Kraftwerk : Song by Song

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Darkness_Fish
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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby Darkness_Fish » 04 Jun 2018, 12:19

gash on ignore wrote:Congratulations Darkness_Fish on this, your 51st let’s moan about The Beatles post!

Here’s to 51 more x

I believe you've missed a fair couple of hundred that could be taken into consideration, m'lud.

*Edit: And to be fair, I don't moan about The Beatles, I don't give a stuff about them - apart from my absolute hatred of any post-Beatles McCartney work - I moan about people who are supposedly music fans, who have such limited imaginations/wit/interests as to think of nothing else in 60-odd years of popular music history to discuss. But that's a slight digression.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby joklend » 16 Jun 2018, 02:24

Keep posting!

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ConnyOlivetti
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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 16 Jun 2018, 08:20

joklend wrote:Keep posting!

Indeed!
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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby KeithPratt » 27 Sep 2018, 20:15



Metal on Metal



Abzug

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 28 Sep 2018, 11:25

Great! Just love Metal on metal!
Charlie O. wrote:I think Coan and Googa are right.


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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby KeithPratt » 03 Oct 2018, 09:23



Franz Schubert / Endless Endless

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 04 Oct 2018, 06:50

A lovely ending to a great album for sure!
Charlie O. wrote:I think Coan and Googa are right.


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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby KeithPratt » 14 Oct 2018, 10:35

Image

The Man Machine

Released : May 1978

Concept By [Album Konzept], Producer [Produktion] – Florian Schneider, Ralf Hutter*
Electronic Drums [Elektronisches Schlagzeug] – Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur*
Engineer [Toningenieur] – Joschko Rudas, Leanard Jackson
Graphics [Grafik Inspired By El Lissitzky] – Karl Klefisch
Photography By [Fotos] – Günter Fröhling
Voice [Stimme], Electronics [Elektronik] – Florian Schneider, Ralf Hutter*

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby KeithPratt » 14 Oct 2018, 10:36



Die Roboter

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby KeithPratt » 14 Oct 2018, 10:44

This is a great little essay on Kraftwerk from Momus back in 1999, when Kraftwerk were very much more mysterious than they are now.

http://imomus.com/thought010899.html

It's not surprising that one of their most characteristic albums, The Man Machine, should have been inspired by the Contructivists, those artists of the early Soviet state who truly believed the 1917 revolution would lead to a utopian fusion of man and machine.


Listen to just a few seconds of The Robots. The verse ('We're functioning automatic / And we are dancing mechanic') establishes the dominant key then drops a third for the chorus ('We are the robots' plus a catchy little melodic hook). Then the song goes rather unexpectedly to an intermediate chord -- ominous, transitional yet sustained -- in which the title is repeated in various languages, most notably Russian. (And what other band sounds so international, so neutrally relativist, so global?) This time there's a little rhythmic trope which illustrates the end of the vocal line with an atonal and futuristic sequence of bleeps.

There are all sorts of people (Autechre, Mouse on Mars) who seem to be in the tradition of Kraftwerk. But although they sometimes hit on brilliant rhythms and sounds, these groups never seem to aspire to, let alone match, the conceptual simplicity of Kraftwerk. Their music seems to stab randomly at atmospheres, whereas Kraftwerk songs have the magnificent simplicity of facts.

How do Kraftwerk manage to arrange everything with such perfect symmetry? Why is it so hard to imagine remixing or rearranging The Robots and making it more powerful?

Put it down to Feng Shui. Kraftwerk were a pop group in a three dimensional space where the energy flowed correctly. Everything was in its correct place, everything added to their status and to the power of the work. And that's because they started from basic principles and worked down. The group's image on the sleeve is integral to the meaning of the album, and all of a piece with the way they choose to proceed in the studio. They haven't copied other groups but have (in a modest but dogged way) gone back to the drawing board and designed all their instruments from scratch.

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 15 Oct 2018, 07:49

Toby wrote:This is a great little essay on Kraftwerk from Momus back in 1999, when Kraftwerk were very much more mysterious than they are now.

http://imomus.com/thought010899.html



Interesting! Thanks! Great read!

the last album to feature Wolfgang Flür on electronic drums!?
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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 03 Nov 2018, 12:41

Bump! Boing! Boom! Tschak!
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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 08 Dec 2018, 11:31

X
Charlie O. wrote:I think Coan and Googa are right.


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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby C » 14 Feb 2021, 18:21

KeithPratt wrote:

Wellenlänge


Wonderful




.
Lord Rother wrote:And there was me thinking you'd say "Fair enough, you have a point Bob".

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby KeithPratt » 15 Feb 2021, 14:55



The Model.

It reached No.1 in the UK in 1982, 4 years after its release and remains, arguably, their most famous pop song. If I'm honest, I've never warmed to it, although I don't dislike it either - I prefer the German language version, translated below.



She's a model and she's good-looking
I'd love to take her home with me today
She seems so cool, no one would ever get at her
But it's in front of the camera that she shows what she can do

She always drinks sparkling wine at nightclubs - right
And she's already sized up all the men in here
Her young smile shining in the spotlight,
She's good-looking and beauty gets paid.

She displays herself for the consumer product,
Millions of eyes watching her.
Her new cover picture is just marvellous
I need to see her again, I think she made it



However, as a "pop song" it showcases Kraftwerk at perhaps their most efficient.

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby C » 15 Feb 2021, 15:42

KeithPratt wrote:

The Model.

However, as a "pop song" it showcases Kraftwerk at perhaps their most efficient.


Indeed it does Toby my learned friend

Indeed it does





This is my favourite 'single'



Again, Kraftwerk always sound better when sung in German but this will have to do

Seminally robust Mr Frith

Robustly seminal





.
Lord Rother wrote:And there was me thinking you'd say "Fair enough, you have a point Bob".

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby KeithPratt » 16 Feb 2021, 15:30



Spacelab.

I guess this is the moment Kraftwerk, taking fellow Teuton Moroder's lead, branched out into the world of a quickly codifying dance music scene driven by arpeggios and pulsing synthesizers. I've always loved this track, right from the first time I started to listening to them. In the context of the album, I guess it represents a sort of 'achievement" in terms of the Man Machine aesthetic. And from 2012 or so they started playing it live. A proper smasher.

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Re: Kraftwerk : Song by Song

Postby C » 16 Feb 2021, 15:35

KeithPratt wrote:A proper smasher.


Not 'arf lad

Not 'arf!





Another delightful single from 1974 - their second



oooof!







.
Lord Rother wrote:And there was me thinking you'd say "Fair enough, you have a point Bob".


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