[sdiy] We are the Mummies (was: Freak at Home)

[Czech Martin]

absoluteley.

sometimes the ratio of technical effort/musical output
goes to infinity. Very complex machinery to create dull
compositions. dull, boring, uninteresting, whatever you
like.


m.c.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Downhill [mailto:Steven.Downhill at brother.co.uk]
Sent: Freitag, 9. Mai 2003 13:27
To: Czech Martin
Cc: Synth DIY (E-mail)
Subject: RE: [sdiy] We are the Mummies (was: Freak at Home)


Hi m.c.

	>nearly all of the interesting sounds of electronic music
	>could be heard back in 1955 to 1964. Simply because
	>the equipment was there.

I agree that was an interesting period. 
Take a listen to the soundtrack of the film 'Forbidden Planet' made by
Disney in the mid 50s. 
(I think it was two french brothers who did the score).
Some of the electronic tonalaties in that film are way out there for the
time.
Not bad when you consider they were probably using valve technology in their
equipment.

Regards
Steven
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Czech Martin [SMTP:Martin.Czech at Micronas.com]
> Sent:	09 May 2003 12:17
> To:	jbv; synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject:	RE: [sdiy] We are the Mummies (was: Freak at Home)
> 
> don't worry too much. this is all about pop music.
> and pop music is absolutely irrelevant.
> so all the arguments to who invented what is even
> more irrelevant. it simply does not matter.
> 
> nearly all of the interesting sounds of electronic music
> could be heard back in 1955 to 1964. Simply because
> the equipment was there.
> but of course not in a childish, minimalistic pop
> manner where the structure is often simpler
> than most nursery rhymes are...
> 
> 
> m.c.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jbv [mailto:jbv.silences at club-internet.fr]
> Sent: Freitag, 9. Mai 2003 13:35
> To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] We are the Mummies (was: Freak at Home)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > isn't that why they took those robots on stage from the
> > early 80's?
> 
> Only dummies were used in the early 80's. Robots appeared in the early
> 90's.
> 
> >i almost got to play on one of their pocket calculators they
> >handed to the crowd.
> 
> I did manage to press a couple of Florian's pocket calculator in 1981...
> 
> >Not to harp on a subject thats definatly a matter of taste and opinion,
> but
> >have you listened to the really early Kraftwerk?  Like Ralf&Florien or
> >Kraftwerk2?
> >Dont get me wrong, I like Wolfgang's
> >contributions too, but when he came on board they definatly had started
> to
> >break away from the Tangerine Dream-esk sounds that they had been known
> >for previously.
> 
> Gasp ! This is pure revisionism !
> KW has always been light years away from TD and other "kosmische music".
> Actually, their big influence in the early 70's was NEU!, the only truly
> innovative
> duo of krautrock... Ralf & Florian never really managed to approach
> similar
> brilliant & innovative concepts. After that, they tried to catch up with
> various
> trends (the Beach Boys with "Autobahn", "Pop Corn" with "Radio-activity",
> Gorgio Moroder with "Man Machine", the worlwide underground minimal synth
> with "Computer World", "Art of Noise" and all the 80's crap with "Electric
> Cafe")
> but everything failed... The only 2 songs that are still worth listening
> to are
> 
> "TEE" and "Tour de France" (the latter for the lyrics).
> 
> Man, several years ago (1998) I got tired (and was almost banned from the
> KW mailing list) of all these young morons who consider them as the
> "godfathers
> 
> of thechno"... Actually, I remember seeing them in their first gig outside
> Germany
> (in Paris feb. 1973 at the krautrock festival set up by french mag Actuel)
> :
> they
> were just a couple of unknown newbies... A couple of years later, they
> understood
> that the only way to make a carreer in the music biz was to work on their
> image
> 
> rather than on their music, and then they invented the Kling-Klang studio,
> the
> dummies, the robots and all that stuff... Actually, they should have named
> themselves
> "Propaganda"...
> 
> I saw them several times over the years (in Paris in 73 & 81), in Zürich
> in 91,
> in Linz
> & Karlsruhe in 97, in Tokyo, L.A. and San Francisco in 98... and everytime
> there was less and less meat around the bones... In 97 they were just
> representatives
> for Doepfer gear, and these days they just seem to promote VST plug-ins
> (or
> whatever).
> The last great show was 1981, at least for the great imagery of the KK
> studio
> live on stage. But even at that time, I'm quite sure that most of the show
> was
> pre-recorded. I perfectly remember seeing a 16 tracks tape recorder
> backstage
> and I thought "wow! they tape every gig for their archives or something".
> But now, after seeing several gigs in a row during the 98 tour (where
> obviously
> 
> 75% or more of the show was pre-recorded), I'm convinced that they were
> faking to play, and that they've always been...
> I have a short video excerpt of the Paris 1973 gig, in which they perform
> "Kling Klang", and obviously they play VERY little (but the audience was
> too
> stoned to notice)...
> 
> Putting robots on stage in place of humans was a sexy & exciting concept
> in
> 1978 (because it was out of reach). But nowadays, what is it all about ?
> Triggering samples and MIDI sequences ? What a joke !
> A much more exciting approach would have been to flood the web with a
> remix of their song "Von Himmel hoch" from their 1st album as soon as
> US troops started to bomb Iraq... Just a suggestion...
> 
> Nowadays, their live appearances are just a good opportunity for EMI to
> sell
> their back catalog and to maintain that stupid myth of "techno pionneers"
> for
> the young generations of brainless consumers. Ralf & Florian, as well as
> many
> other pseudo-innovators of the 70's, are just trying to sell a few more
> albums
> before they get retired...
> Elvis Presley was doing better in Las Vegas 30 years ago...
> 
> And I for myself, I find a great pleasure cluttering the archives of
> various
> mailing lists with anti-Kraftwerk propaganda.
> 
> IMHO, in all the Kraftwerk saga, the truly innovators were NEU!, Emil
> Schult,
> Conny Plank, and (in some ways) Wolfgang Flür. For more details, just
> read Wolfgang's book "I was a robot" (the 1st edition, since I've heard
> that Ralf & Florian managed to have some chapters erased from further
> editions
> of that book after a lawsuit)...
> 
> JB
> 
> 
> 
> 
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