Few musical movements have sounded so ahead of their time as 'krautrock'.
Emerging in late 1960s and early ’70s West Germany, this experimental genre rejected both American blues-rock and German pop convention. Instead, it carved out something visionary: hypnotic rhythms, improvisation, analog electronics, and cosmic ambition. The name—originally a dismissive British label—became shorthand for a bold wave of sonic innovation.
Krautrock’s zenith came between 1970 and 1975, with bands like Can, Neu!, Faust, Amon Düül II, and Kraftwerk pushing boundaries in radically different ways. Some explored long-form psychedelia, others minimalist electronics or proto-punk textures. Motorik beats, ambient textures, musique concrète—krautrock fused these elements into something thrillingly alien.
Though it never topped charts, krautrock’s legacy is immense. You can hear its fingerprints in David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy, in Radiohead’s rhythmic experimentation, in the ambient work of Brian Eno, and in entire genres from post-rock to techno. Today, artists like Stereolab, Beak>, and LCD Soundsystem carry its DNA forward. Krautrock wasn’t just a genre—it was a mindset: forward-looking, borderless, and defiantly original.
In this list, we rank the 15 greatest krautrock albums—those strange, shimmering, sometimes explosive records that continue to shape music half a century later. Strap in for a trip through one of rock’s most radical eras.
Greatest krautrock albums
17. Harmonia Deluxe (1975)
A supergroup of Cluster and Neu! members, Harmonia created lush, pastoral electronics. 1975's Deluxe is their most melodically rich album—a luminous fusion of Neu!’s motorik rhythms and Cluster’s ambient textures. With producer Conny Plank at the helm, the trio blends synth shimmer, krautrock propulsion, and pastoral warmth into something both futuristic and intimate. It’s a landmark of cosmic minimalism, where machine precision meets melodic elegance in quietly dazzling fashion.
Key track: Deluxe (Immer Wieder)
16. Faust Faust IV (1973)
Faust IV finds the German avant-rockers at their most accessible yet still thrillingly unpredictable. A kaleidoscope of styles—from pulsing motorik to pastoral whimsy and noise collage—this 1973 album distils krautrock’s experimental spirit into a strange, absorbing whole. Bold, irreverent and musically fearless, it’s a genre landmark that continues to intrigue and inspire.
Key track: Krautrock
15. Ash Ra Tempel (1971)
Ash Ra Tempel’s 1971 debut is a cosmic odyssey of improvisation and intensity. Blending psychedelic rock with early kosmische atmospheres, the trio—featuring Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze—creates vast soundscapes that veer from tranquil to volcanic. Its structure—one mellow side, one wild—captures krautrock’s dual soul: meditative and explosive. A milestone in experimental rock.
Key track: Amboss — a searing 19-minute jam of guitar feedback and rhythmic freakout.
14. Cluster Zuckerzeit (1974)
A landmark in minimalist electronic music, Zuckerzeit marked a turning point for Cluster. Abandoning their earlier abrasive soundscapes, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius embraced warmer, more melodic textures—ushering in proto-synthpop with a distinctly krautrock sensibility. Its concise, playful tracks are rich with analogue charm, blending pulsing rhythms with dreamy synth lines. The album’s quiet innovation laid foundations for ambient, electronica, and post-rock in decades to come.
Key track: 'Hollywood' – hypnotic, motorik bliss with shimmering synths and understated propulsion.
13. Guru Guru UFO (1970)
Wild, unhinged, and thrillingly primal, UFO is one of krautrock’s most explosively psychedelic statements. Fusing acid rock, free jazz, and avant-garde noise, Guru Guru—led by powerhouse drummer Mani Neumeier—created a cosmic freak-out that felt both anarchic and visionary. The album’s relentless energy and improvisational chaos prefigure the raw edge of noise rock and experimental metal, while capturing the spirit of late-'60s countercultural rebellion.
Key track: 'Stone In' – a searing, jam-driven voyage through spacey distortion and rhythmic mayhem.
12. Tangerine Dream Rubycon (1975)
A shimmering masterpiece of electronic atmosphere, Rubycon captures Tangerine Dream at their most immersive and refined. Building on the sequencer-driven sound they pioneered, the album unfolds as two long, meditative movements that ebb and flow with hypnotic intensity. Synth pulses ripple beneath ambient textures and slowly evolving melodic fragments, creating a deep sense of space and time. It’s a landmark in ambient and Berlin School electronic music, profoundly influential across film scores and electronica.
Key track: 'Rubycon Part 1' – a 17-minute odyssey of minimalist tension and sublime sonic architecture.
11. Can Future Days (1973)
With Future Days, experimental rhythmic pioneers Can reached the zenith of their exploratory powers, creating an album of breathtaking subtlety and atmosphere. Shifting away from the abrasive textures of earlier work, this is Can at their most impressionistic—fluid, shimmering, and richly layered. Jaki Liebezeit’s drumming anchors the sound in hypnotic rhythm, while Damo Suzuki’s vocals drift like another instrument. The result is a lush, aquatic soundscape that feels both timeless and futuristic.
Key track: 'Bel Air': a 20-minute ambient-prog journey of quiet beauty and transcendent groove.
10. Amon Düül II Yeti (1970)
Amon Düül II were a psychedelic, anarchic, experimental collective who blended rock, improvisation, and surreal soundscapes. Their second album Yeti is a sprawling epic that typifies the anarchic brilliance of early krautrock. Combining improvised jams, heavy guitar riffs, and surreal sonic textures, it veers between structured rock and unhinged experimentation. Its dark, ritualistic energy and avant-garde daring made it hugely influential on progressive and alternative scenes alike.
Key track: Eye-Shaking King – a ferocious, fuzz-drenched highlight of hypnotic intensity.
9. Kraftwerk Autobahn (1974)
With Autobahn, Kraftwerk crystallised a new vision of electronic music—cool, controlled, and gliding into the future. While their motorik predecessors embraced spontaneity and noise, Kraftwerk brought precision and pop savvy. The title track, a 22-minute voyage down Germany’s newly paved highways, fused synthesisers with ambient textures and mechanical rhythms, reshaping krautrock’s direction—and electronic music’s destiny.
Key track: 'Autobahn' – hypnotic, minimalist, and sleek as the motorway it celebrates.
8. Popol Vuh Hosianna Mantra (1972)
Hosianna Mantra marked a radical departure from krautrock’s experimental edges, offering instead a meditative, spiritual soundworld unlike anything else of its time. Popol Vuh blended classical guitar, gentle piano, and celestial vocals with a reverence more akin to sacred music than psychedelic rock. Drawing on Eastern philosophy and Western liturgical tradition, the album feels transcendent and timeless, a serene oasis in the often-chaotic krautrock landscape.
Key track: Ah! – luminous, haunting, and quietly revelatory.
7. Neu! Neu! 2 (1973)
Neu! 2 is both a bold continuation and a rebellious deconstruction of krautrock’s minimalist momentum. The first half delivers the classic motorik pulse Neu! pioneered—steady, propulsive, and hypnotic. But the second side, famously constructed from slowed-down and sped-up versions of earlier tracks due to budget issues, challenges the very notion of what an album can be. It’s punk, performance art, and proto-remix culture wrapped in one idiosyncratic statement.
Key track: 'Für Immer' – relentless rhythm and radiant simplicity in motion.
6. Faust The Faust Tapes (1973)
The Faust Tapes is a dizzying collage of sound art, tape loops, rock fragments, and sonic experiments—a bold affirmation of Faust’s avant-garde credentials. Released for the price of a single, it introduced thousands to the band’s anarchic brilliance. There’s no traditional structure here; instead, the album unspools like a stream-of-consciousness radio transmission from another planet, challenging and enthralling in equal measure.
Key track: Stretch Out Time – eerie, fragmented, and utterly hypnotic.
5. Can Tago Mago (1971)
Can's second album finds them at their most audacious and expansive—fusing hypnotic grooves, avant-garde noise, and free-form psychedelia into a darkly compelling whole. Drawing from jazz, funk, and the experimental fringes of rock, it redefined what a band could do in the studio. Damo Suzuki’s vocal improvisations add a sense of mystery and menace, while the rhythm section remains taut and driving throughout.
Key track: Halleluhwah – a mesmerising 18-minute groove odyssey.
4. Tangerine Dream Phaedra (1974)
A landmark in electronic music, Phaedra marked a turning point not just for Tangerine Dream, but for Krautrock itself. With its pulsating sequencer patterns, ambient textures, and cosmic expansiveness, it helped define the Berlin School sound. Less rock-oriented than Can or Neu!, it charted new territory in mood and atmosphere. A haunting, hypnotic journey that influenced ambient, techno, and beyond.
Key track: 'Phaedra' – a 17-minute voyage through synthesized dreamscapes.
3. Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express (1977)
A sleek, minimalist masterpiece that propelled electronic music into the future with rhythmic precision and icy beauty
With Trans-Europe Express, Kraftwerk completed their metamorphosis from experimental krautrockers to sleek electro-pioneers. Coldly futuristic yet strangely human, the album traded motorik rhythms for minimalist beats and gliding melodies, foreshadowing synth-pop, hip-hop, and techno. It’s a concept album of motion, modernity, and mechanisation—both eerily clinical and strangely romantic. A crucial moment not only in Krautrock’s evolution but in electronic music’s entire future.
Key track: 'Trans-Europe Express' – an elegant, hypnotic train ride into tomorrow. Here's the original German version, complete with particularly eerie synthesised vocals:
2. Neu! Neu! (1972)
Hypnotic, motorik brilliance; Neu!’s debut distilled repetition, rhythm, and restraint into a blueprint for post-punk and beyond
Neu!’s 1972 debut is a cornerstone of krautrock minimalism—boldly stripping rock down to its rhythmic essentials. Michael Rother’s shimmering guitar textures and Klaus Dinger’s relentless “motorik” beat created a hypnotic, propulsive sound unlike anything before. Its stark, spacious aesthetic would go on to influence punk, post-rock, and electronic music alike. A daring, atmospheric journey from start to finish.
Key track: 'Hallogallo' – a mesmerizing, rhythmic masterpiece that defines the album’s forward-driving spirit.
And the greatest krautrock album is...
1. Can Ege Bamyasi (1972)
Groovy, experimental, and hypnotic—Ege Bamyasi is krautrock’s most accessible and surreal rhythmic fever dream
Can’s Ege Bamyasi (1972) captures krautrock at its most inventive, hypnotic, and joyously strange. With a tighter, funkier focus than its sprawling predecessor Tago Mago, the album blends psychedelic rock, groove-driven improvisation, and experimental production into something utterly original.
Jaki Liebezeit’s drumming is both precise and primal, Holger Czukay’s bass pulses with menace and charm, and Damo Suzuki’s vocals—half-chanted, half-sung—float through warped, dub-like soundscapes. Tracks like 'Vitamin C' and 'Soup' veer between infectious hooks and mind-bending abstraction.
What makes Ege Bamyasi arguably the greatest krautrock album is its accessibility without compromise—it’s challenging yet catchy, cerebral yet danceable. This is Can at the peak of their collective telepathy: raw, rhythmic, and restlessly creative. Few records capture such strange beauty with such groove.
Key track: 'Vitamin C' – a lean, taut, and wildly original fusion of funk, avant-rock, and surreal lyricism.
