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Pitchfork
November 25, 2009
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Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and Its Legacy
Edited by Nikolaos Kotsopoulos; Black Dog publishing
This thick tome might as well be called the field guide to krautrock (“notice the long, unkempt hair and colorful plumage on Gerd”). The original genre tag in part represented the condescension directed toward this vibrant strain of German music. This book– a Taschen-like wealth of photos, cover art, timelines, and bios, including specific producer write-ups– treats the kosmische artists as visionaries. Introductory essays demarcate and dissect the cultural landscape, especially Michel Faber’s grounded examination of the unpopularity of krautrock in Germany, and the completist set of profiles and images showcase the personalities behind the scene. As Steve Krakow writes in a brief contribution, “the Germans picked up the freak-flag torch, and took it further out.”
Freedom, Rhythm & Sound: Revolutionary Jazz Original Cover Art 1965-83
Compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker
The design fetish for Blue Note’s cool urbanity often obscures the color and personality of art from more obscure corners of the jazz world. Within the free jazz milieu chronicled in Freedom, Rhythm & Sound, freedom wasn’t a pose. Personal ideologies and collective organization, as well as economic realities, helped turn the scene into an incubator for independent labels commissioning vibrant, striking cover art. Broadcaster and fervid collector Gilles Peterson and Soul Jazz label boss Stuart Baker assembled a gallery of African-American jazz albums– European and Asian artists and labels are largely out of sight– beginning with Sun Ra’s pioneering Afro-futurist sketches and Egyptology and branching out into Emory Douglas-like collages and striking black-and-white photography. Some lack polish, but like the uncompromising music they represent, all the covers broadcast a sense of bold, brazen ideology.
[Read the complete gift guide for more suggestions]