Krautrock was an experimental genre of music that developed in West Germany during the late 1960’s, combining elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music. One thing the genre was especially known for was the usage of musique concrète, which basically describes the process of taking a typical sound recording (instrument or voice), modifying the heck out of that source material through signal processing, and then delivering it back to the listener. It pays no heed to normal musical rules of harmony or rhythm, and most importantly, will sound completely unrecognizable to their original form.
This is obviously a lot more common place in modern music, but in the late 60’s the process was a lot more arduous and ground-breaking. Can was one of the pioneers of this type of approach to composition and Tago Mago is typically considered their most influential album (with 1972’s Ege Bamyasi their most heralded). It’s exploration of avant-garde rock redefined a lot of musical boundaries in the early 70’s and as you can imagine the sprawling double LP covered a ton of ground– they fused psychedelic rock, jazz, and electronic experimentation into an avant-garde pot of eclecticism. The hypnotic rhythms and improvisational style can get chaotic at times, but it’s well worth the surreal journey.
Standout Songs: “Paperhouse”, “Halleluhwah”, “Oh Yeah”
