Julian Cope

Julian Cope? The very same.

Shenanigans in Tamworth, Liverpool and North America involving music, drugs, marshmallows and faulty van air-conditioning. How Cope and Co. managed to produce any work at all is a mystery, somewhat explained in this interesting and frank account of the rise and fall of The Teardrop Explodes. You don't necessarily need to know or enjoy Cope's music to appreciate his story. It helps that he's intelligent, insightful and can string his own words together without the show more mediation of a ghost writer. show less

Written by a true enthusiast of 'out there' rock 'n' roll, Julian Cope, singer, musician, antiquarian, shamanic pagan and champion of all things weird, psychedelic and noisy, takes a close look at the Japanese underground music scene of the 60's and 70's.

As an example of Cope's prose style here is a description of one such musical beast:

"Imagine a high-school band playing the bass-heavy stentorian outro of Television's 'Marquee Moon' title track in 25-minute bursts, while a Blue show more Cheer-informed (Leigh Stephens period, natch) be-shaded guitar moron with waist-length black hair unloads over the track the kind of pent-up white-noise sonic fury that entirely buries said backing track under an avalanche of mung. Imagine that, from time to time, that same skinny moron temporarily interrupts his invasion-of-Manchuria guitar techniques in order to bring focus to the chords of this so-called song via a series of charmingly unpleasant croons, hiccups, yelps and whooping sub-sub-Buddy Hollyisms in an Alan Vega stylee. Next, imagine a second song just as long as the first that takes its form and sound from the same Ur-spring whence the first was drawn, but which is propelled by a curiously catchy soul-standard bass riff lifted directly from Little Peggy March's 1963 hit single 'I Will Follow Him' '"

If this leaves you completely bemused or thinking Cope is slagging of the rock group in question (Les Rallizes Denudes) then this is not-not the book for you! show less

Interesting exploration of Japanese post war political, economic, and social history as context for the cross-pollination of Japanese and Western experimental music via jazz, rock and pop. Cope's tastes take priority, naturally, and the focus is on experimental and psychedelic music, with Japanese rock and pop almost dismissed as being superficial and slavishly copyist. He's kinder about jazz, particularly in the creative collaborations between German and Japanese composers, and I'm now show more aware of more Japanese and German jazz musicians from the 60s and 70s than I was before. Clearly a subject Cope is passionate about, the only niggles I have are with the poor spelling/subbing and the repetition of stories that involve multiple bands in each of those bands' biographies. show less

[Originally published in EST magazine, 1996]

If you take my advice, you should consider the ability of some of Krautrock's greatest stars to demolish their own mythology as a salutary warning before reading Krautrocksampler. With groups like Kraftwerk incapable of recapturing lost inspiration, Tangerine Dream a now-dreadful money-making machine, and even Neu! besmirching their own reputation with the recent (appalling) Neu! 4, it's good to be reminded that however influential, however much of show more it remains amazing, huge swathes of Krautrock were, to be blunt, awful. The reason for this warning is to ensure that Cope's overwhelming enthusiasm doesn't completely rob you of your natural caution!

Alongside lengthy, often delirious reviews of 50 classic Krautrock records, Cope explores the history of groups like Can, Faust, Neu!, Kraftwerk, the Cosmic Couriers, Tangerine Dream, Amon Düül, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel and Cluster. Like every true fan Cope is obsessed with "the early years", to the extent that anyone reading this book would be forgiven for thinking that Faust's story ended with Faust IV in 1973.

Cope's taste for the wildest possible freak-out, for music as a path to psychedelic inspiration and spirituality isn't for everyone, but there's still more than enough intriguing material here to open the minds of casual Krautrock fans and perhaps inspire them to seek out much that has remained obscure. Hardcore fans will keep looking for a more encyclopaedic account of the genre's many ancestors, groups, and descendants, but I still found Krautrocksampler informative, enjoyable and, at times, inspiring. show less