I'm with Batsix on this. I would think that bands like
Grobschnitt, Guru Guru, Embryo, Kraan, Birth Control,
or even Frumpy would be down the prog-kraut alley of choice.
...but I'm still betting that "guitar tone suck" will sink das Boot.

Try this German band's 70s tune on for size:

or these:

OK, I'll stop.

(back when Mal Waldron was a member!)

I was trying to think of a good way for answering this, but it's kind of difficult, since the styles under the krautrock umbrella are so diverse. But... if you'd bear with me:

Uninformed people refer to Kraftwerk as being krautrock, which is true to the extent of maybe a couple of their earliest releases (and their previous name Organisation), but since these are not typically the Kraftwerk albums that people know about, the whole krautrock genre gets this electronic/synthy reputation (hence you putting this in the electronic forum originally). There are also people that set the equals between krautrock and what is typically called "kosmisch musik" (cosmic music), which I'd take with a pinch of salt, since most of the krautrock isn't very cosmic. It's true that most of the progressive electronic stuff coming out of, what is refered to as, the Berlin School is cosmic. But these aren't very rocky (again, hence the electronic reference). Bands that belong here are Ash Ra Tempel (later Ashra), Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, some Popol Vuh, and the likes. These are mostly spacey synthscape music, borderlining new age music, so if you come from a Zeppelin/Purple background and don't want to go too offkilter, this might not be for you.

Then there's what modern people nowadays refer to as the "krautrock sound", which is most often basically the sound of the "motorik beat", which is a steady 4/4 monotonuos drumbeat. Bands that belong here are Neu!, La Düsseldorff, to some extent Can (although Jaki Liebezeit has a much jazzier groove), as well as early Kraftwerk, some Harmonia, Cluster, etc. If a modern band today tells you they play krautrock, they will most probably sound like Neu!, and people seems to diffuse the genre name to bands also outside of Germany. This style is hugely overrated, I think.

Now, to the good parts of krautrock!
Although most of the time when people talk about krautrock they refer to one of the two aforementioned styles, the huge part of the krautrock movement don't fit there, imo. These seems to be more underground and less commercially succesful, which is the psych/prog-rock side of the spectrum. Some of the most common names are allready mentioned in this thread (Amon Düül II, Guru Guru, etc, etc), which are all superb. But I'd like to shine some light on some of the more unknown gems that are really great aswell. Try Gäa, Xhol Caravan, Pell Mell, Kickbit Information, Vinegar, Kaputter Hamster, Twenty Sixty Six And Then,... ****, I don't like to post these long lists of recommendations, but these are really all top notch!

x2 on Xhol Caravan

No no, nerdy diatribes are the lifeblood of this forum, so good job.

I feel like I need to correct myself. In my earlier post you could read as if I didn't like Can, but this is of course not the case! Can is by far my favourite of all krautrock acts (as seems to be the case for many people on here).

Yeah, that's why I've always thought the term "krautrock" sucks monkey balls.
We never called it that back in those days. It took a smartass UK music critic to soil it.
That's why I just assume that people are talking about underground German rock from the 60s/70s.
Good added extra bands there BTW.

Some really cool motifs, but they milk them to death. Reminded me of Tubular Bells in a lot of places.

Thanks for this. I get it. My post was somewhat in jest.

"PLEASE BREAK DOWN HARD ROCK FOR ME".

Just getting the Can album Future Days out of this has made it 100% worthwhile. I got into some of the other stuff posted but not enough to want to listen again.

My post was in no way meant to be condescending, I don't understand if you took it that way(?). I was genuinely trying to break it down to you.

No worries at all mate! I totally get where you are coming from.

If by "milk them to death" you mean "make a great, chilled out album", I agree.

Wait, Mal Waldron in Embryo!?

I wanted to rec this one to Chula, but I couldn't remember what it was called. You threw it at me a couple months ago. Good stuff.

Yup. Beginning in ‘70 and off and on until ‘89. There were always some solid players in that band:
regulars as well as guests like Charlie Mariano and Trilok Gurtu ...

Fair enough. Just wished there were a few more bends in the road now and then.

Digging the **** out of this! Thanks.