Customer Reviews

Kraftwerk And The Electronic Revolution

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This documentary attempts to cover the rise of German electronic and experimental music from the 1960s, centered on Kraftwerk. There are perhaps two documentaries here: one an overview of the career of Kraftwerk, and the other the development of native German music. I found the latter more interesting, but I enjoyed it all.

If your interest is just in Kraftwerk, you may not get enough out of this to justify the time. If you are mostly unfamiliar with German music from the '60s, picking it up, as I did, with Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream and Neu! in the '70s, then you may find the first hour as interesting as I did.

It's definitely worth the money, and it's on DVD, so you don't have to watch it all at once.

I have to admit that I am a HUGE Kraftwerk fan, and when I fell on this, I just knew I had to get it. The goal of this 3 hour documentary is not simply to tell the story of just Kraftwerk, but also of the German music scene in the 60s and 70s, the Berlin vs. Dusseldorf schools of music, etc. The first hour or so brings a lot of attention to the so-called Krautrock acts like Amon Duul, Can, and Neu!, but also electronic avant-garde bands like Harmonia, Cluster, etc. Incredibly Klaus Schulze, one of my favorite electronic music artists, is interviewed extensively as well.

The second half of the documentary is more focused on Kraftwerk's career, from the first three (and later disavowed) albums on to the mainstream success that "Autobahn" was, and so on. Karl Bartos, member of Kraftwerk from 1975 to 1990, is also interviewed extensively, and not surprisingly has the most interesting insight and stories of anyone interviewed. Towards the end of the documentary, attention is given to the lasting legacy of Kraftwerk, from the influence on Brian Eno and David Bowie, to the disco scene and Giorgio Moroder (who of course recorded in Germany), to acts like the Human League (thumbs up from Bartos) and Gary Numan (thumbs down from Bartos, dismissing Numan as a 'parody'). And on and on. The 3 hours just flew by to be honest. Be aware, this is NOT a Kraftwerk concert movie (for that, check out the "Minimum Maximum" DVD) or even biography. Instead, this should be seen as nothing more (or less) than a history lesson on a particular slice of music history, which I happen to find fascinating.

There are a couple of extras on the DVD: a 10 min. further look into the Berlin vs. Dusseldorf schools of music, another 10 min. of the Karl Bartos interview, which I wish they would just give us in its entirety, and a bio on all of the people who were interviewed for the documentary, which is actually quite helpful. If you are a serious Kraftwerk fan, you will not want to miss this, period.

First of all, I loved this movie. Then again, I am very much into the Krautrock scene that Kraftwerk sprang from and found that very fascinating. The first hour of this movie is not really concentrated on Kraftwerk, but on how electronic music and Krautrock - anti-popular, avant-garde "rock" - came from Germany, and how it developed on different levels (academic, cultural, and 'normal' music channels) I think most Kraftwerk fans will be interested but if you're thinking "I don't give a damn about Popul Vuh, tell me about Kraftwerk" you will find it VERY boring. The filmmakers I think did Kraftwerk a great service by this, however, because they show that while Kraftwerk were amazingly innovative and fresh their cultural context was not a vacuum, however it seemed to the West when "Autobahn" was a hit. All that said, all the popular Kraftwerk stuff from Autobahn on was dealt with as well as can be expected with no big surprises to uncover. When specific pieces of equipment were discussed, I found that fascinating, but the obligatory talking heads ("Krautrock expert", "Music Reviewer") discussing records got a little bland. All the discussions by the actual musicians in the Krautrock scene (and 1 former Kraftwerk member, a coup I imagine for the film makers) were great.
The post-Kraftwerk explosion and influence I thought would be uninteresting but it was actually very watchable and engaging - starting with the drum machines on Donna Summer's hit, to Bowie's experiments in Berlin, and then to 80's pop music.
I have one tiny thing to complain about, and that's with all the talk about some great and obscure Krautrock artists, why did Faust get shafted? FAUST!?!? Only mentioned once, in passing? Maybe they weren't "typical" Krautrockers but as the movie showed, there were only a few threads linking all the Krautrock bands together and they weren't musical as much as they were conceptual......anyway, yeah, good movie!

I suppose any stab at making a Kraftwerk documentary should raise interest given what little is known about the band personally. What I found the most entertaining was the interview with Karl Bartos since he actually had some influence and co-wrote several Kraftwerk tracks. Some of the archive footage of the bands featured are also fun to watch. Most of the interviews are with writers and journalists which grow tired and a bit boring for my tastes....lots of old men mumbling into the camera and looking bored if you know what I mean.
The documentary is three hours, and while I rarely complain about length with such a fascinating subject, the film simply runs too long. There are endless opinions and rambling soliloquies within the interviews that had me fast-forwarding more often than I would have liked. I simply don't care what random music journalists think about the Kraftwerk sound, and the film would have been much better if the editors cut out the blathering. The film doesn't really deal with Kraftwerk that much either. It trails off and discusses other artists far too much for its own good. I understand that the title of the film is "Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution", but the title still manages to be misleading. It may be my own fault as I already know a great deal about electronic music history in general, so I would mildly recommend this DVD to those who don't have much knowledge about Kraftwerk or their music. If you are like me, though, and already have all the Kraftwerk albums and dedicate yourself to experiencing electronic/experimental music regularly, I certainly would urge you to pass on this DVD.

This documentary is about more than just Kraftwerk. It talks about the Zodiac movement, and the early stages of Krautrock. The hippies and groupies of the late sixties that were exploring music outside of the standard. Studying electronic music and experimental space music. And it's fair to say that its humble beginnings were in Hamburg, Germany.

Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, Can, Kluster, Tangerine Dream, and the such were explored throughout this documentary. Kraftwerk was mentioned often here because it is obvious that Kraftwerk was the strongest influence of the directions of many experimental musicians, from Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, all the way up to David Bowie and Depeche Mode and The Orb. This DVD is definitely worth having if you enjoy learning about some of the pioneers of various technical sound inventions that added shape to all the electronic music that we know today.

One of my favorite albums growing up was The Man Machine. So when I learned that Kraftwerk were to be performing on July 2nd (2009)as the opening gig at the Manchester Festival I wanted to learn more.

The DVD is a comprehensive review of the genre. It is 3 hours long and is an excellent documentary of the times, the music, the people. I found it to be fascinating and (it) filled in many, many wide gaps of my musical knowledge from my youth.

Absolute 5 Stars.

...nevertheless, I've been waiting for something like this to be made for years! What is really fantastic is that this is the first time I've seen a Klaus Schulze (whose career is also documented in this 3-hour long film) interview--seeing him and actually hearing him answer questions about his role in the rise in electronic music is a real gift for someone like myself who has listening to his music since I was in high school. It is true that maybe only half to two-thirds of this film is devoted to Kraftwerk, and the rest is a history of the post-'60s German rock scene, but if you love this type of music (like yours truly), you owe it to yourself to purchase a copy of this DVD. You will not regret it.

The art rock scene that exploded in the early 80's & even in the late 70's owes a HUGE wealth of debt to Kraftwerk..they were a band that wasn't all about loud guitars & songs about debauchery...they played weird, often times odd music with off the wall timings, unique instrumentation, & there was an entire scene of bands that came out when Kraftwerk did that paved the way for this entire genre of electronic music...in all honesty, I think Trent Reznor wouldn't be the same man he is today without this genre! This dvd tells the story of this scene, the bands, the fans, & it's a great look at a forgotten genre & forgotten scene that never really got it's recognition from the mainstream...the dvd drags on a little at times, but overall, it's a great reference point to learn about Kraftwerk & the early electronic music revolution that paved the way for the Industrial rock scene that would follow many years later.

[...]

This is a great documentary. For my money it's one of the best I've seen in a while. I know there are probably some of you out there who would say that Kraftwerk is not a progressive rock band. Well, if you watch this DVD I think you'll find that truly they came directly out of the prog rock movement - and share a lot of musical territory with Can and Tangerine Dream. Much of this massive documentary (it's three hours long) shows the origins of the scene that gave birth to Kraftwerk. As opposed to many of the videos in this mode this one focuses more acutely on the one group. For that reason I'm putting this one under "Kraftwerk" rather than under "Various Artists." That said, there is enough about bands like Tangerine Dream to make this of interest to their fans. This really is a great work. It might well be my favorite documentary of the year. Fans of progressive rock should pick it up for a greater understanding of the German side of the experimental movements. Kraftwerk fans and Tangerine Dream fans will want to pick this up for their collections for sure. What a great and intensive work this is!

I've just watched this movie tonight and I must say that I've been quite impressed. Being DJ and producer, I have been a heavy listener and purchaser of all sorts of music for the last 32 years (my first record was Jean-Michel Jarre Equinoxe purchased at the age of 7). I was always very curious to know more about the influence Kraftwerk had on the electronic music scene. This comes as a very well known fact, but this film gives highly detailed explanations, back to the very begining of modern Germany. I even understood why Bowie moved to Berlin and how he ended up working with Brian Eno. The only parts lacking, probably due to the fact that people in charge of this documentary are a bit too "old" to know about, are the influence Kraftwerk's "Computerwelt" has had on many contemporary minimal/techno artists. But this seems quite obvious to everyone I guess... What is quite remarkable in this documentary is its length (almost 3 hours), and the level of detailed explanations it goes into to address the various mysteries behind the Men Machine. I wish all music documentaries could be so precise and well documented. Definitely a must see for all electronic and underground music fans.