Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Shimrra Jamaane
Aug 10, 2007

Obscure to all except those well-versed in Yuuzhan Vong lore.
I was tempted to make a joke about how this is the worst thing Germany has ever done but goddamn I just dont have it in me.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Tsinava
Nov 15, 2009

by Ralp
it inspired rammstein, which is also bad music.

Lowtechs
Jan 12, 2001
Grimey Drawer
Kraftwerk is the sounds your parents made when they had sex and conceived you.

Kelfeftaf
Sep 9, 2011
Autobahn is fun. Haven't really heard anything else by them.

Vordhosbn
Aug 7, 2008

Kraftwerk is awesome and good.

Lowtechs
Jan 12, 2001
Grimey Drawer
So your birth is the worst thing your parents have done.

Tsinava
Nov 15, 2009

by Ralp
here's some good industrial music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUxoughdYto

Minimum Syntaxing
Oct 29, 2008

He looks white, but he's the son of a black man!
I don't understand how someone can hate Kraftwerk once they find out that it's the music from this gem.

LifeSizePotato
Mar 3, 2005

i can take them in small doses but that motorik beat gets old pretty fast

Xaris
Jul 25, 2006

Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

I was tempted to make a joke about how this is the worst thing Germany has ever done but goddamn I just dont have it in me.

LESTER BANGS loving OWNS

Some skeezix from one of the local dailies was up here the other day to do a “human interest” story on the phenomenon you’re holding in your hands, and naturally our beneficent publisher hauled me into his office to answer this fish’s edition of the perennial: “Where is rock going?”

“It’s being taken over by the Germans and the machines,” I unhesitatingly answered. And this I believe to my funky soul. Everybody has been hearing about “krautrock”, and the stupnagling success of Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” is more than just the latest evidence in support of the case for Teutonic raillery, more than just a record, it is an indictment. An indictment of all those who would resist the bloodless iron will and order of the ineluctable dawn of the Machine Age.

THEY USED TO CALL CHUCK BERRY A “GUITAR MECHANIC” (at least I heard a Moody Blues fan say that once).
Why? Because any idiot could play his lines. Which, as we have all known since the prehistory of punk rock, is the very beauty of them. But think: If any idiot can play them, why not eliminate such genetic mistakes altogether, punch “Johnny B. Goode” into a Computer printout, and let the machines do it in total passive acquiescence to the Cybernetic Inevitable?

As is well known, it was the Germans who invented methamphetamine, which of all accessible tools has brought human beings within the dosest twitch of machinehood, and without methamphetamine we would never have had such high plasma marks of the counterculture as Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” Blue Cheer, Cream, and Creem [T]he Reich never died, it just reincarnated in American archetypes ground out by hollow-eyed, jerky-fingered mannikins locked into their typewriters and guitars like rhinoceroses copulating….

But there is more to the Cybernetic Inevitable than this sont of methanasia. There are, in the words of the Poet, “machines of loving grace.” There is, hovering dean far from the bumt metal reek of exploded stars, the intricate balm of Kraftwerk….
When was the last time you heard a German band go galloping oft at 965 MPH hot on the heels of oblivion? No, they realize that the ultimate power is exercised calmly, whether it’s Can with their endless rotary connections, Tangerine Dream plumbing the sargassan depths, or Kraftwerk sailing airlocked down the Autobahn.


In the beginning there was feedback: the machines speaking on their own, answering their supposed masters with shrieks ot misalliance. Gradually, the humans learned to control the feedback, or thought they did, and the next step was the introduction of more highly refined forms of distortion and antificial sound, in the form of the synthesizer, which the human beings also sought to control.
In the music of Kraftwerk, and bands like them present and to come, we see at last the fitting culmination of this revolution, as the machines not merely overpower and play the human beings but absorb them, until the scientist and his technology, having developed a higher consciousness of its own, are one and the same.

Kraftwerk, whose name means power plant, have a word for this ecstatic congress: Menschmaschine, which translates as “man-machine.” I am conversing with Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, coleaders of Kraftwerk….

“I think the synthesizer is very responsive to a person,” says Ralf, whose boyish visage is somewhat less severe than that of Florian, who looks, as a friend put it, “like he could build a computer or push a button and blow up half the world with the same amount of emotion.” “lt’s referred to as cold machinery,” Ralf continues, “but as soon as you put a different person in the synthesizer, it’s very responsive to the different vibrations. l think it’s much more sensitive than a traditional instrument like a guitar.

I asked Hütter if a synthesizer could tell what kind of person you are and he replied: “Yes. lt’s like an acoustic mirror.” I remarked that the next logical step would be for the machines to play you. He nodded: “Yes. We do this. lt’s like a robot thing, when it gets up to a certain stage. lt starts playing…it’s no longer you and I, it’s lt. Not all machines have this consciousness, however. Some machines are just limited to onepiece of work, but complex machines…
“The whole complex we use,” continues Florian, referring to the Equipment and headquarters in…Düsseldorf, “can be regarded as one machine, even though it is divided into different pieces.” Induding, of course, the human beings within….

I told them that I considered their music rather anti-emotional, and Florian quietly and patiently explained that “,emotion’ is a strange word. There is a cold emotion and other emotion, both equally valid. lt’s not body emotion, it’s mental emotion. We like to ignore the audience while we play, and take all our concentration into the music. We are very much interested in origin of music. the source of music. The pure sound is something we would very much like to achieve.”

They have been chasing the p.s.’s tail tor quite a while. Setting out to be electronic classical composers in the Stockhausen tradition, they grew up listening on the one hand to late-night broadcasts of electronic music, on the other to the American Pop music imported via radio and TV-especially the Beach Boys who were a heavy influence, as 5 obvious from ‘Autobahn’, although “we are not aiming so much for the music, it’s the psychological structure of someone like the Beach Boys.” They met at a musical academy, began in 1970 to set up their own studio, “and started working on the music, building equipment,” for the eventual rearmament of their fatherland.

“After the war,” explains Ralf, “German entertainment was destroyed. The German people were robbed of their culture, putting an American head on it. I think we are the first generation born after the war to shake this off, and know where to feel American music and where to feel ourselves. We are the first German group to record in our own language, use our electronic background, and create a Central European identity for ourselves.

So you see another group like Tangerine Dream, although they are German they have an English name, so they create onstage an Anglo-American identity, which we completely deny.
We want the whole world to know our background. We cannot deny we are from Germany, because the German mentality, which is more advanced, will always be a part of our behavior. We create out of the German language, the mother language, which is very’ mechanical, we use as the basic structure ot our music. Also the machines, from the industries of Germany.”

As tor the machines taking over, all the better. “We use tapes, prerecorded. and we play tapes also in our performance. When we recorded on TV we were not allowed to play the tape as a part of the performance, because the musicians union felt that they would be put out of work. But I think just the opposite: With better machines, you will be able to do better work, and you will be able to spend your time on energies on a higher level.
“We don’t need a choir,” adds Florian. “We just turn this key, and there’s the choir.”
I wondered aloud if they would like to see it get to the point of electrodes in the brain so that whatever they thought would come through a loudspeaker.
“Yes,” enthused Ralf, “this would be fantastic.”
The final solution to the music problem, I suggested.”
“No, not the solution. The next step.”

lonesomedwarf
Mar 22, 2010

shut up

Throwdini
Aug 2, 2006

Fartmaster posted:

I don't understand how someone can hate Kraftwerk once they find out that it's the music from this gem.

sounds like music from some off-brand ps1 jrpg

LifeSizePotato
Mar 3, 2005

good krautrock song that doesn't wear out the motorik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VswPaZIuYI

Vordhosbn
Aug 7, 2008

It's more fun to compute.

Kelfeftaf
Sep 9, 2011

Xaris posted:

[T]he Reich never died, it just reincarnated in American archetypes ground out by hollow-eyed, jerky-fingered mannikins locked into their typewriters and guitars like rhinoceroses copulating….


What?

Xaris
Jul 25, 2006

Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry
its true

(also lester bangs was actually really good, if you get the chance, read Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic)

his writing is pretty much all like that

Fuck Your Website
Nov 29, 2003
FUCK YOU, AND FUCK YOUR WEBSITE
Some people even like arcade fire music, so there's no accounting for taste

Really though

Ratios and Tendency
Apr 23, 2010

:swoon: MURALI :swoon:


Neu! were better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHrpxuXNY1U

china bot
Sep 7, 2014

you listen HERE pal
SAY GOODBYE TO TELEPHONE SEX
Plaster Town Cop
At least give this song a shot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBybJGZoCU

Robbie Fowler
May 31, 2011
hey funboys get a room

Incredulous Dylan
Oct 22, 2004

Fun Shoe
I just listened to that Neu! stuff and they were really fun. Thanks for the vids!

Alan Smithee
Jan 4, 2005


A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...
OP listen to a glockenspiel by putting it to your head and pulling the trigger

Rubellavator
Aug 16, 2007


both catchy and completely unlistenable

Kombotron
Aug 11, 2011

Tsinava posted:

it inspired rammstein, which is also bad music.

ur musical tastes are poor

Tsinava
Nov 15, 2009

by Ralp
here's another great kraftwerk song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImHuiYnVQ0

Tsinava
Nov 15, 2009

by Ralp

Kombotron posted:

ur musical tastes are poor

*sprays custard out of a dildo off of the stage into ur face*

Waltzing Along
Jun 14, 2008

There's only one
Human race
Many faces
Everybody belongs here
The good thing about Kraftwerk is they ...

Um...

I guess they were pioneers of the electronic music age. But if you compare them to early DM or New Order, they are basically crap.

Of course the reason early DM is so good is because of Vince Clarke. Martin Gore is a fucktard.

scrub lover
Apr 22, 2005
they're good op

Xaris
Jul 25, 2006

Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

Waltzing Along posted:

Of course the reason early DM is so good is because of Vince Clarke.
Wrongest thing ever said :colbert:

Vince Clarke was really bad then and Speak and Spell was a pretty bad album (though not as bad as their latest ~3-4 albums). Once Clarke was gone, DM got really loving good. Songs of Faith and Devotion, Music for the Masses, and Violator are all loving ace. Though Clarke worked well in Yazoo

Gore is pretty bad though. Once Fletcher left, DM went to poo poo.

shiksa
Nov 9, 2009

i went to one of these wrestling shows and it was... honestly? frickin boring. i wanna see ricky! i want to see his gold chains and respect for the ftw lifestyle
skrillex is better imho

Waltzing Along
Jun 14, 2008

There's only one
Human race
Many faces
Everybody belongs here

Xaris posted:

Wrongest thing ever said :colbert:

Vince Clarke was really bad then and Speak and Spell was a pretty bad album (though not as bad as their latest ~3-4 albums). Once Clarke was gone, DM got really loving good. Songs of Faith and Devotion, Music for the Masses, and Violator are all loving ace. Though Clarke worked well in Yazoo

Gore is pretty bad though. Once Fletcher left, DM went to poo poo.

...and Erasure?

DM had a nice run up till Violator after Clarke left, but they were at their best with him. He added light to their music.

Xaris
Jul 25, 2006

Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

Waltzing Along posted:

...and Erasure?

DM had a nice run up till Violator after Clarke left, but they were at their best with him. He added light to their music.
Okay, fine. Erasure too.

Clarke only worked with them on the first album, Speak and Spell. He had nothing to do with Violator. Case in point, they immediately got better after S&S. And his lightness was really terrible in S&S.

i.e. this is what DM started as
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POv7ewDhWpk
and would have continued with him lol

I'd also say Songs of Faith and Devotion was as good as Violator, and it was even better as a whole. There's not a single bad or even mediocre song on that.

Xaris fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Sep 24, 2014

BrutalistMcDonalds
Oct 4, 2012


Lipstick Apathy
my geiger counter is detecting radioactive levels of shittiness in this thread.

my pocket calculator determines a 100 percent probability this thread will go to the gas chamber.

Elukka
Feb 18, 2011

For All Mankind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69xUOO9Dyus

This is my first musical memory in life from my time as babby.

Kombotron
Aug 11, 2011

Tsinava posted:

*sprays custard out of a dildo off of the stage into ur face*

but the pyrotekniks man and leather bound skimpy bitches

also twinks

its got everything for everyone.

Dr. Witherbone
Nov 1, 2010

CHEESE LOOKS ON IN
DESPAIR BUT ALSO WITH
AN ERECTION
by pressing down a special key, it plays a little melody

Salt Fish
Sep 11, 2003

Cybernetic Crumb
Computer World was ahead of its time by like 20 years at least.

Doctor Dogballs
Apr 1, 2007

driving the fuck truck from hand land to pound town without stopping at suction station


computer world is a great record and pocket calculator is one of my favorite songs ever, no matter which language it's in. the versions from minimum-maximum are particularly good.

jBrereton
May 30, 2013
Grimey Drawer
Often overrated music which is allegedly Important, op.

Some of their stuff is good, some of it isn't. Any time Florian takes his flute out, great things happen (ich bin schwul usw.)

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

voodoo dog
Jun 6, 2001

Gun Saliva
Stop posting about Kraftwerk, this thread is about Kratwerk.

  • Locked thread