Kraftwerk & The Electronic - Revolution

History of Germany’s experimental underground

This three-hour history of the German electronic scene, which eventually alights on the mysterious Kraftwerk, is a cut above the usual documentary. Two years in the making, it features names that can actually be termed legendary, as Klaus Schulze, Cluster’s Conrad Schnitzler, Dieter Moebius and Hans Roachim Roedelius, plus German academics and journalists, recall the free jazz and electronic experimental movements, then arts labs, which threw up Amon Düül in 1967, while what became known as Krautrock emerged with Tangerine Dream, Can, Cluster, etc. Priceless live and studio footage from private collections illustrate their discourses.

Scene effectively set, the second part welcomes Dusseldorf’s Kraftwerk in 1970, including hilarious footage of their first line-up as flute-tootling hippies. Accompanied by relevant tracks, their story is picked up by former members Karl Bartos and Klaus Roder, plus early producer Klaus Lohmer, while commented on by those they influenced, such as Soft Cell’s Dave Ball. Nutshell-style, Kraftwerk were a loose electronic jamming band until they heard Giorgio Moroder’s I Feel Love in 1977 and transformed into the synthtoting disco robots who paved the way for techno and electro-pop. In the light of their elusiveness, this is an enlightening way to find out what made the machine men tick.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Chrome Dreams/Sexy Intellectual | SIDVD 541

Reviewed by Kris Needs
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