The Mars Volta is an American band based out of El Pas, Texas. There are many elements drawn from other sources that the band incorporates into their music such as krautrock, jazz fusion, Latin American music, and lots of progressive influences.
The Mars Volta Legacy
The Mars Volta is a band that has not been around that long relatively speaking. Formed in 2001, in only 10 short years they have become an international phenomenon. Their music is more remarkable for its influences than the actual content. The band is more applauded for their virtuosity than the songs or albums themselves. Though critics sometimes remark favorably on their work, they are not well known for any singles or for any albums. Whenever they are referred to in the media, references are made to the collective as a whole rather than to any specific work that the collective has churned out. This is important in understanding the Mars Volta because they are a band that does not receive that much media coverage.
Their songs also get little radio play, as they are of a progressive and experimental nature most of the time, but still the band’s dedicated fan base has helped them to rise above adversity and make their mark on the world of music regardless of whatever negative coverage they may receive. For a band that has not been around that long, they have a remarkably loyal following. From the level of support they receive, it is also appropriate to refer to them as having a cult following. They have the type of fans that listen to nearly every record they put out, and this has largely helped them gain popularity.
Radiohead are an English band known for their genre bending electronic/rock experimentations. Labeled pretentious by some, and challenging by others, their music is generally well received and they are still relevant and active today.
Radiohead and the King of Limbs
In the current age of music run by dubstep, Rebecca Black, and Lil B, Thom Yorke and the Radiohead gang come together to write a concept album about a tree’s life, The King of Limbs, to prove that they are still relevant. Not unlike a couple years ago when the band put out “In Rainbows,” the entire internet was buzzing with hype about the new album (although fans had to pay for this one, wasn’t “name-your-own-price” like the last one). Many fans felt this would be the album of the decade, and other fans thought it would be the biggest disappointment in music history, and some just weren’t sure what it would sound like, as every Radiohead release is unique in its own way. All of these predictions were made without hearing a single second of their music.
On Friday February 18th, the internet came together to listen to the album. The verdict? No one knew what to make of it. It certainly was a Radiohead album, but it wasn’t as groundbreaking as their previous albums, and didn’t do anything new. It does give off its own unique creepy vibe, but it is essentially just a darker version of In Rainbows. Confused, many fans decided to not rate the album, but to let it sink in before judging it. Eventually Pitchfork stepped in, gave the album a 7.9, and the world stopped caring about Radiohead again, just as it had the week before. However they were received with this latest offering, Radiohead has already long ago cemented their place in history among the greats. Fans will continue to look forward to later releases.
Kraan was one of the bands, formed in 1970, that was instrumental in helping to carve out the set of rules that define Krautrock as a genre. Though, because they happened to be one of the progenitors of the genre their music is actually very different than the music that would be considered krautrock in more modern times.
What is Kraan all about?
Kraan helped change the way that we see krautrock, and helped to bring in the elements of jazz that are so pervasive throughout the genre. The problem with krautrock and Kraan though, is that it is hard to place them within this very genre that they helped to create, especially since their break up in 1990 followed by their subsequent reunion in 2000. They constantly challenge their own genre classification. While the elements defining krautrock became gradually more set in stone, Kraan started to find themselves constantly more outside of that classification, often crossing into a path that we might refer to as jazz fusion. But they also incorporated elements of rock music, which was their original genre when they started out.
Today krautrock is seen as a more dissonant genre, both imploring and in some cases even depressing. Kraan is almost the opposite. The use the same instruments that characterize the genre, and they make similar sounds, but the mood is completely different, which is why people often have trouble classifying them. Whether they are a rock band, a jazz band, a fusion, or any number of tags, their influence on music cannot be ignored. They were very influential in the field of music that they chose, and continue to influence artists to this day.
Can was one of the first legitimate krautrock groups, though they are mostly referred to under that genre tag retroactively. Their music was, at the time of their relevance in 1968, generally considered psychedelic. Though their name is not heard often in modern times since their first official breakup in 1979, their legacy has carried on infinitely and can be heard in many artists that experiment in the same genre, the most notable influence being the song “Take Meta Mars” by the band “The Flaming Lips” who directly copied the main riff and atmosphere of the song. It is through these nods towards their memory as well as their early contributions to krautrock that they will be most remembered.
Can proves that Germans know psychedelic
Perhaps Can’s most significant contribution to the music world was their 1971 effort Tago Mago. Though all of their albums are generally looked upon favorably, this has received special consideration by critics years and years after it was originally released. Releases coming out at the present in the same genre are still being compared to it, and it is generally singled out as being their magnum opus. What makes this album so special to critics and casual listeners is its uniqueness. A common thing musical critics have to say about it is that it sounds like a genre unto itself. It is cold and distant, dissonant and scary, and yet full of life and exuberance all at the same time. Can did something with this album that most artists aren’t able to do in their entire career, they created something universally influential. Regardless of whether the Beatles meant it to be or not, if a band sounds at all like the Beatles, even if the members had never heard of them before, comparisons would always be drawn to them, and the same is true for Can to this day.
Amon Düül is a band that is known for the improvisations they incorporated not only into their live shows but into their studio albums as well. Because of artistic disagreements and numerous break ups and reformations, this band has had many different iterations throughout history spanning all the way from the 1960’s to as late as the last studio album released by one iteration of the band, Amon Düül II in 1997. And to this day, this form of the band is still currently listed as active.
Why is Amon Düül important?
Amon Düül did more for helping to define krautrock than any other band early in the scene. They were one of the first bands to ever experiment in including jazz instruments with rock music in order to come up with free form improvisations as well as an overall ambient sound. Though a lot of different elements define what krautrock is, Amon Düül single handedly implemented the free jazz portion of this definition resulting in this characterization being cemented forever within the word krautrock.
Their career, though not short lived, was relatively sparse, at least as this iteration. They had a total of 5 albums released, 3 of which were released in the early 70’s and then after a 5 year hiatus, 2 more in the early 80’s. Then they broke off this band, and some of the more interested and involved members formed a new iteration of the band called Amon Düül II which has carried on until the present. In the middle of all of this, other members of the band unaffiliated with Amon Düül which were not interested in reforming with those original members formed a band called Amon Düül UK or Amon Düül Again.
Their history can be confusing and is overall a detriment to their legacy, but they will always be remembered for helping to define krautrock.