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Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany Paperback – September 30, 2014

by David Stubbs (Author)

4.5 136 ratings

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The definitive guide to Kosmische music, from one of Britain's most acclaimed writers.

West Germany after the Second World War was a country in shock: estranged from its recent history, and adrift from the rest of Europe. But this orphaned landscape proved fertile ground for a generation of musicians who, from the 1960s onwards, would develop the experimental and various sounds that became known as Krautrock.

Eschewing the Anglo-American jazz/blues tradition, they took their inspiration from elsewhere: the mysticism of the East; the fractured classicism of Stockhausen; the pneumatic repetition of industry, and the dense forests of the Rhineland; the endless winding of Autobahns.

Faust, Neu!, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Dl II, Can, Kraftwerk - the influence of these groups' ruminative, expansive compositions upon Western popular music is incalculable. They were key to the development of movements ranging from postpunk to electronica and ambient, and have directly inspired artists as diverse as David Bowie, Talking Heads and Primal Scream.

Future Days is an in-depth study of this meditative, sometimes abstract, often very beautiful music and the groups that made it, throwing light too on the social and political context that informed them. It's an indispensable book for those wanting to understand how much of today's music came about, and to discover a wealth of highly influential and pioneering artists.

Print length

495 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Faber & Faber Rock Music
Publication date

September 30, 2014
Dimensions

6.02 x 1.46 x 9.21 inches
ISBN-10

0571283322
ISBN-13

978-0571283323
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber Rock Music; Main edition (September 30, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 495 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0571283322
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571283323
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 1.46 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,450,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,538 in Popular Music (Books)
- #8,759 in Rock Music (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 136 ratings

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4.5 out of 5

136 global ratings

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M. Underwood

Very well researched and well written.

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2014

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Probably the best analysis of German rock and experimental music of the 70s and beyond that I have read. It places the music, musicians and music scene in a broad social, economic and political context that gives a satisfying understanding of why things developed how they did. Seems to pick out the main players well. Strong focus on Amon Duul II, Faust, Can and Kraftwerk. I highly recommend this book.

8 people found this helpful

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W. Frederick

The introduction was very good and provided a historical framework

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2014

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The introduction was very good and provided a historical framework. Where Stubbs really falls down is on band research (i.e., Eloy the band spells its name without an "i"). He could have learned much from a couple hours more of internet research and reading the previous books on the subject in English. The chapter on NDW was cursory, at best, while the last chapter was incredibly superfluous. And his opinions on various bands were also un-needed. Overall, a good book that adds a bit to the research on German experimental rock but is probably only of interest to completists like myself.

6 people found this helpful

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steve tomlin

Fascinating

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2015

Fascinating insights

Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2015

Best and only really serious book on the subject. Scholarly and well researched. Really worth a read if you want a an overview and context for this unforgettable high point in 70's German rock!

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gerardo cabrera muï¿½oz

La creación del futuro

Reviewed in Mexico on February 12, 2021

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Un libro que permite comprender el origen, evolución e influencia del rock alemán en la música de los años 70 y su influencia el las generciones posteriores.

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Marco Conti

Awful

Reviewed in Italy on August 15, 2020

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If you, like me, discovered Krautrock in 1974-75, when this music appeared on the scene of European and American Rock'n'roll as a fresh blow of experimentalism with exotic leanings, then stay away from this book, written by a fan of the crappiest new wave for people whose reference bands are Simple Minds, Gary Numan, Human League etc.. Mr Stubbs never mention, except for the Beatles and Pink Floyd, any other band which existed before 1976. When he talks about Liberty/UA in his article on the Can, he says that this label was important because it signed pre-punk and post punk bands: I have the impression that the unnamed pre-punk bands are High Tide, Hawkwind, Capt Lockheed & the Starfighters, Michael Moorcock's Deep Fix, etc., so please draw by yourself your conclusions about Mr Stubbs' idea of rock music. The article on Amon Duul is so bad that anyone who reads it will stay away from this great band forever. Naturally, Mr Stubbs never mentions the Jefferson Airplane, who were the Amon Duul's first inspiration, even in the kind of line-up the band adopted, probably because he never heard of this band: Coldplay seems to be a much more suitable term of comparison to him. Finally, the Prologue, in which the author tries to interpret Krautrock from a socio-political-historical point of view, is so silly that it sounds more as a joke than true journalism: in a word, Stubbs hypothesises that Krautrock is a consequence of the rebellion of German youths against their professors at school who were all ex-Nazi, and this tension not only produced Krautrock but German terrorism as well: believe it or not. A very poor piece of musical journalism to be avoided by all those who started listening to rock music before 1977-78!

Alan_Guest

Great read

Reviewed in Australia on November 21, 2021

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While its a bit rambling and goes wide on postwar German culture, its a great read if you are interested in the area of this music and its greater context in an evolving European social and political landscape

P. Requena

nice reading

Reviewed in France on March 2, 2015

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ouvrage très bien écrit et complet le livre donne envie d'écouter et de découvrir les groupes dont il est question

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Kosmische

What I'd been waiting for but...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2015

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I'd always wanted and been waiting for someone to write a thoughtful, analytical account of Krautrock as a companion to Julian Cope's admittedly highly-entertaining but determinedly non-cerebral Krautrocksampler.

This then is mostly that book. However it does have its failings. There is a small number of very, very basic errors. For example, Michael Karoli is described as Swiss; there is a reference to the 'title track' on Ege Bamyasi; and there's a paragraph in the Amon Duul section about Renate Knaup's signing on Dance of the Lemmings (she wasn't on that album except as guest on one short track).

In the section on Popol Vuh, I had hoped to read more about the (to me) essential German-ness of their music and also to read more about Daniel Fichelscher whose contribution to PV has always seemed to me to not get the credit it deserves. You'd think that PV were really just Florian Fricke when they were most definitely composed of two equal contributors.

It also seems quixotic to give Agitation Free and Guru Guru such little space (AF get only two mentions) when in the case of the latter when they were in some respects a quintessential Krautrock band what with the frequent guitar freak-outs, intense but untutored drumming, lots of heavy reverb, heavily effected vocals and so on.

I also experienced a fair amount of deja vu as there's a considerable amount of quotation from previous interviews e.g. in the Wire, the Quietus etc.

The book is really good on the cultural backdrop and also on the enduring legacy of Krautrock. However, I was surprised not to see more if anything at all about the influence of Krautrock in Japan. I don't recall any mention for example of Acid Mothers Temple and their ilk. I would also have liked to see a chapter on the later seem of music,mostly electronica, coming out of Germany e.g. To Rococo Rot, Kreidler, Mouse on Mars and so on.

And lastly, I'd like to see a section on suggested listening. For the second edition maybe?

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Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany Paperback – September 30, 2014

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