From Giles Dickerson Sent Wed, Feb 24th 1999, 21:02
From Giles Dickerson Sent Wed, Feb 24th 1999, 21:02
One of the most important points about kraftwerk that seems to always be missed is the in point through which they came to compose elctrnic music and electronic rhythm sequences. The way most artists become involved in making electronic music is they like it, or dj it, and buy some gear, and then begin making music that the gear allows them to make, and most of their creations, unless particularly inventive, fall within the guidelines of what this gera will do. For example, if you pick up a 909, the interface and the gear itself will somewhat guide you to a particular sound and rhythmic structure. Now with kraftwerk, and this is what so many people fail to appreciate, these guys decided on the music they wanted to make and then built equipment like sequencers and drum machines to fill in the gaps that technology at that time was missing. This is huge, because what this means is that they had an idea of this music before they were entirely guided by the technology, they were actually guiding the technology to meet their view of the music they wished to compose. This is an important concept, because it seems to me, especially with artists such as "pole" for example, who is a lathe and studio engineer gone musician, that the people involved in developing new musical technology, might be the ones who move the music ahead, mainle because they are the ones creating the tools that so many of the artists to day use. This is the role kraftwerk played, and to me, this direction they took was huge. It wasn't as if they stumbled on their music after fooling around with a synth that failed in the popular market and ended up laying down electro tracks. g i l e s d i c k e r s o n D I C K E R S O N / B O S T O N : : <jeff mills>it feels like a mission actually, more so than a job</jeff mills> -----Original Message----- From: Cognition Audioworks <xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx> To: xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx <xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx> Cc: xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx <xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx> Date: Wednesday, February 24, 1999 3:58 PM Subject: (313) Re:newKraftwerkVSold/Atkins' opinion >I'm with Will. No one can deny the importance and quality of Kraftwerk's >recorded material. And yes, electronic music since them owes them a huge debt. >But even >Juan Atkins says they're a little bit behind the times re: their *new* music >performed lately (though he was extremely happy they toured and that those >who knew them from their recordings could hear them live, while those who >missed out on Kraftwerk (i.e don't know their electronic music history) could >experience them and get some education to the past. You can check out Atkins' >comments and opinions on Kraftwerk and plenty of other stuff in the interview >with him on In The Mix show 578 on http://www.globalserve.net/~cognition >Thanks. Andrew :) > >C Twomey wrote: > >> Hey, let's not denigrate Ralf & Florian, who set the ground work for all >> the music you like when Kirk Degiorgio could only reach the white keys of >> his Rhodes. I'd refer you to any of the boots of the latest Kraftwerk tours >> - The Return Of The Man-Machine is an excellent one - to re-experience the >> subtle new tunes (and the extension of "Airwaves"), which in the Kraftwerk >> style mix accessible and avant garde elements (the computer-y sequence in >> the 2nd one, which is as poly-rhythmic as any underground tech-house >> stuff). The vocoder melody in the breakdown of 1st new one in the set (the >> Latin-y one between "Radioactivity" and "Trans Europe") has a particular >> strange beauty, like the best of the European avant garde (old school that >> is). >> >> CT >> >> >From: Will Samuels <x_xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx> wrote: >> >> >The new material they played live last summer wasn't that great. It >> >sounded a little like dated Juno Reactor type of stuff. And it lacked >> >the charm of their earlier releases. >> > > > > > >