Kraftwerk

At the weekend I managed to get my grubby hobbit mitts on the new Kraftwerk live cd called ‘Minimum-Maximum’. I’ve loved Kraftwerk since my late teens and it would seem after a couple of days of quick market research of friends and work associates that most people have heard of them but sadly not much material by them. Kraftwerk are a German band that’s been around since the early 1970’s that use experimental sounds, synths and keyboards to create songs – basically they’ve always been way ahead of their time. Even their early stuff such as Autobahn still sounds very fresh and modern and never out of place. I guess my fave Kraftwerk item would be a 12” version of ‘Neon light’s’ that is on white vinyl and if you hold it under the lights then play it in the dark it glows. Today Kraftwerk are still going strong and occasionally do a few gigs, their main haunt over here seems to be the Brixton academy. From the bits I’ve seen of them live their gigs look something special albeit surreal, something worth seeing that’s for sure. Its hard to know how to describe Kraftwerk to the uninitiated at times, Electronica, Synth, Robotica etc but I guess they are unique in their own right. If you try Kraftwerk and like them then look out for Tangerine Dream too, another German band very much like them who’ve done things from porn backing music to film soundtracks.