Well let me see,I went to the "Progfest" in Chapel Hill to see Thinking Plague,Nebelnest,and other proggly delights and to the "Progfest" in S.F. to see Buckethead,Bi Kyo Ran, Magma and some preferably forgotten performers that I might not have known to call "Prog" if I hadnt gone to the Progfest;so who cares what you call it. I can say without reservation that from Germany I definitely like to listen to Can,Kraan,Guru Guru,Data Direct,Die Knodel,Cluster,Irmin Schmidt(Can), and Embryo to name a few.Is it Krautrock or Prog? I dont know.Also good(not from Germany) are : Uz Jsme Doma (czech), Fermata(czech), Trettioriga Kriget(finland?), Pierre Vervloesem(belgium), X-Legged Sally(belgium), Tipographica(japan), Ruins(japan),Lacrymosa(japan), Volupuk(france), Octavo(france), Nekropsi(turkey), La Perra(mexico), High fidelity Orchestra(mexico), Massacre(england/usa)and of course the well known Soft Machine,King Crimson, Mahavisnu Orchestra, Van Der Graaf Generator,and Gentle Giant.Lets not forget the Mermen (crowd goes wild) from Santa Cruz, California(file under "surf").I prefer not to call this stuff "prog"(although I'm sure some of it is) .I left out a ton of stuff of course but....what was the question? Oh yeah,the krautrock - prog thing, I think there is a lot of grey area and opinion involved in these labels,categories.I just listen, and if I like it ...I keep it!
p.s.-i think the book"Crack in the Cosmic Egg" is all about the German Krautrock-Prog scene.It's available at Wayside Music.
