so....what about this Kraftwerk DVD?

27/06/2005

Kraftwerk DVD will be released in September...
EMI Records from Germany announced the release of upcoming
Kraftwerk Live DVD to 26/09/2005.

The DVD will bring recordings from 2004 Tour, with concert
images and audio from Europe (Poland, Slovenia, Latvia,
Estonia, Russia, France, Germany and England), USA (San
Francisco) and Japan (Tokyo).

The audio are the same from MINIMUM-MAXIMUM Double CD,
plus edited videos from Kraftwerk stage in several
angles, audience, Ralf, Florian, Fritz and Henning playing
live and used videos in background wide-screen.

I was just about in the front row and those were the greatest things: the little grins at each other, the little smirks when the crowd went nuts (and the crowd was very loud and into it and rhythmically correct when clapping along), the tiny pained looks (from Ralf mostly) when the intros to the "new" tracks weren't met by the same crowd roar as the older tracks (but when the dance beat kicked in the crowd exploded and his face relaxed too), Henning having to point at his tie because Fritz hadn't turned on the LED lights right before Numbers (and the tiny "tss!" grin and no-shaking of his head), the quick uneasy glances when the first note of one of their solos was too loud (mostly from those two young 'uns in the middle as well. all of them do play a lot more live than you would expect. I had listened to the live album quite a lot beforehand and the differences were very noticeable), the "yeah yeah, we know we're supposed to stand still all the time, but our knees move all by themselves" little dance moves from all of them (except Florian, who succeeded in standing still all the time (he did grin during those crowd explosions though and he went completely overboard during his Music Non Stop solo spot: he moved his upper body to the echo/filter sounds that started high and ended low, so his head was under his keyboard stand for a second. Then a quick grin, a boyish "oops" look at the very surprised looking others, a small theatrical jump off, a bow at the crowd and a running robot impression for his exit stage right - yes, Florian!).

Anyway. Festival set (everything from Minimum/Maximum in that order except Neon Lights and Pocket Calculator/Dentaku, which they didn't play), about 80 minutes, drastically shortened versions of some of the longer tracks (Autobahn and Radioactivity were only about 4 minutes each I think, but Trans Europe Express was the long version with Metal On Metal). Expected to be disappointed because I've seen them before and I had listened to the live album a little too much beforehand, but I still was very impressed.

So yeah, those subleties on DVD, hopefully!

(meanwhile, the "2004" remasters have been mentioned again too, but they're nowhere to be seen either)

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Kraftwerk Live-DVD coming soon: next December...
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Astralwerks announced 6 December 2005 as release date of
Kraftwerk Live-DVD for the USA. German EMI announced 5
December 2005.

Live-DVD will appear as a "Minimum-Maximum DVD" double
DVD disc set featuring the full live set from Kraftwerk's
2004-2005 World Tour in PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 surround
sound (plus bonus track of Aero Dynamik filmed live at
the MTV Music Awards in Edinburgh - 2003) and as a box
with the title "Notebook".

Contents of the "Notebook" is a deluxe 'laptop' style box
featuring the double DVD ("Minimum-Maximum DVD") and double
"Minimum-Maximum" audio CD from live set in exclusive 6 page
digi-packs with a wide format, 88 pages, hardback book
featuring a host of Kraftwerk live photos (including some
previously unseen images), stage artwork and technical
tour data.

Tracklist from "Minimum-Maximum DVD":

Disc One
01. Meine Damen Und Herren - 00:35
02. The Man Machine - 07:54
03. Planet Of Visions - 04:46
04. Tour De France 03 - 10:40
05. Vitamin - 06:42
06. Tour de France - 06:18
07. Autobahn - 08:52
08. The Model - 03:42
09. Neon Lights - 05:52
10. Radioactivity - 07:41
11. Trans Europe Express - 09:38

Disc Two
01. Numbers - 04:33
02. Computer World - 02:55
03. Home Computer - 05:55
04. Pocket Calculator/Dentaku - 06:14
05. The Robots - 07:23
06. Elektro Kardiogramm - 04:42
07. Aero Dynamik - 07:13
08. Music Non Stop - 09:49
09. Aerodynamik / MTV Awards 2003 - 03:48

"Minimum-Maximum" Audio CD & Vinyl editions are
available since 6th June, 2005.

Another package, "The Catalogue", bringing the
remastered versions of their 8 main albums as CD
and Vinyl editions, must be released soon without
confirmed release date by EMI and Astralwerks USA.

More information and fresh news:
http://www.kraftwerk.technopop.com.br/news_recent.php

Being sad, I ordered the Notebook - unfortunately it's been delayed by a week, but since this is Kraftwerk we're talking about it's hardly surprising.

The only extra is that MTV version of Aero Dynamik, that's suddenly 4:3 instead of widescreen like the rest, but it does prove how their live versions are NOT the same every time, so that'll shut up some of their critics, I hope.

Extremely recommended and unmissable, what did you expect me to say?

Will try very very hard to ignore that notebook package if I ever see it somewhere. It wouldn't be the first thing I buy more than once, but I'm trying to quit...

(The only extremely short and anonymous shot of the crowd: 1 hour and 1 minute into the show, during Radioactivity.)

(we see Ralph, Florian and the other two no-one cares about walk into the dressing room in single file with a neat, courteous casualness that can only be described as teutonic. The two no-one cares about walk into two large, rectangular open roadcases, reverse to face the camera, assume blank, plastic expressions, and seemingly turn off. The cases then close automatically).

Ralph: I thought Pocket Calculator went particularly nicely tonight. No detectable irregularities occurred.

Florian: Ja - the crowd expressed considerable satisfaction at the point where the song ended.

ralf and florian walk into the dressing room. a roadie kicks shut the door behind them. they stand stock still for two seconds. then ralf shouts: "WOOOAH DUDE GIMME FIVE!" and they crack open six magnums of champagne. a hi-tech hatch opens in the wall, revealing a futuristic space-age chamber containing writhing robot groupies atop a mound of cocaine. etc.

god damn, i hope i get this for christmas.