Julian Cope
Krautrocksampler

With a bit of reverential fear, I approach writing about this text which, for us Italian lovers of '70s German rock, has become the ultimate point of reference and, still today, remains unique.

Originally, it was released in English in 1995 and now, finally, we can read it translated into Italian by Luca Fusari for the Lain publishing house, who released it in 2006.

I read it all in one go and with pleasure I found all the records I had "discovered" in the early '70s and introduced to friends in the deep southern province of Turin, and even today, I spin them on my vinyl system every now and then. But, above all, I found an author who is sincerely and deeply passionate about this genre, which fell into the deepest oblivion after its brief period of glory.

It all began in post-war Germany at the end of the '60s, when the Anglo-American influence was still strong, the presence of American military bases was visible and widespread, and the cultural influence from overseas was powerful. In this context arose the need to create something new, but above all, something that could connect with the masses, something popular. The realm of experimentation had already been initiated by cultured musicians like Stockhausen, and as reinforcement, electronic technology in musical instruments made its entry.

The game is on: a mix of progressive, psychedelia, and both cosmic and extreme experimentation led to a product that in the years to come would be classified as cosmic music and krautrock.

The analysis Cope performs on this production is manna for us Italians, previously enlightened on the subject by the never generous sections of various rock encyclopedias. The examination is conducted with the passion and expertise that come from his long immersion in and digestion of the music of the '70s German groups.

The first part of the book consists of 9 chapters where he tells us the story of Krautrock from the '60s to the end of the '70s; the narrative is certainly passionate and sometimes a bit over-the-top, excesses we can easily forgive in a Cope who's always been alternative and counter-current. He had the fortune of being advised and assisted by two other sacred monster precursors of German Cosmic Music, Steve and Alan Freeman: with them, he compiled a list of essential groups to understand the subject; in this regard, I would also like to mention that it would have been an impossible task to talk about all the groups Germany produced in that period, given the immense number.

In the second part of the book, we find a list of the top 50 must-own records, followed by reviews of all these works.

Here we might take it with a grain of salt, due to his unrestrained admiration for those who could be "protopunk" (personally, I would save with difficulty Amon Duul's Disaster and some other mentions). For the rest, these are works that deserve much attention and reevaluation.

In conclusion, it should be noted that Julian Cope was the founder of the Teardrop Explodes, at the end of the '70s, and then a solo artist with several substantial albums, among which "Peggy Suicide" is worth mentioning for its imaginative, nocturnal, and hypnotic tone.