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Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum
Astralwerks, 2005
Rating: 4.5
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Posted:
June 16,
2005
By
Laurence Station
Think of incredibly dated synthesizer-driven pop from the New Wave period
of the 1980s. Recall, if you must, the cheesy synth-line from A Flock of
Seagulls' ubiquitous "I Ran (So Far Away)." The inherent artificiality of
processed music dates quickly for several reasons. A major cause is the
technology, which, as with personal computers, advances so rapidly in terms
of performance, size and affordability as to render earlier models obsolete.
Another is the inability of most musicians to coax unique and enduring
sounds from such non-traditional instruments. In short, it’s incredibly easy
to make bad synthesized music.
And then there’s Kraftwerk, godfathers of the movement. After 35 years,
several landmark albums in the evolution of electronic music, and
incomparable influence (for both good and ill) across the genre, the
Dusseldorf-originated band (founded by Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter and
now including Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz) has more than left its
mark. Which makes the arrival of the band’s first official live release such
a special and welcome event.
Culled from 2004’s highly energized worldwide tour, Minimum-Maximum
is a two-hour, two-disc set that emphatically validates just how fresh and
alive Kraftwerk’s heavily manipulated compositions sound. What comes across
most clearly is Kraftwerk’s unerring belief that humans and machines can
co-exist harmoniously. And that desire to foster a copacetic synthesis
between carbon-based life forms and artificial devices can be heard in every
blip and digitized beat played.
The first disc leans toward more recent material, with “Planet of Visions”
offering a groovier reconfiguration of “Expo 2000.” Despite not stacking up
to the older works, there’s nonetheless great flow between the smooth
revolutions of “Chrono,” which effortlessly gives way to the pumping energy
of “Tour De France - Etape 2.” It’s when the sound of a car starting up and
the familiar Moog-powered rhythm of “Autobahn” begin that Minimum-Maximum
truly blasts into overdrive. Wisely offering a tighter, poppier variation on
the original (offering more Beach Boy-esque “fahr'n fahr'n fahr'ns” than a
hypnotically entrancing sojourn), Kraftwerk plays up the fun quotient while
still elegantly conveying the joy of driving that ideally encapsulates the
band’s worldview: the empowerment via mechanical means to feel something
otherwise denied to humans.
Other highlights include a shorter, warmer version of “Neon Lights” and a
masterful run on the second disc beginning with the jackhammer-intense beats
of “Numbers” and closing with the appropriately titled, elastically
stretched-out “Music Non Stop.” Minimum-Maximum reinforces just how
forward thinking Schneider and Hütter were more than three decades ago, when
the notion of “robot pop” must have sounded far out even during the
indulgent, heavily experimental prog-rock era. Fast forward to the present,
and not only were the two mainstays behind Kraftwerk spot-on with their
notions of what modern music would sound like, but the music they’ve made
still sounds futuristic and groundbreaking today. More importantly, it
lives.
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