Kraftwerk sightings

werkians

And the Show in NYC the other week was a treat.
No openers , no DJ's

Thought i would miss Karl and Wolfgang but , no

that new kraftwerk collection is garnering rave reviews.

is it really worth checking out?

on that last record they did (the one UR did the mix for) they suddenly sounded incredibly flat. they joy of their records up to and especially including computer world is the punch and click (muso friends say its in the gating) the deep silence between the clicks and whirrs.

they started to sound a bit less dynamic as early as electric cafe (maybe thats unfair "boing_BOOM_tchak")

i suppose they feel duty bound to use new bland tech these days.....

It's a live greatest hits really Matt. the sound on it is collosal though - and the four vinyl packaging is glorious.

I am surprised how much play I am giving my copy, considering I have the majority of their albums in both English and German!

boom boom

Haven't heard the new Live release ,
but had been living off a Live @ The Tempodrome recording found on Japanese fansite.

re: that deep silence in between the sounds .
Yes, can be gating but it's also that they have always used custom built gear that delivered more punch,
now they are probably 24 bit blah, blah, blah and all the tech just makes for more punch amid the digitized silence.
The first notes of "Expo 2000" live in concert got audience shouting - not so often in a pop concert you actually hear people react to the quality of the sounds they are hearing.

yeah saw them 2 weeks ago here in LA. fantastic. so simple, so powerful. it is ironic that the message of Kraftwerk's music and show is that it's NOT about technology. but more about bold messages and story telling and human ingenuity. I mean those stupid robots with arms that don't even bend are so fucking cool. and it if was some high tech shit like Aibo or whatever it would not have nearly the same impact. and the music is ofcourse very simple and low-tech compared to the programming focused techno of today. and it's so effective and affective.

and I love the anti-symbol at the end of Autobahn, the NO SMOKING slash circle around the Autobahn graphic, demonstrating that they are definitely environmentally conscious.

I do wish they were more prolific...

The Minimum-Maximum set was apparently half-speed mastered at Metropolis and is simply stunning on vinyl.
Just be careful to make sure you get flat pressings, especially Disc 1 as there seem to be QC issues at the pressing plant.
Whatever, it's a kolossal, perfekt sound.

jomina said:

The Minimum-Maximum set was apparently half-speed mastered at Metropolis and is simply stunning on vinyl.
Just be careful to make sure you get flat pressings, especially Disc 1 as there seem to be QC issues at the pressing plant.
Whatever, it's a kolossal, perfekt sound.

Click to expand...

This is playing alot at the office im workin in at the moment.

I just absolutely fucking love it. It ISNT quite as punchy as Computer World, maybe a bit more glacial, but nonetheless stunning. Damn they sound fresh, and doesnt age seem to suit them? Its almost as though everything they stand for, the classical, the elegant, the cool, the frosty hauteur more perfectly suits (boom boom) them now. Even the unfamilair tracks are great,.

Contrast their demeanour with that of The Rolling Stones, who get more ragged sorry and ridikulous with each passing year.

absolutely woebot. a few years ago when I heard that they were getting back together a part of me was very much afraid that it was going to be an embarassing effort to recapture the glory days, like so many other re-unions. but all of my fears were alleviated 30 seconds into the new album; my faith rekindled and I felt silly for ever doubting: of COURSE kraftwerk would stay true and deliver. was there ever any other options? it just makes me happy

turns out i was listening to this:



i thought that was some old rehash when it came out. i remember seeing it on the wall thinking, oh tour de france, got that, got the francois k mix. yawn.

bloody hell it was a whole new record!!! and a masterpiece to boot.

kraftwerk. DAMN! nobody does it better. OK the mix was a bit iffy (had their karma messed with by Detroit) but over ten years later Detroit is practically history (may land me in trouble that 'un) but Kraftwerk are still doing amazing shit. if i'd known this would have been one of my top 5 records that year. just lovely.

i reckon it has to do with the fact that they were the first to really grasp the semiotic properties of what they were doing. the whole idea of human automation at its most simple. Detroit's dancefloor automation its a less crystalline less perfectly encapsulated idea. furthermore lots of people who make electronic music these days dont know the fuck why theyre making it. its only because they can lay their hands on cheap electronic instruments.

i'd love to hand out with ralf and florian. thatd be the fucking greatest. id be super polite to them. i bet theyre absolutely loaded and incredibly suave. hot dang kraftwerk we love you.

'human automation at its most simple'- yeah that's what is so poignant about them...nostalgia for a future that didn't arrive (but so was the paris commune, get me?)- even in the 70s they were more el lissitsky (or bach!) than they were tonto's exploding head band or something. the man-machine as the bicycle, not the SUV

i love 'tour de france soundtracks', so pretty and crystalline...so then this live thing is good, then?

WOEBOT said:

turns out i was listening to this:

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Tour de France is superb. Muscular minimalism of the nu-old skool. I also love the campy teuton French accents: They know *exactly* what they are doing.
Anyway, if you like that, you will just lurve this:


Although you need the 4LP box set, and to be appropriately geeky, the German one at that

i reckon it has to do with the fact that they were the first to really grasp the semiotic properties of what they were doing. the whole idea of human automation at its most simple

Click to expand...

Yes. I think that is true. It has been a process, though.

owen said:

so then this live thing is good, then?

Click to expand...

they are an anomaly, the one exception to the rule when it comes to live performance: I usually detest bands that sound exactly like their records on stage. why not just play the god damn CD then? when I go to a show I want to see improvisation and spontaneous interpretations of their music... a 4 minute number becoming a 15 minute jam? great. so that ideally, no 2 shows are the same.

all of this goes flying out the window when it comes to Kraftwerk. they do everything live (well, that 4th guy wasn't doing much at all, most of the time just standing there) and make it sound EXACTLY like the recorded material. they are so exact that every show they do has the EXACT same order of songs (saw a live in Paris DVD, and the track listing is 100% the same as the show I saw in LA)

and when you see the show you are just ecstatic that it sounds so perfect.

with them this strategy makes perfect sense. it fits with the conceptual framewerk. but I can't imagine anyone else doing this successfully.

All songs don't sound exactly the same live as they do on record. The older tunes sounded better live in my ears
(Brixton last year) (cut&paste from a piece written after the gig in Brixton a year ago on Autobahn):
Their pre-78 stuff simply sounds better live than on record (and The Mix was disappointing).