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Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany
The definitive guide to Kosmische music, from one of Britain's most acclaimed writers.
West Germany after the Second World War was a country in shock: estranged from its recent history, and adrift from the rest of Europe. But this orphaned landscape proved fertile ground for a generation of musicians who, from the 1960s onwards, would develop the experimental and various sounds that became known as Krautrock.
Eschewing the Anglo-American jazz/blues tradition, they took their inspiration from elsewhere: the mysticism of the East; the fractured classicism of Stockhausen; the pneumatic repetition of industry, and the dense forests of the Rhineland; the endless winding of Autobahns.
Faust, Neu!, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Dl II, Can, Kraftwerk - the influence of these groups' ruminative, expansive compositions upon Western popular music is incalculable. They were key to the development of movements ranging from postpunk to electronica and ambient, and have directly inspired artists as diverse as David Bowie, Talking Heads and Primal Scream.
Future Days is an in-depth study of this meditative, sometimes abstract, often very beautiful music and the groups that made it, throwing light too on the social and political context that informed them. It's an indispensable book for those wanting to understand how much of today's music came about, and to discover a wealth of highly influential and pioneering artists.
West Germany after the Second World War was a country in shock: estranged from its recent history, and adrift from the rest of Europe. But this orphaned landscape proved fertile ground for a generation of musicians who, from the 1960s onwards, would develop the experimental and various sounds that became known as Krautrock.
Eschewing the Anglo-American jazz/blues tradition, they took their inspiration from elsewhere: the mysticism of the East; the fractured classicism of Stockhausen; the pneumatic repetition of industry, and the dense forests of the Rhineland; the endless winding of Autobahns.
Faust, Neu!, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Dl II, Can, Kraftwerk - the influence of these groups' ruminative, expansive compositions upon Western popular music is incalculable. They were key to the development of movements ranging from postpunk to electronica and ambient, and have directly inspired artists as diverse as David Bowie, Talking Heads and Primal Scream.
Future Days is an in-depth study of this meditative, sometimes abstract, often very beautiful music and the groups that made it, throwing light too on the social and political context that informed them. It's an indispensable book for those wanting to understand how much of today's music came about, and to discover a wealth of highly influential and pioneering artists.
495 pages, Paperback
First published August 5, 2014
91 people are currently reading
1331 people want to read
About the author
David Stubbs
16 books38 followersDavid Stubbs is a British journalist and author, covering music, film, TV and sport. He is known for his work on the Maker’s "Talk Talk Talk" column, converting it from a two-page gossip spread into a satirical and surreal take on the rock and pop world and those characters who stalked it, both the heroes and the hapless.
Among his creations were Pepe Le Punk, a Belgian music journalist (author of Hi, I’m Mr Grunge – An Unauthorised Autobiography Of Kurt Cobain); Derek Kent, MM staff writer since 1926, wit, raconteur and pervert, and Diary Of A Manic Street Preachers Fan (who admired the group for their “intense intensitude”); The Nod Corner, the fictional journals of the Fields Of The Nephilim drummer whose scheming bandmates continually got him into hot water with lead singer Carl McCoy, who would administer him the punishment of ten press-ups. The likes of Sinead O’ Connor, Morrissey, The Mission, Andrew Eldritch, Bono and Blur were also sent up on a regular basis.
However, his most famous and beloved creation was Mr Agreeable (formerly Mr Abusing), whose weekly column was a terse exercise in unmitigated, asterisk-strafed invective scattered at all and sundry, especially the sundry, in the rock world – the various c***s, streaks of piss, f***wits, arseholes and twotmongers who raised his blood pressure often by their mere existence. Although Stubbs left Melody Maker in 1998 to work for a cross range of titles including NME, Vox and Uncut, Mr Agreeable remains an occasionally active commentator, occasionally dropping in at The Quietus to vent his ire.
- excerpted from his website: http://www.mr-agreeable.net
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
David^^Stubbs
Among his creations were Pepe Le Punk, a Belgian music journalist (author of Hi, I’m Mr Grunge – An Unauthorised Autobiography Of Kurt Cobain); Derek Kent, MM staff writer since 1926, wit, raconteur and pervert, and Diary Of A Manic Street Preachers Fan (who admired the group for their “intense intensitude”); The Nod Corner, the fictional journals of the Fields Of The Nephilim drummer whose scheming bandmates continually got him into hot water with lead singer Carl McCoy, who would administer him the punishment of ten press-ups. The likes of Sinead O’ Connor, Morrissey, The Mission, Andrew Eldritch, Bono and Blur were also sent up on a regular basis.
However, his most famous and beloved creation was Mr Agreeable (formerly Mr Abusing), whose weekly column was a terse exercise in unmitigated, asterisk-strafed invective scattered at all and sundry, especially the sundry, in the rock world – the various c***s, streaks of piss, f***wits, arseholes and twotmongers who raised his blood pressure often by their mere existence. Although Stubbs left Melody Maker in 1998 to work for a cross range of titles including NME, Vox and Uncut, Mr Agreeable remains an occasionally active commentator, occasionally dropping in at The Quietus to vent his ire.
- excerpted from his website: http://www.mr-agreeable.net
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
David^^Stubbs
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
August 12, 2016
Krautrock is so incredibly varied that it's hard to really say anything about it. The "rock" in its name is a little misleading too: a lot of it has nothing to do with rock at all. If you were to ask me, "what is krautrock?" I'd be a little stumped. Stubbs offers a pretty decent solution: it's merely a label designed to make it easier for costumers to flick through LPs and CDs at the music store. If you're completely ignorant about krautrock and you buy a random record, you might end up with electronica, avant-garde rock or jazz, funk, ambient music, modern classical, proto-punk, or an endless number of other genres. I'll make an attempt to make a rough guide to krautrock at the bottom of this review.
Stubbs tries to give an accurate representation of krautrock, and tries to show that it grew out of a cultural vacuum in post-WWII Germany. Many musicians in Germany, as a response to American and British pop music and its suffocating influence, wanted to create something archetypical German instead, to resist the Americanisation. Some bands embraced US and UK pop music and cut their hair Beatles-style and tried to mirror them. Some flocked to (the dreadful) Schlager genre in an attempt to create something "German." And then there's the left-wing hippies (a generalisation, but I would venture to say it's a surprisingly accurate one) that rebelled against all that, against the politics of the time, and pretty much the entire generation before them. This attempt to create something really German, real art, that's krautrock.
And a lot of it is really solid art. It's avant-garde, exciting, innovative (extremely so!), way ahead of its time, and remarkably timeless. There are similarities, obvious ones, to the progressive rock movement of the 70s -- ELP, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, et cetera. A short-lived, very popular movement focused on creating "challenging" and "intellectual" music that sort of fizzled out into nothing or at least nothing special, or changed form entirely (see Genesis). Some differences, though: krautrock was, for example, never as big in Germany as progrock was in their respective countries (in fact, krautrock was, interestingly enough, more popular in Europe and the US than in Germany).
The book does a decent job representing krautrock, mentioning most of the big guns in the genre (Can, Faust, Kraftwerk, etc), including many fascinating interviews with band members, and many factoids. But there are some almost inevitable problems: it's somewhat overlong, and at times too opinionated. It's also, at least to my mind, no introduction to krautrock: if you haven't heard most of this music it's pretty much pointless reading this. But if you take the time to listen to the music after it's been mentioned, you'll be rewarded -- not so much because Stubbs gives revolutionary insight into it, but just because of the music itself.
Here's my short guide to krautrock, flawed, and missing much, but I encourage you to discover on your own. I'll limit myself to one or two records by each band so that there's still plenty to find yourself.
Amon Düül II -- psychedelic rock, progressive rock, art rock.
Check out Phallus Dei and Yeti, their first two records. Both great records.
Can -- pretty much everything, avant-garde, funk, reggae, experimental rock, ambient.
My favourite krautrock band and one of my favourite in general. Check out everything they did up until and including 1977, but especially Tago Mago and Future Days, the latter being an ambient masterpiece and the former a near-perfect album.
Faust -- experimental, avant-garde, drone, lots of weird stuff. The type of band where every sound you can possibly create in your home can be called "music."
Check out the debut self-titled album, which is wonderfully quirky and beautiful, and Faust IV, which is probably the best.
Neu! -- experimental rock, ambientish, punk on occasion.
The self-titled debut and Neu! 75 are wonderful records, the latter being in my opinion their best.
Manuel Göttsching -- electronic and rock music.
E2-E4 is a wonderful early electronic album with a 30-minute guitar solo. Great record.
Cluster -- early electronic music.
Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso are both great albums.
That's, to my mind, the essentials. And a tip: never tell anyone that you like Eloy.
Stubbs tries to give an accurate representation of krautrock, and tries to show that it grew out of a cultural vacuum in post-WWII Germany. Many musicians in Germany, as a response to American and British pop music and its suffocating influence, wanted to create something archetypical German instead, to resist the Americanisation. Some bands embraced US and UK pop music and cut their hair Beatles-style and tried to mirror them. Some flocked to (the dreadful) Schlager genre in an attempt to create something "German." And then there's the left-wing hippies (a generalisation, but I would venture to say it's a surprisingly accurate one) that rebelled against all that, against the politics of the time, and pretty much the entire generation before them. This attempt to create something really German, real art, that's krautrock.
And a lot of it is really solid art. It's avant-garde, exciting, innovative (extremely so!), way ahead of its time, and remarkably timeless. There are similarities, obvious ones, to the progressive rock movement of the 70s -- ELP, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, et cetera. A short-lived, very popular movement focused on creating "challenging" and "intellectual" music that sort of fizzled out into nothing or at least nothing special, or changed form entirely (see Genesis). Some differences, though: krautrock was, for example, never as big in Germany as progrock was in their respective countries (in fact, krautrock was, interestingly enough, more popular in Europe and the US than in Germany).
The book does a decent job representing krautrock, mentioning most of the big guns in the genre (Can, Faust, Kraftwerk, etc), including many fascinating interviews with band members, and many factoids. But there are some almost inevitable problems: it's somewhat overlong, and at times too opinionated. It's also, at least to my mind, no introduction to krautrock: if you haven't heard most of this music it's pretty much pointless reading this. But if you take the time to listen to the music after it's been mentioned, you'll be rewarded -- not so much because Stubbs gives revolutionary insight into it, but just because of the music itself.
Here's my short guide to krautrock, flawed, and missing much, but I encourage you to discover on your own. I'll limit myself to one or two records by each band so that there's still plenty to find yourself.
Amon Düül II -- psychedelic rock, progressive rock, art rock.
Check out Phallus Dei and Yeti, their first two records. Both great records.
Can -- pretty much everything, avant-garde, funk, reggae, experimental rock, ambient.
My favourite krautrock band and one of my favourite in general. Check out everything they did up until and including 1977, but especially Tago Mago and Future Days, the latter being an ambient masterpiece and the former a near-perfect album.
Faust -- experimental, avant-garde, drone, lots of weird stuff. The type of band where every sound you can possibly create in your home can be called "music."
Check out the debut self-titled album, which is wonderfully quirky and beautiful, and Faust IV, which is probably the best.
Neu! -- experimental rock, ambientish, punk on occasion.
The self-titled debut and Neu! 75 are wonderful records, the latter being in my opinion their best.
Manuel Göttsching -- electronic and rock music.
E2-E4 is a wonderful early electronic album with a 30-minute guitar solo. Great record.
Cluster -- early electronic music.
Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso are both great albums.
That's, to my mind, the essentials. And a tip: never tell anyone that you like Eloy.
December 15, 2014
As much a commentary and discourse on how not just culture but architecture, environment and politics impact and effect music. Fascinating in breadth and reach; rigorous and complete in covering all and every major contributor to the distinctive Krautrock ethos and sound.
August 17, 2022
Took awhile to get into this book as it looked at Krautrock a general term for German music post war world II 1960's as some feel its experimential electronic and rock music but some of the bands grouped into this type have influenced a variety of other bands. liked the book generally though as was more of a general musical book.
March 14, 2016
I liked a lot about this book and wish I had finished it sooner, within a reasonable time for review, but I will say 2 things, 1 good 1 bad 'bout this book:
1) The Popol Vuh chapter is one of the most willfully ignorant explorations of any music journalism I've read. He builds up the greatness of Affendstunde and Garten only to stop chronologically, immediately after that, with a conclusion that more or less says that everything after is a waste of time. fucking WHAT? duder? Get a clue. Fricke's views on instrumentation notwithstanding, everyone and their mom needs to hear the Greatest of Highs brought about by albums like Einsjäger & Siebenjäger, whose 'traditional' instrumentation does nothing to detract from the very Aetheric NODE that this music was from birthed. Anyone reading this and feeling me, go and read this overview of Florian Fricke, and pass on the chapter herein. If you're in the early parts of Future Days full on substitution is VERY warranted.
2) Stubbs is the first writer who has ever, to my knowledge, made the connection of Kraftwerks' "Tongbirge" as the foundation for the entirety of Boards of Canada's career. Not unthunk by me in the past, though never consciously I don't think, and having it in print made me giddy to have my Ear's opinion backed. He also glorifies Ralf und Florian in general, and I appreciate that, as others tend to skip right by it.
Everything else here is good, not great. He goes about destroying certain myths (like the story that Gottsching never heard the first Jokers album til he heard it in stores), and tries hard to not ride nor even soil Julian Cope's coattails. The final chapter is dedicated to all the music since that has had that Kraut spirit and the denouement is solid, showcasing an attunement to altruism and computer age thought that is far, far removed from the analogue, boomer ideals of his generation. Solidly empfohlen!
1) The Popol Vuh chapter is one of the most willfully ignorant explorations of any music journalism I've read. He builds up the greatness of Affendstunde and Garten only to stop chronologically, immediately after that, with a conclusion that more or less says that everything after is a waste of time. fucking WHAT? duder? Get a clue. Fricke's views on instrumentation notwithstanding, everyone and their mom needs to hear the Greatest of Highs brought about by albums like Einsjäger & Siebenjäger, whose 'traditional' instrumentation does nothing to detract from the very Aetheric NODE that this music was from birthed. Anyone reading this and feeling me, go and read this overview of Florian Fricke, and pass on the chapter herein. If you're in the early parts of Future Days full on substitution is VERY warranted.
2) Stubbs is the first writer who has ever, to my knowledge, made the connection of Kraftwerks' "Tongbirge" as the foundation for the entirety of Boards of Canada's career. Not unthunk by me in the past, though never consciously I don't think, and having it in print made me giddy to have my Ear's opinion backed. He also glorifies Ralf und Florian in general, and I appreciate that, as others tend to skip right by it.
Everything else here is good, not great. He goes about destroying certain myths (like the story that Gottsching never heard the first Jokers album til he heard it in stores), and tries hard to not ride nor even soil Julian Cope's coattails. The final chapter is dedicated to all the music since that has had that Kraut spirit and the denouement is solid, showcasing an attunement to altruism and computer age thought that is far, far removed from the analogue, boomer ideals of his generation. Solidly empfohlen!
May 23, 2015
Very comprehensive in mapping out the musical environment of that time, but at times too bloated and opinionated. Stubbs tends to sequence his chapters in a pretty formulaic manner: Background info on band, followed by a track by track review of their most celebrated words (often pretty weakly I must add) and concluded with a couple of paragraphs detailing the band's relation to their peers, which was the most interesting section in almost all cases.
I'd recommend it if you like Krautrock, but mainly to help you get huge amounts of info on a vast amount of bands, not necessarily for Stubbs' ability to write a story that keeps you interested.
I'd recommend it if you like Krautrock, but mainly to help you get huge amounts of info on a vast amount of bands, not necessarily for Stubbs' ability to write a story that keeps you interested.
March 7, 2018
I took my time to write this review on Krautrock, as it didn't leave a strong impression on me one way or another. I wanted to learn more about experimental German music in the 1970s, and yes, I now have a greater understanding of the seminal bands (Kraftwerk, Can, Neu, Faust, Cluster, Tangerine Dream); a few of the periphery groups like Amon Duul and Popol Vuh; the different scenes in each city; and how they are all interconnected - so I guess it ticked all the boxes. But I could have done without the lengthy sociological discussion to give the movement context, as none of it stuck with me, which is never a good sign.
History, they say, is written by the winners. In terms of Krautrock, history has been written by the survivors. Unfortunately, interest in the movement has only picked up in recent years, and by the time this book was written in 2014, we had already lost Dinger and Schnitzler, two of its key figures. Amazingly, someone like Hans-Joachim Roedelius is still go strong at the age of 83. I saw him last year at a tiny club in Toronto. He didn't go on til almost 11pm! What made him travel halfway around the world to play such a small gig, at that hour, at his age, I'll never understand. But my point is the book may have benefited from more perspectives.
I've spent my life reading about bands and musicians. When I was younger, I was prone to hero worship and being slightly obsessive I wanted to know as much as possible about the people who piqued my interest. I've recently started to question the usefulness of reading about a subject that is mostly aural. Sure it's nice to learn about an artist's background and their influences, and which albums in an artist's canon are worth listening to, but reading page upon page about someone else's impression of a song or album could be considered pointless.
I suppose a book like this does provide a bit of insight and inspiration, which is helpful as one gets older, time gets more precious, and music plays a less central role in our lives. But I do miss music conversations with an equally passionate friend, or more recently, with a used record shop owner who helped turn me on to the Krautrock scene and whose taste I trusted (Rot in Peace Lps Lps).
History, they say, is written by the winners. In terms of Krautrock, history has been written by the survivors. Unfortunately, interest in the movement has only picked up in recent years, and by the time this book was written in 2014, we had already lost Dinger and Schnitzler, two of its key figures. Amazingly, someone like Hans-Joachim Roedelius is still go strong at the age of 83. I saw him last year at a tiny club in Toronto. He didn't go on til almost 11pm! What made him travel halfway around the world to play such a small gig, at that hour, at his age, I'll never understand. But my point is the book may have benefited from more perspectives.
I've spent my life reading about bands and musicians. When I was younger, I was prone to hero worship and being slightly obsessive I wanted to know as much as possible about the people who piqued my interest. I've recently started to question the usefulness of reading about a subject that is mostly aural. Sure it's nice to learn about an artist's background and their influences, and which albums in an artist's canon are worth listening to, but reading page upon page about someone else's impression of a song or album could be considered pointless.
I suppose a book like this does provide a bit of insight and inspiration, which is helpful as one gets older, time gets more precious, and music plays a less central role in our lives. But I do miss music conversations with an equally passionate friend, or more recently, with a used record shop owner who helped turn me on to the Krautrock scene and whose taste I trusted (Rot in Peace Lps Lps).
April 14, 2023
60’lar ortasından başlayarak Almanya’da müziğin geçtiği yolculuğu farklı perspektiflerden ele alan, meraklısını fazlasıyla tatmin edecek bir kitap. Özellikle Can, Neu!, Amon Düül, Faust, Kraftwerk vs. gibi gruplara aşinaysanız yazarın yaptığı karşılaştırmalar (coğrafi, sosyokültürel, siyasi vs.) ve grupların hikayelerine değinmesi çok hoşuma gitti. Krautrock başta olmak üzere Almanya çıkışlı müzikleri sevenler göz atmalı.
April 16, 2020
This is a fantastic intro to Krautrock, tho formulaic in parts and weirdly structured in others. Stubbs gets to the heart of each band, but fails to fuse this not very political movement with the political sorroundings.
August 31, 2016
A venerable overview of a true non-genre. Stubbs' particular focus on German music of the 1970s is a little different to mine; one gets a taste for his tastes by reading this. Acts like Faust and Amon Düül get top billing while not being entirely to my taste; I find common ground with him on Neu!, Can, Kraftwerk, etc... all the classic exponents of the 'genre'. But where we part is Florian Fricke's experimental music group Popol Vuh. I am a HUGE fan, and Stubbs veers from indifference to hostility towards them. So by extension groups that are similar to Popol Vuh don't get a look in (e.g. Between, who shared the fabulous oboist Robert Eliscu with them), not to mention Cluster's more cerebral outings on one of my top albums of all time, Sowiesoso(1976). His problem seems to lie with an aversion to something he calls 'New Age', but I personally don't see the negative aspects of this term in any of the music we disagree on.
Though some others here didn't, I really liked his socio-political backdrop to the whole music scene at the time. It is perhaps a little overblown, but only as much as music journalism usually is. I decided to just sit back and enjoy it.
The book really keeps you, and I heartily recommend it for those who love this time and place.
Though some others here didn't, I really liked his socio-political backdrop to the whole music scene at the time. It is perhaps a little overblown, but only as much as music journalism usually is. I decided to just sit back and enjoy it.
The book really keeps you, and I heartily recommend it for those who love this time and place.
Read
November 20, 2025I was surprised to learn so much about post WWII western Germany and the interplay between the various art scenes with the emerging youth culture, greater hippie movement and technological advances.
I just personally didn't enjoy the music journalism aspect as much as I thought I would. I find reading the liner notes of an LP interesting but that's not hundreds and hundreds of pages describing tracks, recording processes and overall artist bios.
The context of Krautrock is worth learning about however the band worship nostalgia just wasn't for me after a few hundred pages. It's ok if it's for you though.
I just personally didn't enjoy the music journalism aspect as much as I thought I would. I find reading the liner notes of an LP interesting but that's not hundreds and hundreds of pages describing tracks, recording processes and overall artist bios.
The context of Krautrock is worth learning about however the band worship nostalgia just wasn't for me after a few hundred pages. It's ok if it's for you though.
October 21, 2024
3.5 - very old school type music journalism writing that needed a better editor to improve structure, clear up the relation between the themes of krautrock and the building of germany, and generally get him to stop waffling
September 10, 2024
Do you want a unique blend of music, culture and history that shaped post-war Germany? "Future Days" by David Stubbs is a must-read. Focusing on Krautrock, a genre that blossomed in the late 1960s and 1970s, Stubbs delves deep into the experimental soundscapes of bands like Can, Faust, Neu!, and Kraftwerk and their role in reshaping both music and German identity after the destruction of WWII.
Stubbs masterfully connects the dots between the music and the broader socio-political landscape of Germany at the time, offering insights into how these artists seemed to find their space from the country's past and create something entirely new. His writing is often diving into detailed accounts of the individual musicians, albums, and influences that defined the movement.
The book can be a bit dense at times. The in-depth exploration of musical theory and historical context might feel overwhelming for casual readers, but for those truly interested in the era and its sounds, it’s incredibly rewarding.
I highly recommend it to music historians, fans of experimental rock, or anyone curious about how music can act as a vehicle for cultural change. Though it sometimes reads more like an academic text, it’s a deeply informative and thought-provoking book.
4/5 Stars – A rich, if occasionally dense, deep dive into Krautrock and the reconstruction of modern Germany through sound.
Stubbs masterfully connects the dots between the music and the broader socio-political landscape of Germany at the time, offering insights into how these artists seemed to find their space from the country's past and create something entirely new. His writing is often diving into detailed accounts of the individual musicians, albums, and influences that defined the movement.
The book can be a bit dense at times. The in-depth exploration of musical theory and historical context might feel overwhelming for casual readers, but for those truly interested in the era and its sounds, it’s incredibly rewarding.
I highly recommend it to music historians, fans of experimental rock, or anyone curious about how music can act as a vehicle for cultural change. Though it sometimes reads more like an academic text, it’s a deeply informative and thought-provoking book.
4/5 Stars – A rich, if occasionally dense, deep dive into Krautrock and the reconstruction of modern Germany through sound.
May 17, 2020
Very well researched and informative. It’s nice to read about this context in which this music was made, and what it means wrt German culture. Would have loved a listing of albums mentioned in the appendix.
Three stars because it’s a little more subjective than I would have liked when talking about music.
Also cmon dude just put the NDW and post punk/Bowie chapters in the next book. Felt very tacked on and not as well researched. Discussing NDW through the lens of three bands (der plan, DAF, ESNB) is pretty limited. Just write a NDW book
Three stars because it’s a little more subjective than I would have liked when talking about music.
Also cmon dude just put the NDW and post punk/Bowie chapters in the next book. Felt very tacked on and not as well researched. Discussing NDW through the lens of three bands (der plan, DAF, ESNB) is pretty limited. Just write a NDW book
May 15, 2022
One of the best books on music I have ever read. This is not theory heavy (which is usually my interest) but conceptually and culturally expansive. The subject matter is fascinating but, more importantly, the writing is excellent.
August 3, 2024
This is a fantastic book and an extensive history of the key players in the Krautrock scene. It does a great job of placing these bands in the broader context of Germany rebuilding after the war. It sags a bit in the last few chapters, but it's well worth its epic length.
June 12, 2025
Mäktig pjäs över en mäktig (och ofta väldigt märklig) musikscen. Välskriven, genomarbetad, omfattande och en måsteläsning. I alla fall för alla som fattar varifrån boktiteln är hämtad.
January 3, 2020
Entretenido libro, dónde se aprenden los origenes de la música electrónica y se detalla el contexto histórico que atravesaban los alemanes luego de la segunda guerra.
October 16, 2023
“The rearrangement of rhythm in Krautrock, its novel textures and colouring, the relationship between instruments, song structures and spontaneous improvisation, are all metaphors for a necessary postwar reconstruction, the re-establishment of cultural identity.”
It’s hard to define Krautrock sonically, but you know it when you hear it. It was through the band Kraftwerk, one of the defining electronic bands of the seventies, that I started branching out into other bands of that time and place – this book then gave me a bigger picture of what the genre actually is.
Krautrock (originally a derogatory term from the British music press, using the German insult "Kraut") styles can range from electronic, punk, ambient, psychedelic; some bands even embrace avant-garde and noise. But more than the music, these bands were making something authentically German, shying away from the influence of the British Invasion, rock ‘n’ roll or American blues.
“Springsteen, as ever, is preoccupied with keeping it ‘real’, yet his febrile lyrical visions are sheer rock ’n’ roll mythological hokum. Kraftwerk may look and sound ‘inauthentic’ but at least ‘Autobahn’ [the album] bears a closer resemblance to life as it is lived.”
I don’t think that Springsteen is inauthentic, but the above quote exhibits the difference in what these bands were striving for at the time (you can also see from the quote how Stubbs wears his opinions on his sleeve throughout the book). Krautrock’s authenticity can range from a beautiful psychedelic instrumental, a twenty-minute long ambient soundscape, or an extended improvisation over a simple motorik beat. Stubbs even describes one song as, ‘a high-pitched electronic peal around which the Moog [synthesizer] coils its oblique variations. For the less tolerant it will resemble an uninvestigated car alarm;’ – but don’t let this deter you from checking out some of these bands.
This book gives a great introduction to the history, stories, and relationships of the bands that formed the Krautrock genre. At times the text can be a bit bloated, especially with his strong bias, but Stubbs concludes the book well, chronicling bands that have gone on record describing their influence from Krautrock, including David Bowie, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, Portishead, Sonic Youth, Simple Minds, Soft Cell, Talking Heads, among many others. You may not have heard of Kraftwerk, but you have heard their influences in modern electronic/dance music (or even directly through sampling across all different musicians, e.g., Coldplay, New Order, Afrika Bambaataa, Dr. Dre, LCD Soundsystem, etc.). Anyone interested in music history, especially that of the 70s and 80s, would learn a lot from this book.
Addendum: This past summer I took a trip to Berlin for a conference and had some time to do some exploring. Maybe it was the fact that I had time to do a good amount of sightseeing, but I feel that the below quote perfectly captures what I liked about the city:
“No great city, not London, not New York, not Paris, not even Moscow, wears the scars of twentieth-century trauma the way Berlin does. Many of its streets and tenements are still riddled and strafed with bullet holes, a legacy of the Soviet advance on the city. Even today, with the remnants of Checkpoint Charlie cleared to make way for a vast business centre, the city is dotted with reminders and memorials of the Second World War, from the bleakly understated ‘Topography of Terror’, former site of the SS and the Gestapo in Niederkirchnerstrasse, to Peter Eisenman and Buro Happold’s Holocaust Memorial near to the Brandenburg Gate, whose sloping, undulating series of concrete slabs seeks to speak volumes about the unspeakable, in abstract form. Berlin is not exactly a ‘pretty’ city, in the cosy, old town, nostalgic sense. It is harsh, brusque in its modernity and its juxtapositions, though in unexpected spaces it throws up glimpses of the surreal.”
February 14, 2017
I so wanted to love this book. It covers, after all, some of my very favorite music. But rather than sparking joy, I found it a bit of a slog. I found myself only wanting to read small bits at a time, so it took me ages to finish.
If possible I would have given it 2 and 1/2 stars, because I'm hovering somewhere between "It was OK" and "I liked it." It does include a good deal of interesting information, and I most enjoyed reading excerpts from interviews with the musicians. And the historical perspective was definitely interesting. The book did inspire me to go back and listen to many of the records again, so that's a plus, too. But the author's detailed descriptions of the records themselves did go on a bit. And I often didn't have direct access to the music when I was reading these descriptions, so I found my eyes glazing over and sometimes ended up skimming those passages. I also occasionally found some of the author's highly opinionated writing hard to swallow.
All in all, though, a good Krautrock reference to which I'm sure I'll return in the future.
If possible I would have given it 2 and 1/2 stars, because I'm hovering somewhere between "It was OK" and "I liked it." It does include a good deal of interesting information, and I most enjoyed reading excerpts from interviews with the musicians. And the historical perspective was definitely interesting. The book did inspire me to go back and listen to many of the records again, so that's a plus, too. But the author's detailed descriptions of the records themselves did go on a bit. And I often didn't have direct access to the music when I was reading these descriptions, so I found my eyes glazing over and sometimes ended up skimming those passages. I also occasionally found some of the author's highly opinionated writing hard to swallow.
All in all, though, a good Krautrock reference to which I'm sure I'll return in the future.
October 15, 2015
Stubbs is no kidding. It's obvious that he spent thousands of hours reading, interviewing, watching documentaries, travelling to Germany and last but not least, listening.
Listening to the albums that defined the most fascinating, uncompromising and against the rules music genre of all times. I liked the fact that he didn't dig on discographies, but tried to focus on the relation of each band with the historical and cultural events taking place at the time.
He wrote a maginificent book, that will send you to the search engines and your local record stores to seek for more.
Listening to the albums that defined the most fascinating, uncompromising and against the rules music genre of all times. I liked the fact that he didn't dig on discographies, but tried to focus on the relation of each band with the historical and cultural events taking place at the time.
He wrote a maginificent book, that will send you to the search engines and your local record stores to seek for more.
May 25, 2021
Breezy history with a lot of charm and a lot of (mostly minor) factual errors. Am still unsure whether some of the more obscure groups in the 'they also served' chapter are made up or not.
October 2, 2024
We’re fortunate that David Stubbs endeavored to tackle 70s German experimental electronic rock and the cultural milieu that produced it. It’s an enriching read that provides deeper insights into the music itself, the people making it, and the socio-political ideas propelling it. A truly unique cultural moment produced a truly unique musical genre. German youth sought to distance themselves from their troubled German past as well as from hegemonic Anglo culture heralded in by the end of the world war. They set off on an alternative course, steering clear of dominant German schmaltzy pop known as Schlager and blues-based American rock and its British imitators.
Stubbs digs below the surface to elaborate the key features of the music. I knew that 70s British punk bands were into krautrock, but it wasn’t entirely clear to me why, other than perhaps a general countercultural affinity. Part of the connection was hiding in plain sight (sound?). Krautrock, like punk after, returned rock music to a more simplified repetition.
(Cue The Fall’s mock-manifesto song, “Repetition”):
We dig
We dig repetition
We dig repetition
We dig repetition in the music
And we're never going to lose it
All you daughters and sons
Who are sick of fancy music
We dig repetition
Repetition in the drums
And we're never going to lose it
This is the three R's
The three R's
Repetition, repetition, repetition
Stubbs explains: “The structures of Krautrock also laid it open to the charge of pidgin simplicity from some British journalists who had bought into the narrative of progressive rock, with its emphasis on baroque elaboration. ‘I remember James Brown being criticised in the same era as Krautrock for making stupid, simplistic music–because of the repetition,’ says [British music writer David] Toop. ‘Prog had taken on the idea that it was all about diversification all the time, most of it pointless. All that endless shuffling of time signatures. You listen to it and the only thing you can think is, why? It signified sophistication. Repetition felt wilfully stupid–but certainly wasn’t stupid in the hands of a [Can drummer] Jaki Liebezeit” (36).
Stubbs elaborates: “In a sense, most popular music is repetitious, with its riffs and nagging grooves, but a release is found in the solo or a big, anthemic refrain. Krautraock offers no such ejaculatory relief. Its locked grooves afford all kinds of picaresque adventures–the ever-shifting, train-window scenarios of Kraftwerks’s ‘Europe Endless’ or Faust’s ‘So Far or Neu!’s ‘E-Musik.’ It’s pure, almost infantile pleasure (anyone with small children will be familiar with the refrain ‘Again! Again!’), but it also hints at an underlying, Sisyphean futility. There is a stasis, a fixation about it–we are travelling but ‘going’ nowhere at once. Endless, beginning, endless, beginning. The human, player or listener, at the centre of this process does not get to roam in subjective indulgence. They are tethered. The real ‘business’ is in the structures, the ambience, the flow, a larger ideal, a collective energy, rather than ego-driven individualism. It’s not that sort of narrative” (37).
“He [Jaki Liebezeit] had seized on a paradox–that real liberty in music arose from the strict and rigid imposition of order, regularity. Such strange watchwords, in the cultural context of 1960s Germany, but they worked. If western avant-garde music had suffered from over-development, now it was necessary to go back and begin again, to make new time, create new intervals and changes” (118).
Stubbs offers different metaphors to evoke what makes bands like Kraftwerk, Neu, Can, and others out of step with their contemporaries. Horizontality. Landscapes. Not vertical linear song structures.
Stubbs describing Cluster with Brian Eno: “Cluster and Eno are unassumingly revolutionary themselves, quietly helping establish a new pop which is not blues or verse and chorus-base but more of a sketchbook, in which ideas are visualized in line and colour” (352).
Stubbs digs below the surface to elaborate the key features of the music. I knew that 70s British punk bands were into krautrock, but it wasn’t entirely clear to me why, other than perhaps a general countercultural affinity. Part of the connection was hiding in plain sight (sound?). Krautrock, like punk after, returned rock music to a more simplified repetition.
(Cue The Fall’s mock-manifesto song, “Repetition”):
We dig
We dig repetition
We dig repetition
We dig repetition in the music
And we're never going to lose it
All you daughters and sons
Who are sick of fancy music
We dig repetition
Repetition in the drums
And we're never going to lose it
This is the three R's
The three R's
Repetition, repetition, repetition
Stubbs explains: “The structures of Krautrock also laid it open to the charge of pidgin simplicity from some British journalists who had bought into the narrative of progressive rock, with its emphasis on baroque elaboration. ‘I remember James Brown being criticised in the same era as Krautrock for making stupid, simplistic music–because of the repetition,’ says [British music writer David] Toop. ‘Prog had taken on the idea that it was all about diversification all the time, most of it pointless. All that endless shuffling of time signatures. You listen to it and the only thing you can think is, why? It signified sophistication. Repetition felt wilfully stupid–but certainly wasn’t stupid in the hands of a [Can drummer] Jaki Liebezeit” (36).
Stubbs elaborates: “In a sense, most popular music is repetitious, with its riffs and nagging grooves, but a release is found in the solo or a big, anthemic refrain. Krautraock offers no such ejaculatory relief. Its locked grooves afford all kinds of picaresque adventures–the ever-shifting, train-window scenarios of Kraftwerks’s ‘Europe Endless’ or Faust’s ‘So Far or Neu!’s ‘E-Musik.’ It’s pure, almost infantile pleasure (anyone with small children will be familiar with the refrain ‘Again! Again!’), but it also hints at an underlying, Sisyphean futility. There is a stasis, a fixation about it–we are travelling but ‘going’ nowhere at once. Endless, beginning, endless, beginning. The human, player or listener, at the centre of this process does not get to roam in subjective indulgence. They are tethered. The real ‘business’ is in the structures, the ambience, the flow, a larger ideal, a collective energy, rather than ego-driven individualism. It’s not that sort of narrative” (37).
“He [Jaki Liebezeit] had seized on a paradox–that real liberty in music arose from the strict and rigid imposition of order, regularity. Such strange watchwords, in the cultural context of 1960s Germany, but they worked. If western avant-garde music had suffered from over-development, now it was necessary to go back and begin again, to make new time, create new intervals and changes” (118).
Stubbs offers different metaphors to evoke what makes bands like Kraftwerk, Neu, Can, and others out of step with their contemporaries. Horizontality. Landscapes. Not vertical linear song structures.
Stubbs describing Cluster with Brian Eno: “Cluster and Eno are unassumingly revolutionary themselves, quietly helping establish a new pop which is not blues or verse and chorus-base but more of a sketchbook, in which ideas are visualized in line and colour” (352).
July 22, 2017
I love listening to the period of fertile and reactionary musical exploration that was Germany from late 1960s, the freedom of it all, and the wildness and humanity, as though the awful war birthed something mutant. Birthed a group of people who embraced invention, didn't give a fig for commercial success and rejected the mainstream insidious vanilla musical tropes of Schlager, beer-hall dumbing down, still nationalistic in its way.
The new German musicians worked to create rhythms and ideas providing fuel for contemporary music even today. No other scene came with the caveman aggression and yet peacefulness of Krautrock, finding a way for the braves of their generation eager to move somewhere forwards psychologically from the horror of mass brainwashing, violence, the pariah status of their country; they had a right to be free and happy, but this was going to take a first principles group approach.
Isolated, springing up in different regions of Germany from each other and somehow avoiding local success, without internet to expose their doings, the groups Can in Cologne, Amon Düül in Munich and then Berlin communes, Kraftwerk coming from Düsseldorf, with a two-act initial phase, the first of which many wouldn't know existed, where they were closer to Ummagumma Floyd than the locked down electronic which so inspired future beatmakers in techno and hip-hop.
Faust, also, sprung up in Hamburg, where the Beatles famously cut their teeth (98 consecutive nights in one club!) and where many Fab Four imitators also appeared. Luckily Faust had invention to burn and a bizarre set of circumstances - a commercially hungry Svengali who somehow wrangled major label funds for their recordings where desks and effects were wired up through rooms of a house and musicians could apply effects to their colleagues' instruments in real time, very cutting edge.
Another Düsseldorf band with ties to Kraftwerk was Neu! who although a duo, made enveloping and entrancing rock music with help from studio wizard Conny Plank, who not only was able to utilise the new recording techniques becoming available in the early 70s, but was able to nurture and bring out the essence of a band with sympathetic production. Plank is pivotal to the story of this music and there could be multiple books related to him alone.
This book's author has taken Plank's approach to heart where he picks out the strengths and uniqueness of each band and so clearly allows us to place each in context in a rebuilding and globally smarting Deutschland. It's been seen as a niche of music, with some going through a Krautrock "phase" as one might with Be-bop or Prog rock. But this is music with a long tail, and the book opens it up with a critical but joyful eye, more approachable than similar surveys by Julian Cope and others.
As a long time fan who recognised early as a teenager the thrill of Faust from his UK bedroom, ears and eyes opened by this bizarre music, colouring his ideas about the charts and leading him to delve deeply, David Stubbs has compiled a wealth of origin stories. He has the musical knowledge to see the threads of Krautrock develop over the years (and dedicates a few pages to the justification for using the "K" term, incidentally) making clear that this music, for all the noise about it since Stereolab and The Fall, Pavement, Hunters and Collectors and others quietly championing it, has long legs.
The new German musicians worked to create rhythms and ideas providing fuel for contemporary music even today. No other scene came with the caveman aggression and yet peacefulness of Krautrock, finding a way for the braves of their generation eager to move somewhere forwards psychologically from the horror of mass brainwashing, violence, the pariah status of their country; they had a right to be free and happy, but this was going to take a first principles group approach.
Isolated, springing up in different regions of Germany from each other and somehow avoiding local success, without internet to expose their doings, the groups Can in Cologne, Amon Düül in Munich and then Berlin communes, Kraftwerk coming from Düsseldorf, with a two-act initial phase, the first of which many wouldn't know existed, where they were closer to Ummagumma Floyd than the locked down electronic which so inspired future beatmakers in techno and hip-hop.
Faust, also, sprung up in Hamburg, where the Beatles famously cut their teeth (98 consecutive nights in one club!) and where many Fab Four imitators also appeared. Luckily Faust had invention to burn and a bizarre set of circumstances - a commercially hungry Svengali who somehow wrangled major label funds for their recordings where desks and effects were wired up through rooms of a house and musicians could apply effects to their colleagues' instruments in real time, very cutting edge.
Another Düsseldorf band with ties to Kraftwerk was Neu! who although a duo, made enveloping and entrancing rock music with help from studio wizard Conny Plank, who not only was able to utilise the new recording techniques becoming available in the early 70s, but was able to nurture and bring out the essence of a band with sympathetic production. Plank is pivotal to the story of this music and there could be multiple books related to him alone.
This book's author has taken Plank's approach to heart where he picks out the strengths and uniqueness of each band and so clearly allows us to place each in context in a rebuilding and globally smarting Deutschland. It's been seen as a niche of music, with some going through a Krautrock "phase" as one might with Be-bop or Prog rock. But this is music with a long tail, and the book opens it up with a critical but joyful eye, more approachable than similar surveys by Julian Cope and others.
As a long time fan who recognised early as a teenager the thrill of Faust from his UK bedroom, ears and eyes opened by this bizarre music, colouring his ideas about the charts and leading him to delve deeply, David Stubbs has compiled a wealth of origin stories. He has the musical knowledge to see the threads of Krautrock develop over the years (and dedicates a few pages to the justification for using the "K" term, incidentally) making clear that this music, for all the noise about it since Stereolab and The Fall, Pavement, Hunters and Collectors and others quietly championing it, has long legs.
March 6, 2022
I took almost 18 months to read this book - not because it was dull, but because it seemed daft not to immerse myself in the music being described, chapter by chapter, as I read. What a joy it is to be able to do this with streaming services, and how I would have surrendered a small limb to do this when I first encountered this music forty years ago and had to shell out large fractions of my pocket money to take a punt on an album or artist often known only by association. Happily Future Days is eminently put-down-and-pick-up-able, even after five or six months, when I occasionally had a break from German music.
I enjoyed discovering new (to me) artists such as Walter Wegmüller, Günther Schickert, Pyrolator and finding out more about those - such as DAF and La Düsseldorf - that I previously knew only by reputation. I can't get enough of stuff about Roedelius, Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream (though Stubbs remains a bit sniffy about the latter). And Can, I now appreciate, are not far off being "the greatest rock band in the world" as Stubbs admits to once referring to them. So many artists try to capture some part of their sound; few if any do it quite so well.
I was also interested in the social history of what was going on in the inter-generational dynamics of German society in the 1970s.
Not to suggest that there is any equivalence between Nazi crimes against humanity and climate change, but it does make you wonder how the next generation will respond culturally to the recognition of their forbears' submission - for so long after the harm to all life was apparent - to fossil fuel dependency.
I enjoyed discovering new (to me) artists such as Walter Wegmüller, Günther Schickert, Pyrolator and finding out more about those - such as DAF and La Düsseldorf - that I previously knew only by reputation. I can't get enough of stuff about Roedelius, Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream (though Stubbs remains a bit sniffy about the latter). And Can, I now appreciate, are not far off being "the greatest rock band in the world" as Stubbs admits to once referring to them. So many artists try to capture some part of their sound; few if any do it quite so well.
I was also interested in the social history of what was going on in the inter-generational dynamics of German society in the 1970s.
it was clear, up close to those young people in revolt, that all the fight had gone from their parents’ generation; that they were, for all their industriousness and outward respectability, cowed and fearful of the shadows of the past. When young people scuffled, chanted, cursed the imperialists or even, in extreme cases, perpetrated acts of terrorism against property (and later citizens), it was as if they were reproachfully demonstrating to their elders a spirit of combativeness and resistance that had been wholly lacking in the German people of the 1930s and ’40s; the very willingness with which they had been mobilised militarily indicated not their strength but their submissiveness… The new consensual brand of politics in West Germany meant that young people in particular felt they had no political or ideological choices.
Not to suggest that there is any equivalence between Nazi crimes against humanity and climate change, but it does make you wonder how the next generation will respond culturally to the recognition of their forbears' submission - for so long after the harm to all life was apparent - to fossil fuel dependency.
July 20, 2024
Great overview of the various “krautrock” bands centring on the early 1970s, though to get anything meaningful out of the book, you really need to be familiar with the music itself. Certain ideas like “the musicians were reacting to the War or the United States” were regurgitated so many times that getting through the book did become a bit of a chore towards the end, though I’m not sure if there is any better way to structure the book than tackling a band or scene per chapter, even if many were being influenced in similar ways. My final gripe is that for a book about experimentation and rejection of traditional rock-and-roll, the works and legacy of certain strands of the movement were sometimes underdiscussed. Discussion of Manuel Göttsching’s groundbreaking proto-techno masterpiece E2-E4, and of Kraftwerk’s impact on hip-hop are both confined to a couple of paragraphs, despite Krautrock’s impact on the titans of British post-punk being afforded considerable attention in the penultimate chapter.
July 30, 2018
This book is an impressive feat of music history.
Documenting a legendary and elusive genre of modern German music, Stubbs approaches the Krautrock era from several angles: The portraits of the bands themselves includes an impressive number of interviews with key musicians. An insight into the German society at the time conveys a sense of the psychology of this post-war generation and how the unique fate of Germany helped shape their musical expressions. And finally, walkthroughs of a selection of key albums - where Stubbs' wonderfully evocative language will leave you aching to listen to even some of the more obscure Krautrock releases.
Even the term "Krautrock" itself (uniformly hated by the artists) is discussed: Although they were somehow connected by time, space and originality of vision, does it even make sense to lump together so many different artists - from Kraftwerk to Amon Düül II - from Neu! to Tangerine Dream - into the same category?
Highly recommended.
Documenting a legendary and elusive genre of modern German music, Stubbs approaches the Krautrock era from several angles: The portraits of the bands themselves includes an impressive number of interviews with key musicians. An insight into the German society at the time conveys a sense of the psychology of this post-war generation and how the unique fate of Germany helped shape their musical expressions. And finally, walkthroughs of a selection of key albums - where Stubbs' wonderfully evocative language will leave you aching to listen to even some of the more obscure Krautrock releases.
Even the term "Krautrock" itself (uniformly hated by the artists) is discussed: Although they were somehow connected by time, space and originality of vision, does it even make sense to lump together so many different artists - from Kraftwerk to Amon Düül II - from Neu! to Tangerine Dream - into the same category?
Highly recommended.
October 17, 2022
A good general overview that is impressive in its scope, the only downside for me was I would have preferred a bit more biographical information of the musicians it covered and details of their recording processes/methods (that i guess doesn't feature because not a lot is known) and less of the visual descriptions of songs. Whole albums are described song by song eg: "a sustained organ chord orbits and a theremin style wail dances overhead like the aurora borealis... it's near impossible not to think of the night sky"
This is entertaining at first but quickly becomes trying with something like 30 albums described, when even the author admits it's his subjective opinion and may not be at all what the musicians intended or what others hear, it amounts to a lot of filler.
Nevertheless Stubbs kept me engaged to the end and I learned a lot and picked up some good tips, which I guess was my goal in reading.
This is entertaining at first but quickly becomes trying with something like 30 albums described, when even the author admits it's his subjective opinion and may not be at all what the musicians intended or what others hear, it amounts to a lot of filler.
Nevertheless Stubbs kept me engaged to the end and I learned a lot and picked up some good tips, which I guess was my goal in reading.
May 22, 2020
Really insightful exploration of a movement that I'm only really passingly familiar with through Faust and Can. I found the histories generally quite interesting, though after about 300 pages I tapered off and didn't read any of this for months.
Reynolds is very quick to dismiss the vast amount of a group's output (I think he lists three Tangerine Dream albums that are worthwhile?) only to then claim how influential the canon of Krautrock has been in more modern music. Which is fine, it just comes across as a little contradictory.
That being said I enjoyed his discussion of Krautrock's influence on modern music immensely - his discussion of Bowie and Eno in particular.
Reynolds is very quick to dismiss the vast amount of a group's output (I think he lists three Tangerine Dream albums that are worthwhile?) only to then claim how influential the canon of Krautrock has been in more modern music. Which is fine, it just comes across as a little contradictory.
That being said I enjoyed his discussion of Krautrock's influence on modern music immensely - his discussion of Bowie and Eno in particular.
June 12, 2024
I thought this was a good, but not great book, especially if you're already familiar with the key bands and albums.
It didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know about the actual music, but it's very good at putting the culture, bands and scenes into context.
Stubbs is also very good at outlining the music's origins and how the musicians involved came to it. He's also very good at articulating it's legacy of an enduring, wide-ranging influence on myriad subsequent genres.
I also disagree with his views on Klaus Dinger's post-NEU! band, La Dusseldorf, whose debut album is one of the best of the genre, imho.
It didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know about the actual music, but it's very good at putting the culture, bands and scenes into context.
Stubbs is also very good at outlining the music's origins and how the musicians involved came to it. He's also very good at articulating it's legacy of an enduring, wide-ranging influence on myriad subsequent genres.
I also disagree with his views on Klaus Dinger's post-NEU! band, La Dusseldorf, whose debut album is one of the best of the genre, imho.
April 23, 2025
Reading this book feels like rummaging through a North London charity shop where vast, niche records have been offloaded. The greatest recommendation for Future Days is that it will lead you to discover at least a handful or bands and records that you previously didn't know about (unless you are just insufferably hip). So hours of derived extra entertainment accrue from it. In turn, the greatest disrecommendation (yes, spellcheck tells me that is not a real word but hellwithit) is that it has many overwritten 1990s UK music journalism-style passages. Be very strongly warned if that annoys you.
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