Hallogallo

Eight krautrock albums: where to start, and what to play next. The set is named after "Hallogallo", the first track on Neu!'s first album, and runs in release order from 1970 to 1975.

Krautrock was the British music press's name for West German bands who wanted nothing to do with Anglo-American rock and built their own out of repetition, electronics and tape. Amon Düül II's Yeti comes out of a Munich commune and is the wildest record here. Can's Tago Mago and Ege Bamyası are the Cologne band at their peak, with Jaki Liebezeit's locked drumming and Damo Suzuki, a singer they found busking in Munich. Neu! is Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, both briefly in Kraftwerk, playing the steady beat writers later called motorik. Faust IV was made in England for Virgin and opens with a track called "Krautrock", which tells you what Faust thought of the name. Autobahn is Kraftwerk's first hit, a 22-minute drive across side one. Cluster's Zuckerzeit is the warmest record here, and Neu! '75 splits into calm pieces on one side and Dinger shouting over loud guitars on the other.

If you only have time for one, play Neu!. "Hallogallo" is ten minutes of the same beat, and once it clicks the rest of the set makes sense.