Faust members Werner Zappi Diermaier and Jean-Herv P ron. | Photo: Petra Glaeser. The way music influences other artists can be just as powerful as the music itself.
Krautrock -- the heavy, weird, intense and joyous music created throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland from the late 1960s through the mid-'70s, roughly the period of time during which the Summer of Love was assassinated by the Me Generation -- is a type of music that's affected a certain breed of adventuresome musician in L.A., in turn spurring them to make their own take on the weirdness they've heard. Krautrock is also known to the more expansive heads amongst us as Kosmische music; a music of cosmic importance. Throughout the past five decades, the artform has brought comfort to the strange, given hope to the freakish, and imbued a certain ur-swagger to those fortunate to be caught in the continuum of its otherworldly groove.
The German band Faust experiences a homecoming of sorts with a recent performance in L.A. at Union, the newly-revamped iteration of Jewel's Catch One. Best of all, the Krautrock musicians that have visited Los Angeles over the years have also been affected in various ways.
Here follows an oral history of the effects of Krautrock on Los Angeles, (and vice-versa).
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Hans-Joachim Roedelius with Dieter Moebius at More Ohr Less festival, 2015. | Photo: Hans-Joachim Roedelius on Facebook.
Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia)
The first concert with Moebius in Los Angeles we played in 1985. I was there again with Moebius and several times solo or with others. It's always great fun to be there to meet up with fans; to feel the appreciation and love of the people who attend the shows. Once I was there with my daughter Rosa -- I played a solo-set at a benefit show to support HIV-infected people. Tom Hanks and many other famous U.S. actors and actresses came. Everybody fell in love with Rosa. They didn't listen to me -- ha ha! Once I played with an Italian colleague, pianist Alessandra Celletti, at Zipper Hall; great place, great grand piano by Fazioli -- one of the best grands in the world.
As far as his perceptions have changed over time regarding L.A., Roedelius says: The city itself was interesting insofar as I was mostly invited to stay in friends' houses, mostly at Tommy Gre as' (of Farflung). I met The Edge in his house in Malibu. I'm not so much interested in big cities like L.A. I rarely visit museums and such places -- but the food is very good downtown. I love all my friends! I hope to be able to come once again in the future to finish a record about Rumi the Sufi master.
Listen to Harmonias Watussi here.
Germs performing in Madrid in 2009. Pictured from left to right: Lorna Doom, Don Bolles, Shane West, Pat Smear. | Photo: H ctor Esteban Men ndez/Flickr/Creative Commons License.
Don Bolles (Germs)
When I moved here, people would ask who my favorite band was -- and of course, it would be Faust. I was totally into Krautrock. That's how you could tell which people were cool. In my old band Vox Pop, we did three or four Faust songs.
Was playing Faust songs how he could tell who the real weirdos were? Kinda, yeah!, he laughs, adding, Of course, the L.A. Free Music Society guys knew about Krautrock. I was pals with them -- the first thing of mine that got released on a record was on the Blub Krad compilation. My band was The Yvonnes; my name on it was Scary Como. I played bass. As for what about Faust that was so appealing, he answers quickly, I just liked them. I liked the whole Krautrock ideal; noise, avant-garde stuff. I was really into Stockhausen. I liked LSD and I liked Stockhausen a whole lot! [laughs] When Autobahn came out, and all my friends found out about Kraftwerk, I thought, These guys? Yeah, they sold out. Neu! is where it's at! I'd hitch-hike down to the record store, check out the latest stuff, read Melody Maker. Krautrock was kind of becoming a thing in the English music papers. They had everything that would come out -- all those Cosmic Jokers LPs, any Klaus Schulze, or Tangerine Dream. I liked the Beach Boys and the Mothers of Invention, too -- that's what the Krautrock guys liked.
Listen to the Germss Lexicon Devil here.
Egrets on Ergot.
Adam Brooks (Egrets on Ergot)
Lead fuzz ranter Adam Brooks had this to say during a recent rushed, hushed telephone call about the effects of Krautrock on his burgeoning L.A. band Egrets on Ergot: Faust and the contemporaries were layering unlikely textures one another, and thus allowing a person to step outside, from a third-person point-of-view and take a look at how their character analyses or perceives the music. I think that music becomes a form of therapy for anyone on the spectrum of music knowledge. Apropos Faust, his favorite album of theirs is So Far. Right off the bat: the lack of rules, he says. What I felt was happening was that they were playing something that was complex -- but maybe if you took each part and isolated them, they weren't all that complex. It's very different from any other music genre down the decades. It's got its own unique appeal. It's just there.
Listen to Egrets on Ergots Mangkukulam here.
Mitchell Brown (DJ Nanny Cantaloupe). | Photo: Dublab.
Mitchell Brown (Nanny Cantaloupe -- Dublab, KXLU)
You could say that they affected other artists who affected everybody. Especially Roedelius and Moebius, who affected Brian Eno, who affected everybody; Brian Eno wouldn't be who he is without his mid-'70s meetings and collaborations and inspiration from Roedelius and Moebius. And you can extend that influence to Bowie's Berlin years, too.
So is there a perfect Krautrock band? Cluster, and Harmonia, he laughs, adding, I don't mean to keep drawing to just them. I feel l
