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Florian Schneider has died

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Re: Florian Schneider has died

#53
post #48

Legend. I saw Kraftwerk live years ago and it was one of the most overwhelming performances I’ve ever seen in my life. Beneath the bouncy, poppy hooks there was a massive darkness — the pairing of visuals with the music really drove that home. (The only other live musical performance that I recall giving me a similar feeling was the band ‘Godspeed You Black Emperor‘, who also made use of projected imagery in such a t…

I always enjoyed the part of the show where they'd pulled the curtains down, then when they were put up again, the entire group was replaced by robotic mannequins! Since their show was sync'd to the video in back of them, I'm pretty sure the music was all queued up too. They didn't really need to be up there at all!

I think only Aphex Twin pulled off such a stunt as well, where he walked to the stage, pressed a button to start the music, then walked off. But Kraftwerk would do it for an entire tour.

Re: Florian Schneider has died

#54
post #41

My first purchased CD as a teenager, back in 1991, when music actually cost a lot of money: Kraftwerk - The Mix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mix_(Kraftwerk_album) There is so much genius on this particular album. Critics weren't happy, but to me it was just perfection.

I also bought that album on CD as a teenager.

It had a massive impact on me in terms of opening my mind to possibilities of musical structure in `popular' music other than song form (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, etc.).

Of course there is jazz form (head, solos on same form, head) and disco 12" form (the song, the dubbed out section, the reprise). And Kraftwerk's structures have a lot in common with the latter. But there is an incredible perfection and tightness (despite the extended durations) of form on all the tracks on that album.

Re: Florian Schneider has died

#55

RIP. A titan of music. Not only Kraftwerk are among my favorite artists, but my 8-month-old baby loves Autobahn.

Me talking with my neighbor, who is telling me that some Kraftwerk event has been sold out in no time. My 6 year old son, standing next to me, saying: "'Das Model' is a great song by Kraftwerk". Proudest moment of my life!

Re: Florian Schneider has died

#56
post #3

While a lot of artists like Giorgio Moroder purchased their synthesizers and music equipment, Kraftwerk built a ton of it themselves - drum pads, robot vocalizers, sequencers [1], digital music programming, etc. One of the biggest influences on everything we call music today. RIP Florian. [1] - http://www.doepfer.de/maq.htm

This is actually much more myth than truth. There may have been a few bits and bobs that they modified themselves but anything that was custom built was done by people that worked for them. Kraftwerk relied heavily on Moogs, ARPs and Sequential Circuits synths on those classic records. See: http://www.aktivitaet-fanzine.com/10_kk0.html The above link is a great resource for any Kraftwerk fans. Aktivitaet was a Kraftw…

They often designed the units in outline but other people implemented the ideas - like the Synthanorma sequencer, which was a product in its own right and eventually evolved into the Doepfer MAQ.

There's some mystery about who designed their robo-speech box [1], because Schneider (and colleagues) actually patented it.

[1] Not the vocoder, but the chip-speech system used on The Mix.

Re: Florian Schneider has died

#57
post #41

My first purchased CD as a teenager, back in 1991, when music actually cost a lot of money: Kraftwerk - The Mix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mix_(Kraftwerk_album) There is so much genius on this particular album. Critics weren't happy, but to me it was just perfection.

I also bought that album on CD as a teenager. It had a massive impact on me in terms of opening my mind to possibilities of musical structure in `popular' music other than song form (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, etc.). Of course there is jazz form (head, solos on same form, head) and disco 12" form (the song, the dubbed out section, the reprise). And Kraftwerk's structures have a lot in common with the latte…

> But there is an incredible perfection and tightness (despite the extended durations) of form on all the tracks on that album.

Exactly. I think the reviewers just didn't get the whole concept.. just redoing old tracks, in a better way.

It's kind of the software way of life (v1, v2, etc - you keep iterating, by default).

It's also similar to how Mike Oldfield keeps working on variations of Tubular bells, and they do keep getting more and more interesting.

Re: Florian Schneider has died

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually much more myth than truth. There may have been a few bits and bobs that they modified themselves but anything that was custom built was done by people that worked for them. Kraftwerk relied heavily on Moogs, ARPs and Sequential Circuits synths on those classic records. See: http://www.aktivitaet-fanzine.com/10_kk0.html The above link is a great resource for any Kraftwerk fans. Aktivitaet was a Kraftw…

They often designed the units in outline but other people implemented the ideas - like the Synthanorma sequencer, which was a product in its own right and eventually evolved into the Doepfer MAQ. There's some mystery about who designed their robo-speech box [1], because Schneider (and colleagues) actually patented it. [1] Not the vocoder, but the chip-speech system used on The Mix.

Synthorama was created by Matten and Wiechers of Bonn[1] Nobody in Kraftwerk was an electrical engineer. I am not sure how you "outline" a synthesizer unless you mean writing a schematic, something nobody in the band could do. I'm not trying to detract from their genius in any way but the idea that they created their own gear is largely folklore.

[1] https://sdiy.info/wiki/Synthesizerstudio_Bonn

Re: Florian Schneider has died

#59
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing obvious about it. That's like saying Roland's shitty bass accompaniment gizmo, the TB-303, was obviously built for Acid House.

I mean, of course it's made for acid house! Surely Roland wouldn't have made a bass accompaniment synthesizer sound that unrealistic! /s

Roland did that a lot. They produced these generic "bad" synthesizers and drum machines that turned out to be unbelievably funky when abused by the right people.

It was a real next-level engineering super-talent. It doesn't even matter if it was deliberate. The fact that it happened so reliably is enough.

Re: Florian Schneider has died

#60
post #41

My first purchased CD as a teenager, back in 1991, when music actually cost a lot of money: Kraftwerk - The Mix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mix_(Kraftwerk_album) There is so much genius on this particular album. Critics weren't happy, but to me it was just perfection.

I also bought that album on CD as a teenager. It had a massive impact on me in terms of opening my mind to possibilities of musical structure in `popular' music other than song form (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, etc.). Of course there is jazz form (head, solos on same form, head) and disco 12" form (the song, the dubbed out section, the reprise). And Kraftwerk's structures have a lot in common with the latte…

Straight out of the German classical tradition, updated with industrial minimalism.
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