German Electronic bands...

But things changed in the early 70s. Weirdly, the UK was keen to embrace the German bands, especially Tangerine Dream who enjoyed considerable chart success for several years 1974 to 1982. It was radical music. Like nothing else that had been heard. It fitted your brain or it didn’t.

Rubycon peaked at 10 in 1975, going silver in the process. The warm analogue sequencers suited the UK who had a hippy audience who loved to get spaced out to such vibes. What was radical was that they didn’t rely on conventional guitars and drums. They’d turn up with banks of synths and once toured cathedrals. Acid heads in the aisles. Edgar Faroese wove guitar lines through the ambience as documented on the live and brilliant Ricochet. It was a new sort of classical music.

There was plenty of other German bands, but most didn’t chart here. Nektar did well in USA, making 19 with Remember The Future and were a popular prog act in the UK. They were actually a relocated English band. Kraan got a live following, their double live is brilliant and quite Pink Floydish.

Then there was Can. They never put an album in the chart, but they were many of the hipsters’ choice. I loved Future Days which is kind of ambient. They produced a huge amount of records which were more ambient than prog. Similarly there was Neu! Who were the thinking person’s Can. Frumpy were a classic and popular band who made no impact outside of Germany. There were loads of bands like that. Even in the eighties Craaft were a popular Hard Rock/AOR band in Germany. Plenty of bands still play in Germany. It’s a huge market. But even so, German bands have never had a popularity the way they did in the mid seventies.