exploring: Krautrock

For the next few months I'm going to try to have one or two Krautrock albums on deck. I have a few favorite Krautrock albums I'd consider among my favorites, but they're the usual suspects the better-known albums of Neu!, Cluster, Can, Faust, Harmonia, La Dusseldorf, among others. So I'm looking to dig a bit deeper, especially with some of the solo works of the major players.

What I'd really like to see is a Venn diagram of some of the main guys in those bands, as there's a good bit of overlap, either through band break-ups or side collaborations. Harmonia is a good example, formed of Cluster's Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius and Neu!'s Michael Rother. Their 1975 album, Deluxe, is one of my favorites. But I'm not sure what, for instance, Rother brought to the group compared to Roedelius or Moebius. So part of the exploration will be listening to solo albums in an effort to parse out those contributions.

Otherwise I may revisit Julian Cope's Krautrocksampler and some other sources of recommendations. I've also seen some recent reissues that look interesting. At any rate, I've probably have a list of 40-50 albums to check out before I feel like I've got a better grasp on the genre.