In Focus: Michael Rother

Present during an incredible explosion of rock experimentalism, krautrock, and motorik sounds in Germany in the early 1970s, both as member of an embryonic Kraftwerk lineup and as founding member of the band Neu! with drummer Klaus Dinger, and Harmonia, Michael Rother's shadow runs long over the left field of guitar music for the remaining decades of the 20th Century. With artists as influential in their own right as David Bowie, Stereolab, and Sonic Youth citing him as an inspiration, it's an interesting question to consider what popular music might sound like now had Rother not been around. Arguably a lot less interesting. Brian Coney selects two hours of Rother's music from a wealth of different projects in this In Focus.