Kraftwerk: Pop Art


Kraftwerk: Pop Art

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Transcript


LineFromTo

# It's more fun to compute

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# It's more fun to compute

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# I program my home computer

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# Beam myself into the future

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# I program my home computer

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# Beam myself into the future... #

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'The comment that Kraftwerk are more influential, more important,'

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more beautiful than the Beatles could ever be

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is becoming less and less odd

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and more and more exactly what we always thought it would be -

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the truth.

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In the late '60s and early '70s,

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when Kraftwerk were striving to find a new artistic voice

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in the pop-cultural vacuum of post-war Germany,

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few would have predicted that these reclusive Rhineland experimentalists

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would become one of the most influential pop groups of all time.

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But that is exactly what happened.

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Painting on a refreshingly blank canvas, they created

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emotional electronic music that fused commercial pop

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with the Avant Garde, an industrial folk music

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with global appeal that predicted what music would sound like

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and the world would look like in the Digital Age.

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Kraftwerk's influence has grown with every passing year and now,

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45 years later, they've been embraced by the art world,

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their Gesamtkunstwerk celebrated in elaborate 3D concert seasons

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at iconic art spaces in New York, Dusseldorf, London,

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Sydney and Tokyo.

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The most apt of these events took place in the former

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power station at London's Tate Modern.

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Eight nights sold out in minutes,

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with ticket demand crashing the servers, and the public

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and critical hysteria confirming their status as a work of art.

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With over 100,000 disappointed fans stuck outside in the cold,

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our cameras were invited in by the group to capture world-exclusive

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impressions of their sensational show for this film -

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Kraftwerk - Pop Art.

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Putting them in a gallery or a museum is utterly appropriate,

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because they are, in a way, living sculptures, they are an installation.

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They are an installation that involves a commentary on pop music,

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a commentary on show business.

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But that's not all that it is. What it is mostly

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is a fascinating comment on reproduction, on what

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happens to a work of art when it becomes a mass-produced object.

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It's got all those elements in it.

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Just the whole aesthetic completely fits, not only the space -

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the power station, turbine hall of Tate Modern - but they've

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influenced so many visual artists that we've worked with.

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It's sort of a consecration to actually be allowed in

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the inner sanctum of curated art,

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because it's an admission that what they do is actually timeless

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enough and representative enough of our culture that it

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should really merge with, say, visual works, for the most part.

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The next thing that comes in to the Tate Modern is Roy Lichtenstein

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and that's the world where they belong.

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They've had that much an impact on cultural thought,

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on people making art, on musicians making art.

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They are beyond just playing a venue.

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Marc Camille Chaimowicz,

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an artist who is in our Bigger Splash exhibition

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at the moment, has used their music and been inspired by them.

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Mark Leckey, who won the Turner Prize a few years ago,

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also cites them as an influence.

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Michael Clark, the choreographer,

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who has always worked across disciplines, loves their music.

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There are many. I mean, so many artists wanted tickets

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to come and see them here.

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# Interpol and Deutsche Bank

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# FBI and Scotland Yard

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# CIA and KGB

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# Control the data memory

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# Business

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# Numbers

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# Money

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# People

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# Business

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# Numbers

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# Money

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# People

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# Interpol and Deutsche Bank

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# FBI and Scotland Yard

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# CIA and KGB

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# Control the data memory

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# Communication. #

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Kraftwerk's show actually is a real show,

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but it doesn't rely on the cliches.

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There's something about the standing still that's very

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fascinating as well, as a distillation of performance,

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because the corny movements in rock, the holding of the guitar

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that way, the thrusting of the groin that way, the shaking of the head

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and the swirling of the microphone is ultimately ridiculous and

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monotonous and pointless, that I'd rather think, I think,

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in the end, see the distillation to the stillness,

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with all that going on around them.

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But it is performance, you know, and it is transfixing.

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That was a really important thing for us,

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was the visual aspect of what they're doing,

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which is becoming more and more important for them.

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And they've put so much work into the visual 3D show as part of this.

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It took years to make it work properly,

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to make the robots work, to make all those things work.

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The technology has come to the point where it can get better and better.

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So it's a show, it's a concept that can continue to develop.

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I think that's what drives them, I think the fascination of how

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far they can go with that technology.

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Kraftwerk came into being when Ralf Hutter met Florian Schneider

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on an improvised-music course at Dusseldorf Conservatory in 1968.

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Early incarnations of the band included a live drummer

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and a guitarist who went on to form Neu!

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But in the flourishing

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German music scene of the day, the band with which they had most

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in common were classically-inspired electro experimentalists, CAN.

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The two acts jammed together at an art gallery,

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and their first official concert together was a freeform,

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televised youth show from a youth club in Unna in 1970,

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before Kraftwerk had released a single album.

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SHE SCREAMS

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The influential British rock press lumped together the many and various

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German bands of that era under a quirky title that gave no hint

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of how revered and influential many of them would be in decades to come.

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There's this whole movement of, you know,

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the Krautrock, or whatever they used to call it,

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between Guru Guru, Ash Ra Tempel, Neu!, Faust, CAN and all that.

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And I was into all that back in those days.

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It was a very different view of that German music.

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For various reasons it was given a slightly affectionate,

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patronising name, the Krautrock thing.

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RAW ROCK MUSIC

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They still seemed to come out of the

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Interstellar Overdrive end of Pink Floyd.

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They still seemed hippy. They still seemed not what they became.

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We obviously filter the whole idea of Kraftwerk now

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through what they've become.

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But there were a few years where they were not yet that

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and they were becoming it. They were always "becoming".

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ENGINE REVS

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# Autobahn... #

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The first impact with Kraftwerk was I guess, for me, seeing the sleeve

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to Autobahn, because that was a revelation, in a way.

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Because then they'd distilled lots of things down to just

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a kind of impression of something

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and seemed, suddenly, very modern.

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# Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn

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# Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn. #

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Kraftwerk finally crystallised conceptually in 1974 on Autobahn,

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their fourth album.

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The majestic 22-minute title track, featuring lyrics for the first time,

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was a disco hit in America, and the sleeve's simple modernist graphics

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signalled a clear visual identity that Ralf and Florian

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were developing with art school collaborator Emil Schult.

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Design guru Neville Brody, now a lecturer at the Royal College of Art

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in London, was the most influential graphic designer of the 1980s.

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His role as art director of style bible The Face magazine,

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began with his 1982 layout of a Kraftwerk interview.

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He remembers the impact of their visuals most clearly.

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Autobahn is an interesting example where the record cover

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becomes something far more semiotic,

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it's a sign that's being transposed from one purpose to another.

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And it's sort of saying that pop music doesn't necessarily have to be

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self-referential any more.

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It can look at other ideas in society.

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Most of their work on covers

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revolved around using themselves as part of their own brand image

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and not taking it too seriously.

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The cover of Trans Europe Express

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was a subversive slap in the face of rock chic.

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In the year of punk, Hollywood black-and-white glamour

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photos show the group in pseudo-period settings

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and poses, while Emil Schult's affectionately kitschy colour

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poster has them looking like city gents out for Sunday lunch

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in a country restaurant, a diamante music-note brooch on Florian's lapel

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the only indication that they are not, in fact, chartered accountants.

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# We are showroom dummies... #

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They started to build a connection between Dadaism,

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constructivism and modern music.

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The Man Machine sleeve that Kraftwerk did was very much

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influenced by the look and feel of Russian constructivism

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and it was born out of the idea that the future would be

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built by engineers and scientists, and that, in fact, our faith

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in engineering was what was going to bring us to Utopia.

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So, it was a kind of Utopian idea.

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It was extremely experimental.

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It was a lot of angles,

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very strong typography, which eventually ended up

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in a kind of a Bauhaus space,

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which then influenced everything we do.

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Constructivism was very engaging, it was very powerful.

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And the prime influence within constructivism

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was a man called Alexander Rodchenko.

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And the Kraftwerk covers, at the early stages,

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very much related to a kind of Rodchenko way of looking.

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So there was a kind of heroic workers' ethic.

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The workers were also going to help build the future, the strong use

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of red and black which were, of course, the Communist colours...

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Red and black were also the colours of a lot of

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fascistic movements within the 20th century.

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So Kraftwerk were playing on that middle ground, to be honest -

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you know, where does heroics become self-defeating?

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So something that's democratic becomes dictatorial.

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The scope of the way of thinking that Kraftwerk had within

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record covers was quite radical.

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It actually lead, I think,

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to a lot of, certainly the early punk covers

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and the early New Wave covers.

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Factory Records were clearly influenced by this,

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as was the early work of Malcolm Garrett.

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So you have Autobahn as this very simplistic statement.

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Autobahn was radical at the time.

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There was no other record covers like this.

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Autobahn won Kraftwerk new fans, like Rainer Werner Fassbinder

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and David Bowie, the latter touring Europe in a vintage Mercedes

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playing Autobahn non-stop

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and telling everyone that Kraftwerk were his favourite band, an act

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of patronage that forever changed their status with the rock press.

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David Bowie, in the '70s, was like your Google search at the time.

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Whatever David Bowie mentioned was therefore where you went.

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Bowie had altered his trajectory

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explicitly because of Kraftwerk,

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and that was an incredible, almost

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an advertising campaign for Kraftwerk, if you like.

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A commercial endorsement

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and a sense that we now all

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wanted to find out the history

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of this incredible group that had

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influenced the most extraordinary

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period of David Bowie's life.

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# ..Radiophone... #

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RADIO STATIC

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To leave the daytime free for cycling,

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Kraftwerk worked night shifts, clocking in at their legendary

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Dusseldorf Kling Klang Studio like workers at a sound factory.

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The albums they produced there sounded like nobody else,

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partly because they had challenged technicians to develop new

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instruments for them, equipment not available to anyone else.

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And the yearning, romantic beauty of the music

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they created with that equipment shattered the strongly held

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misconception of electronic music as emotionally frigid.

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Ideologically, the wood of the blues

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and therefore rock was where authenticity lay.

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And somehow, there was still, which is weird,

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a troubled response to machines.

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There was somehow soul in holding a wooden piece of instrument

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and somehow soullessness in having a machine.

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But I always felt that it was almost the opposite, that it emphasised

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and framed and illuminated the soul that was in Kraftwerk.

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That tenderness, that real humanity.

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Because they were prepared to deal with machines

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and use machines to distribute their ideas and information.

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They were extraordinary geniuses at melody

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and it was the melody that ultimately carried through the soul.

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Kraftwerk weren't the first, but we consider them to be the first,

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to understand the potential of electronic machines

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and the studio itself and the combination of the two things,

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to really create popular music.

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And of course, everything that happened

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since Kraftwerk has been a continuation of that.

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You take, say, their closest rivals in terms of iconic presence,

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we would say the Beatles.

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Well, the Beatles don't really influence anyone.

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They influence Elton John and George Michael and

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Take That and maybe ELO, at a pinch.

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But they don't really influence anything.

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It's almost like that was a juddering halt already, to an extent.

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Whereas Kraftwerk constantly release information.

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They influence the Avant-Garde end,

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the area that went way out

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and even all the way up to glitch and it all started to disintegrate

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and even the harder, stranger areas of dubstep.

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But you also hear it in Kylie Minogue and the popular mainstream.

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You hear the ghost of Kraftwerk everywhere.

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And that's another wonderful element of Kraftwerk,

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they haunt the imagination,

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they haunt the world.

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As the light goes out now and you look out, you kind of see

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a visual representation of the sound of Kraftwerk.

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You know, for me, the soundtrack you would use to represent this

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is going to be Kraftwerk.

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# Neon lights

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# Shimmering neon lights

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# And at the fall of night

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# This city's made of light

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# Neon lights

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# Shimmering neon lights

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# And at the fall of night

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# This city's made of light. #

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Kraftwerk's nerdy commitment to freshness meant they'd

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produced some wonderful sounds.

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Kraftwerk were the poets of that, in a way.

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Exquisite novelty in what sound could do and be

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and how seductive it could be.

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Kraftwerk's genius, in a way, was not just giving it the rhythm

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that then consoled people, and they understood that it was

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attractive because there was this wonderful rhythm -

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but they also applied beautiful melodic sense,

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that wasn't just an understanding of melody within popular music

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or rock music but an understanding of melody that went back centuries.

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And in that sense, I always felt that they were classical musicians

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whose genius was to understand that popular music

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and the way it used the studio was actually where

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the new developments were taking place in music.

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Kraftwerk understood that the studio was as important an instrument

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and an arrival of an instrument as the piano was in Mozart's time.

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We're not only looking at one of the seminal acts in the history

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of electronic music, but, you could say,

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arguably one of the most powerful,

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inspiring ones and therefore probably one of the most likely

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to become as legendary

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as Mozart and Bach,

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some of those composers

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whose work and music we still revere hundreds of years later.

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I see that now. Undoubtedly.

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Without any reservation.

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# Trans Europa Express. #

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Trans Europe Express,

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a mighty groove that emerged from a jam session like a train

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crashing through the studio, saw the percussive hardening

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of their sound, and became a pivotal record in the birth of DJ culture.

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Trans Europe Express was the only record that Grandmaster Flash

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would play uninterrupted and, visiting a loft club in New York,

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Kraftwerk were amazed and pleased to hear the DJ playing

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an extended loop of Metal On Metal, exactly as they would in the studio.

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# Rendezvous auf den Champs Elysees

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# Verlass Paris am Morgen mit dem TEE

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# Trans Europa Express

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# Trans Europa Express. #

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Soon, their unique sounds began to resurface,

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dismembered and out of context, all over the place, forming a recurrent

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theme in every regional black American dance scene from DC Go-Go

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to Detroit techno, until eventually these stiff Germans became the

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most improbably influential white act in the history of dance music.

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What was fantastic about that is, first of all,

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all the white music that borrowed

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so liberally from black music didn't give anything back.

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Kraftwerk sort of...have basically, on behalf of the entire white world,

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handed back some of the debt that is owed to black music.

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Giving so much that white music nicked -

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rock and roll and everything that came

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nicked so much, and it was a dreadful form of cultural colonisation,

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and Kraftwerk in a sort of rather sweet, liberal way, have given back.

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BOOGIE MUSIC PLAYS

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Having spent his teen years listening to

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Krautrock in Strasbourg, Francois Kevorkian moved to New York

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in the mid-'70s, where he got a job drumming alongside DJs in a bar.

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He went on to become one of the most popular underground DJs in America,

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and one of the busiest remixers of the 1980s,

0:29:040:29:07

working with everyone from cult dance legends like D Train

0:29:070:29:11

and Dinosaur L to chart titans U2 and Depeche Mode.

0:29:110:29:14

Francois K was the first creative outsider to penetrate

0:29:150:29:19

Kraftwerk's inner circle, becoming their house mixer.

0:29:190:29:22

Years earlier, he had witnessed their extraordinary impact

0:29:220:29:25

on dance culture first-hand.

0:29:250:29:26

I think the amazing thing about Kraftwerk is how multicultural

0:29:310:29:35

they are, how easily all that music translated to black audiences.

0:29:350:29:40

They just got it, like that.

0:29:400:29:42

Those in New York that started to hear these strange records

0:29:420:29:45

coming over from Germany in the mid-'70s

0:29:450:29:49

probably saw their city and heard their city in this music

0:29:490:29:52

as much as any other music they were listening to.

0:29:520:29:55

Because it was so beautifully rigid and repetitive,

0:29:550:29:59

therefore it was so wonderfully rhythmic.

0:29:590:30:02

And the idea that you could replace the drummer with a machine,

0:30:020:30:07

but the machine would give you this incredible

0:30:070:30:10

insight into the mobility of funk...

0:30:100:30:13

It was that stiff that it was funky. It was like a linear.

0:30:130:30:18

It was almost like an EKG for the hospital.

0:30:190:30:22

It was like...

0:30:220:30:23

HE IMITATES AN EKG MACHINE

0:30:230:30:25

And it was like, "That shit is cool."

0:30:280:30:31

It was so clean, it was so exact

0:30:310:30:35

and so perfect that it had to be funky.

0:30:350:30:39

And to see these dudes, these straight-laced white dudes,

0:30:390:30:44

wearing these ties and these green shirts and green pants

0:30:440:30:48

and this whole androgynous look.

0:30:480:30:50

It was stiff, but it was funky.

0:30:500:30:54

It was just enough of this in the middle of THIS to make it work.

0:30:540:31:01

Trans Europe Express was so funky!

0:31:010:31:03

Just like in a big sound system and all that

0:31:080:31:11

and that metal sounds and all.

0:31:110:31:14

It was just, like, bugged out!

0:31:140:31:15

People were like, "Yo, man, I'm tripping! What's this?!"

0:31:150:31:20

MUSIC: Trans Europe Express

0:31:200:31:24

All these crowds grooving to Trans Europe Express in the summer of

0:31:380:31:41

1977, right next to Barry White and Marvin Gaye and Salsoul Orchestra.

0:31:410:31:47

You know, and to these people, to that crowd,

0:31:480:31:52

no-one ever questioned it.

0:31:520:31:54

I mean, people were like, "Wow, that thing you're playing, that's weird,

0:31:540:31:58

"man, what's that?"

0:31:580:31:59

But they loved it.

0:31:590:32:01

And I think even more so with Computer World.

0:32:010:32:06

Where, you know, obviously, Numbers was just like...

0:32:060:32:10

When Numbers came out, it was just like, forget it.

0:32:100:32:12

I mean, like, wow!

0:32:120:32:14

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht

0:32:140:32:21

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht

0:32:210:32:25

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht

0:32:250:32:29

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht

0:32:290:32:32

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht

0:32:320:32:36

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs

0:33:060:33:10

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs

0:33:100:33:13

# One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight

0:33:130:33:17

# One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight

0:33:170:33:21

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs

0:33:210:33:24

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs

0:33:240:33:28

# One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight

0:33:280:33:32

# One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight

0:33:320:33:36

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht

0:34:060:34:09

# Vier, drei, zwei, eins

0:34:090:34:13

# Eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht

0:34:130:34:17

# Vier, drei, zwei, eins

0:34:170:34:21

# Un, dos, trois, cuatro

0:34:210:34:25

# Uno, due, tre, quattro

0:34:250:34:28

# Un, dos, trois, cuatro

0:34:280:34:31

# Uno, due, tres, cuatro

0:34:310:34:35

# Ichi, ni, san, shi

0:34:350:34:37

# One, two, three

0:34:390:34:41

# Ichi, ni, san, shi

0:34:430:34:45

# One, two, three

0:34:460:34:49

# Uno, two, zwei, four

0:34:500:34:52

# Uno, two, vier, four

0:34:520:34:54

# Uno, two, zwei, four

0:34:540:34:56

# Uno, two, vier, four

0:34:560:34:58

# Uno, two, zwei, four

0:34:580:35:00

# Uno, deux, vier, four... #

0:35:000:35:01

When we talk about hip-hop, there are different kinds.

0:35:010:35:04

I mean, obviously, there's the down-tempo part,

0:35:040:35:06

the real funky beats and all that,

0:35:060:35:08

but Planet Rock was more like...

0:35:080:35:10

Almost like proto-techno, in a way.

0:35:120:35:15

MUSIC: Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force

0:35:150:35:18

On his ground-breaking hip-hop hits

0:35:300:35:32

Planet Rock, Looking For The Perfect Beat and Renegades Of Funk,

0:35:320:35:35

Afrika Bambaataa fused beats from Trans Europe Express and Numbers

0:35:350:35:40

so prominently that Kraftwerk ended up receiving royalties.

0:35:400:35:43

That was obviously something Arthur Baker

0:35:450:35:48

and John Robie did as a production team.

0:35:480:35:50

I think that was a bit of a genius move on their part

0:35:500:35:53

because they took these two very strong elements

0:35:530:35:58

and made it into something that was just so irresistible.

0:35:580:36:02

I guess history validated that particular record as being one that

0:36:060:36:12

sort of helped start the whole electro movement.

0:36:120:36:15

The Computer World album and tour

0:36:230:36:25

saw Kraftwerk entering the '80s on an all-time high that 1986's

0:36:250:36:29

Electric Cafe album failed to match, which was ironic, as the next year

0:36:290:36:33

their influence was about to explode anew, in Detroit, of all places.

0:36:330:36:37

A cadre of Kraftwerk-crazy producers known as the Belleville Three,

0:36:370:36:41

Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, were busy perfecting

0:36:410:36:45

a new world-beating genre that would soon become known as techno.

0:36:450:36:49

I have only met Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider once.

0:37:050:37:08

That was in Detroit, that was 15 years ago, for sure.

0:37:080:37:11

There was a huge concert for them,

0:37:110:37:12

it was almost like a restart of their career.

0:37:120:37:15

And they were very happy to come there

0:37:150:37:16

and they sold out a venue that holds 7,000 people.

0:37:160:37:20

It was an amazing show, it was an amazing moment,

0:37:200:37:23

the energy was incredible.

0:37:230:37:25

It wasn't just intellectual heads that were there to hear them play.

0:37:250:37:28

It was kids.

0:37:280:37:29

This was incredible for them because they were playing to, like, fans!

0:37:290:37:33

People that were just loving

0:37:330:37:34

the music and they were screaming and making noise

0:37:340:37:36

and this was, I think, a very important show for them.

0:37:360:37:39

It really sort of sent a chill up the spine of all

0:37:390:37:44

the guys from Kraftwerk, to make

0:37:440:37:45

them realise that they had a second life

0:37:450:37:48

and Detroit was the place where it started. It wasn't just us,

0:37:480:37:51

it was the whole of Detroit, Michigan, the whole of Cleveland,

0:37:510:37:56

the whole of Chicago.

0:37:560:37:57

Black people, man, were locked into this music.

0:37:570:38:01

On regular radio, on daytime radio in America, you could hear

0:38:010:38:04

Pocket Calculator, on the Computer World album, Janet Jackson,

0:38:040:38:09

Rick James and a Prince song, all in less than 30 minutes.

0:38:090:38:15

MUSIC: Pocket Calculator by Kraftwerk

0:38:150:38:17

# ..Spielt er ein kleines Musikstuck

0:38:170:38:19

# Und wenn ich diese Taste druck' Spielt er ein kleines Musikstuck

0:38:230:38:26

# Ich bin der Musikant mit Taschenrechner in der Hand... #

0:39:410:39:46

They were truly enjoying the fact that black people

0:39:480:39:51

were down with this music.

0:39:510:39:52

Even George Clinton was digging it.

0:39:520:39:55

You know, I mean, come on, man.

0:39:550:39:57

You've got the blackest of black men loving this shit

0:39:570:40:01

in the middle of Detroit, Michigan.

0:40:010:40:02

This was incredible. They're more than techno music.

0:40:020:40:05

They are creators of a genre that had no name up until we came along.

0:40:050:40:10

Up until then it was just amazing electronic music from these guys.

0:40:110:40:16

And I really wish they were not part of techno music, really, for them.

0:40:160:40:19

I wish they didn't have to be part of that,

0:40:190:40:21

cos a lot of techno music is shitty.

0:40:210:40:24

A lot of the guys making it don't deserve

0:40:240:40:25

to have their names attached to Kraftwerk.

0:40:250:40:28

Look at the cover to We Are The Robots.

0:40:360:40:38

They played on this, kind of, sexuality thing a little bit.

0:40:380:40:42

They kind of enjoyed it.

0:40:420:40:43

We Are The Robots was definitely their, sort of,

0:40:430:40:47

stepping out moment as a creative, androgynous group.

0:40:470:40:51

Nobody knew for sure if these guys were gay or straight.

0:40:510:40:54

And I think they really enjoyed that.

0:40:540:40:56

"We are the robots," hell yeah!

0:41:040:41:06

MUSIC: The Robots by Kraftwerk

0:41:060:41:08

# We are the robots

0:41:140:41:17

# We are the robots

0:41:180:41:21

# We are the robots

0:41:230:41:25

# We are the robots

0:41:270:41:29

# Ya tvoi sluga

0:41:350:41:37

# Ya tvoi rabotnik

0:41:370:41:40

# Ya tvoi sluga

0:41:440:41:46

# Ya tvoi rabotnik. #

0:41:460:41:48

It was so funky without being funky.

0:41:560:42:00

It was like, as if, it was... Wow!

0:42:000:42:04

It's hard to explain it.

0:42:040:42:05

I mean, the bass line to Computer World, you know,

0:42:050:42:09

that was incredible, man. It's More Fun To Compute...

0:42:090:42:12

These songs, man, it was just like, "Fuck! This shit was on fire!"

0:42:120:42:17

# It's more fun to compute

0:42:250:42:27

# It's more fun to compute

0:42:290:42:31

# It's more fun to compute

0:42:480:42:50

# It's more fun to compute. #

0:42:520:42:54

Computer World was the album

0:43:050:43:06

when they knew they could do everything they wanted to do.

0:43:060:43:09

Everything they dreamed of doing,

0:43:090:43:11

they finally could do it, and they knew it.

0:43:110:43:13

That was the album that they could break the wall.

0:43:130:43:16

And they did it.

0:43:160:43:17

The compositional aspect of how some of that Kraftwerk music is

0:43:170:43:22

structured never ceases to amaze me.

0:43:220:43:26

I think the melodies are very timeless.

0:43:260:43:29

And a good example of that is obviously

0:43:290:43:32

the tip of the hat from Coldplay.

0:43:320:43:35

MUSIC: Talk by Coldplay

0:43:350:43:38

# Oh, brother, I can't, I can't get through... #

0:43:510:43:55

They were very big fans of the band's melodies

0:43:550:43:58

and when they did that song, it was definitely a tribute,

0:43:580:44:02

a tip of the hat or a way of saying, "Wow, we love you so much."

0:44:020:44:06

Everybody, OK?

0:44:060:44:08

# And take a picture of something you see

0:44:110:44:15

# In the future where will I be?

0:44:190:44:23

# You could climb a ladder up to the sun

0:44:260:44:31

# Or you could write a song nobody had sung

0:44:350:44:38

# Or do something that's never been done... #

0:44:380:44:42

For a band like that it's probably the ultimate way

0:44:430:44:46

to show appreciation.

0:44:460:44:48

# Another lonely night

0:45:140:45:16

# Lonely night

0:45:160:45:18

# Stare at the TV screen

0:45:210:45:23

# The TV screen

0:45:230:45:25

# I don't know what to do

0:45:280:45:31

# What to do

0:45:310:45:32

# I need a rendezvous

0:45:360:45:38

# Rendezvous

0:45:380:45:40

# I call this number

0:45:590:46:00

# I call this number

0:46:000:46:02

# For a data date

0:46:060:46:08

# Data date

0:46:080:46:10

# I don't know what to do

0:46:130:46:15

# What to do

0:46:150:46:17

# I need a rendezvous

0:46:200:46:22

# Rendezvous

0:46:220:46:24

# Computer love

0:46:400:46:41

# Computer love

0:46:470:46:49

# Computer love

0:48:090:48:11

# Computer love... #

0:48:160:48:18

KRAFTWERK MERGES WITH COLDPLAY

0:48:370:48:39

MUSIC: Talk by Coldplay

0:48:390:48:41

# Cos you feel like you're going where you've been before

0:48:420:48:46

# You'll tell anyone who'll listen but you feel ignored

0:48:500:48:54

# Nothing's really making any sense at all

0:48:570:49:01

# Let's talk, oh, let's talk

0:49:010:49:05

# My love

0:49:050:49:06

# Oh, do you want to talk? #

0:49:060:49:09

I think it opened their music up to a whole new age group and audience

0:49:140:49:18

that might not, otherwise, really have been aware of them.

0:49:180:49:21

TECHNO MUSIC PLAYS

0:49:220:49:24

Being aware of Kraftwerk does not mean, however, that this new

0:49:340:49:37

generation of fans had it any easier getting tickets to the

0:49:370:49:40

Tate Modern concerts.

0:49:400:49:41

With nine out of ten applicants disappointed,

0:49:410:49:43

young devotees organised a midweek Kraftwerk party in

0:49:430:49:46

fashionable Bethnal Green to coincide with the group's shows.

0:49:460:49:50

Tonight was born out of a frustration that myself,

0:49:560:49:58

personally, having stayed on the phone for nine hours and trying to

0:49:580:50:02

get a ticket to see Kraftwerk perform live at the Tate...

0:50:020:50:06

We felt we wanted to do a night that was exploring the music

0:50:060:50:08

and the visuals.

0:50:080:50:10

We just wanted to do something for those people, including us,

0:50:100:50:13

that didn't get tickets, basically.

0:50:130:50:14

My boyfriend, who's DJing right now, he DJs a lot of techno

0:50:140:50:17

and a lot of minimal house and dance music

0:50:170:50:20

and I'm coming at Kraftwerk from a Krautrock angle

0:50:200:50:23

and so that was one of the things that we could connect about.

0:50:230:50:26

I'm really into Detroit techno so that's the kind of stuff that

0:50:260:50:29

I play and I kind of rediscovered Kraftwerk.

0:50:290:50:32

They're used on a lot of influential tracks that people will find

0:50:320:50:36

again and again, no matter how old they are or what sort of music

0:50:360:50:40

they're listening to.

0:50:400:50:41

So they're constantly going to be rediscovered,

0:50:410:50:43

and they still feel new, even though they've been around for 40 years.

0:50:430:50:47

The difficulty of getting Kraftwerk tickets pales in comparison

0:50:540:50:58

with the difficulty of getting close to the band.

0:50:580:51:00

Regarding themselves as simple workers in the sound factory,

0:51:000:51:03

they rejected the cult of personality from day one

0:51:030:51:07

and are mystified by the public's fascination

0:51:070:51:09

with their private lives.

0:51:090:51:11

They turned down all superstar collaborations,

0:51:110:51:14

including an offer from Michael Jackson,

0:51:140:51:15

and the greater their fame became, the further

0:51:150:51:17

they withdrew from the public gaze, the impenetrable shroud of

0:51:170:51:21

media silence only fuelling the aura of mystique that surrounds them.

0:51:210:51:26

Nobody knows this better than Peter Boettcher,

0:51:260:51:28

who has been Kraftwerk's favourite photographer since the late 1980s.

0:51:280:51:32

As they themselves won't pose for photographs,

0:51:320:51:34

he mainly photographs their robots.

0:51:340:51:36

They were careful enough never to put themselves in a position

0:51:520:51:56

where they were being held prisoner by the media.

0:51:560:52:00

They decided when they wanted the media...to be their prisoner.

0:52:000:52:03

They decided when they wanted to make the industry bow to them.

0:52:030:52:07

It's a really important thing,

0:52:070:52:09

especially in today's age of everybody being on Twitter

0:52:090:52:12

and Facebook and sharing every detail of their private life.

0:52:120:52:18

"I went to the toilet two minutes ago

0:52:180:52:19

"and now I'm going to go wash my feet.

0:52:190:52:21

"I think I'll go eat some spaghetti next

0:52:210:52:23

"and maybe I'll go to the movies."

0:52:230:52:25

As if that's really important. As if your life is really

0:52:250:52:27

so important other people just need to know every move about it.

0:52:270:52:30

When you look at the timeline of people like Mozart

0:52:300:52:34

and classical composers and all that, what's left of them

0:52:340:52:37

is that, the music, their compositions,

0:52:370:52:40

the things that they created, and the rest is just trivial.

0:52:400:52:44

MUSIC: Tour De France by Kraftwerk

0:53:230:53:25

# Tour de France

0:53:340:53:36

# Radio-Tour information

0:53:360:53:39

# Transmission, television... #

0:53:390:53:42

The themes that inform all of Kraftwerk's music,

0:53:440:53:47

travel, communication and the harmonious coexistence of man,

0:53:470:53:51

nature and technology are driven by the dynamic of forward motion.

0:53:510:53:54

Nothing embodies this better than their passion for cycling,

0:53:540:53:58

which produced both the massive 1983 hit Tour De France,

0:53:580:54:01

and their latest studio album.

0:54:010:54:03

'They were the embodiment of the emotion

0:54:150:54:17

'and motion of the 20th century.'

0:54:170:54:19

Distilling it into these wonderful little almost electronic haikus.

0:54:190:54:23

I always think of them as historians, in a way.

0:54:230:54:25

The tracking of what happened in the 20th century, in terms of it

0:54:250:54:28

being about speed, movement, technology, the relationship between

0:54:280:54:34

humans and machines, which was becoming more and more of a problem.

0:54:340:54:37

In that sense, they were also cultural commentators, they were

0:54:370:54:40

like great, kind of, you know...

0:54:400:54:42

They were like Roland Barthes or Walter Benjamin, diagnosing what was

0:54:420:54:45

going on around us and compressing it into this very brief, tender poetry.

0:54:450:54:52

# Radioactivity

0:54:560:54:59

# Is in the air for you and me. #

0:55:030:55:07

Launching in the age of glam rock and hippies, with short hair,

0:55:070:55:10

suits, German vocals and industrial chic, Kraftwerk's styling was

0:55:100:55:15

always provocatively radical, but nothing ruffled

0:55:150:55:17

feathers in left-wing Europe like the Computer World album which, when

0:55:170:55:21

home computers were unheard of, made the tools of state oppression sing.

0:55:210:55:26

Long before there were mobile phones,

0:55:260:55:28

and with lyrics that anticipated the curt language of texting,

0:55:280:55:31

they announced that the computer would soon connect us to the

0:55:310:55:34

world, and we would perceive everything through a ghostly glow

0:55:340:55:36

of pixels to a soundtrack of regulated, machine-generated noise.

0:55:360:55:41

Kraftwerk were aware, in a way, of a future that has led us

0:55:460:55:49

to Google and Apple and Facebook and Twitter.

0:55:490:55:53

But also, because of their understanding of the art world, were

0:55:530:55:55

also very appreciative that if there was too much of the technological

0:55:550:55:59

side, there would also be a loss of the soul, the human side.

0:55:590:56:02

Kraftwerk had a really interesting view of the future,

0:56:020:56:05

which was a nostalgic one.

0:56:050:56:07

And they always used the past expressions of hope,

0:56:070:56:12

which had become defunct, as their main language.

0:56:120:56:16

We're now embedded in a sort of future that they appeared to predict.

0:56:160:56:20

They weren't specifically right about the details,

0:56:200:56:22

and to some extent, they were imagining the 1950s or

0:56:220:56:25

the 1920s as much as anything else,

0:56:250:56:27

but they were the closest of anybody to understand

0:56:270:56:29

what was going to happen.

0:56:290:56:31

Kraftwerk's approach, whilst extremely gentle and nurturing

0:56:310:56:36

and continual and careful,

0:56:360:56:39

is a revolutionary approach.

0:56:390:56:41

So what they're doing is they're not bringing short, sharp shocks,

0:56:410:56:45

they're bringing a global revolution to the way they work.

0:56:450:56:49

And it's a never-ending story.

0:56:490:56:51

# Boing, boom, tschak, zong

0:57:040:57:06

# Boing, boing, boom, tschak, peng. #

0:57:060:57:08

It's funny, the rock critics bemoan, in such an old-fashioned way,

0:57:080:57:12

that there's only one member of Kraftwerk left,

0:57:120:57:14

like it's the Dave Clarke Five or Sweet or The Tremolos or something.

0:57:140:57:18

But of course, it doesn't matter who is in Kraftwerk.

0:57:180:57:21

Kraftwerk itself is the work of art.

0:57:210:57:24

It's a bit like moaning that when you see a Picasso,

0:57:240:57:26

there's no Pablo Picasso.

0:57:260:57:27

Well, no, he's dead.

0:57:270:57:28

When all members of Kraftwerk have died,

0:57:280:57:30

Kraftwerk will still exist as a work of art.

0:57:300:57:32

You're looking at a living,

0:57:320:57:34

breathing exhibition of historic electronic art.

0:57:340:57:39

The sound quality, the production, that's the future.

0:57:390:57:42

Just to listen to it and archive it,

0:57:420:57:46

make it part of a history lesson.

0:57:460:57:48

Put it in...

0:57:480:57:50

You have Duke Ellington and Miles Davis songs,

0:57:500:57:54

put it right next to that.

0:57:540:57:55

Disco and Kraftwerk, put them together

0:57:550:57:57

and you've got the whole history of music ever since the mid-'70s.

0:57:570:58:01

I still remember the first time I heard Trans Europe Express,

0:58:010:58:04

the first time I heard I Feel Love, Donna Summer.

0:58:040:58:07

There was no turning back.

0:58:070:58:08

I mean, once you've heard this

0:58:080:58:11

and you compare it to all the other stuff, you just go,

0:58:110:58:14

"OK, party over. It's done. They won."

0:58:140:58:16

For those of us who were fans,

0:58:160:58:18

who attached ourselves loyally to the colours of Kraftwerk

0:58:180:58:21

in the '70s and '80s...have also been proved right in our taste.

0:58:210:58:25

We were right!

0:58:250:58:26

Myself, I'd like to say thank you very much to Kraftwerk.

0:58:260:58:29

That's my words.

0:58:290:58:31

Thank you for the opportunity to grow up with your music.

0:58:310:58:34

When I want to relax, when I want to watch the sunset,

0:58:340:58:37

when I just want to drive my car for a long, straight distance

0:58:370:58:41

really fast, that's my music that I need to rejuvenate

0:58:410:58:45

myself from all the bullshit out here in the world.

0:58:450:58:47

I need to remind myself of the level of quality there once was.

0:58:470:58:52

And I would say, for any young people today,

0:58:520:58:55

you really need to turn off the computer and the TV

0:58:550:58:57

for a little while and just close your eyes and see what you see.

0:58:570:59:01

Because you just might see yourself.

0:59:010:59:03

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0:59:480:59:50

# Non-stop. #

0:59:500:59:51

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