OMG FLORIAN SCHNEIDER-ELSEBEN LEAVES KRAFTWERK!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7813200.stm

(anagram)

Kraftwerk RIP.

Not so, they b touring with Radiohead, as the news story makes clear.

But Kraftwerk = Hütter & Schneider. Just one of them cannot just use that name, even though maybe his partner lets him. I mean....

Florian's left before, there's a fantastic (i.e. you'd hate it Geir) live bootleg of the initial lineup without him (i.e. Ralf and Neu)...

Also, always seemed the least 'comitted' at times.

Reckon they might actually make more frequent records?

Or pack immediately after the tour, sure...

Dude needs to spend time with his many, many bicycles.

That's Ralf (more)

Florian's left before, there's a fantastic (i.e. you'd hate it Geir) live bootleg of the initial lineup without him (i.e. Ralf and Neu)...

Wrong, it was Ralf who left, leaving Florian + Neu

ohhhhhh

I hear new album is to be called "Ralf and ..."

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Florian didn't enjoy playing live and maybe the idea of touring with Radihead was the straw that broke the camel's back

But Kraftwerk = Hütter & Schneider. Just one of them cannot just use that name, even though maybe his partner lets him. I mean....

What did I see three weeks ago then?

Maybe it's going to be like a Brian Wilson/Beach Boys deal - ie, Florian still writes and records with Ralf, but doesn't tour?

Florian doesn't write that much stuff, I think

Ralf's the Brian of Kraftwerk

Hmm. Can't really bring myself to care. The chances of getting any new music out of them were bloody slim, I imagine, so ... does it really matter who's up there on stage? They really should be doing the whole bloody show with robots by now. COME ON, GUYZ, IT'S THE FUTURE.

Florian doesn't write that much stuff, I think ... Ralf's the Brian of Kraftwerk

Also, yeh, this ^: reading Pascal Bussy's book a few years back did suggest that Florian's input was more about wafting around the place being Florian-esque, rather than toiling on songs.

Florian's more on the sound designing side. There's a bit in (possibly) Bussy's book where Florian smugly states that he can listen to the sound of a plane flying overhead and know all the components of the sound and how to recreate it in the studio.

At least he's not the Mike of Kraftwerk

If Florian is the sound man of Kraftwerk, and Ralf is the songwriter, surely that means Florian's more important?

I'll let Geir answer that one

I wouldn't go as far as Tuomas, but I will say Kraftwerk's always sounded really warm to me, so Florian must bring something.

What I meant to say is, surely the importance of Kraftwerk is more due to their sound than to their abilities as songwriters? (Not that they didn't write good songs too.)

not much of a surprise, florian didn't appear on recent tours

If Kraftwerk had never picked up synths and had released the same songs played with traditional instruments, I don't think people would remember them that fondly.

(x-post)

o_O

Kraftwerk SUPPORTING Radiohead and not the other way around is what's really OMG about this

Sick world.

Coincidentally, o_O is how Thom Yorke looks most of the time.

I think it's weird Kraftwerk even bother fucking with a crappy rock band like Radiohead. I guess it's the money...

Those bikes don't come cheap

If Kraftwerk had never picked up synths

I think they'd still be a good band, maybe not quite as famous. But they wouldn't be regarded as innovators.

But I think Ralf was the one playing the synths, early on, for the most part

Playing the synths does not equal desigining the sound though. I'm sure their division of labour is not totally clear-cut, but if Ralf is more like the songwriter and Florian more like the sound designer, I wouldn't say Florian is less important.

All true

Yeh, but in my experience there's quite a fine line between "designing the sound" and "talking shite and really pissing off the guy who's actually doing the programming". However: it's a moot point, because the whole studio process was shrouded in such mystery that we've no real idea who was doing what, and of course a creative partnership can't be quantified in such simple terms anyway.

not much of a surprise, florian didn't appear on recent tours

Oh, right: I didn't even know that. In that case, this matters not an iota of a jot (unless some poor, misguided saps really did think there was ever going to be a new Kraftwerk album).

Oh come on, it's not that long (in "Kraftwerk years") since their last one!

No, I know -- but really, did you honestly think they'd be arsed to make another one? Ever?

Yes! I don't think they'd still be touring otherwise.

Hey, think of all the new material that must come from all that jamming onstage.

Jamming at the soundcheck with the roadies

Maybe they're touring just because they need the cash? Even though they must still get plenty of royalties from their old tunes, releasing exactly one album in 20 years means they probably won't be getting that much money from record sales.

They still have the royalites from their entire back catalogue, which they're in control of. If they really need money but don't like touring, they could make a pile doing music for adverts.

Yeh, but that would involve creating something new. Which they don't appear to have been all that interested in for the past couple of decades.

The more I think about this, the more I wonder: why is he even bothering to leave?

To spend even more time with his family?

Karl and Wolfgang wrote all the actual 'song' songs, innit? they've not released an actual original composition in 23 years, if this means Ralf can hit the road for a couple of years and bring joy to people then put his feet up, hurrah

they blew out the Melbourne show last month cos one of the other dudes had a heart incident backstage though, its likely there won't be too much touring on the cards

Karl did write a lot of stuff

yeah ultimately I don't really see why he felt compelled to leave.

maybe this could mean we get to see those elusive remasters?

yeah ultimately I don't really see why he felt compelled to leave

Unless Ralf's basically had enough of him: "You don't come on tour, you just sit about the studio listening to jumbo jets and saying, 'I could do that' ... go on, take your puncture-repair kit and fuck off."

LOL @ Ralf calling Florian lazy

We need a "who would win in a fight" poll including everyone who has ever been in Kraftwerk.

My fiver's on Conny Plank!

Yes, he looked like he could handle himself

I would say Wolfgang, not just because "lol drummer hits things" but because he's got a reason to hit at least R and F.

My fiver's on Conny Plank!

Better make that a sixer, since Plank is dead.

At any rate, it sucks symbolically, but people are kidding themselves if they think this means much of anything substantively. Kraftwerk is Ralf's baby -- Florian doesn't really DO anything anymore.

I'm ready to believe it but what makes you say that?

Everything in that Bussy book indicated that Florian totally began to check out around, IIRC, "Tour de France." And various other articles and profiles have confirmed that more or less (as did seeing them live in '04 or so).

I mean, don't get me wrong, dude used to do this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/08/Florian_Schneider_1970.jpg/220px-Florian_Schneider_1970.jpg

You're such fanboys.
Without Florian and any significant contribution for the past 10 years or so, Kraftwerk's value has gone low. And Florian didn't call it quits because he didn't feel like opening for Radiohead, in all performances they did live last year Florian wasnt there anymore.

Radiohead > Kraftwerk

Want me to make a stupid poll to prove my point?

last album was dope

Let's not go down this road.

xpost

Maybe Florian will join forces with Wolfgang on their "Remember Us?" DJ tour

Radiohead > Kraftwerk

Want me to make a stupid poll to prove my point?

― Moka, Tuesday, January 6, 2009 11:16 PM (Yesterday)

YES PLZ

Just make sure it ends 5 weeks from now

Haha Kraftwerk years, yes:

apart from Hütter, the lineup will be Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz (the two 'new ones', who have been there since 1991)

^^^^(from a Norwegian musicsite)

strongly doubt they'd drop the actual new guy that made up the numbers on last year's tours

Kraftwerk rule.

xpost Ha yes, video technician guy I think? They gotta be four.

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/28760/1/kraftwerk-s-co-founder-made-this-track-to-save-the-oceans

Save the fisssssccccche!

OMG I can't cope with this.

The dripping tap / bouncing ball sound is oddly Aphex Twin TBH.

Nice side-swipe at "museum piece" Kraftwerk. Meow!

Come on; Ralf has been promising "new Kraftwerk music, any day now" for 5 years, but Florian just goes and knocks out a tune IN HIS BATHTUB for a climate conference and you lot have nothing to say about it?

Correction: it was recorded in Telex's bathtub, in Belgium

this is good is about all i have to say about it right now. but it is good.

it is! If this was what the new Kraftwerk ended up being, I would be happy.

I've been listening to it on repeat for over an hour an it just has that delicious off-kilter BONKERSness that I associate with Florian. And the sound production is just aaaah, gorgeous (and I am going to spend the rest of the decade imagining him in a bathtub with a microphone. And emulating wave sounds with his synths!)

I love his voice, too. I know he doesn't have as "good" as singing voice as Ralf but his voice is just so characterful and distinctive.

...that weird kind of creaky sound, like a rubber thing being overstretched... It's just such a perfect sound fetishist detail which perfectly dovetails with the theme.

rubber duck being stretched?

(More likely an inner tube)

((Unless you're making a "Florian in the bath" joke))

I think he is. Reminds me a little of Dieter Moebius.

... that'll be the off-kilter BONKERSness.

Schneider and Moebius would have been an interesting combination, for sure.

(But I expect all things Cluster were verboten in the Schneider-Esleben camp after a certain point.)

yup, a florian in a bath joke

(xp) Ha, of course!

Florian, yesterday:

http://41.media.tumblr.com/ab1684183f7a281e120c1b6211e1119c/tumblr_mih0y8x2Sx1ru43g3o1_400.jpg

(I love Tumblr sometimes.)

I've not heard it yet, but the manner of it sounds a lot like my track from the "Syro" pre-cover..

he totally should make a full length album with uwe aka atom heart etc.
cannot think of a better double act.

They do hang out; I've seen the pics. It would be v v cute if they did something together.

I hope Florian makes more music. At least this kinda disproves the theory of "Ralf made him sign a thing saying he could never release music again!" or at least if he did, he's ignoring it. For the sake of the fisssssssscccche!

How can a man wearing a laundry bag look so beautiful?

https://41.media.tumblr.com/c190e8ccc3b94664ecf3161219fb1bfc/tumblr_nz5zloXVeH1qm9sieo1_540.png

"Erm, yes.. I'm looking for an album, its called "Ralf and Florian", yes it is rather old..."

wkiw

WKIW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm-NngACnY4&sns=em

Would go fishing with (oh wait I'm a vegetarian with a seafood allergy)

His robot dancing at the end = ILU ILU ILU

(I'm on a mobile so I've no idea if that worked?)

Save the fisssssccccche!

OMG I can't cope with this.

― La Düsseldork (Branwell with an N), Tuesday, December 8, 2015 7:03 PM (4 days ago)

^^^^^^^^ same

First proper interview (plus little "Düsseldorf Krautrock" (Florian's words, not mine!) jam session) in I don't even know how long. Unfortunately, it's in German and the sound/video quality is really terrible. He makes so many puns and does such wordplay that my poor German cannot keep up. But it's Florian being bouncy and chatty - and even showing off his dapper Argyle Socks - for about ten minutes. (And if you watch through to the end, there's a nice little performance from Cavern of Anti Matter.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBs0lx0ghgo