Good recording ofAutobahn live by Kraftwerk.

///Never realized that Kraftwerk was just four guys on keys/synths. How cool is that?

Will have to pull out the old Kraftwerk records.

Ha ha! Even he hates Radiohead!

Wait... There's no mention of Radiohead in that article dumbmitter.

...and is immediately replaced by:

Bondidude: Ha ha! Even he hates Radiohead!

Wait... There's no mention of Radiohead in that article dumbmitter.

you fail for not reading yesterday's link about Kraftwerk opening for Radiohead.


hang your head in shame. Now.

FeedTheCollapse: you fail for not reading yesterday's link about Kraftwerk opening for Radiohead.


hang your head in shame. Now.

It doesn't say specifically he left for that reason though. It could have been the final nail in the coffin, but it sounds like he's not been happy for years and didn't tour with them in 2008 either.

/correlation does not imply causation

Bondidude: It doesn't say specifically he left for that reason though. It could have been the final nail in the coffin, but it sounds like he's not been happy for years and didn't tour with them in 2008 either.

/correlation does not imply causation

you're on Fark and snark goes over your head?

OH OH OH OH OH, OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH, OH OH, OH OH.

shiat, wrong band. I read that as Kernkraft.

Where's the HERO tag when you need it?

Marisyana: Where's the HERO tag when you need it?

A hero for leaving the group? Or a hero for hating Radiohead?

Nevermind, you're an idiot either way.

As long as they still play the Dancentrum in Stuttgart.

Oh wait, his quitting had nothing to do with Radiohead.

It's nice that we can all read here.

i don't blame him. radiohead sucks balls.

strongbadd: Oh wait, his quitting had nothing to do with Radiohead.

It's nice that we can all read here.

Hello, welcome to Fark, where Snark reigns supreme.


/is it touchy-feely radiohead fanboy day?

FeedTheCollapse: /is it touchy-feely radiohead fanboy day?

It's a day ending in a 'y', right? Of course it is!

Bob Ondeeznuts: shiat, wrong band. I read that as Kernkraft.

Okay, I lawled, nice job.

strongbadd; Bondidude

It was a joke. Thankfully, FeedTheCollapse got it. Go back and listen to In Rainbows; I'm sure it will make everything alright.

/Subby
//Hates Radiohead

#1 fan

The English Major: It was a joke. Thankfully, FeedTheCollapse got it. Go back and listen to In Rainbows

hey hey now, I like Radiohead. But unlike seemingly a vast majority of Radiohead fans, I have a sense of humor.


I will now go on to say that Kraftwerk was pretty damn over-rated and done better by other musicians that came before them.

I'd be torn. Sure I'd hate to have to spend months having to hear Radiohead nightly.... but I bet it would be good money.

Even the greatest stars dislike themselves in the looking glass.

www.kraftwerk.com
Link (new window)

you had better have a look

totaly worth it

FeedTheCollapse
The English Major: It was a joke. Thankfully, FeedTheCollapse got it. Go back and listen to In Rainbows

hey hey now, I like Radiohead. But unlike seemingly a vast majority of Radiohead fans, I have a sense of humor.


I will now go on to say that Kraftwerk was pretty damn over-rated and done better by other musicians that came before them.

Myself, I own OK Computer and Kid A. I have one Kraftwerk song (The Model) on my computer.
That said, my musical tastes are weird as fark.
So yes, I know I manufactured the headline, but that's why I tagged it as a follow up.

AspectRatio: ...and is immediately replaced by:

Wasn't his sister in Herbie Hancock's 'Rockit' video?

Lipspinach: Marisyana: Where's the HERO tag when you need it?

A hero for leaving the group? Or a hero for hating Radiohead?

Nevermind, you're an idiot either way.

Seriously? That was the best you could come up with? Are you old enough to drink yet?

FeedTheCollapse: The English Major: It was a joke. Thankfully, FeedTheCollapse got it. Go back and listen to In Rainbows

hey hey now, I like Radiohead. But unlike seemingly a vast majority of Radiohead fans, I have a sense of humor.


I will now go on to say that Kraftwerk was pretty damn over-rated and done better by .

Kraftwerk put out "Trans Europe Express" in 1977. Link (new window)
Who are these "other musicians that came before them" that you speak of? Kraftwerk were years ahead of every electronic band that followed them.

/Your favorite band sucks.
//Their favorite band is Radiohead.
///Loves Kraftwerk and Radiohead.

Where's the HERO tag when you need it?

He hates Radiohead so much, he quit his band of 35+ years rather than spend a second touring with them.

Everyone should follow Florian Schneider's example. That's not just the mark of a Hero. That's the mark of the best humanity has to offer.

FREDIOHEAD: Who are these "other musicians that came before them" that you speak of? Kraftwerk were years ahead of every electronic band that followed them.

Cluster and Tangerine Dream. Not overly familiar with both, but what I have heard was better, and a lot less dated, than what little I've heard of Kraftwerk. Didn't care much for Autobahn and the flipside of the album sounds like it was composed on Playskool's My First Synthesizer compared to Tangerine Dream's Phaedra album.

notmtwain: Good recording ofAutobahn live by Kraftwerk.

Sorry but that was farking terrible.

FeedTheCollapse: Cluster and Tangerine Dream. Not overly familiar with both, but what I have heard was better, and a lot less dated, than what little I've heard of Kraftwerk. Didn't care much for Autobahn and the flipside of the album sounds like it was composed on Playskool's My First Synthesizer compared to Tangerine Dream's Phaedra album.

Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk are apples and oranges. Cluster probably isn't what you think they are. A quick search on YouTube will show you that they don't play instruments. I'm assuming that this is the Cluster your talking about.
Kraftwerk actually did use some toy synthesizers. They also custom made several instruments. Link (new window) This page details what they have used through the years.

FeedTheCollapse: Cluster and Tangerine Dream. Not overly familiar with both, but what I have heard was better,

Tangerine Dream were Krautrock/Ambient music, an entirely different genre than what Kraftwerk were doing. They were using electronic instruments as textures, and building long, drawling soundscapes out of them (Pink Floyd was doing similar things with Echoes).

If Kraftwerk did one thing better than all the electronic pioneers of the time, it was percussion. They were impeccable percussionists; they built their own electronic drumkits a decade before the first drum machines would hit the market. Their attention to detail was expertly employed -- not in sonic texture and melody like Tangerine Dream was doing -- but rather in the rhythm and grooves of the drum tracks.

First and foremost, Kraftwerk were trying to capture the machine sounds of every day, urban industrial living. Automotive factories, factory presses, washers and dryers, and the unrelenting grinding yawn of a futuristic society increasingly dominated by technology. The fact that they always passed themselves off as unemotional robots in their live shows was part of that.

It is for this reason that their music stands out, ahead of Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, Floyd, Wendy Carlos, and all the rest of their contemporaries who were trying to make lovely sounding music with electronic instruments. Kraftwerk weren't interested in lovely-sounding electronic music. They were interested in the unrelenting, repetitive rhythms that everyday machines make.

Such it was, that their music caught the attention of funk musicians and producers in the states. Their track, Numbers, has been sampled thousands of times. Afrika Bambaataa took the Numbers break, and the strings of Trans-Europe Express, and came out with Planet Rock, one of the most influential tracks of all time. From this, we can say that Kraftwerk were pretty much either the inspiration or the progenitors of techno, electro, freestyle, hip hop, and about 20 other electronic music genres created in their wake.

Overrated? ....hardly. Kraftwerk stands, alongside the Beatles and James Brown, as one of the most influential musicians of the last half of the 20th century, and probably the second most sampled artist in history (after James Brown).

FREDIOHEAD: Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk are apples and oranges.

I was comparing them more with the "spacier" side of Autobahn. Phaedra is a much better form of that were I thought the second half of Autobahn was pretty bad.


not sure which Cluster you're thinking of, but what little I could find on youtube clearly shows them (or has pictures of them) playing insutrments. Cluster '71

For examples of genius Kraftwerk percussion:

Trans-Europe Express
The chugging percussion is copied from the common sound heard on tracks after a train has passed.

Metal on Metal
Actually the back-half of Trans-Europe Express. Clanging metal, anvils, and factory presses. Industrial music starts here, before the goths and rivetheads ruined it.

Home Computer
Techno music starts here, before it got confused with crappy rave music. For some reason, Juan Atkins saw something funky in the unrelenting beeps, tweets, zaps and bips in this track, and used it as the raw workbench for the future of Detroit Techno. The hallmark is the climbing scale. It has been sampled to death (Miss Elliot recently used it -- or rather, she sampled Cybotron (aka Atkins), who sampled it).

Numbers
What the hell?! How did this throwaway track from their Computer World LP in 1981 launch an entire cultural movement?! This is the beginning of electro. This is the beginning of break-dancing. This is the origin of b boy culture, a simple ode to Numbers Stations. That's all it is. It's just a groove, and a computer voice counting in various languages. But something about that groove....next to the Amen Break, it is probably the most sampled break in history.

Neon Lights
Just to prove that Kraftwerk aren't all about the groove, here is them doing the same thing with synths. The first half of the song is kinda dodgy, but somewhere after all the singing, around about the midpoint of the song (skip forward to the 3:00 mark), something magical happens: The synth goes on an extended solo, and the last half of the song is an infectious hook of intertwining melodies, predating the trippy, melodious skipping of trance by nearly a decade. I challenge you to not start tapping your fingers to it.

There's more, but this is a good start on who Kraftwerk were and what they meant to western music in the past 25 years.

Saw Kraftwerk at Coachella in 2004 and they were incredible. Radiohead was headlining (I love Radiohead in the Bends/OK Computer period, not so much after that) and my friend and I left Radiohead early to get a spot for Kraftwerk in the small-ass tent they were in. We were right by the soundboard and by the time Kraftwerk came on, that place was so packed you couldn't move. Awesome sound, awesome visuals.

Best of luck in your future endeavors, Mr. Schneider.

FeedTheCollapse: not sure which Cluster you're thinking of, but what little I could find on youtube clearly shows them (or has pictures of them) playing insutrments. Cluster '71

I was hoping the Cluster I found was the wrong Cluster. It was Link (new window)

Since Ishkur basically summed up my thoughts about the difference between Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream and then did a complete biography on Kraftwerk, All I can say is "Yeah, what he said."

LewDux: Zodiac (Shows a band playing and people dancing)

I sometimes feel uncomfortable when white people dance. Should I feel that way? Is that bad?

"Are they dancing to the words or the beat?"

Obscure?