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Quite a few well known U.S. & British musicians were influenced by so called German Krautrock, Artists as diverse as David Bowie & Brian Eno, to Joy Division and commercially successful acts like Depeche Mode & Gary Numan, so take the Trans Europe Express to find out more about Krautrock.Krautrock or Kosmische Musik is a name given to a wide range of late 60s & early 70s experimental German bands. Some including Kraftwerk & Tangerine Dream are well known, others like Neu, Can, Cluster were later influential on some popular UK & U.S. music actsEven early Hip Hop artists & producers like Afrika Bambaataa & Arthur Baker, experimental 80s rock like Sonic Youth & Killing Joke, Industrial - Nine Inch Nails, Detroit Techno - Juan Atkins, Dance - Orbital, to Stereolab, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystems & beyond….Can - PaperhouseBrian Eno collaborated with German band Cluster in ‘76, David Bowie sang the praises of La Düsseldorf’s (formed by multi-instrumentalist Klaus Dinger ex Neu) 1976 debut in interview, both musiciand were very aware of what German Experimental Rock bands of the early 1970s where creating, bands that included Kraftwerk/Neu/Cluster/Harmonia/Can. And what they were creating was a world marrying early electronics & technology, European Avant Classical traditions, some psychedelia early on & later more ambient textures.Neu! - Hallogallo (1972)Their experimentation was an attempt to create rock music beyond the limitations of American guitar based blues rock and often seemed to throb to the beat of nature and industry.Others Krautrock acts like Amon Düul II & Faust ploughed paths of their own & Popol Vuh’s work would lead towards 80s New Age.Bowie & Eno would collaborate on Bowie’s late 70’s experimental “Berlin Trilogy” of albums Low/Heroes/Lodger between 1977 - 79. It’s hard to imagine from this distance but David Bowie in the 1970s had huge cultural influence in the UK on younger musicians & listeners in both leading a path where popular music followed and as a style icon. He also had an inate ability to sense musicians that were pushing the boundaries of rock and absorb their influences into something new.NightclubbingBefore the Berlin Trilogy he started recording his friend Iggy Pop’s The Idiot Album in Berlin released in ‘77, an album of foreboding synth experimentation with generally Bowie’s music backed with Pop’s lyrics. Kraftwerk married to James Brown is one description of the album but imo Kraftwerk is more dominant. Several tracks are better known from hit covers by other artists including Night Clubbing & China Girl - this early distillation of “Krautrock” would influence Depeche Mode, Siouxsie Sioux, Killing Joke, Joy Division and later industrial acts like Nine Inch Nails & (the Belgian group) Front 242.A few others from the 70s & 80s would be early UK proto industrial acts Cabaret Voltaire & Throbbing Gristle, 70s post punk from Magazine, Devo, the Fall to Wire, Human League & much Uk Electro Pop including Gary Numan, Yello (Switzerland), New Order, early 80s electro Hip Hop including Afrika Bambaataa, early Detroit Techno from Juan Atkins to Derrick May, early Japanese electronic act Yellow Magic Orchestra. Sonic Youth in the 80s, Pavement, Radiohead, Tortoise & “Post Rock” in the 90s.Dance Acts like Orbital & Underworld. Much later in the 90s the British/French Stereolab clearly owe a debt for the “motor rik” repetitive beat to Neu.John Cage BubblegumLCD Soundsystems - Losing My Edge“I was there in ’68 at the first Can Show in Cologne”