"Great Kosmische Musik"

The most expensive book that I have ever bought (to date) is a beautiful, limited edition hardback about Talk Talk. And until very recently, the second most expensive book I'd purchased was a second-hand copy of Bill Drummond and Mark Manning's 'Bad Wisdom'.

But a couple of days ago, I cracked and bought an eye-wateringly expensive copy of Julian Cope's long out of print 'Krautrocksampler'. I take exception to the term 'Krautrock', as it happens, preferring to call it either 'Motorik', which, strictly speaking, refers to the drumming style, or, as per Julian's subtitle, 'Kosmische Musik' (but that seems a bit hippy).

This was the music/musik that emerged from the cultural deadzone of post-world war two Germany, when the nation was still numbed by what had been done in its name. With no immediate and acceptable cultural heritage to draw upon, the young bands of the late sixties and seventies started from scratch, with long instrumental pieces that in some respects were artistically noncommittal. 

Arguably (by me, at least), it was Kraftwerk that reconnected German music with its cultural heritage by the expedient notion of pretending that the year before 1970 was 1929. Thus, the formless nature of early motorik music began to take shape and, I think, gain some self-confidence.

I'm quite excited by this book and I'm looking forward to delving further into this brief yet artistically vibrant period. No doubt its repercussions will be felt via Electronic Ears :-)