(Vocal group, 1969–79) An experimental German outfit, Can were significantly influential on both rock and dance music. The band was founded by students of avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen: Holger Czukay (bass) and Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), with Michael Karoli (guitar), Jaki Liebezeit (drums) and, briefly, David Johnson (flute). American singer Malcolm Mooney joined for Can’s debut album Monster Movie (1969), which showcased the band’s lengthy, hypnotic improvisations, underpinned by cyclical, repetitive drumming. Mooney ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1970–present) This German electronic group’s pioneering use of synthesizers made them one of the all-time most influential bands. Co-founders Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter set up Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf in 1970, where the pair made three albums. They were augmented by electronic percussionists Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos on a tour to promote the band’s fourth album Autobahn (1974), completing Kraftwerk’s classic line-up. Autobahn brought the group ...
Krautrock, which emanated from West Germany during the late-1960s, fused The Velvet Underground’s white noise experiments and Pink Floyd’s psychedelic rock with the free-form jazz aesthetic and funk-based rhythms. Avoiding the dull virtuosity of progressive rock and the sanitised R&B pop of the late-1960s, Krautrock’s grand vision of reinventing the rock guitar as well as exploring the untapped possibilities of the electronic sound has seen it influence dance and electronic music as ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.