The great pleasure in the clip above is not necessarily the music, but rather the bewildered faces of the German kids in the audience. Take a close look—most seem deeply unsure of how to react, yet still fully aware that they’re bearing witness to an early flicker of greatness. I wish I could dig something up regarding Kraftwerk’s view on blowing so many young Teutonic minds, but they’re pretty much the opposite of loquacious. Seriously, you ever read an interview with a member of Kraftwerk? Those man-machines are only slightly less reticent than J.D. Salinger.
jackal // Nov 11, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Well. I’m not sure you’ll get much from the horses’ mouths, but have you seen ‘Kraftwerk and the electronic revolution’? Pretty interesting documentary, and draws the link from Stockhausen in the 40s/50s down to Afrika Bambaataa and modern pop-music in general. I’m always blown away by how much of Trans-Europe Express still sounds utterly modern and contemporary..
Don’t recall the men-machine becoming any more scrutable after viewing the documentary though.. (and perhaps that’s for the best)
Brendan I. Koerner // Nov 12, 2010 at 10:50 am
@jackal: Thanks for the tip. Saved it to the Netflix queue, though it doesn’t look like there’s any word on when (or if) it will become available. Hopefully it will arrive more quickly than Streetwise, for which I’ve been waiting since roughly 2006.
Thought the Kraftwerk guys may not be warm and fuzzy, I have boundless admiration for their work ethic. Gotta love any band that took an extended sabbatical so that its founders could work on becoming semi-pro cyclists:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/19/kraftwerk-hutter-manchester-international