Listening

Krautrocker Glory

A moody, progressive new track from Fujiya & Miyagi hints at past musical movements.

Brighton's own Fujiya & Miyagi will release their third album, Lightbulbs, in early September. The band has been cited as owing a debt not only to electronic music of the early ’90s, but to the so-called “Krautrock” acts that made that music possible, specifically Neu! and Can. These progressive German bands (the name of the genre being a play on the ethnic slur—ehm…), formed in the late ’60s, primarily used rock instruments but entirely eschewed the traditional pop format, instead pulling in strains of classical, jazz, and, for that era, highly experimental electronic elements. The interpretation by the music press and the interest of tastemakers like John Peel highly influenced the way Krautrock was perceived, so much so that, in his highly regarded and out-of-print primer on the subject, Julian Cope calls the genre, “a subjective British phenomenon.” To Fujiya & Miyagi, this phenomenon has far from passed, as “Knickerbocker,” the first track from their upcoming album, demonstrates.
biopic

TMN Editor Erik Bryan is living the dream. He grew up in Florida, but he’s from all over. He likes playing chess, making cocktails, smarting off, and not freezing to death in Brooklyn, where he currently resides. More by Erik Bryan

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