Elevate Difference

Reviews tagged Krautrock

What Day Is It Tonight? (Live 1993-2008)

Hipster culture exists and sustains itself on a continuous loop, a vicious never-ending cycle, like a Möbius strip or an Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail. Take something once mainstream and now uncool, adopt it with tongue planted firmly in cheek as “so bad it's good,” deem said sound/product/style “cool,” and watch as it is co-opted by a broader audience and becomes mainstream. Later, rinse and repeat. Every once in a while such a revival of the old dredges up some long-lost gem, but most of the time it's just masturbatory.

Rated O

Brooklyn’s noise rockers Oneida revel in not being able to be pinned down to a definition. They also are enormously motivated, as their newest offering, the triple album Rated O, can attest. While they have been classified as psych rock or krautrock, the influences on Rated O are wide ranging.

Transparent Things

“We were just pretending to be Japanese,” say Fujiya & Miyagi. Surprise! Fujiya (reference to the cult record player) and Miyagi (pop reference to Pat Morita’s Karate Kid character/racist stereotype) are three white men from Brighton, UK. Much like fellow Brits Hot Chip, they bring minimalist, poised electro with their ambiguous irony. Fujiya & Miyagi cite Krautrock such as CAN and Neu! as influences. Certainly the German imprint is there in the album’s low-key, layered grooves and artful calculation.