Crafty Kraftwerk
November 22nd, 2007 by Roo Reynolds
bsag (”but she’s a girl”) mentioned this on Twitter this evening: a documentary about Kraftwerk (MP3).
Russell shared the ‘Who Likes Techno’ documentary recently, and since then I’ve been wanting to hear a lot more about the history of Kraftwerk. (plus I’ve always liked Marc ‘Lard’ Riley), so this documentary is perfect. And who couldn’t use more avant-garde-electro history in their life?
Photo from Stuck in Customs on Flickr. It’s a photo of a German power station (or, ‘Kraftwerk’, as the locals call them).
November 24th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
It seems a bit weird having shows about Techno and Kraftwerk on R4 doesn’t it? But when you think about it, the station’s management is probably all about my age (mid-forties) or older. My generation’s in charge now!
Demographically they’re probably all children of the post-war meritocratic bubble. Punks or wannabes. People who got their shapeless overcoats from Oxfam and slotted Kraftwerk in alongside the post-punks we read about in the NME.
I saw them in 1980-ish at the Hammersmith Palais (I don’t think it was the Odeon. Or maybe it was The Lyceum). I think of it as an important part of my musical education. I don’t think I’ve ever got over the jaw-dropping realisation that the band had left the stage and the wardrobe-sized computers were in charge for the rest of the gig.