| Without
Kraftwerk the popular music encyclopedias would be a lot thinner. Not only
because the bio of the German foursome takes a few pages, but much more
because the band is the basis of every record where one can hear a synthesizer.
The first hiphop track was based on a Kraftwerk sample, the primary beats
of their music resulted later in electronic body music, techno and house,
and the way they are packaging the music visually, is still groundbreaking
after three decades. |
| When
David Bowie discovered in 1975 the music of Kraftwerk, he moved to Germany,
turned his back to his glamrock past and made with "Low", the
best record of its career. And U2 manipulated Kraftwerk music on "Achtung
Baby", a culture clash between traditional guitar rock and German electronics.
On the opposite from Kraftwerk themselves only a big silence was heard the
past eighteen years, the reason why the myths around the band went their
own ways. In their Kling Klang Studios, where they have, according their
own sayings, always been working, is no postbox, fax, telephone of e-mail,
and interviews with the hermits are very rare already since the beginning
of their career (in 1968). |
| So, it
was Tuesday evening surrealistic to see Kraftwerk alive and well on stage.
At exactly eight o´clock - Deutsche Gründlichkeit über Alles - a computer
voice wished everybody welcome, the curtain opened and "The Man Machine"
started. It was like entering a world where music, design and technology
kept each other in balance. It all looked rather unique. For a video screen
that was as wide as the complete stage, four music workers stood after their
expanded laptops. Motionless like wax statues and with a look in the eyes
that expressed a strange nostalgy to the future. Maybe from this you conclude
that the music was cold and lifeless, which was absolutely not true. Even
more, the contrast between the motionless band members and the emotion in
the music was really spectacular. On top of that the seamless symbiosis
between image and sound was really effective. During "Tour de France"
you could see old black and white images with a peloton cyclists involved
in a heroic fight against the French Pyrennees. Supported with pulsing beats
they cleared themselves a way to the top, like a symphony of undescribable
beauty and human suffering. |
| The whole
performance was devoted to advance. By bike (Aerodynamik'), car (Autobahn)
or train (Trans Europe Express). These songs indeed came out of a box, but
in them you could hear a heart beating. In this lies the explanation for
the fact that Kraftwerk still takes a complete unique position after a career
of 35 years. When Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider build a synthesizer,
they not only put in the latest technology in it, but also a big dosis of
emotion. So these things have a obstinate character, one time they slam
extremely hard and one song later they float in a kind of melancholy that
you would rather ascribe to a lonesome sad violin. Our photograph, a grown
up man indeed, admitted afterwards that he had cried during the concert.
He was certainly not the only one. The combination between electronics and
emotion is not evident. But Kraftwerk understands the art of reconciling
water and fire.e |
| The sampled
steam locomotive from "Trans Europe Express" sounded harder than
the most industrial of Nine Inch Nails. "Vitamin", with a rain
of nine Damien Hirst-like capsules on video, had something playful, and
lyrics (Carbo-Hydrat/Protein/A-B-C-D Vitamin) that would fit on a box of
cornflakes. Except for a few pieces from the Tour de France Soundtracks
from last year, the set unfolded like a real greatest hits. The horny "The
Model" caused a wave of euphoria and the playful naivity of "Pocket
Calculator" was still intact after all those years. "Radioactivity"
embodied perfection with its crosslinking between message, beats and naïve
melody. |
| And
the most beautiful part, the played by robots "The Robots", still
had to come. Robots which ironically were more mobile than the band members
to which image they were shaped. Through that the border between man and
machine was completely faded, and you felt the sinking of the last certainty.
When music is able to do this, you are experiencing something unique. That
is why this concert belongs to the ten best of the four thousand I have
seen the last fifteen years. That unique, that completely standing outside
of reality and the resolute following of their own course. The gift of converting
a concert into a total experience. And above all: the vision that makes
thirty year old songs sound like if they give you a glance to a far, unreachable
future. That is art. That is Kraftwerk. |
| (Review
published at flemish newspaper "De Morgen" on 25 March 2004)
|
| Original
review in belgian by Bart Steenhaut |
| Translation
to english by Ivo Peeters - Belgium |
|
