame" after the 700th listen or so... Released as a companion disc to the 2006 reissue of Faust IV, this collection of Peel Sessions, alternate takes and full-length versions not only serves as revealing, if somewhat cockeyed look at the band's masterpiece, but holds its own against the actual album in terms of the way it still manages to sound light years ahead of its time. All told, this is hardly an odds n' sods collection. "Krautrock" is presented in its early Peel Sessions mix, which includes much of the same 7-minute psychedelic drone intro as the original but the ending features far more subdued drumming and percussion than the version that would appear on the album. The band's warped pop gems "Giggy Smile", "Sad Skinhead" and "Jennifer" are all given the "alt mix" treatment with the addition of a few stray textures that were trimmed before making it onto the LP. The unquestioned gem here however, is the unedited 10:32 version of "Just a Second (Starts Like That!)". An epic guitar head swirler which, in true Faust fashion, goes nowhere specific and everywhere else all at once. Even if you're not familiar with the original LP, this collection will turn you upside down and sideways.

Manuel Göttsching

E2-E4 - 1984

After stealthily recording his first solo LP Inventions for Electric Guitar a decade earlier under the name of his former band Ash Ra Tempel, Manuel Göttsching single-handedly created the movement defining E2-E4 in a single take, albeit a heavily overdubbed one. Gliding along on a steady chug of electronics that lean closer to Kraftwerk than the house genre it all but defined, the album slowly percolates in washes of synths and gentle polyrhythms for a steady 58 minutes, peaking with Göttsching's heavily delayed guitar in the latter quarter. It's undoubtedly the intersection of krautrock and dance, and one that sounds a tad dated a couple decades on, but even though it's surface concept has been beaten to death by the glowsticked masses, its naive sense of venturing into unknown territory still translates into an intriguing, joyous listen.

Can

Can Live: Music - 1971-1977

While their albums throughout the early and mid 1970s were landmarks of stylistic innovation and studio mastery, Can in the live setting was a band of startling, head wringing power. Most concerts would contain just a few tunes pulled from their various LPs, with the majority of the show left open to the whims of improvisation. Heady music in its most adventurous form. Songs would swell to double, at times triple the length of their studio counterparts, vocalization was sparse if it appeared at all and was treated as another instrument in the mix when it did, and the sheer volume and intensity of the music would reach cathartic levels. Originally part of the Can Box package, Can Live Music (1971-1977) collects material from the band's "golden period" and presents it here with tremendous fidelity. "You Doo Right" is incredible as usual, but here it emerges from the audience's rhythmic clapping as if being summoned from the depths. "Colchester Finale" is a massive 37+ minute jam that incorporates more than a few morsels from Tago Mago before falling in on itself in a swirl of chaos and stopping - quite miraculously - on a dime. Only nine tracks in all, but the majority of what's contained on this double live set is beyond compare, even when lined up to their studio output. This is the other side of the coin. Enjoy.

Harmonia

Deluxe - 1975

The product of a veritable Krautrock supergroup comprising members of Neu! and Cluster, Harmonia's Deluxe was an LP that all but redefined a genre. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. The band's debut Music Von Harmonia was a triumph, if not necessarily a landmark. Ever present were the hypnotic overlapping grooves that had become commonplace within Cluster, while the whole set was moored in Michael Rother's subtly psychedelic flourishes of guitar and keys that float atop Neu!'s motoric pulse. But rather than illustrate the contributions of its members and the specific talents that each brought to the proceedings, Music Von Harmonia was a concentrated group effort. An exercise in the awesome power of subtlety. What makes Deluxe such a tremendous LP is not in the way that they followed this fomula, but in how they managed to amplify it. Understated, yet epic, Deluxe is simultaneously one of Krautrock's most grandiose statements and its most restrained. While the most immediate difference from its predecessor is its more prominent use of vocals, the greasy synths and soaring lines of guitar (often processed to sound like a synths themselves) elevate every track into a majestic statement - never as clean as Kraftwerk, not nearly as funky as Can, but dripping with an inexplicable level of human emotion and utter happiness that neither band could touch. A monumental achievement and a truly joyful listen.

Can

Soon Over Babaluma - 1974
The final LP in what many refer to as Can's "golden period," Soon Over Babaluma was also their first album following the departure of vocalist Damo Suzuki. As a logical progression from the ambient funk of its predecessor Future Days, Soon Over Babaluma explored this theme even further and featured guitarist Michael Karoli and keyboardist Irmin Schmidt taking over Suzuki's vocal duties with surprisingly effective results. While they would continue to produce music that was a marked improvement over their krautrock contemporaries, this LP is the last of their career that worked well as a whole, and (coincidentally) their final album to be recorded using a two-track recorder. Amazing, amazing stuff.

Faust

V (The Unreleased Virgin Promotional Cassette) - 1975

Following the release of their (now) legendary Faust IV LP and the subsequent tour, but shortly before being dropped from their Virgin label, krautrock pioneers Faust took it upon themselves to record their fifth album and run up an ongodly studio bill. Once Virgin got wind of the proceedings, the band had to quite literally escape from their studio and were subsequently arrested when they attempted to sneak back in to retrieve their tapes. Despite having been released from their Virgin contract, a promotional cassette of these sessions began to mysteriously circulate, and either because the result of those high-dollar sessions was so incredible or the fact that the tape was so difficult to come by, those who had heard it claimed it to be the finest work of the band's career. Now that the tape has become readily available some 30 years on, I lean towards the former. Filled with abstract, mechanized grooves, cut and paste collages and wildly imaginative guitar freakouts, the result is quite unlike anything happening in its day, and had it been released, would join Can's Tago Mago or Neu! 75 in the pantheon of krautrock's elite.

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk 1 & 2 - 1970/1971

Having never seen an official release on CD, the first two Kraftwerk LPs have attained legendary status due to their unavailability. That, and the fact that music itself isn't half bad either. Klaus Dinger (later of Neu!) provides the trippy, motororic drumming that forms the slippery backbone of the first LP, while the second reveals the band exploring the possibilities of keyboards and electronic percussion in detail. Given that the band's human drummers were gone by this point, such a shift was already in the wind, but it's the enthusiastic experimentation with drum machines and their possibilities that makes Kraftwerk 2 noteworthy. Much different from the "classic" Kraftwerk sound in the lack of vocals and the way in which the steady beats are sometimes slowed up, down, or destroyed entirely, these two LPs illustrate the band's bold struggle to rid itself of all elements associated with rock music and its successes and failures in attempting to do so. The band has since "disowned" these two LPs, and refuses to acknowledge their existence as part of its discography.

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