Blog category: Kraftwerk

More about the Kraftwerk action figures

In a previous post I told you about some Kraftwerk action figures a friend showed me. No I got more for you. My twitterfriend @KeepWerking, a long time Kraftwerk fan, has some more pics on the Kraftwerk "action figures" made by german sculptor Dirk Roessler. You find the pics on his Flickr HERE. He has also been in touch with Dirk Roessler who commented on his creations. This is what he said:

 

 

My name's Dirk, I'm a sculptor from Germany. Well, I collect Kraftwerk records since about 1993. I'm a real fan of them! So in the year 2000 I've decided to sculpt them - just for myself. I've bought some old Mattel Ken figures (that guy from Barbie, you know) at flea markets, "decapitated" them and sculpted the Kraftwerk heads to apply them onto the bodies. First of all I sculpted them and then I built moulds and casted them with resin. Then I realized how hard it is to get some clothes for Ken - even in good toy stores! So I had to sew the red shirts and grey pants on my own - horrible work! Thank god I found some black shoes at the flea market! I've tried to get in contact with Kraftwerk by sending some photos of the dolls to Kraftwerk's former EMI manager, but there came no feedback at all - unfortunately! But I've expected that...

Kraftwerk Action Figures

Dirk Roessler has made these sculptures of Kraftwerks band members.a must have for the Kraftwerk nerd.

"As a big fan of the German Band KRAFTWERK I sculptured the whole band 1999 (each figure 12" height)."

 

Not the most interesting post I've written eeh.  Lets tune in for a cool Kraftwerk clip to compensate the above...

Trans Europa Express

 

Kraftwerk rarities - Kohoutek and vintage ad

I love to scroll through the old stuff and see what I can find. Today I stumbled upon some cool Kraftwerk stuff. I found this amazing Kraftwerk vintage poster on Vintageadbrowser.com. Really cool.

Also, the always interesting twitterbomber Valery Levacher lead me to this soundclip. Its "Kohoutek" the first version of Kometen melodie part. Strange sentence there...

 

Amazing Kraftwerk Autobahn clip

I just love this Kraftwerk clip when they are performing Autobahn. You get the 100% electronic Kraftwerk totally live in their Kraut-rock period. Ahead of its time - is a phrase that pops to mind.

 

Kraftwerk - The Catalogue

Kraftwerk has released this neat box called The Catalogue containing 8 of their albums from 1973 to 2003. All albums are digitally remastered, with most of the cover art redesigned, including rare photographs in the liner notes that were not part of each album's original release. For real fans the box is also released in a german version called Der Katalog.

"We've been digitally transferring all of Kraftwerk's original recordings and sound sources from our badly degrading master tapes while our engineers, Fritz and Henning, have been working in parallel to remaster our early albums for re-release. So for the first time, our recordings will be available in crisp, clear Kling Klang sound with all the fold-out covers and images our label at the time either messed up or wouldn't pay for. There will be some alternate mixes of tracks and some unedited versions, but unfortunately we don't have much unreleased material. We never recorded extra songs or twenty different versions of the same song. We would complete a song and then move forward, always keeping very focused on one Kling Klang project at a time." Ralf Hütter

The box includes these albums:

Autobahn' (1974), Radio-Activity' (1975), Trans Europe Express' (1977), The Man Machine' (1978), Computer World' (1981), Techno Pop' (1986), The Mix' (1991), Tour De France' (2003)

Its a bit strange though that Kraftwerk doesn't release their first three albums in this box. I guess they try to cover for and leave out their horrible past with Pink Floyd wannabe sound and hippie looks.

A good christmas present you say? Hmm, maybe not. British music magazine Uncut gave a not too promising review of it:

"Sadly, the remaster is a fiasco. The soft tones of “Computer Love” become sharp, the wide spaces of “Home Computer” contract into tunnels, and “Pocket Calculator” bears down on us like a spiked ceiling in a horror film. Equally poor is the remastered Radio-Activity, where atmospheric crackles and hisses have been removed by noise reduction software. For pity’s sake, they’re part of the music! Autobahn, Trans-Europe Express, and The Man-Machine have less sound-quality issues but are all inferior to the original EMI CDs. Anyone planning to buy the 8 CD The Catalogue would be well-advised to sample an individual remaster first."

 

 

How do you un-listen Kraftwerk?

The last couple of days I've listened to Kraftwerks new remastered catalog, which is available on Spotify HERE. And it is a fantastic band and all, and their importance for the synth movement is monumental.

But I find them a bit hard to listen to. I like their music, but it is like listening to the Beatles. You know every melody so well that it feels a bit boring to listen to it. And the sad thing is that Depeche Mode is becoming such a band for me as well. I've listened to them since I was 4 years old. I know their songs by now, too well.

I would like to un-listen Kraftwerk.

Interesting about Kraftwerk

They sure influenced a lot of people, as you can see in this Youtube movie

Youtube via vanelektrik

I Have Synth, Links
Author: 

I Have Synth

Biography: 

Been into synthesizers for 15 years, but never a technical geek. I'm a member of the band Velours Perfect, and have had electronic music as a hobby since I stopped playing with G.I Joe Figures. I buy and sell synths all the time, sometimes manically, and my favourite synth varies, right now it is the Alesis Ion. On this blog you can read about whatever comes out of my mind, mostly synthesizer-related stuff though. Bzzt!

 

I'm also on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and off course Ihavesynth.

 

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