In this book I give a readable, definitive story of the evolution of Rock Music. Why not give it a look??
Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books
German/Dutch Synthesiser Bands of the 1970s – Krautrock
Britain and the United States had totally dominated the Rock Music Scene with hardly anyone else getting in on the act. There were the odd Australian, Spanish or French intrusions but little of note. Even the Spanish band Los Bravos sung in English. The brilliance of some foreign musicians and innovations went unnoticed. They languished in the backwaters. To get noticed you had to sing in English. The major labels controlled the market and they were English speaking.
By the 1970s Rock Music was truly international. Nearly every country round the world had their Garage, Psychedelic and Heavy Metal Bands. There were examples as far as Peru, Japan, China, New Zealand, Afghanistan and behind Iron Curtain in Russia and Czechoslovakia where it was actively suppressed. Long hair sprouted all over the planet complete with flares and kaftans. Everyone was turned on by the Beatles and Stones.
Not all of these bands were weak imitations of British and American bands and even the ones that were, as with many of the Australian and New Zealand Garage Punk Bands like the Masters Apprentices, often brought an invigorating enthusiasm into their music.
If we consider the possibility that the Beatles never happened, or had not caught on in America, Britain may well have ended up in the same state. The US would have dominated on its own or Rock music might have died away all together – it was in the doldrums in 1962 and reduced to Teen Pop. It could have become terminal. Before the success of Beat music Britain had a national scene but there was little of significance that had any impact on the rest of the world.
The Continent now had the opportunity to get in on the Progressive Scene.
The 1960s Psychedelic and Progressive bands, such as Soft Machine, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Cream toured the Continent and had a huge impact on the young kids. This had a two-fold effect: firstly they created a market for this type of music and secondly they stimulated the indigenous musicians to form their own bands and experiment with their own brands. The main countries where this was greatly successful were Holland, Germany and Sweden.
The German and Dutch bands were highly influenced by British Psychedelia and brought their own electronic improvisations to bear using the new synthesisers. They were greatly buoyed by the success of Focus and Tangerine Dream. The result of this was a new electronic sound that was completely different to anything that had gone before and was quite acceptable to the Progressive Rock audiences in Britain. They were spearheaded by Focus and Tangerine Dream and then Kraftwerk. Following that there was a large influx of bands including: – Birth Control, Novalis, Spermuul, Epitaph, Can, Brainticket, Guru Guru, Amon Duul, Jane, Grobsschnitt and Karthago.
Many of these bands became resident in Britain and greatly enhanced the Progressive scene.
| Artist | Stand out tracks |
| Focus | Hocus pocus Sylvia |
| Kraftwerk | Ruckzuck Autobahn |
| Tangerine Dream | Alpha Centuari Ultima Thule Atem Phaedra |
| Novalis | Sonnengeflect |
| Sperrmull | Me and my girlfriend |
| Guru guru | The LSD March |
| Grobsschnitt | Solar music |
| Can | Spoon I want more Moonshake Future days |
| Brainticket | Black sand |
| Anyone’s daughter | Swedish nights |
| Amon Duul 11 | Im garten Sandosa Phallus Dei Yeti Toxicological whispering |
| Jane | Together Here we are Bambule Rock |
| Kathago | Why don’t you stop bugging me String rambler |
| Birth Control | Plastic people What’s your name The work is done |
| Eloy | Eloy Floating |
| Faust | Why don’t you eat carrots So far Krautrock |
| Ash Ra Tempel | Freak‘n’Roll Amboss |
| Neu! | Hallagallo |