Misplaced Pages

#367632

52-555: The Voidz (formerly Julian Casablancas + The Voidz ) are an experimental rock band. They consist of Julian Casablancas (vocals), Jeramy "Beardo" Gritter (guitar), Amir Yaghmai (guitar), Jacob "Jake" Bercovici (bass, synthesizers), Alex Carapetis (drums), and Jeff Kite (keyboards). Tyranny , their debut album, reached 50th in NME 's Top 50 Albums of 2014 list. Jeff Kite, Alex Carapetis and Jake Bercovici had all worked with Casablancas previously. Kite and Carapetis appeared as part of

104-543: A popular music distinct from traditional German music and American pop. The period contributed to the development of ambient music and techno , and influenced subsequent genres such as post-punk , new-age music , and post-rock . Krautrock has been described as a broad genre encompassing varied approaches, but commonly drawing on psychedelia , avant-garde collage, electronic sounds, and rock music , while typically featuring "improvisation and hypnotic, minimalistic rhythms." Los Angeles Magazine summarized

156-453: A "genuine sense of awe and wonder." We were trying to put aside everything we had heard in rock 'n' roll, the three-chord pattern, the lyrics. We had the urge of saying something completely different. —Jean-Hervé Peron of Faust . Core influences on these German artists included avant-garde composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Terry Riley , and bands such as the Mothers of Invention ,

208-431: A "groundbreaking group in experimental rock", according to Rosenberg, "even further out of step with popular culture than the early recordings of the Mothers of Invention". The band were playing experimental rock in 1965 before other significant countercultural rock scenes had developed, pioneering avant-rock through their integration of minimalist rock and avant-garde ideas. The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's inspired

260-466: A humorous umbrella-label for the diverse German scene, and although many such artists disliked the term, it is no longer considered controversial by German artists in the 21st century. Despite this, English-language authors remain critical of it. The movement was partly born out of the radical student protests of 1968 , as German youth rebelled against their country's legacy in World War II and sought

312-546: A new consideration for experimental rock as commercially viable music. Once the group released their December 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour , author Barry Faulk writes, "pop music and experimental rock were [briefly] synonymous, and the Beatles stood at the apex of a progressive movement in musical capitalism". The musical passage recorded by the Doors in 1968, " Not to Touch the Earth ",

364-540: A new popular culture. Dieter Moebius , of the bands Cluster and Harmonia , noted that "we were a lot of the times on the streets instead of studying. As young people we were not very proud to be German [...] we were all tired of listening to bad German music and imitations of American music. Something had to happen." The movement saw artists merge elements of varied genres such as psychedelic rock , avant-garde forms of electronic music , funk rhythm, jazz improvisation and "ethnic" music styles, typically reflecting

416-588: A rock concert. According to author Kelly Fisher Lowe, Zappa "set the tone" for experimental rock with the way he incorporated "countertextural aspects ... calling attention to the very recordedness of the album". This was reflected in other contemporary experimental rock LPs, such as the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and Smile , the Who 's The Who Sell Out (1967) and Tommy (1969), and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). The Velvet Underground were

468-640: A similar format to the Sick Six, when recording his next album. Casablancas, Carapetis, Bercovici, and Kite, along with mutual friends Jeramy Gritter and Amir Yaghmai formed The Voidz and began writing music together. Then known as Julian Casablancas + The Voidz, the band signed to Casablancas' record label, Cult , and following a appearance at SXSW Festival , undertook an international tour between 2014 and 2015, including U.S. Lollapallooza and festivals in Chile , Brazil and Argentina . The band's debut album, Tyranny ,

520-510: A succession of other musical styles and developments. Early contemporary enthusiasts outside Germany included Hawkwind and in particular Dave Brock who supposedly penned the sleeve notes for the British edition of Neu!'s first album. Faust's budget release The Faust Tapes has been cited as a formative teenage influence by several musicians growing up in the early 1970s such as Julian Cope , who has always cited krautrock as an influence, and wrote

572-552: Is a subjective British phenomenon", based on the way the music was received in the UK rather than on the actual West German music scene out of which it grew. For instance, while one of the main groups originally tagged as krautrock, Faust , recorded a seminal 12-minute track they titled " Krautrock ", they would later distance themselves from the term, saying: "When the English people started talking about krautrock, we thought they were just taking

SECTION 10

#1732854972368

624-471: Is also used as a German analogue to the English term " space rock ". The style was often instrumental and characterized by "spacy", ambient soundscapes. Artists used synthesizers such as the EMS VCS 3 and Moog Modular , as well as sound processing effects and tape-based approaches. They often rejected rock music conventions, and instead drew on "serious" electronic compositions. The term "kosmische Musik"

676-412: Is what critic Mick Wall described as "nearly four minutes of avant-rock." As progressive rock developed, experimental rock acquired notoriety alongside art rock . By 1970, most of the musicians which had been at the forefront of experimental rock had incapacitated themselves. From then on, the ideas and work of British artist and former Roxy Music member Brian Eno —which suggested that ideas from

728-431: The 1960s and early 1970s. The music was partially inspired by broad cultural developments such as the revolutionary 1968 German student movement , with many young people having both political and aesthetic concerns. Youth rebelled against both dominant American influence and conservative German entertainment such as schlager music , seeking to liberate themselves from Germany's Nazi legacy in World War II and create

780-422: The 1970s, significant musical crossbreeding took place in tandem with the developments of punk and new wave , DIY experimentation, and electronic music . Funk , jazz-rock , and fusion rhythms also became integrated into experimental rock music. Early 1980s experimental rock groups had few direct precedents for their sound. Later in the decade, avant-rock pursued a psychedelic aesthetic that differed from

832-521: The American and British groups' emphasis on jazz and classical elements in favor of "a droning, pulsating sound that owed more to the avant garde than to rock & roll." Some common musical features exhibited by krautrock artists include: Despite a common approach and generational attitude among artists, the New Statesman argues that "in truth, no two Krautrock acts sound remotely alike. Compare

884-706: The Beatles as the most avant-garde [rock] composers of the postwar era". Aside from the Beatles, author Doyle Greene identifies Frank Zappa , the Velvet Underground , Plastic Ono Band , Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band , Pink Floyd , the Soft Machine and Nico as "pioneers of avant-rock". In addition, The Quietus ' Ben Graham described duos the Silver Apples and Suicide as antecedents of avant-rock. Pitchfork cited Red Krayola as being "likely

936-508: The Fugs , the Monks , Red Krayola , Soft Machine , Pink Floyd and the Beatles began incorporating elements of avant-garde music , sound collage , and poetry in their work. Historian David Simonelli writes that, further to the Beatles' " Tomorrow Never Knows " ( Revolver , 1966), the band's February 1967 double A-side single, pairing " Strawberry Fields Forever " with " Penny Lane ", "establish[ed]

988-782: The Jesus and Mary Chain as "avant-rock icons." According to Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell, some 1980s and early 1990s avant-rock acts such as the British musicians David Sylvian and Talk Talk returned to the ideas of progressive rock, which they call " post-progressive ". During the 1990s, a loose movement known as post-rock became the dominant form of experimental rock. In a reaction against traditional rock music formula, post-rock artists combined standard rock instrumentation with electronics and influences from styles such as ambient music , IDM , krautrock, minimalism , and jazz. In 2015, The Quietus ' Bryan Brussee noted uncertainty with

1040-578: The Sick Six live band (which also featured Danielle Haim ), that backed Casablancas when touring his first solo album, Phrazes for the Young . Kite and Carapetis, along with Bercovici, also worked on "I Like the Night", a song Casablancas recorded as part of an advertising campaign he fronted for the French fashion label, Azzaro . Casablancas enjoyed working with the band and chose to collaborate with other musicians, in

1092-499: The UK, in April 1971. The music emerging in Germany was first covered extensively in three concurrent issues of the UK music paper New Musical Express in the month of December 1972, by journalist Ian MacDonald . Its musicians tended to reject the name "krautrock". This was also the case for "kosmische Musik". Musicologist Julian Cope , in his book Krautrocksampler , says "krautrock

SECTION 20

#1732854972368

1144-675: The Velvet Underground , the Beatles , and Pink Floyd . A significant influence was the work of American minimalists such as Riley, Tony Conrad , and La Monte Young , as well as the late '60s albums of jazz musician Miles Davis , particularly his jazz fusion work on In a Silent Way (1969). The influence of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown on krautrock musicians was also notable. Some artists drew on ideas from 20th century classical music and musique concrète , particularly composer Stockhausen (with whom, for example, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of Can had previously studied), and from

1196-452: The advancing technology of multitrack recording and mixing boards were more influential to experimental rock than electronic instruments such as the synthesizer , allowing the Beatles and the Beach Boys to become the first crop of non- classically trained musicians to create extended and complex compositions. Drawing from the influence of George Martin , the Beatles' producer, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson , music producers after

1248-898: The art world, including those of experimental music and the avant-garde, should be deployed in the context of experimental rock—were a key innovation throughout the decade. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Germany's " krautrock " scene (also referred to as kosmische or elektronische musik) saw bands develop a form of experimental rock that drew on rock sources, such as the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa, as well as wider avant-garde influences. Groups such as Can , Faust , Neu! , Amon Düül II , Ash Ra Tempel , Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , and Popol Vuh merged elements of psychedelic rock with electronic music , funk rhythms, jazz improvisation , and avant-garde and contemporary classical compositions, as well as new electronic instrumentation . The ideas of minimalism and composers such as Stockhausen would be particularly influential. The movement

1300-454: The book Krautrocksampler on the subject. The genre also had a strong influence on David Bowie 's Station to Station (1976) and the experimentation it inspired led to his ' Berlin Trilogy '. Ash Ra Tempel 's first album, released in 1971, informed later krautrock music. Kosmischer Läufer , a Scottish-German music project with its first installment launched in 2013, presents itself as

1352-459: The dreamy synthesiser washes of Tangerine Dream with the alien noise collages of Faust or the psychedelic funk of Can ." However, a common feature is the " motorik " beat: the 4/4 beat often used by drummers associated with krautrock, characterised by a kick drum -heavy, pulsating groove, that created a forward-flowing feel. The motorik beat was used by Can in the song " Mother Sky ", by Neu! on their debut album , and by Kraftwerk in

1404-529: The first wave of 1980s experimental rock groups, including acts such as Material , the Work , This Heat, Ornette Coleman 's Prime Time, James Blood Ulmer , Last Exit , and Massacre , had few direct precedents for their sound. Steve Redhead noted the resuscitation of New York's avant-rock scene, including artists such as Sonic Youth and John Zorn , in the 1980s. According to journalist David Stubbs , "no other major rock group [...] has done as much to try to bridge

1456-484: The gap between rock and the avant garde" as Sonic Youth, who drew on improvisation and noise as well as the Velvet Underground. In the late 1980s, avant-rock pursued a "frazzled, psychedelia -tinged, 'blissed out'" aesthetic that differed from the self-consciousness and vigilance of earlier post-punk. The UK shoegaze scene was seen by some as a continuation of an experimental rock tradition. Pitchfork described contemporary acts My Bloody Valentine , Spacemen 3 , and

1508-451: The genre as "American psychedelica meets icy Germanic detachment." Melody Maker described the style as "where the over-reaching ambition and untethered freakitude of late '60s acid rock is checked and galvanised by a proto-punk minimalism ... music of immense scale that miraculously avoided prog-rock 's bombastics.” AllMusic described it as expanding on the territory associated with art rock and progressive rock, but diverging from

1560-517: The latter case was that technical skill was getting in the way of, or replacing, significance. — Bill Martin writing in his book Avant Rock (2002) Although experimentation had always existed in rock music, it was not until the late 1960s that new openings were created from the aesthetic intersecting with the social. In 1966, the boundaries between pop music and the avant-garde began to blur as rock albums were conceived and executed as distinct, extended statements. Self-taught rock musicians in

1612-414: The mid-1960s began to view the recording studio as an instrument used to aid the process of composition. When the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966) was released to a four-month chart stay in the British top 10, many British groups responded to the album by making more experimental use of recording studio techniques. In the late 1960s, groups such as the Mothers of Invention , the Velvet Underground ,

The Voidz - Misplaced Pages Continue

1664-425: The middle and late 1960s drew from the work of composers such as John Cage , Karlheinz Stockhausen , and Luciano Berio . Academic Bill Martin writes: "in the case of imitative painters, what came out was almost always merely derivative, whereas in the case of rock music, the result could be quite original, because assimilation, synthesis, and imitation are integral parts of the language of rock." Martin says that

1716-410: The most experimental band of the 1960s". In the opinion of Stuart Rosenberg, the first "noteworthy" experimental rock group was the Mothers of Invention, led by composer Frank Zappa. Greene recognises the group's debut album, Freak Out! , as marking the "emergence of the 'avant-rock' studio album" at a time when Warhol's presentation of the Velvet Underground's shows was redefining the parameters of

1768-400: The music generally moved away from the rhythm & blues roots and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music . Prominent groups associated with the krautrock label included Neu! , Can , Faust , Tangerine Dream , Kraftwerk , Cluster , Ash Ra Tempel , Popol Vuh , Amon Düül II and Harmonia . The term "krautrock" was popularised by British music journalists as

1820-469: The new experimental directions that emerged in jazz during the 1960s and 1970s (mainly the free jazz pieces by Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler ). Moving away from the patterns of song structure and melody of much rock music in America and Britain, some in the movement were drawn to a more mechanical and electronic sound. Until around 1973, the word Deutsch-Rock ("German Rock") was used to refer to

1872-528: The new groups from West Germany. Other names thrown around by the British and American music press were "Teutonic rock", "Überrock" and " Götterdämmer rock". West Germany's music press initially used Krautrock as a pejorative, but the term lost its stigma after the music gained success in Britain. The term derives from the ethnic slur " kraut ". "Kraut" in German can refer to herbs, weeds, and drugs. The term

1924-513: The piss ... and when you hear the so-called 'krautrock renaissance', it makes me think everything we did was for nothing." Kosmische Musik ("cosmic music") is a term which came into regular use before "krautrock" and was preferred by some German artists who disliked the English label; today, it is often used synonymously with krautrock. More specifically, it may describe 1970s German electronic music which uses synthesizers and incorporates themes related to space or otherworldliness; it

1976-468: The power and mystique of a rock vanguard by depriving it of a tradition to react against." Anderson claims that the no wave scene represented "New York's last stylistically cohesive avant-rock movement." The early 1980s would see avant-rock develop significantly following the punk and new wave , DIY experimentation, electronic music, and musical cross-breeding of the previous decade, according to Pitchfork . Dominique Leone of Pitchfork claims that

2028-544: The production methods of dub and disco . During this era, funk , jazz-rock , and fusion rhythms became integrated into experimental rock music. Some groups who were categorized as "post-punk" considered themselves part of an experimental rock trajectory, with This Heat as one of the prominent players. The late 1970s no wave scene consisted of New York experimental rock bands that aimed to break with new wave , and who, according to Village Voice writer Steve Anderson, pursued an abrasive reductionism which "undermined

2080-645: The self-consciousness and vigilance of earlier post-punk . During the 1990s, a loose movement known as post-rock became the dominant form of experimental rock. As of the 2010s, the term "experimental rock" has fallen to indiscriminate use, with many modern rock bands being categorized under prefixes such as "post-", "kraut-", "psych-", "art-", "prog-", "avant-" and "noise-". In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as Lou Reed put it, there were those were trying to become much better musicians, or much better players of their instruments at any rate, and those who were trying to forget what little they already knew. The presumption in

2132-548: The song " Autobahn " on their album of the same name , later being adopted by other krautrock bands. It has been widely used in many different styles of music beyond krautrock. According to XLR8R , the term krautrock is often used by critics to signify the "mesmerizing motorik rhythms pioneered by Can and Neu!", but contested that "they represent merely a tiny fraction of the music that emerged from Germany during krautrock's Golden Age". Krautrock emerged in West Germany during

The Voidz - Misplaced Pages Continue

2184-423: The style as "cosmic rock" to signify that the music belonged in a rock idiom. German producer Conny Plank was a central figure in the kosmische sound, emphasizing texture, effects processing , and tape-based editing techniques. Plank oversaw kosmische recordings such as Kraftwerk 's Autobahn , Neu! 's Neu! 75 , and Cluster 's Zuckerzeit . Several of these artists would later distance themselves from

2236-706: The term "experimental rock", and that "it seems like every rock band today has some kind of post-, kraut-, psych-, or noise- prefixed to their genre." Krautrock Krautrock (also called kosmische Musik , German for "cosmic music" ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock , avant-garde composition, and electronic music , among other eclectic sources. Common elements included hypnotic rhythms, extended improvisation , musique concrète techniques, and early synthesizers , while

2288-653: The term. Other names for the style, and for sub-genres were "Berlin School" and "Dusseldorf School", both of which are recognised and actively contributed to by artists such as Node, Martin Sturtzer, Propaganda, Kraftwerk, Tannheuser and Fritz Mayr, from the 1980s through to the present day. The style would later lead to the development of new-age music , with which it shared several characteristics. It would also exert lasting influence on subsequent electronic music and avant-garde rock . Krautrock has proved to be highly influential on

2340-428: Was coined by Edgar Froese and later used by record producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser as a marketing name for bands such as Ash Ra Tempel , Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze . The following year, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser 's Ohr Records used the term when he released the compilation Kosmische Musik (1972) featuring tracks by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, and Popol Vuh . Kaiser eventually began referring to

2392-491: Was experimental, but it was not until the late 1960s that rock artists began creating extended and complex compositions through advancements in multitrack recording . In 1967, the genre was as commercially viable as pop music , but by 1970, most of its leading players had incapacitated themselves in some form. In Germany, the krautrock subgenre merged elements of improvisation and psychedelic rock with electronic music , avant-garde and contemporary classical pieces. Later in

2444-466: Was originally used by Virgin records in 1972. Various sources claim that "krautrock" was originally a humorous term coined in the early 1970s, either by British disc jockey John Peel or by the UK music newspaper Melody Maker , in which experimental German bands found an early and enthusiastic following. The first use of the term however, was found in a full-page advertisement from Popo Music Management and Bacillus Records promoting German Rock in

2496-408: Was partly born out of the student movements of 1968 , as German youth sought a unique countercultural identity and wanted to develop a form of German music that was distinct from the mainstream music of the period. The late 1970s post-punk movement was devised as a break with rock tradition, exploring new possibilities by embracing electronics, noise , jazz and the classical avant-garde, and

2548-487: Was released in 2018, on Cult Records via RCA . In 2019, The Voidz collaborated with Mac DeMarco who produced two songs, “Did My Best” and “The Eternal Tao” later released as a single on Terrible Records. In December 2020, they released the single "Alien Crime Lord" to promote the Cayo Perico Heist update of Grand Theft Auto Online . In 2021, a reworked version of "The Eternal Tao" called "The Eternal Tao 2.0"

2600-614: Was released in October that year. They released the single "All The Same" on February 21, 2024, which was previously a demo that they had performed live since 2020. On July 4, 2024, the Voidz revealed the title of their third album Like All Before You , to be released in September 2024. A trailer for the album was released on YouTube, alongside "Overture", an instrumental single from the album. Experimental rock From its inception, rock music

2652-399: Was released on September 23, 2014. The band's live sets generally consist of a mix between Casablancas' earlier solo songs, covers of Strokes songs written solely by Casablancas, collaborations with artists (such as Daft Punk 's " Instant Crush " and Sparklehorse & Danger Mouse 's "Little Girl" ) as well as their own original material from Tyranny and Virtue . Their album Virtue

SECTION 50

#1732854972368

2704-553: Was released, with an extended outro containing lyrics similar to the Strokes song " The Adults Are Talking ". On May 12, 2023, The Voidz featured in Daft Punk 's song " Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo) ," which was included in their 10th anniversary edition of Random Access Memories . Two weeks later, on May 26, they released the single "Prophecy of the Dragon." The following single "Flexorcist"

#367632