16 ms·

Florian Schneider has died

542 points by arethuza 7y ago

tibbydudeza 7y ago
Kraftwerk inspired so many of my favourite bands.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
Now their music is kind of obvious but when you think about the scene back then it’s pretty amazing what they did.
- OzzyB 7y ago
  Nothing obvious about it. That's like saying Roland's shitty bass accompaniment gizmo, the TB-303, was obviously built for Acid House.
  - csours 7y ago
    Obvious in hindsight is very different from obvious at the time. Lots of things are obvious in hindsight, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of hard work behind them.
  - hinkley 7y ago
    I recall in college having several conversations with people who gave up on reading Lord of the Rings because 'it felt derivative'. Trying to politely explain to them that the fiction they had already read was the derivative work, while on the inside I was screaming: Look here, you little shit. I know we bristled at this in school, but I think there is in fact something to the idea of presenting a discipline to people in a Cliff's Notes version of chronological order. Otherwise you may never see the value in the foundational works in that area (or as the case here, artistic medium).
    - emmelaich 7y ago
      Well it was derivative :-) of Norse legends.
  - tomphoolery 7y ago
    I mean, of course it's made for acid house! Surely Roland wouldn't have made a bass accompaniment synthesizer sound that unrealistic! /s
    - TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
      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.
      - PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
        That's not next-level engineering. It's next-level marketing. The key thing about the [3-digits-here] series was that they were priced right. Not for Detroit ... priced right enough to sell enough of them, so that by the time Detroit (and Chicago) were ready, there were lots of them available second hand for very little money. And thus: techno (and house) and their progeny. OK, more precisely, that's not entirely fair. Early electro-funk (say, NYC 1978-1983) and even early hip hop did use these devices. But they were generally in studios and not widely used by everybody and their friend that just wanted to make a jam. By the time the 90s hit, the used market for 303/909 etc was primed and ready to burst.
        TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
        There were a lot - a lot - of competing units that were also priced right, or even righter than the Roland gear which was never bargain basement. Rattly cheap drum machines were all over the scene in the late 70s and 80s. None of them had the lasting impact of the 808 and 909. There's a reason for that - the same reason that explains why the Jupiter-8 and Juno series synths are legends, while competing synths from Kawai and Korg are mostly forgotten.
- _jal 7y ago
  Only in the same way that Led Zeppelin sounds "obvious". The context from which you're listening to it is partly defined by it. (I really don't want to get in to a "who is better/more important/whatever" argument. If choosing Led Zeppelin as a comparison bothers you, please substitute for taste.)
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    I didn’t mean the exact music as obvious but the style and tools they used. Same for electric guitars and the effects being used. Now totally normal but there was a time when people had to come up with that idea.
    - nine_k 7y ago
      OK, not LZ but Jimi Hendrix maybe? Someone who defined new sound which is "obvious" and widespread now?
      - Lio 7y ago
        Personally I think you’d have to go back further to find an equivalent. Maybe Bo Diddily? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley
  - pstuart 7y ago
    I'm not sure about that. Zep looted a lot of blues songs and just made 'em harder, and "hard rock" was a thing by that time. I was a huge fan and they were my first "real" concert in 1977, at the infamous Day on the Green where Bonham and Grant were arrested for beating up a BGP employee. Get off my lawn! :-)
  - shawnz 7y ago
    See: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunn...
- Lio 7y ago
  I totally agree with this. I think it’s a sign of their brilliance. Their music is like an algorithm or scientific theory. Being more complex would not make it better. For example (and IMHO) if you’re trying to make a techno track you’re not going to make anything better than Numbers. Numbers isn’t techno. Techno as genre didn’t exist before some guys in Detroit heard that track. Numbers is what techno wants to be. You can’t remake Citizen Kane and improve it. You can only do something different.
  - encom 7y ago
    >some guys in Detroit Which guys? I'd like to go digging in music history.
    - Lio 7y ago
      Ah, the people you are looking for are known as The Belleville Three[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belleville_Three https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belleville_Three
- bogomipz 7y ago
  Interestingly enough the "scene" back then for them had elements that would have influenced and/or encouraged their direction. The Federal Republic of Germany actively tried to promote a musical identity that was a contrast to the GDR's populist music policy. The culmination of this was the electronic music studios known as WDR(Westdeutscher Rundfunk) and their radio broadcasts. Hutter has acknowledged listening to those WDR broadcasts out of Cologne. Just to connect the dots Conny Plank, Kraftwerk's producer on Autobahn was an engineer at GDR. Karlheinz Stockhausen who was a Kraftwerek influence and hugely important figure in his own right ran the WDR. The WDR history and its importance to electronic music is pretty fascinating. You can read about it here: http://120years.net/wdr-electronic-music-studio-germany-1951/ http://120years.net/wdr-electronic-music-studio-germany-1951... and https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/08/stockhausen-photo-essay https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/08/stockhausen-ph... Dusseldorf also had the Kunstacademie which was run by Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys who regularly held "art happening." These art happenings were also some of Kraftwerk's first gigs. Beyond that the whole German prog rock scene that sprang up around Dusseldorf and Cologne at that time with bands like Can, Neu! and Faust was all about experimentation.
ziptrees 7y ago
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 http://www.doepfer.de/maq.htm
- bogomipz 7y ago
  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 http://www.aktivitaet-fanzine.com/10_kk0.html The above link is a great resource for any Kraftwerk fans. Aktivitaet was a Kraftwerk fanzine published in the 90's.
  - TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
    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.
    - bogomipz 7y ago
      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 https://sdiy.info/wiki/Synthesizerstudio_Bonn
      - jacquesm 7y ago
cft 7y ago
They predicted "computer world" in 1981 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa7WrCqsTC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa7WrCqsTC0 "Crime, Travel, Communication, Entertainment"
- LaserDiscMan 7y ago
  And electronic dating in "Computer Love" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNBGWenPlGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNBGWenPlGo). I always thought that song was about the "love" one feels using a computer. The relationship between a programmer and a machine. Perhaps I was just hearing what I wanted to hear though.
  - LeoPanthera 7y ago
    > I always thought that song was about the "love" one feels using a computer. It's definitely about both. They've always enjoyed writing songs with multiple meanings. Before it was re-written for the live tour, the original lyrics of "Radio activity" are about both Radioactivity, and "Radio Activity".
- Lio 7y ago
  Computer World was used for the opening theme of the BBC’s ground breaking Computer Programme[1]. My family were lucky enough to have a BBC model B, a home computer developed for the show and the eventual proving ground for the ARM processor. Kraftwerk and the Beeb were bound up in my head as a child. For me Kraftwerk sound like the white hot future rushing into our world (...and also playing Chuckie Egg and Elite with my Dad!). [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Computer_Programme https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Computer_Programme
jdkee 7y ago
My first exposure to Kraftwerk as a young lad and it still resonates today. Even more so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ybQWD6N6Zo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ybQWD6N6Zo
mattigames 7y ago
This article somehow forgot to mention their influence in the most commercially successful German rock band of all times: Rammstein, which made a cover of their song Das Modell. Edit: As pointed out the english-singing rock band Scorpions from Germany is far more popular.
- johnr2 7y ago
  > most commercially successful German rock band of all times: Rammstein s/German/German-singing and you might have a point.
  - lb1lf 7y ago
    -I think it is hard to rank bands like this, but surely Einstürzende Neubauten could give Rammstein a run for their money? (Or is Rammstein a much bigger and the Neubauten a much less significant act than I think? ;))
    - codq 7y ago
      Have a look at what it takes to physically set up a Rammstein show, and I think the answer will be clear. https://youtu.be/JgGuRKgvWQ4 https://youtu.be/JgGuRKgvWQ4
- hilem 7y ago
  Scorpions are far more successful by an order of magnitude.
  - mattigames 7y ago
    Oh didn't know they were German, due singing in English I always assumed they were... English.
    - johnr2 7y ago
      > didn't know they were German Drummer Herman Rarebell's solo album "Herman Ze German" was a good clue :-)
Al-Khwarizmi 7y ago
RIP. A titan of music. Not only Kraftwerk are among my favorite artists, but my 8-month-old baby loves Autobahn.
- grillvogel 7y ago
  my 2 year old loves kraftwerk and will actually throw tantrums to get us to put it on
  - marton78 7y ago
    My two and my four year old love dancing to "Die Roboter".
- jansan 7y ago
  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!
- vvpan 7y ago
  My three year old nephew would ask to play the "robot man", as I referred to Kraftwerk for a while. Then would walk around swinging his arms like a robot to "We are the robots". I, having my "cool uncle" aspirations, was almost tearing up.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    I made the mistake of introducing my kids to Kraftwerk early on and was treated to six months non-stop of 'we are the robots'. Still love the song :)
bouvin 7y ago
A true giant. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Kraftwerk, when it comes to modern music. They set out to create “Elektronische Volksmusik” and succeed spectacularly. I have been privileged to see Kraftwerk live three times, and those were some of the best concert experiences I have had.
- grillvogel 7y ago
  I saw "them" live a few years ago on that 3D tour. By then it was just Ralf and the 3 other guys. At one point his equipment was getting messed up and sounded odd, you could see him getting visibly frustrated. It was interesting to see a human reaction like that from the robotic pioneers.
  - justinator 7y ago
    Ha - to be fair, it was, "Ralf, Florian, and two other guys" from the beginning - they made it into a quartet to mimic acts like the Beatles in a weird way. Of course, "the two other guys" deny that.
    - bogomipz 7y ago
      That's not actually true Klaus Dinger the drummer was a permanent member. There was even a brief period where it was Florian and Klaus Dinger in the band but Ralf had quit. And both Conny Plank their legendary producer and Ralf thought very highly of him. Klaus was known for pioneering a hypnotic minimalist beat known as "motorik." Klaus and Michael Rother left Kraftwerk to form Neu! another hugely influential German group.
      - justinator 7y ago
        Both Klaus and Michael left Kraftwerk well before Kraftwerk really found their sound (Autobahn, Man-Machine, Computer World, etc), and became that classic faux quartet I'm talking about - the two other members were hired, but weren't full members of the band. Ralf quit/rejoined well before this period as well.
asjw 7y ago
This is tragic. Kraftwerk, in my opinion, invented modern music and will be the classical music of our times. There have been moments of my life where I would listen morgen spaziergang for hours in loop, it was the only thing that could get me through the day without rage bursts. It's my Linus cover. Through them I discovered all the bands I love, from the most experimental electronic ones to David Bowie. His contribution in taking "intelligent music" (sorry, can't find a better term) from something for the eiltè to something POP will be fully appreciated only when we'll be long gone. Gute reise Meister The power plant will be producing its magic energy forever
- PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
  I love Kraftwerk and have done so for 40 years or more. But this is not "tragic". People die. Florian was going to die. He wasn't young. He totally transformed the world of popular music. He had an awesome life, and now it is over. That's not tragic, it's just the nature of being alive.
  - asjw 7y ago
    Probably it has to do with me being a non-native English speaker, but I meant tragic as "something really sad" and "end of an era". He died of cancer, a terrible way to go and even though he wasn't part of Kraftwerk since 2008, I think his solo works were more relevant than ever. Like this one https://youtu.be/A5MtQMKa7ao https://youtu.be/A5MtQMKa7ao We lost someone who was higly influential and spoke boldly, but humbly, in support of the light side. Not a good day for humanity, in one of the worst periods in modern times.
awiesenhofer 7y ago
Still one of my favourite clips on youtube: the very first video recording of Kraftwerk live, from 1970! https://youtu.be/hWUiLJnEYJI https://youtu.be/hWUiLJnEYJI (Those audience reactions!)
- DonHopkins 7y ago
  The audience's flabbergasted reaction was an essential part of the whole performance, thrown up on the big projection screen from the live video camera! That was totally high-tech at the time. It looked so authentic and unrehearsed.
- aasasd 7y ago
  Seems to be the same performance from which the Ruckzuck vid comes, and in that one a lot of people look stoned. Consider that krautrock is a direct descendant of 60s' psy-rock. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ABOMrTgPNZA https://youtube.com/watch?v=ABOMrTgPNZA This connection is especially obvious when you see the previous incarnation—Organization—in color: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_eB-sl6ZLpo https://youtube.com/watch?v=_eB-sl6ZLpo (Though I gotta say that among early krautrock my favorite are Silver Apples, who were outstanding and far ahead of their time, but sank into complete obscurity after two albums.)
dadarepublic 7y ago
My very first splice job I did on a song was with Kraftwerk's Tour De France. My friend and I wanted to extend the song so we could dance to it. So using a stereo system that had a cassette deck that could record from the turntable, I would cue the cassette to record, pause, then release the turntable, unpause the cassette, record the bit in the song we wanted to extend, and wash-rinse-repeat until we had the length we wanted. This of course led to me down a long path of making beats, mixing tracks, and general electro-acoustic music shenanigans :) Rest in peace Florian.
krtkush 7y ago
My favorite song by kraftwerk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsQgmq-fNs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsQgmq-fNs
- tpmx 7y ago
  It's also my favorite one. It's just magic. It's just as fantastic as the first time I heard it about 29 years ago or so. (I also happen to believe that massive introduction of nuclear power is the only thing that will make the earth comfortably habitable for our grand-children, but that's a topic for another thread.)
- cmrdporcupine 7y ago
  you know that the percussive urgent beeping at beginning and end spells out "RADIOACTIVITY" and "ITS IN THE AIR" in Morse code?
  - LeoPanthera 7y ago
    When played live, they spell out "KRAFTWERK" instead.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
  Huh, I didn't realize they localized these. The Japanese texts say things like "Fukushima radiation, today and forever, stop it now".
  - krtkush 7y ago
    > I didn't realize they localized these. Which is why this is my favorite version of the song. They kind of evolved it with the Hiroshima accident.
    - jacquesm 7y ago
      I think you have your geography and timeline mixed up a bit.
the_arun 7y ago
I enjoy electronic music. Never knew Florian Schneider was one of the influencers. RIP!
- PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
  Influencer? INFLUENCER? Go wash out your mouth with soap. An influencer in this context is someone whose IG feed, had there been IG back in the day, would have told you to check the latest from this crazy German band from Dusseldorf. Ralf & Florian weren't influencers, they were inventors, pioneers, ground breaking visionaries (even if they didn't know it themselves most of the time).
  - the_arun 7y ago
    Sorry I didn't mean influencer from marketing context. I meant influencer - someone who influenced others to listen/make/practice music in a new way. Agree that "innovator" is the correct word instead.
tempsy 7y ago
I still will never forget that when Kobe died this community absolutely lost it and downvoted and flagged every link related to it.
- DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
  Different groups are interested in different celebrities.
  - tempsy 7y ago
    So ignore the submission instead of downvoting it and flagging it for being against guidelines when this submission makes it clear that it’s just a preference and not a hard and fast rule.
    - DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
      I don't recall seeing any HN guidelines regarding acceptable reasons for downvoting. This makes downvotes ambiguous. It could mean that someone found the story/post uninteresting, or in breach of site etiquette, or that they disagreed with your position/argument but couldn't be bothered to reply. Many HN users (including me) share your frustration with this state of affairs, but there's no consensus that this should change.
      - tempsy 7y ago
        People justified flagging and downvoting the story at the time because there’s some guidelines around “no current event stories that you could read about anywhere” It wasn’t just downvoting it was flagging it for removal. All of them.
        DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
        There actually is a related guideline [0]: > What to Submit > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. IMHO those guidelines indicate that neither Bryant's nor Schneider's deaths should be posted on HN. I can see why you'd be frustrated that one was upvoted and the other downvoted. You might be happiest by putting this in the "imperfect system manned by imperfect people" bucket. One can only get worked up about so many issues before going bitter and crazy. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
deleted 7y ago
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teilo 7y ago
I was going to see them live for the first time in Minneapolis before everything was cancelled. Very sad. But his legacy lives on.
- peapicker 7y ago
  Just a note, Florian hasn't played with Kraftwerk since he left (retired?) in Nov 2008... so you wouldn't have seen him anyway. I sure hope that tour goes on once things return to normal!
- vvpan 7y ago
  I'm in the same boat. I tried buying tickets for European shows last year but didn't succeed. And now the show is coming to USA town, I get 4th row tickets and bam... Disappointment all around.
  - ngcazz 7y ago
    Florian left Kraftwerk years ago though, you weren’t going to see him anyway :)
tpmx 7y ago
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) 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.
- parenthesis 7y ago
  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.
  - tpmx 7y ago
    > 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.
  - TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
    Straight out of the German classical tradition, updated with industrial minimalism.
- astrostl 7y ago
  Soundtrack to my life. Probably listened hundreds of times!
pan69 7y ago
I think it's in the documentary Synth Britannia [1] were Kraftwerk explain themselves as; musician engineers. As I get older I start to appreciate the early synth groups a lot more. Spend many hours listen to Kraftwerk over the decades. RIP Florian. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVljmH0yUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVljmH0yUw
berkeleyjunk 7y ago
This is very sad. Kraftwerk were hugely influential in bringing technology into music. If you have not seen it yet, the Kraftwerk Pop Art documentary from BBC is a must watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaQQCW0wH0k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaQQCW0wH0k
gdubs 7y ago
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 tightly-coupled fashion.) One of my favorite Kraftwerk songs is probably “pocket calculator.” [1] 1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBybJGZoCU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBybJGZoCU
- justinator 7y ago
  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.
  - LeoPanthera 7y ago
    I've seen Kraftwerk live many times, and on two or three occasions they've played a bum note, or messed up the drumline, and had to stop and re-sync. So I can definitely confirm that they are playing "live", even for their most recent "3-D" tour. (Though not, I assume, during the "Robots" sequence, which I assume is recorded. And I think that's actually the whole point of that sequence.)
- mixmastamyk 7y ago
  Recently saw a Chemical brothers show that amazed me, I'm sure they borrowed liberally from these pioneers.
- AareyBaba 7y ago
  My favorite is Bill Bailey's tribute to Kraftwerk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaxWoJPUC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaxWoJPUC0
justinator 7y ago
Wonderful memories of touring around France while listening to the Tour de France Soundtracks - perhaps no better album to ride bikes to. Great live show which was robotically exactly as I thought it would look like, complete with Sony laptops.
justinator 7y ago
Although they've at least said they've been working on music for decades, they've released so little in the last few. Perhaps we'll be able to listen to what they've been up to.
pantulis 7y ago
Aint anybody going to mention the video clip for "Musique non stop"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lIlROWro8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lIlROWro8 This song got some commercial rotation in Spain in the day, and the videoclip was mesmerizing.
TedDoesntTalk 7y ago
They made electronic music across multiple synths before MIDI! Must have been fun.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  Ditto Jean Michel Jarre, Kitaro, Vangelis, Wendy Carlos, Johan Timman, Tomita, Suzanne Ciani, Laurie Anderson and many, many others.
  - TedDoesntTalk 7y ago
    Indeed! I did not say they were alone, did I? You forgot Keith Emerson and many others. Why?
TedDoesntTalk 7y ago
i know he wasn’t involved in the band anymore, but can they use his robot now during live performances?
PrimeVinister 7y ago
Hugely influential. I love Kraftwerk and about 50 bands who wouldn't exist without them.
chiefalchemist 7y ago
One of the few modern artists that exemplify Zero to One. They weren't just genius, they were fearless. And the world is a better place as a result.
sitkack 7y ago
I attended a live Kraftwerk show about 17 years ago, what amazed me was the depth of the lyrics in German vs the simplified English lyrics. Kraftwerk is more political than the simplistic English lyrics would portray. It was then that I had new found appreciation for their craft. Praxis.
- dvirsky 7y ago
  Interesting. Can you give an example? I've never bothered to translate the German lyrics.
  - itronitron 7y ago
    I'm guessing that, in the process of translating lyrics to another language, word choices are made based on a preference for keeping the original rhyming scheme and rhythm. Alternatively, it could just be a bias resulting from the listener's experience with each language.
    - jacquesm 7y ago
      Very true in the case of Kraftwerk, what is interesting that they tried at all, probably simply to reach a larger audience commercially, German lyrics wouldn't go very far in the English speaking world. Even Nena translated 99 lufballons. English is much more compact, so there is quite a bit of filler words to match the music.
      - dvirsky 7y ago
        Part of it might just be due to not being native to English. Even if you're fluent, translating lyrics is super hard. I've seen many examples of great songs written in my native language (Hebrew) that just sounded so shallow and lowbrow when translated to English to appeal to a wider market.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    Compare Sie ist ein Model und sie sieht gut aus Ich nähm sie heut gerne mit zu mir nach Haus Sie wirkt so kühl, an sie kommt niemand ran Doch vor der Kamera da zeigt sie was sie kann Sie trinkt in Nachtclubs immer Sekt (Korrekt!) Und hat hier alle Männer abgecheckt Im Scheinwerferlicht ihr junges Lächeln strahlt Sie sieht gut aus und Schönheit wird bezahlt Sie stellt sich zur Schau für das Konsumprodukt Und wird von Millionen Augen angeguckt Ihr neues Titelbild ist einfach fabelhaft Ich muß sie wieder seh'n, ich weiß sie hat's geschafft vs She's a model and she's looking good I'd like to take her home that's understood She plays hard to get, she smiles from time to time It only takes a camera to change her mind She's going out tonight but drinking just champagne And she has been checking nearly all the men She's playing her game and you can hear them say She is looking good, for beauty we will pay She's posing for consumer products now and then For every camera she gives the best she can I saw her on the cover of a magazine Now, she's a big success, I want to meet her again -- The deeper layer of the lyrics is almost completely absent in the English version.
allenbrunson 7y ago
kraftwerk was my favorite band for about a decade. i still love them, but other stuff made it to the top of my favorites list. the band had an amazing run from 1974 to 1991. it sure is strange, though, that past that point, they pretty much stopped making new music. the most charitable interpretation i can come up with is that they had created all the music that they needed to. or maybe, with the dawn of widely-available computers and much cheaper music synthesis, they could no longer stay five years ahead of the competition, and opted to bow out instead.
jerkstate 7y ago
Interpol Deutsche Bank FBI Scotland Yard Business Money Numbers People Here is Ralf und Florian's patent for the electronic drum machine: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD244717S/en https://patents.google.com/patent/USD244717S/en These guys were the musical version of Jules Verne or HG Wells. Truly visionary.
- barbegal 7y ago
  Note this is a design patent rather than the more commonly known utility patent so it only protects the ornamental design of the drum machine.
hb4ch 7y ago
Their latest work `tour de france` is phenomenal. Highly recommended for any electronic music lovers. Kraftwerk's music is transcendental in a way that lives through different time periods and yet still inspiring. R.I.P.
lispm 7y ago
One thing that currently blows me away: Kraftwerk sounds incredible using the new 16" Macbook Pro with its improved speakers. 'Am Heimcomputer sitz ich hier'...
zrogezrg 7y ago
Electronic or not, very inspiring compositions as well. My favorite "acoustic" cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH_VKWStK98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH_VKWStK98
- Lio 7y ago
  If it’s your cup of tea Senior Coconut provide a range of “latin” Kraftwerk covers too. Here’s Showroom Dummies[1] [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buh8YnTwppM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buh8YnTwppM
Starwatcher2001 7y ago
Very sad day. Autobahn, Man Machine and Computer World were my constant background music when I was learning to program on a TRS-80 all those years back. "I program my home computer... beam myself into the future..." Still programming, still find Kraftwerk inspiring. Thank you Florien and Rest in Peace. Your music changed my life.
krebs_liebhaber 7y ago
There's something very poignant about Kraftwerk's style, branding, and album art that I can't quite put my finger on. The way they put their own faces on pretty much everything, always well-dressed, always clean and "together". The lyrics about such simple things, travelling Europe by rail and seeing things, praising new technology... We need that optimism today. RIP.
atVelocet 7y ago
Anyone who is interested in how they arrange their live sound should watch "Kraftwerk: Wellenfeldsynthese in der Kunstsammlung NRW"[0]. The concept they are using is called "Wave field synthesis"[1]. I was lucky enough to attend 7 of those 8 concerts and it was just amazing since i'm following KW for many years now and attended a lot of their concerts. What others got wrong in this thread is that they never actually built something themselves but they had the ideas and the people surrounding them that could make those ideas reality (those guys in Bonn). They were students of Karlheinz Stockhausen and you could absolutely hear that. If you listen to some of their first recordings[2], imagine this would be played on a synth instead of traditional instruments... and now you got KW like you know it. If you are interested in some of the history about the scene in Düsseldorf you should def. watch "Keine Atempause – Düsseldorf, der Ratinger Hof und die neue Musik"[3]. Ratinger Hof was a mixture of artists, musicians and all kinds of crazy people. Funny (private) side note: When i was drinking wine with the dad of an old friend of mine, he told me that during his studies he was the driver for some of the now most famous artists (Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, etc.) and musicians back then. This guy had some crazy stories and since i know my friend for 20 years it was mind blowing that his dad drove some of my favorite artists/musicians and he never talked about it. ahhh.. so much memories.. Ralf and Florian are/were very kind persons and it always was nice to talk to them. They modeled much of the sound as we know it today. This whole area (Cologne/Bonn/Düsseldorf) is very rich when it comes to modern music. There once was a "Studio für elektronische Musik" (Studio for Electronic Music)[4] by the WDR (german radio/television). In the later years there were only "private" tours (thanks to Volker Müller - the sound engineer of Stockhausen!) and it saddens me that it's not open to the public anymore. They moved all of it outside of Cologne and now it's rotting in some basement. Real history that's just abandoned...[5] [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_bhcpE91A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_bhcpE91A [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_field_synthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_field_synthesis [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoFHdlMrtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoFHdlMrtI [3] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lrdFOHRxuE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lrdFOHRxuE [4] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_for_Electronic_Music_(WDR) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_for_Electronic_Music_(W... [5] - https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/eingemottet-in-kellerraeumen-was-wird-aus-dem-wdr-studio.2177.de.html?dram:article_id=468464 https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/eingemottet-in-kellerra...
rassibassi 7y ago
tribute radio show :) https://www.nts.live/shows/the-do-you-breakfast-show/episodes/the-do-you-breakfast-show-w-charlie-bones-7th-may-2020 https://www.nts.live/shows/the-do-you-breakfast-show/episode...
KC8ZKF 7y ago
Also, Florian was an inspiration for David Bowie’s “V-2 Schneider” from the “Heroes” album. https://youtu.be/fWkCMD7woV0 https://youtu.be/fWkCMD7woV0
bookofjoe 7y ago
I was hoping against hope he'd get a black respect bar here but alas, no.

542 points by arethuza 7y ago

tibbydudeza 7y ago

Kraftwerk inspired so many of my favourite bands.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

Now their music is kind of obvious but when you think about the scene back then it’s pretty amazing what they did.

OzzyB 7y ago
Nothing obvious about it. That's like saying Roland's shitty bass accompaniment gizmo, the TB-303, was obviously built for Acid House.
- csours 7y ago
  Obvious in hindsight is very different from obvious at the time. Lots of things are obvious in hindsight, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of hard work behind them.
- hinkley 7y ago
  I recall in college having several conversations with people who gave up on reading Lord of the Rings because 'it felt derivative'. Trying to politely explain to them that the fiction they had already read was the derivative work, while on the inside I was screaming: Look here, you little shit. I know we bristled at this in school, but I think there is in fact something to the idea of presenting a discipline to people in a Cliff's Notes version of chronological order. Otherwise you may never see the value in the foundational works in that area (or as the case here, artistic medium).
  - emmelaich 7y ago
    Well it was derivative :-) of Norse legends.
- tomphoolery 7y ago
  I mean, of course it's made for acid house! Surely Roland wouldn't have made a bass accompaniment synthesizer sound that unrealistic! /s
  - TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
    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.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
      That's not next-level engineering. It's next-level marketing. The key thing about the [3-digits-here] series was that they were priced right. Not for Detroit ... priced right enough to sell enough of them, so that by the time Detroit (and Chicago) were ready, there were lots of them available second hand for very little money. And thus: techno (and house) and their progeny. OK, more precisely, that's not entirely fair. Early electro-funk (say, NYC 1978-1983) and even early hip hop did use these devices. But they were generally in studios and not widely used by everybody and their friend that just wanted to make a jam. By the time the 90s hit, the used market for 303/909 etc was primed and ready to burst.
      - TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
        There were a lot - a lot - of competing units that were also priced right, or even righter than the Roland gear which was never bargain basement. Rattly cheap drum machines were all over the scene in the late 70s and 80s. None of them had the lasting impact of the 808 and 909. There's a reason for that - the same reason that explains why the Jupiter-8 and Juno series synths are legends, while competing synths from Kawai and Korg are mostly forgotten.
_jal 7y ago
Only in the same way that Led Zeppelin sounds "obvious". The context from which you're listening to it is partly defined by it. (I really don't want to get in to a "who is better/more important/whatever" argument. If choosing Led Zeppelin as a comparison bothers you, please substitute for taste.)
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  I didn’t mean the exact music as obvious but the style and tools they used. Same for electric guitars and the effects being used. Now totally normal but there was a time when people had to come up with that idea.
  - nine_k 7y ago
    OK, not LZ but Jimi Hendrix maybe? Someone who defined new sound which is "obvious" and widespread now?
    - Lio 7y ago
      Personally I think you’d have to go back further to find an equivalent. Maybe Bo Diddily? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley
- pstuart 7y ago
  I'm not sure about that. Zep looted a lot of blues songs and just made 'em harder, and "hard rock" was a thing by that time. I was a huge fan and they were my first "real" concert in 1977, at the infamous Day on the Green where Bonham and Grant were arrested for beating up a BGP employee. Get off my lawn! :-)
- shawnz 7y ago
  See: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunn...
Lio 7y ago
I totally agree with this. I think it’s a sign of their brilliance. Their music is like an algorithm or scientific theory. Being more complex would not make it better. For example (and IMHO) if you’re trying to make a techno track you’re not going to make anything better than Numbers. Numbers isn’t techno. Techno as genre didn’t exist before some guys in Detroit heard that track. Numbers is what techno wants to be. You can’t remake Citizen Kane and improve it. You can only do something different.
- encom 7y ago
  >some guys in Detroit Which guys? I'd like to go digging in music history.
  - Lio 7y ago
    Ah, the people you are looking for are known as The Belleville Three[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belleville_Three https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belleville_Three
bogomipz 7y ago
Interestingly enough the "scene" back then for them had elements that would have influenced and/or encouraged their direction. The Federal Republic of Germany actively tried to promote a musical identity that was a contrast to the GDR's populist music policy. The culmination of this was the electronic music studios known as WDR(Westdeutscher Rundfunk) and their radio broadcasts. Hutter has acknowledged listening to those WDR broadcasts out of Cologne. Just to connect the dots Conny Plank, Kraftwerk's producer on Autobahn was an engineer at GDR. Karlheinz Stockhausen who was a Kraftwerek influence and hugely important figure in his own right ran the WDR. The WDR history and its importance to electronic music is pretty fascinating. You can read about it here: http://120years.net/wdr-electronic-music-studio-germany-1951/ http://120years.net/wdr-electronic-music-studio-germany-1951... and https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/08/stockhausen-photo-essay https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/08/stockhausen-ph... Dusseldorf also had the Kunstacademie which was run by Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys who regularly held "art happening." These art happenings were also some of Kraftwerk's first gigs. Beyond that the whole German prog rock scene that sprang up around Dusseldorf and Cologne at that time with bands like Can, Neu! and Faust was all about experimentation.

ziptrees 7y ago

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 http://www.doepfer.de/maq.htm

bogomipz 7y ago
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 http://www.aktivitaet-fanzine.com/10_kk0.html The above link is a great resource for any Kraftwerk fans. Aktivitaet was a Kraftwerk fanzine published in the 90's.
- TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
  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.
  - bogomipz 7y ago
    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 https://sdiy.info/wiki/Synthesizerstudio_Bonn
    - jacquesm 7y ago

cft 7y ago

They predicted "computer world" in 1981 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa7WrCqsTC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa7WrCqsTC0 "Crime, Travel, Communication, Entertainment"

LaserDiscMan 7y ago
And electronic dating in "Computer Love" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNBGWenPlGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNBGWenPlGo). I always thought that song was about the "love" one feels using a computer. The relationship between a programmer and a machine. Perhaps I was just hearing what I wanted to hear though.
- LeoPanthera 7y ago
  > I always thought that song was about the "love" one feels using a computer. It's definitely about both. They've always enjoyed writing songs with multiple meanings. Before it was re-written for the live tour, the original lyrics of "Radio activity" are about both Radioactivity, and "Radio Activity".
Lio 7y ago
Computer World was used for the opening theme of the BBC’s ground breaking Computer Programme[1]. My family were lucky enough to have a BBC model B, a home computer developed for the show and the eventual proving ground for the ARM processor. Kraftwerk and the Beeb were bound up in my head as a child. For me Kraftwerk sound like the white hot future rushing into our world (...and also playing Chuckie Egg and Elite with my Dad!). [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Computer_Programme https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Computer_Programme

jdkee 7y ago

My first exposure to Kraftwerk as a young lad and it still resonates today. Even more so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ybQWD6N6Zo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ybQWD6N6Zo

mattigames 7y ago

This article somehow forgot to mention their influence in the most commercially successful German rock band of all times: Rammstein, which made a cover of their song Das Modell. Edit: As pointed out the english-singing rock band Scorpions from Germany is far more popular.

johnr2 7y ago
> most commercially successful German rock band of all times: Rammstein s/German/German-singing and you might have a point.
- lb1lf 7y ago
  -I think it is hard to rank bands like this, but surely Einstürzende Neubauten could give Rammstein a run for their money? (Or is Rammstein a much bigger and the Neubauten a much less significant act than I think? ;))
  - codq 7y ago
    Have a look at what it takes to physically set up a Rammstein show, and I think the answer will be clear. https://youtu.be/JgGuRKgvWQ4 https://youtu.be/JgGuRKgvWQ4
hilem 7y ago
Scorpions are far more successful by an order of magnitude.
- mattigames 7y ago
  Oh didn't know they were German, due singing in English I always assumed they were... English.
  - johnr2 7y ago
    > didn't know they were German Drummer Herman Rarebell's solo album "Herman Ze German" was a good clue :-)

Al-Khwarizmi 7y ago

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

grillvogel 7y ago
my 2 year old loves kraftwerk and will actually throw tantrums to get us to put it on
- marton78 7y ago
  My two and my four year old love dancing to "Die Roboter".
jansan 7y ago
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!
vvpan 7y ago
My three year old nephew would ask to play the "robot man", as I referred to Kraftwerk for a while. Then would walk around swinging his arms like a robot to "We are the robots". I, having my "cool uncle" aspirations, was almost tearing up.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  I made the mistake of introducing my kids to Kraftwerk early on and was treated to six months non-stop of 'we are the robots'. Still love the song :)

bouvin 7y ago

A true giant. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Kraftwerk, when it comes to modern music. They set out to create “Elektronische Volksmusik” and succeed spectacularly. I have been privileged to see Kraftwerk live three times, and those were some of the best concert experiences I have had.

grillvogel 7y ago
I saw "them" live a few years ago on that 3D tour. By then it was just Ralf and the 3 other guys. At one point his equipment was getting messed up and sounded odd, you could see him getting visibly frustrated. It was interesting to see a human reaction like that from the robotic pioneers.
- justinator 7y ago
  Ha - to be fair, it was, "Ralf, Florian, and two other guys" from the beginning - they made it into a quartet to mimic acts like the Beatles in a weird way. Of course, "the two other guys" deny that.
  - bogomipz 7y ago
    That's not actually true Klaus Dinger the drummer was a permanent member. There was even a brief period where it was Florian and Klaus Dinger in the band but Ralf had quit. And both Conny Plank their legendary producer and Ralf thought very highly of him. Klaus was known for pioneering a hypnotic minimalist beat known as "motorik." Klaus and Michael Rother left Kraftwerk to form Neu! another hugely influential German group.
    - justinator 7y ago
      Both Klaus and Michael left Kraftwerk well before Kraftwerk really found their sound (Autobahn, Man-Machine, Computer World, etc), and became that classic faux quartet I'm talking about - the two other members were hired, but weren't full members of the band. Ralf quit/rejoined well before this period as well.

asjw 7y ago

This is tragic. Kraftwerk, in my opinion, invented modern music and will be the classical music of our times. There have been moments of my life where I would listen morgen spaziergang for hours in loop, it was the only thing that could get me through the day without rage bursts. It's my Linus cover. Through them I discovered all the bands I love, from the most experimental electronic ones to David Bowie. His contribution in taking "intelligent music" (sorry, can't find a better term) from something for the eiltè to something POP will be fully appreciated only when we'll be long gone. Gute reise Meister The power plant will be producing its magic energy forever

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
I love Kraftwerk and have done so for 40 years or more. But this is not "tragic". People die. Florian was going to die. He wasn't young. He totally transformed the world of popular music. He had an awesome life, and now it is over. That's not tragic, it's just the nature of being alive.
- asjw 7y ago
  Probably it has to do with me being a non-native English speaker, but I meant tragic as "something really sad" and "end of an era". He died of cancer, a terrible way to go and even though he wasn't part of Kraftwerk since 2008, I think his solo works were more relevant than ever. Like this one https://youtu.be/A5MtQMKa7ao https://youtu.be/A5MtQMKa7ao We lost someone who was higly influential and spoke boldly, but humbly, in support of the light side. Not a good day for humanity, in one of the worst periods in modern times.

awiesenhofer 7y ago

Still one of my favourite clips on youtube: the very first video recording of Kraftwerk live, from 1970! https://youtu.be/hWUiLJnEYJI https://youtu.be/hWUiLJnEYJI (Those audience reactions!)

DonHopkins 7y ago
The audience's flabbergasted reaction was an essential part of the whole performance, thrown up on the big projection screen from the live video camera! That was totally high-tech at the time. It looked so authentic and unrehearsed.
aasasd 7y ago
Seems to be the same performance from which the Ruckzuck vid comes, and in that one a lot of people look stoned. Consider that krautrock is a direct descendant of 60s' psy-rock. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ABOMrTgPNZA https://youtube.com/watch?v=ABOMrTgPNZA This connection is especially obvious when you see the previous incarnation—Organization—in color: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_eB-sl6ZLpo https://youtube.com/watch?v=_eB-sl6ZLpo (Though I gotta say that among early krautrock my favorite are Silver Apples, who were outstanding and far ahead of their time, but sank into complete obscurity after two albums.)

dadarepublic 7y ago

My very first splice job I did on a song was with Kraftwerk's Tour De France. My friend and I wanted to extend the song so we could dance to it. So using a stereo system that had a cassette deck that could record from the turntable, I would cue the cassette to record, pause, then release the turntable, unpause the cassette, record the bit in the song we wanted to extend, and wash-rinse-repeat until we had the length we wanted. This of course led to me down a long path of making beats, mixing tracks, and general electro-acoustic music shenanigans :) Rest in peace Florian.

krtkush 7y ago

My favorite song by kraftwerk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsQgmq-fNs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsQgmq-fNs

tpmx 7y ago
It's also my favorite one. It's just magic. It's just as fantastic as the first time I heard it about 29 years ago or so. (I also happen to believe that massive introduction of nuclear power is the only thing that will make the earth comfortably habitable for our grand-children, but that's a topic for another thread.)
cmrdporcupine 7y ago
you know that the percussive urgent beeping at beginning and end spells out "RADIOACTIVITY" and "ITS IN THE AIR" in Morse code?
- LeoPanthera 7y ago
  When played live, they spell out "KRAFTWERK" instead.
9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
Huh, I didn't realize they localized these. The Japanese texts say things like "Fukushima radiation, today and forever, stop it now".
- krtkush 7y ago
  > I didn't realize they localized these. Which is why this is my favorite version of the song. They kind of evolved it with the Hiroshima accident.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    I think you have your geography and timeline mixed up a bit.

the_arun 7y ago

I enjoy electronic music. Never knew Florian Schneider was one of the influencers. RIP!

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
Influencer? INFLUENCER? Go wash out your mouth with soap. An influencer in this context is someone whose IG feed, had there been IG back in the day, would have told you to check the latest from this crazy German band from Dusseldorf. Ralf & Florian weren't influencers, they were inventors, pioneers, ground breaking visionaries (even if they didn't know it themselves most of the time).
- the_arun 7y ago
  Sorry I didn't mean influencer from marketing context. I meant influencer - someone who influenced others to listen/make/practice music in a new way. Agree that "innovator" is the correct word instead.

tempsy 7y ago

I still will never forget that when Kobe died this community absolutely lost it and downvoted and flagged every link related to it.

DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
Different groups are interested in different celebrities.
- tempsy 7y ago
  So ignore the submission instead of downvoting it and flagging it for being against guidelines when this submission makes it clear that it’s just a preference and not a hard and fast rule.
  - DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
    I don't recall seeing any HN guidelines regarding acceptable reasons for downvoting. This makes downvotes ambiguous. It could mean that someone found the story/post uninteresting, or in breach of site etiquette, or that they disagreed with your position/argument but couldn't be bothered to reply. Many HN users (including me) share your frustration with this state of affairs, but there's no consensus that this should change.
    - tempsy 7y ago
      People justified flagging and downvoting the story at the time because there’s some guidelines around “no current event stories that you could read about anywhere” It wasn’t just downvoting it was flagging it for removal. All of them.
      - DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
        There actually is a related guideline [0]: > What to Submit > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. IMHO those guidelines indicate that neither Bryant's nor Schneider's deaths should be posted on HN. I can see why you'd be frustrated that one was upvoted and the other downvoted. You might be happiest by putting this in the "imperfect system manned by imperfect people" bucket. One can only get worked up about so many issues before going bitter and crazy. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

teilo 7y ago

I was going to see them live for the first time in Minneapolis before everything was cancelled. Very sad. But his legacy lives on.

peapicker 7y ago
Just a note, Florian hasn't played with Kraftwerk since he left (retired?) in Nov 2008... so you wouldn't have seen him anyway. I sure hope that tour goes on once things return to normal!
vvpan 7y ago
I'm in the same boat. I tried buying tickets for European shows last year but didn't succeed. And now the show is coming to USA town, I get 4th row tickets and bam... Disappointment all around.
- ngcazz 7y ago
  Florian left Kraftwerk years ago though, you weren’t going to see him anyway :)

tpmx 7y ago

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) 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.

parenthesis 7y ago
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.
- tpmx 7y ago
  > 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.
- TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
  Straight out of the German classical tradition, updated with industrial minimalism.
astrostl 7y ago
Soundtrack to my life. Probably listened hundreds of times!

pan69 7y ago

I think it's in the documentary Synth Britannia [1] were Kraftwerk explain themselves as; musician engineers. As I get older I start to appreciate the early synth groups a lot more. Spend many hours listen to Kraftwerk over the decades. RIP Florian. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVljmH0yUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVljmH0yUw

berkeleyjunk 7y ago

This is very sad. Kraftwerk were hugely influential in bringing technology into music. If you have not seen it yet, the Kraftwerk Pop Art documentary from BBC is a must watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaQQCW0wH0k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaQQCW0wH0k

gdubs 7y ago

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 tightly-coupled fashion.) One of my favorite Kraftwerk songs is probably “pocket calculator.” [1] 1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBybJGZoCU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBybJGZoCU

justinator 7y ago
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.
- LeoPanthera 7y ago
  I've seen Kraftwerk live many times, and on two or three occasions they've played a bum note, or messed up the drumline, and had to stop and re-sync. So I can definitely confirm that they are playing "live", even for their most recent "3-D" tour. (Though not, I assume, during the "Robots" sequence, which I assume is recorded. And I think that's actually the whole point of that sequence.)
mixmastamyk 7y ago
Recently saw a Chemical brothers show that amazed me, I'm sure they borrowed liberally from these pioneers.
AareyBaba 7y ago
My favorite is Bill Bailey's tribute to Kraftwerk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaxWoJPUC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaxWoJPUC0

justinator 7y ago

Wonderful memories of touring around France while listening to the Tour de France Soundtracks - perhaps no better album to ride bikes to. Great live show which was robotically exactly as I thought it would look like, complete with Sony laptops.

justinator 7y ago

Although they've at least said they've been working on music for decades, they've released so little in the last few. Perhaps we'll be able to listen to what they've been up to.

pantulis 7y ago

Aint anybody going to mention the video clip for "Musique non stop"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lIlROWro8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lIlROWro8 This song got some commercial rotation in Spain in the day, and the videoclip was mesmerizing.

TedDoesntTalk 7y ago

They made electronic music across multiple synths before MIDI! Must have been fun.

jacquesm 7y ago
Ditto Jean Michel Jarre, Kitaro, Vangelis, Wendy Carlos, Johan Timman, Tomita, Suzanne Ciani, Laurie Anderson and many, many others.
- TedDoesntTalk 7y ago
  Indeed! I did not say they were alone, did I? You forgot Keith Emerson and many others. Why?

TedDoesntTalk 7y ago

i know he wasn’t involved in the band anymore, but can they use his robot now during live performances?

PrimeVinister 7y ago

Hugely influential. I love Kraftwerk and about 50 bands who wouldn't exist without them.

chiefalchemist 7y ago

One of the few modern artists that exemplify Zero to One. They weren't just genius, they were fearless. And the world is a better place as a result.

sitkack 7y ago

I attended a live Kraftwerk show about 17 years ago, what amazed me was the depth of the lyrics in German vs the simplified English lyrics. Kraftwerk is more political than the simplistic English lyrics would portray. It was then that I had new found appreciation for their craft. Praxis.

dvirsky 7y ago
Interesting. Can you give an example? I've never bothered to translate the German lyrics.
- itronitron 7y ago
  I'm guessing that, in the process of translating lyrics to another language, word choices are made based on a preference for keeping the original rhyming scheme and rhythm. Alternatively, it could just be a bias resulting from the listener's experience with each language.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    Very true in the case of Kraftwerk, what is interesting that they tried at all, probably simply to reach a larger audience commercially, German lyrics wouldn't go very far in the English speaking world. Even Nena translated 99 lufballons. English is much more compact, so there is quite a bit of filler words to match the music.
    - dvirsky 7y ago
      Part of it might just be due to not being native to English. Even if you're fluent, translating lyrics is super hard. I've seen many examples of great songs written in my native language (Hebrew) that just sounded so shallow and lowbrow when translated to English to appeal to a wider market.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  Compare Sie ist ein Model und sie sieht gut aus Ich nähm sie heut gerne mit zu mir nach Haus Sie wirkt so kühl, an sie kommt niemand ran Doch vor der Kamera da zeigt sie was sie kann Sie trinkt in Nachtclubs immer Sekt (Korrekt!) Und hat hier alle Männer abgecheckt Im Scheinwerferlicht ihr junges Lächeln strahlt Sie sieht gut aus und Schönheit wird bezahlt Sie stellt sich zur Schau für das Konsumprodukt Und wird von Millionen Augen angeguckt Ihr neues Titelbild ist einfach fabelhaft Ich muß sie wieder seh'n, ich weiß sie hat's geschafft vs She's a model and she's looking good I'd like to take her home that's understood She plays hard to get, she smiles from time to time It only takes a camera to change her mind She's going out tonight but drinking just champagne And she has been checking nearly all the men She's playing her game and you can hear them say She is looking good, for beauty we will pay She's posing for consumer products now and then For every camera she gives the best she can I saw her on the cover of a magazine Now, she's a big success, I want to meet her again -- The deeper layer of the lyrics is almost completely absent in the English version.

allenbrunson 7y ago

kraftwerk was my favorite band for about a decade. i still love them, but other stuff made it to the top of my favorites list. the band had an amazing run from 1974 to 1991. it sure is strange, though, that past that point, they pretty much stopped making new music. the most charitable interpretation i can come up with is that they had created all the music that they needed to. or maybe, with the dawn of widely-available computers and much cheaper music synthesis, they could no longer stay five years ahead of the competition, and opted to bow out instead.

jerkstate 7y ago

Interpol Deutsche Bank FBI Scotland Yard Business Money Numbers People Here is Ralf und Florian's patent for the electronic drum machine: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD244717S/en https://patents.google.com/patent/USD244717S/en These guys were the musical version of Jules Verne or HG Wells. Truly visionary.

barbegal 7y ago
Note this is a design patent rather than the more commonly known utility patent so it only protects the ornamental design of the drum machine.

hb4ch 7y ago

Their latest work `tour de france` is phenomenal. Highly recommended for any electronic music lovers. Kraftwerk's music is transcendental in a way that lives through different time periods and yet still inspiring. R.I.P.

lispm 7y ago

One thing that currently blows me away: Kraftwerk sounds incredible using the new 16" Macbook Pro with its improved speakers. 'Am Heimcomputer sitz ich hier'...

zrogezrg 7y ago

Electronic or not, very inspiring compositions as well. My favorite "acoustic" cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH_VKWStK98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH_VKWStK98

Lio 7y ago
If it’s your cup of tea Senior Coconut provide a range of “latin” Kraftwerk covers too. Here’s Showroom Dummies[1] [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buh8YnTwppM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buh8YnTwppM

Starwatcher2001 7y ago

Very sad day. Autobahn, Man Machine and Computer World were my constant background music when I was learning to program on a TRS-80 all those years back. "I program my home computer... beam myself into the future..." Still programming, still find Kraftwerk inspiring. Thank you Florien and Rest in Peace. Your music changed my life.

krebs_liebhaber 7y ago

There's something very poignant about Kraftwerk's style, branding, and album art that I can't quite put my finger on. The way they put their own faces on pretty much everything, always well-dressed, always clean and "together". The lyrics about such simple things, travelling Europe by rail and seeing things, praising new technology... We need that optimism today. RIP.

atVelocet 7y ago

Anyone who is interested in how they arrange their live sound should watch "Kraftwerk: Wellenfeldsynthese in der Kunstsammlung NRW"[0]. The concept they are using is called "Wave field synthesis"[1]. I was lucky enough to attend 7 of those 8 concerts and it was just amazing since i'm following KW for many years now and attended a lot of their concerts. What others got wrong in this thread is that they never actually built something themselves but they had the ideas and the people surrounding them that could make those ideas reality (those guys in Bonn). They were students of Karlheinz Stockhausen and you could absolutely hear that. If you listen to some of their first recordings[2], imagine this would be played on a synth instead of traditional instruments... and now you got KW like you know it. If you are interested in some of the history about the scene in Düsseldorf you should def. watch "Keine Atempause – Düsseldorf, der Ratinger Hof und die neue Musik"[3]. Ratinger Hof was a mixture of artists, musicians and all kinds of crazy people. Funny (private) side note: When i was drinking wine with the dad of an old friend of mine, he told me that during his studies he was the driver for some of the now most famous artists (Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, etc.) and musicians back then. This guy had some crazy stories and since i know my friend for 20 years it was mind blowing that his dad drove some of my favorite artists/musicians and he never talked about it. ahhh.. so much memories.. Ralf and Florian are/were very kind persons and it always was nice to talk to them. They modeled much of the sound as we know it today. This whole area (Cologne/Bonn/Düsseldorf) is very rich when it comes to modern music. There once was a "Studio für elektronische Musik" (Studio for Electronic Music)[4] by the WDR (german radio/television). In the later years there were only "private" tours (thanks to Volker Müller - the sound engineer of Stockhausen!) and it saddens me that it's not open to the public anymore. They moved all of it outside of Cologne and now it's rotting in some basement. Real history that's just abandoned...[5] [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_bhcpE91A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_bhcpE91A [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_field_synthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_field_synthesis [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoFHdlMrtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoFHdlMrtI [3] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lrdFOHRxuE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lrdFOHRxuE [4] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_for_Electronic_Music_(WDR) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_for_Electronic_Music_(W... [5] - https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/eingemottet-in-kellerraeumen-was-wird-aus-dem-wdr-studio.2177.de.html?dram:article_id=468464 https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/eingemottet-in-kellerra...

rassibassi 7y ago

tribute radio show :) https://www.nts.live/shows/the-do-you-breakfast-show/episodes/the-do-you-breakfast-show-w-charlie-bones-7th-may-2020 https://www.nts.live/shows/the-do-you-breakfast-show/episode...

KC8ZKF 7y ago

Also, Florian was an inspiration for David Bowie’s “V-2 Schneider” from the “Heroes” album. https://youtu.be/fWkCMD7woV0 https://youtu.be/fWkCMD7woV0

bookofjoe 7y ago

I was hoping against hope he'd get a black respect bar here but alas, no.