Five essential krautrock live albums

 AMON DÜÜL II LIVE IN LONDON

UNITED ARTISTS, 1973 

Recorded December 16, 1972 at Croydon Greyhound and released as a budget album, Live In London captures the Munich anarcho collective in remarkably clear stereo. This is peak Düül, rocking tight and hard on “Archangels Thunderbird” and “Soap Shop Rock”; advancing some choice Germano-wiggery on Falk-U Rogner’s synth-heavy “Improvisation” and the prog suite “Syntelman’s March Of The Roaring Seventies”. The sheer heaviness of “Eye Shaking King” and “Race From Here To Your Ears” bridges the hard rock of the Stooges and Black Sabbath with the Ramonesy punk future that still lay over the horizon.

HARMONIA 

LIVE 1974 GRÖNLAND, 2007

Like Can, Harmonia (Moebius, Roedelius and Michael Rother) retreated from the city to a studioplayground in rural Germany. This rare live tape from March 23, 1974 in Griessem is a beautiful example of the trio’s quietly purposeful, post-Terry Riley minimalism. It’s enticing to picture a small-town German crowd trancing out to the analogue bubble bath of warm synth loops, pulsating electronic beats and Rother’s skysaw guitar on “Holta-Polta” and “Ueber Ottenstein”.

AGITATION FREE 

LIVE ’74: AT THE CLIFFS OF RIVER RHINE

GARDEN OF DELIGHTS, 1998 

Krautrock’s premier jam band travelled further than Can, touring Egypt, Greece and the Mediterranean islands. Recorded in Cologne on February 2, 1974, the quintet kick off in expansive Grateful Dead style on the 15-minute “Through The Moods”. Lead guitarist Lütz Ulbrich soars upwards from tropo- to exosphere, pulling the rhythm section with him. The 10-minute “Laila” flourishes in a jazz-tempered pulse driven by Michael Günther’s Can-like repetitive bass figure. Without the restrictions of an LP side, AF’s majestic, dreamy psychedelia glides unchained.

GURU GURU

LIVE BRAIN, 1978 

Like Soft Machine, Guru Guru evolved from late-’60s psych into a more abstract jazz-rock outfit. Along with Can’s Jaki Liebezeit, drummer Mani Neumeier came to rock from an earlier life in free jazz. Despite a more “professional” sound than on their early studio releases, Guru Guru lock into funky electric jazz vibes seldom heard in the krautrock canon. Roland Schaeffer’s guitar solo on “Formentera” is nothing short of epic, while on the more relaxed “Herzflimmern” he heads off into David Sanborn-style sax heroics.

STEPHEN MALKMUS & VON SPAR 

EGE BAMYASI DOMINO 2021

Malkmus made no secret of Pavement’s debt to Can. With German instrumentalists Von Spar, he recorded this enjoyable facsimile of the 1972 original LP, live on a Cologne stage in 2012. It’s a pretty faithful reproduction, with Malkmus gamely filling in the blanks in Damo Suzuki’s unfathomable lyrics. Ironically, this is what the original Can never bothered to do: replay the album on stage. So this is the closest anyone’s likely to get to experiencing this material performed in real time.