Since its birth in March 2013 this long, loud and anarchic night has provided a space for disciplined hedonism and indulgent improvisation of a strictly kaleidoscopic order. Krautrock Karaoke is as indulgent and unabashed as the progressive music of 1970s Germany or Karaoke. Except it contends with impossibility and failure on altogether higher plane than words on a screen and local Neil Diamonds. It’s freeform and collective, and the backing track is replaced by bands that come together, change and fall apart spontaneously on the night, with musicians, curious people drawn in from the street, hell even a contestant from The Voice joining in as and when they please.

Contributions have ranged from regular favourite ‘Hallogallo’ by Neu! to all-electronic covers of Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ and ‘Neon Lights’; from rarities, Can outtakes, early Amon Duul, and “Fur Immer” by NEU! played by Wire’s Colin Newman, to a brain-flattening two-bass rendition of Les Rallizes Denudes’ ‘Night of the Assassins’ by members of Clout and Bo Ningen at March’s Vol.8. The Velvet Underground’s ‘Sister Ray’ gets brought out from time to time.

There are laws but they exist only in spirit. And there is a process, which is more or less the same each time:
- Musicians are contacted to see who is around on the night and an ‘event’ is made to which people are invited over Facebook
- Attendees post their favourite Krautrock numbers to the event’s wall
- This makes, incidentally, a great and edifying playlist for the fortnight leading up
- The songs are subject to a Goddamn Popularity Contest. The most-clicked entries ar listed and performed on the night.

The players have a look at what the audience have said they’d like to hear the night before, turn up an hour before stage time, indicate what they’d like to play the night and form loose groups. The playlist is distorted and reimagined and in reality each night is a glorious catastrophe with dilated moments of true inspiration. The inhibitions of the audience are sent into a delirious nosedive in something that resembles the scenes in apocolyxploitation movies where animals pre-empt disaster. It’s filmed for posterity and there are DJs when the live music stops at 11pm, with what happens between then and a 3 or 5am curfew remaining largely obscure.

Past musicians have included:
• Michael Rother(NEU,HARMONIA)
• Damo Suzuki(CAN)
• Jean-Hervé Péron(Faust)
• Laetitia Sadier(StereoLab,Monade)
• Stella Mozgawa(WARPAINT)
• Geraldine Swayne(Faust)
• Colin Newman (WIRE)
• Matthew Simms( WIRE)
• Ryan Molly(Frankie goes to hollywood)
• Jowe Head(Swell Maps,Television Personalities,Infernal Contraption)
• Jon Klein(Specimen,Siouxsie and the Banshees)
• David Wrench
• Tom Furse(The Horrors)
• Maxim Barron(TOY)
• Jono Ma(Jagwar Ma)
• Serafina Steer
• Satomi Matsuzaki(DEERHOOF)
• Lias Saudi(Fat White Family)