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Kraftwerk: humanizing machines for nealy 40 years - win their remastered CDs here!

Posted at 12:00 PM on December 15, 2009 by Jim McGuinn (4 Comments)

Last week we hooked up Lauren Mistelske and Michael Fuller with the recent Cloud Cult re-issues.

This time you've got a chance to win the motherlode of music from German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk. (see official rules)

With the five-years-in-the-making release of a new boxset called The Catalogue, long out of print Kraftwerk CDs are now back in stores - remastered and in some cases, art-restored. We've got five of their most influential albums - Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans Europe Express, The Man-Machine, and Tour De France.

They were often considered an oddly mechanical band in the '70s, but listening to their early albums, they sound warm and somehow human compared to much of today's pop music, so much of which is created using tools that Kraftwerk's music helped create (vocoder, auto-tune, drum machines, sequencers). And few musicians have impacted so much music - from the obvious genre of synth pop like Depeche Mode, to early hip-hop, techno, and the "Berlin"-era records made by Bowie, Iggy, and Eno in the late '70s.

The band is notoriously reclusive; providing rare and enigmatic interviews, using life size mannequins and robots to conduct official photo shoots, refusing to accept mail and not allowing visitors to their Kling Klang Studio. Chris Martin of Coldplay told Q magazine the process of requesting permission to sample the melody from "Computer Love" for Coldplay's "Talk." He wrote them a letter, sending it through the lawyers of the respective parties and several weeks later received an envelope containing a handwritten reply that simply said 'yes'. Minimalists through and through.

Here's a really weird clip that combines footage from the video of the German language version their biggest hit "The Model" along with live action from a German TV show, circa 1978. Definitely a different performance aesthetic on stage than what we're used to seeing, even today.

And if that doesn't wig you out, check out this audio/video mashup of The Model with Timbaland.


Enter now for your chance to win five remastered CD from Kraftwerk. (see official rules)

Comments (4)

The aesthetic may have been original, but the music itself was predated by almost 3 years by New York's electronic duo Silver Apples who formed in 1967.

Posted by Mike T | December 16, 2009 10:06 AM

How timely...I was just listening to "The Robots" on the iPod on the way into work. I'm in !

Posted by Bil F. | December 16, 2009 10:28 AM

Every sentiment and every movement in life carries the subtle subtext of a Kraftwerk synth riff. They r Chopin of this age. LikeMetropolis from Fritz Lang their music bathes your subconcience n a radical shift occurs. You start appreciating sad beauty. This is genius. Thank you.

Posted by Ramon Martinez | December 16, 2009 11:38 AM

I used to play Kraftwerk at full volume in the stands at high school football games back in 1980 or so on one of those big Panasonic ghetto blasters Earth Wind & Fire used to push to piss off the classic rock crowd in Columbia Heights. Ahhhh the memories. :-)

Posted by greg | December 16, 2009 12:14 PM

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