Kraftwerk

Business, numbers, money, people
Business, numbers, money, people
Computer world
Computer world

^ best lyric they ever wrote.

― everything, Wednesday, September 23, 2015 8:14 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The lyrics to that track are superior in German, I think.

And if there's not a direct line from that to "Genetic Engineering" OMD, I say wo.

yeah, Computer World is one of the cases where the German being much more explicit provides a different context for the song which makes it way, way better.

I'm sure I've told this story before (if not on ILX then elsewhere) about Computer World was the first Kraftwerk album that anyone ever sat me down and made me listen to in full. In about 1989? And I HAAAAAAAAAAATED IT. I thought it was absolutely terrible, and the person who recommended it to me was mystified as to why I hadn't liked it because it seemed so completely something I'd like.

The truth being, that in 1989, I was working on a giant project to digitise and computerise fingerprint records for the criminal justice system. And realising that I hated that record, because I just felt like "this shit is MY JOB! That I HATE! I don't want to hear songs about it!" But now, I'm like... "wow, that record was so prescient in predicting in 1981, things that would be happening in 1989." and also "Yes! Here are songs about my life as a data analyst, Ralfie and Flori, you know how I feel, ILU ILU ILU!" because I'm a lot more reconciled to my profession than I was then.

Yeah, that's not so far off for me, except that it was more that other people were "lol this is your life isn't it? You computer people are all like THIS right?"

This was not true at the time, but hey! All you people that do internet/twitter/facebook - This is YOUR life now lol isn't it?

(Which isn't true either, but hey.)

3D show was amazing. The most genuine fun I've experienced at a show in a while.

so what kind of German accent *is* it that pronounces "für dich und mich" as "for dish und mish"?

Is that what they mean by their Düsseldorf accent making them sound as comical as Brummies?

i thought it was a pretty great show -- one of the highlights was actually the extensive tour de france section, a record that's never really been in my regular rotation. my only complaint would be that i thought the sound was a bit quiet...but then, my ears are kinda scorched from playing too many shows. oh, and a totally ratchet group of ladies behind us who were shushed a couple times, then left halfway through. i don't think they knew why they were there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i feel pretty fortunate to have seen kraftwerk (2015), michael rother, and roedelius all live! i was thinking about that while walking out of the show, probably looked like this :)))))))))))

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/c75efb58c1249076bea1bc6481805f586d710430/c=46-0-755-533&r=x513&c=680x510/local/-/media/2015/10/06/DetroitFreePress/DetroitFreePress/635797297958699315-kraftwerk72.jpg

http://www.freep.com/picture-gallery/entertainment/2015/10/06/kraftwerk-at-mocad-with-derrick-may-kevin-saunderson-juan-atkins/73449996/

hell yeah

I saw them in Boston last weekend, they were terrific. Granted, I'm not sure they weren't just surfing Facebook or something, but it all looked and sounded great.

This one has sound (and Ralf being adorable but I didn't say that):

https://instagram.com/p/8e80asC7ML/

at work but double hell yeah

New. Music. From. Florian.

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/28760/1/kraftwerk-s-co-founder-made-this-track-to-save-the-oceans

That is all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ

http://www.amimono.tokyo/#!%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A9%E3%83%95%E3%83%88%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%20%E3%82%BB%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC/zoom/o1ymj/dataItem-ik628o391

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0d5114_81db68b678194db9b7021713c338528d.jpg/v1/fill/w_1020,h_946,al_c,q_90/0d5114_81db68b678194db9b7021713c338528d.jpg

#!%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A9%E3%83%95%E3%83%88%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%20%E3%82%BB%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC

Is that the knitting pattern?

URL encoded utf8 by the look of it. It's a Japanese website and the path is in Japanese. If you look there are groups of 3 bytes all starting with e3, each of these groups is a character.

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/30af/index.htm for instance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AmMnFk3imI

Great video.

Would it have killed them to film Florian more. :(

wow, that is the highest quality transfer I have ever seen of the 1981 TV live special. if anyone comes across the rest of that in the same HD quality, please post back here, you can finally even see the shape of the switches & all their gear clearly

not HD, in fact terrible quality, but someone heard my prayer and filmed Florian chatting about synthesisers for 10 minutes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBs0lx0ghgo

http://dangerousminds.net/home/dangerou/dangerousminds.net/html/content/uploads/images/made/chrootcontent/uploads/images/MTQwMjM4MzE0OTA4MTY1MzUy_465_302_int.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsanborn/sets/72157660043445738/

good tim jonze interview with ralf here:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/15/kraftwerk-ralf-hutter-music-about-intensity-the-rest-is-just-noise

We meet on the eve of the general election, and so, to break the ice, I tell him how, ever since the leaders debates in 2010, pictures of UK politicians stood sombrely at lecterns have come to be labelled by online wits as the “worst Kraftwerk gig ever”. Curious, Hütter looks at a picture on my phone of a besuited Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron, and nods in agreement: “Because there’s only three of them,” he says. “One missing.”

looooool

oh my god no that cannot be real

kraftwerk's deadpan humour is one of my favourite things about them

i loled hard when i read that part of the interview this morning... glad to find someone posted it here.

I liked this part too

Did it surprise Hütter when black audiences in New York and Detroit took it to their hearts and used it as a building block for hip-hop and techno?

“Yes and no,” he says. “Because I have white and black keys on my piano.”

to say i am buzzed to the max re tomorrow would be an understatement ...

Has Ralf been listening to 'Ebony and Ivory'? :D

By the way, one thing I noticed in the CD box set is: Every track has very specific credits for words, music, every individual. Not seen that before..

finally caved and bought the new CD boxset. it's quite good, the versions on discs 1-6 are more different than the originals (and The Mix) than I expected. kinda cool to see them rearranging the tracks and grouping the similar stuff together, i.e. the "Franz Schubert/Europe Endless" medley. I do think some of the magic is lost but they still sound great. new versions of "Airwaves" and "Antenna" are excellent. plus they turn "Telephone Call" into a real jam and just forego the vocals entirely. I'm on Disc 7 (the 3-D headphone version of "The Mix") and it's giving me a headache. Haven't heard the Tour de France disc yet, can't imagine it's much different though. still, worth the 40 bucks.

they turn "Telephone Call" into a real jam and just forego the vocals entirely

Anything to do with the fact that Karl Bartos sang it originally? And Ralf didn't like his vocal either - too emotional.

yeah that's probably exactly the reason.

funny to hear a 70 year-old Hutter sing "Sex Object". what a strange tune that is.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09g0m2q

HCMF40 (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival - Radio 3)

The programme features music from the arch-experimentalist ensemble zeitkratzer and their tribute to the iconic German band Kraftwerk, with live performances of numbers from their critically acclaimed albums "Kraftwerk" and "Kraftwerk 2".

(disclaimer, i haven't listened to this yet)

lol

https://www.facebook.com/slonkdoinks/photos/a.168057427228648.1073741829.167602750607449/176822806352110/?type=3&theater

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIbSkw4yvec

they turn "Telephone Call" into a real jam

The "3-D" version of Music Non Stop rules. That track is so much about the control of the digital effects that it's ripe for these software updates. They do a thing towards the end where the bass rises an octave and it's going through a phaser and some nice delay and then they drop the sub bass back in followed by the rising synth choirs. It's such an obvious tech house move but done with class and a wink.

I barely ever listen to Electric Café but when I saw them live "Music Non Stop" was probably the highlight of the whole performance

Same (on the Minimum Maximum tour)

I don't think I've seen this anywhere else... Really nice recording from Ottawa 1975. The dude has kindly included a FLAC download in the comments, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIT3naKlyWI&

Sweet.

Brilliant, thanks for the heads up.

Just gone up on D1me too, saying it's a different date and venue -

The Garden Auditorium (The Gardens)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
May 7th, 1975

Notes on the show:

An incredible find that only just recently came to light after sitting for some 45 years. This comes courtesy of J.T. who got it from Saul Smaizys. If that name sounds familiar, he interviewed Ralf & Florian in April of 1975 on WXRT radio in Chicago for an article he would later write from that interview. In talking with those in the Kraftwerk community, we have deduced that this show is from Vancouver. Should further details come to light, I will update. Of particular interest is the very WEIRD intro to Kometenmelodie I. Ralf & Karl have a slight improv jam on vibes & the Vako Orchestron's "Vocal Choir." Sadly this tape suffers from lots of hiss and what sounds like radio bleed-through from another station

Thanks! Listening now!

this is great. fidelity not quite as high as the Denver / Concert Classics boot but good enough and it might be a better performance -- and, this one is the complete show. probably my favorite 'Kling Klang' straight out

fun to hear them introduce 'Ruckzuck' with 'this is a song about trains' and then afterwards say 'that was the Trans Canada Express'. the jam in the middle hasn't quite turned into 'Metal On Metal' yet but it's definitely now about trains! on the late 1975 shows they'd replaced the flute entirely with Orchestron and Minimoog, and the 'Ruckzuck' flute opening played on the Orchestron string patch literally becomes the eventual studio version of T.E.E. good examples of that on Croydon & Brighton, if you never get bored of 70's KW boots

i'm having a hard time being enthusiastic about kraftwerk after hearing green gartside tell a story in an interview in which he recounts one of them saying that they hate reggae.