he World Of Krautrock

Krokodil may have started out as a psychedelic blues rock outfit, but from An Invisible World Revealed you wouldn't have guessed it, since it sounds like the Swiss band have been reared on a diet of early Hawkwind and Amon Duul II. Mojo Weideli juggles his flute and harmonica and is an asset to the proceedings whichever he happens to be playing. With each side combining two shorter tracks and a longer workout, the band establish reasonable prog credentials, and though it isn't the sort of performance which really helps them break through to the top tier of krautrock it's a decent enough listen.

Guru Guru is a German krautrock band formed in 1968 as The Guru Guru Groove by Mani Neumeier (drums), Uli Trepte (bass) and Eddy Naegeli (guitar), later replaced by the American Jim Kennedy. After Kennedy collapsed on stage due to a serious illness, Ax Genrich replaced him to complete the classic Guru Guru line up, in time for their debut album in 1970.

In East Germany in the early 1970’s Martin Zeichnete worked as a sound editor for DEFA, (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), the state-owned film studio. Like many young East Germans of the time he would listen furtively to West German radio at night and became infatuated with the Kosmische Musik or ‘Krautrock’ epitomised by the likes of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster emerging from his neighbouring country. Martin, a keen runner, hit upon the idea of using the repetitive, motorik beats of this new music as a training aid for athletes. He thought it could benefit the mind as well as the body with the pulsing, hypnotic music bringing focus. A ‘borrowed’ prototype of Andreas Pavel’s Stereobelt showed Martin the technology to provide music on the move already existed and could easily be adapted for runners.

Crocodiles age well.So it comes as no surprise that the band, named after the primeval reptile with the killer instinct, is, once again, back in the game. Over 50 years after forming the group in Zurich, and 45 years after their break-up, Düde Dürst, drummer, band leader, graphic designer and archivist of the first Swiss “supergroup”, decided to take another stab at it. In the midst of working on a rerelease of Krokodil’s psychedelic masterpiece «An Invisible World Revealed» (1971) he couldn’t help himself but get inspired. His latest vision? Recording an album that unites Krokodil’s pioneering creative spirit with the zeitgeist of the 2020s. Together with the two founding members Walty Anselmo (guitar, sitar, vocals) and Terry Stevens (bass, vocals) as well as two younger and gifted musician friends, Adi Weyermann (guitar, vocals) and Erich Strebel (keys) Düde embarked on his latest, bold undertaking.

The complete collection of Achim Reichel’s innovative avant-garde project in the early 1970s. The lavishly designed 10 CD box-set includes all five studio albums and almost five hours of rare and unreleased music, a new remix-album – Virtual Journey – as well as a hardcover book with the artist’s own liner notes. A lucky accident was the catalyst. In Hamburg in the early 70s, while playing with his new Akai X330D tape machine, Achim Reichel discovered he could build soundscapes of guitar echoes and add even more simultaneously. He spent hours in his room with headphones on, growing his orchestra of guitars. A.R. & Machines recorded five studio albums. Their debut, “Die grüne Reise”, – The Green Journey – was released in 1971 on tape cassette and vinyl, and was met with complete confusion, even from the music press, who had no genre-drawer to stick it into, and is a lasting Krautrock monument captured on tape.

Solo includes Michael’s first four solo projects, Flammende Herzen, Sterntaler, Katzenmusik and Fernwärme, a Soundtracks and a Remixes & Live album (only with the vinyl boxset). Speaking about the release, Michael said: ‘I’m incredibly excited to announce my new boxset ‘Solo’. The opportunity to release my first four solo albums, as well as some new music in one package is amazing. This is a body of work that I’m very proud of.’

During the mid-'70s, Germany's Kraftwerk established the sonic blueprint followed by an extraordinary number of artists in the decades to come. From the British new romantic movement to hip-hop to techno, the group's self-described "robot pop" – hypnotically minimal, obliquely rhythmic music performed solely via electronic means – resonates in virtually every new development to impact the contemporary pop scene of the late- 20th century, and as pioneers of the electronic music form, their enduring influence cannot be overstated…