Kraftwerk

[MarkOne]

At the Tate

[ramthelinefeed]

well, it's more "Ralf Hütter plus three nobodies he hasn't fallen out with yet" rather than Kraftwerk.

And £60 a ticket! /winces/

But yeah.

Let's hope the website works at 7:30 am....

[Richie Royale]

Mark's link didn't work

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/music-and-live-performance/kraftwerk-catalogue-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

Anyway £60 for a laptop performance sounds expensive.

[Guest]

Tickets are a tad pricey, but I suspect they'll sell out within minutes.

I'm glad my preferred night (Radioactivity) is one of their less popular albums

[ramthelinefeed]

To be fair, I saw them in Paris in 2002, and Florian Schneider didn't even look up once the entire time, apart from when he waved bye-byes at the end of Musique Non-Stop, so the fact that he's no longer there probably makes less difference than it might otherwise do. Or something.

[Dave B]

If it was four musicians creating the actual music, then I might be tempted. But, it's 4 people working laptops. I'd pay to see someone play - not to see someone type.

Very sad. I'd love to see Kraftwerk play live. Sadly, all you get nowadays (as feline mentioned) is Ralf and 3 others ...

[ramthelinefeed]

The more I think about it, the more it seems odd that they even do a night for 'The Mix' -

the Mix was supposed to be a kinda "live in studio" album of their current souped-up arrangements for their main tunes.... ever since they toured it in 1991/92, they've basically continued to do the tunes in that style.

When they do the "Autobahn" night, for instance, I very very very much doubt that they will return to playing Autobahn the way they used to live (or even on record) in 1974! No, they'll continue to do it in the "The Mix" updated style...

...so basically The Mix night is the 'Greatest Hits set' night.

[Dave B]

I assumed that they would be recreating the albums - albeit with samples. Which is why I thought that it would be pointless without Bartos and Flur. Ah well.... I'm sure someone will report back..

[ramthelinefeed]

I've seen YouTube footage for the Museum of Modern Art shows, and they are just doing them in their 'laptop' style... so there is no seething ARP Odyssey through a Schulte Compact Phasing 'A', nobody playing flute, no Vako Orchestron... it's all just sequenced softsynths, with Ralf manually playing a few lines on this kinda omni-string-voice-synth homekeyboard sound.

[Guest]

Slagging off an electronic band for using a laptop is a bit like slagging off a guitar band for using guitars

[Richie Royale]

Considering they pioneered playing electronic drums and used to use keyboards, I think it is fair game to criticise them for being a laptop collective now.

I saw Supersilent the other week, who could be described as an electronic band, but they still used guitars, a live kit and trumpet, as well as having John Paul Jones performing with them.

[Dave B]

It would be if they _played_ their laptops. But only one of them is a musician... there used to 4 ...

It's more akin to slating a guitar band who run their shows off laptops and mime!

[Guest]

Well, if you watch the Maximum Minimum DVD, in the few performer close-ups you can see a hell of lot of midi controller action happening, so I guess that's the "live" element.

If you're going to criticise Kraftwerk for using laptops, then you might as well criticise all current electronic acts who play live.

Modern electronic music based on sequencing is always going to be difficult to "perform" live, in the traditional sense of people playing their instruments. I guess the live element comes in how they manipulate those predetermined sequences and tweak the parameters.

And if I were Kraftwerk, I'd be leaving those expensive / rare / unreliable analogue synths at home - I certainly do when I play live !

[ramthelinefeed]

When other electronic bands start charging 60 a night to see them fiddle with laptops in a turbine hall, I'll happily start a thread moaning about them too.

One of the guys on stage is only the bloody lighting technician, he's not doing anything musical.

My favourite live footage of them is Paris 1973, it's floating around on YouTube - lovely ralf and florian stuff. Wish they were doing the first three albums, that would be awesome!

[Paul Nagle]

There's plenty of modern gear that lets you avoid the laptop if you want to (I do). For example the Sequentix Cirklon, Elektron Octatrack and yeah, a pile of synths and the chance for it all to go horribly wrong. I think there needs to be the opportunity for an audience to hear something electronic that's also less than perfect, at least that's the niche I've always tried to fill.
Effectus super absolutionem!

[Richie Royale]

I like your stuff Paul. Bring yourself to Bristol and do a live performance at Arnolfini.

[Paul Nagle]

Looks a posher venue than I usually get asked to clear. Would happily play anywhere though. Actually, off to see Orbital tomorrow. Hoping for lots of hardware there at least!

[shufflebeat]

It's like synchronised wedding DJs.

[Richie Royale]

It is more of a lecture theatre attached to a gallery than a music venue, but I have seen Biosphere there twice (one performance is available on CD) and saw Supersilent there recently. Not a big venue and seated, but a good place to experience live electronic music, especially random evolving stuff.

[Paul Nagle]

Have dropped you a line Richie, don't want to hijack this thread further.

[Guest]

off to see Orbital tomorrow. Hoping for lots of hardware there at least!

I too am off to see Orbital (next week). Hopefully I'll be too busy dancing like a loon, to pay much attention to what synths they're using.

[Chevytraveller]

off to see Orbital tomorrow. Hoping for lots of hardware there at least!

I too am off to see Orbital (next week). Hopefully I'll be too busy dancing like a loon, to pay much attention to what synths they're using.

If it's in Brixton then see you there

I imagine they will at least have the massive monolithic Macbeth M5.. but also several iPads

[Guest]

If it's in Brixton then see you there

Oxford for me, as I'm slightly Brixton Academyphobic

Hopefully they'll mostly do the new album rather than the familiar hits.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Well I've actually seen them live, laptops and all, in 2005. Vocals are live and there is some hidden keyboard playing. Sound and visuals are amazing, The Robots are balletically beautiful. Even my wife, who hates them, was blown away by the theatre of the whole thing. The songs are very themed and the live show enhances that.

They really do know how to "mak shau".

Quit griping, go see how it's done, and prepare to be blown away.

By the way Orbital are equally amazing, just different.

[ramthelinefeed]

well, as I suspected, the Tate Modern website had already crashed by 7.28 when I tried to log in, and is still down. No tickets for me then.