April 2004 - Kraftwerk - mailman.xmission.com

Read this review... find the bug...
by Jose 05 May '04

05 May '04

http://www.overloadmedia.co.uk/archives/book_reviews/i_was_a_robot.php

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Kraftwerk for the masses (or Spain III)
by Jose 30 Apr '04

30 Apr '04

Kraftwerk confirmed on BenicassimÂ´s famous indie/fashion festival. http://fiberfib.com/www/index_cartel.php?sec=1&bot=8&sub=1&lan=es

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Seattle review
by Soleil Lapierre 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

I went to Monday night's Kraftwerk concert at the Paramount in Seattle. Here's my thoughts and some details I noticed. Keep in mind that not only is this the first time I've seen Kraftwerk live, but I've never been to this sort of concert before - only to operas and small venues (ie, bars and clubs). Two friends came with me. We arrived half an hour early. I bought a programme ($10 USD) and one of my friends bought the red Man-Machine T-shirt ($20 USD). The other friend asked a security goon about cameras and learned that although film cameras and video cameras were forbidden, digital cameras were OK. He made tracks back to the hotel room to get his digicam. I overheard someone say that (I presume it was) members of Kraftwerk were doing autographs at Tower Records earlier that day. If true, I wish I had known about it. I was on the right side of the balcony, about the 15th row from the edge of the balcony, but it's a steep incline so my view was pretty good. I could see the whole stage and screen, though two of the video projectors hanging down slightly overlapped the screen. It was *LOUD*. I was wishing I hadn't cleaned the wax out of my ears that morning. :) I also think the sound quality wasn't very good. The bass was huge and the high-end treble was tooth-shattering, but there was no midrange. The melodic parts were barely audible in some songs. I noticed some people on the list talking about the speaker tower arrangements. At this show there were four identical speakers on each side of the stage. They were sand-colored, mounted on poles anchored to the edge of the stage, and weren't rectangular - seen from the top, the front panel would have a chevron-like point in the middle. These speakers were used for most of the show. I think they're semi-permanent fixtures of the Paramount. On the stage, off to the sides, there were two pair of large black rectangular speakers. I think these ones were used during The Robots, as the sound volume was much lower but the quality was better. When the curtain closed on the first round of tracks, I heard the first sound of The Robots come from the main speakers, but then it cut out. It seemed to take them forever to set up the robots, and I think they were having technical problems. When the curtains opened, the robots started dancing and the video started playing, but there was no sound for the first couple of bars. I guess something got accidentally disconnected when the robots were set up. The main speakers were back on after the robots were taken off stage. I was really impressed with the wireframe suits. They looked much better in person than in the photos I've seen. Very Tron. Though you can see where Florian has put on a pound or two. :) I also liked the ties with the moving LEDs displays, and the colored stage lighting. The Musique Non Stop ending was very appropriate. As for the video accompanyment: At first I thought the theme was to present video that was contemporary with the time each song was written. I rather enjoyed the old footage for the two TdF tracks, Autobahn, The Model and TEE. But later I realized that most of the footage was probably older than the songs, judging by the car body styles. Now I'm not sure what to make of it. While I know I could make a better backdrop video myself, I won't complain because I figure there must be some intent behind the choice of simple, low-tech visuals. Personal taste: I was disappointed that they played Autobahn, but I suppose it was inevitable. The live aspects did make it a little more tolerable. I also thought the Expo track didn't really fit in, and its video was poorly done and repetitive. I also found the tree-hugging message at the start of Radioactivity annoying, but I knew it was coming and the song was good as always. Performances: I periodically looked at each member through a monocular. Ralf was playing most of the melodies on a small keyboard, singing most of the lyrics and singing some of the vocoded parts too. He kept raising his hand to his mouth when singing, I guess to make it clear something was going on. :) Florian didn't seem to be doing much at all. A little melodic playing and a little singing, and it looked like he was doing some mouse work. Maybe controlling the video presentation? Henning (I'm assuming he's the shorter, older guy who has hair) had a small mixing board and spent most of his time fiddling with the sliders. The young fellow I'm assuming is Fritz wasn't doing much, but I think he had something to do with rhythm and sequencing. I noticed a few small performance glitches: A bad fade here, a mistimed note there. Very, very few errors though - an amazingly perfect performance. During the long break while the robots were set up, there was continuous applause and cheering. Many people in the audience lit up their cell phone, PDA and camera screens and started waving them around - it was like a swarm of giant blue fireflies. My friend with the digital camera started recording video as soon as the show started, but he got mugged by a security goon after a few minutes. "Hey, no video cameras!" <click> "It's not a video camera. Here, look at it." (Goon spends a long time pawing at the camera, then gives it back.) "OK, but still photos only." A while later they accosted him again even though he really was only taking stills, and after that there was a goon standing near him for the whole rest of the show. Sooner or later these folks are going to realize that almost all digital cameras can record video, and that will be a dark day indeed for concert-goers. :( As for the articles people have been mentioning: I haven't read them yet, but they sound funny. Black and red, political? Sure, some Nazi flags may have been in those colors, but so were a lot of other things. Those are just the Man-Machine colors and a trademark of Kraftwerk as far as I'm concerned. As for political loading of the concert, the only thing I can think of would be the message before Radioactivity. Methinks some reporters are looking a little too hard for politics these days. Anyway, despite all my little gripes it was a great konzert and my friends and I really enjoyed it. I'm glad I went, and if Kraftwerk are ever in this region again I'll try to see them again. -- /* Soleil */

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Avantgarde and Technology/Kraftwerk & influence
by twingo 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

from the TADream mailinglist: /twingo @ http://twingokraftwerk.com -----Original Message----- From: amon_dueuel_2 [mailto:andreas-michael.klein@t-online.de] Sent: Tuesday, 27 April 2004 11:30 To: tadream(a)yahoogroups.com Subject: [tadream] Re: Avantgarde and Technology/Kraftwerk & influence Kraftwerk's first "Techno"-album was "Trans Europe Express" in 1977. Talking about Detroit, here's an excerpt from http://www.sci.fi/~phinnweb/krautrock/mojo-kraftwerk.html: Most amazing of all, it's undoubtedly true that without this whitest of white groups, the history of black music in America would have been completely different. When Afrika Bambaataa took Kraftwerk's 'Trans-Europe Express' and 'Numbers' and combined them to form 'Planet Rock', he set in train (sic) a movement which, as the rappers say, just don't stop: not only was this effectively the birth of hip hop culture, but in Detroit young black kids like Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Carl Craig fed on Kraftwerk's hypnotic rhythms and developed what later became known as techno. In Britain, meanwhile, late '70s industrialists such as The Human League and Cabaret Voltaire built on Kraftwerk's breakthroughs, taking the sequenced-synthesizer sound to the furthest reaches of, respectively, pop's heartland and rock's avant- garde. And here is an excerpt from "A Brief History of Techno", see http://www.gridface.com/features/a_brief_history_of_techno.php Techno as we know it started with the German band Kraftwerk. In 1970, Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter began to churn out innovative electronic pop hits. In the United States Kraftwerk did not go unnoticed. In the early '80s a trio of pioneers in Detroit began merging the sounds of Kraftwerk with funk. Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson combined synthesizer beats with basslines inspired by Parliament, George Clinton, and Funkadelic. In 1983 Atkins and Richard Davies, aka 3070, released the hit "Techno City" under the name Cybotron. "Techno" was born. Andreas-Michael --- In tadream(a)yahoogroups.com, "Glenn Folkvord $Hyperion Media$" <glenn@f...> wrote: > If you think techno music came about just because of Kraftwerk, you are > forgetting the whole electro-scene and everything happening in Detroit and > with black music in the late 70s. And the Japanese band YMO coined the > "techno" term about this kind of music before Kraftwerk did, their 1981 > album Technodelic comes to mind. > > Glenn

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Interview
by Alex Brega 27 Apr '04

27 Apr '04

And why no interviewer would ask to Ralf if Airwaves and Tribal will be officially released or not ? I think it should be a very interesting question. Alex nicolabrega(a)libero.it _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Remastered goodies
by MuzikJunky 27 Apr '04

27 Apr '04

Will EMI distribute the entire KW oeuvre--including the pre-"Autobahn" recordings-- as a single box, as individual albums, or both? Or will it be a self-distributed affair? *wipes tears from eyes* Peace.

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first three albums also remastered?
by Geert Lemmens 27 Apr '04

27 Apr '04

Today i heard on the Belgian radio (Studio Brussel) the following statement: "all albums, including the hard to find first three albums will be made available again". Does anyone have more information about this? g -------------------- Reporter: Who ends up with the most chicks after the show, you or your android? Ralf: Oh, that's a secret. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs

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Cologne Recording
by DJM 25 Apr '04

25 Apr '04

I am still looking for recordings of the Cologne-conerts 27/3/04 Does anyone have a recording? Got much too trade

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1981
by Alex Brega 25 Apr '04

25 Apr '04

I'm searching for complete/uncomplete video recordings of Kraftwerk live in 1981. I know that a guy from USA or Canada owns a 30 min. 8mm. recording of Bologna 1981 : I tried to contact him more than a time,having no results. Alex nicolabrega(a)libero.it _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Autobahn dts
by DJM 24 Apr '04

24 Apr '04

Does anyone have a copy of the Autobahn DTS-CD for trade?

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