Krautrock Eruption in Bloomington, MN

Krautrock Eruption
is an audio companion to
Wolfgang Seidel
's book of the same title, which discusses 50 albums from a particularly creative era in experimental rock and electronic music, namely Germany in the 1970s and early '80s. The album also doubles as a catalog sampler for the reissue-heavy
Bureau B
label, which has already issued numerous similar compilations and mixes, sometimes curated by figures like
Stereolab
's
Tim Gane
or
Thomas Fehlmann
, and sometimes focusing on a particular label, artist, or theme. There's nothing here that's particularly hard to find, and anyone who's a dedicated fan of this area of the music world will probably be familiar with all of these artists already. Still, context is important, and well-chosen selections are always useful for novices, or perhaps they'll offer a new perspective to listeners who have already heard this material. In any case, the tracks here tend to draw from the electronic side of Krautrock rather than the rock-influenced side. Even the
Faust
selection is a jazzy, atmospheric pair of cuts from
The Faust Tapes
. Elsewhere, there are sequencer-driven electronics from
Conrad Schnitzler
,
Harald Grosskopf
, and
Pyrolator
; spaced-out abstractions from
Kluster
/
Cluster
; otherworldly dub from
Moebius & Plank
; and edited pieces from underrated gems by
Riechmann
and
Günter Schickert
. ~ Paul Simpson