Customer Reviews

Minimum Maximum

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After more than 35 years of pioneering the genre of electronic music, the legendary German band Kraftwerk has conquered another first in their long career - a live album and what an album it is!!!
"Minimum-Maximum" is a double-CD recorded during Kraftwerk's 2004 tour and contains music from nearly every era of the group's career (except for their very early experimental period). It is essentially a greatest hits album performed live. For those who may fear that a Kraftwerk live album will sound identical to a studio release, fear not. The music performed here is full of fresh approaches and energy not apparent in their studio albums. The rhythms and sequences are heavier and have more of a punch. Also, the sound of a live audience heard over the course of the entire album adds even more excitement to the musical atmosphere. On "Dentaku", you can hear the enthusiastic Japanese crowd singing along while on "Music Non Stop", you can hear people clapping along with the song's relentless rhythm.
Indeed, all of the music on "Minimum-Maximum" is very well performed and proves that Kraftwerk is definitely an established live band and not just reclusive studio perfectionists. Besides containing great music, the CD booklet also includes several color photos of the band onstage during the concerts standing behind their workstations while images of the music's lyric content is projected on the large screens behind them.
"Minimum-Maximum" is Kraftwerk at their very best. Since they are a band who doesn't tour regularly, this double-live CD defnitely serves as the next best thing to being at one of their concerts.
Buy this disc, put it on, sit back and enjoy the ride!!!

Kraftwerk walk on stage at precisely the start time on your ticket. They don't say one word. The four of them take their places at their respective lecterns, each fitted with a laptop (looks like a Vaio) and the blips and beeps begin. Who knows what they're doing up there? They could be shopping for new drives or chatting to each other about the characters in the front row.

This is a compilation of lives tracks from the original electronic reich's 2004 tour around the world. It flows together like one show, since indeed they played the exact same set at just about every show.

How different can it sound? It just does. This album sounds amazing. If you've seen this incarnation of Ralf and Florien and the crew, they sound rich, full, punchy, magnificent on stage. The beats, the timbres, the blips, the vocoder action. This is one of the best live albums I've ever heard. It flows perfectly, starting with The Man Machine, which proves that Kraftwerk was inventing beats while everyone else was a census projection. The Tour de France suite is excellent, prompting you to move your head side to side, as if you're watching their colorful, hypnotic video screen while the men-machine themselves hardly move a muscle.

For Kraftwerk fans, it's...just get it, or you'll hear someone else raving about it. The hits are here, a healthy amount of the latest album (Tour de France soundtracks) is here, and about the only improvised part, the long breakdown sequence of Musique Non Stop/Techno Pop, closes the whole thing out. The thing rocks. Numbers is amazing. Radioactivity is heavy and menacing, then mildly pleasant as it reminds us that radioactivity is 'in the air, for you and me'. They sing about Vitamins, and they're obsessed with cycling. The Model, Autobahn, The Robots, it's all here. It sounds better than ever, the punch of the bass, the big, fat, rich sound of the show is alive on tiny plastic discs.

Kraftwerk was inventing hip hop beats for the Bronx from a secret lab in Dusseldorf. Nice packaging, too. Sparse book with great photos, and the usual Kraftwerkian handling of the whole brand/persona.

I don't care if these guys are still playing at 80 years old, they rule, and can make lecterns into the best rock props ever.

Live albums serve one of four purposes:
- An opportunity to try alternate arrangements and versions of songs
- To capture the energy and expressiveness of a performer in a live setting
- To create a "best of" package that might also appeal to fans who already own the back catalog
- An excuse to pad the artist's catalog and create more product

Minimum-Maximum falls primarily in the first category. Kraftwerk get an opportunity to revisit and re-think some of their finest compositions and breath fresh life into them. Kraftwerk's greatest strengths have always been exploring interesting synth voices and building intricate rhythms out of multiple minimalist parts. The synths sound stunning.

For example, "Radioactivity" leaps out of the speakers with an impact and a richness that the 70s studio recording can't match. The slow motion, restrained, heavy momentum of the original is replaced with an energy and urgency in this version. When the synth hook melody line finally appears over hard hitting percussion and sparse but rich synth textures, it hangs in the air with a crystalline purity and beauty that provides a 3-D sonic depth.

This CD allows Kraftwerk to utilize their strengths (inspired synth programming and sound manipulation, brilliant production, creative variations on themes, exploration of rhythmic subtleties) without running up against their weakness (composition - not that their compositions are weak, but rather Kraftwerk have a hard time composing new material, as demonstrated by the years between releases, and the sparseness of total out-put over a 35 year career). The live setting gives Kraftwerk an excuse to work and explore within familiar themes without appearing to plagiarize their own work; and this works exceedingly well.

Even tracks like "The Robots" where the variations don't drift far from the originals take on a unique flavor as live pieces. Whereas the studio track had a momentum and power running under it, giving it the sense of an irresistible march of technology, the live version has a lighter, faster touch that feels more like a victory dance than a march.

The sounds, recording quality and production update and enliven the older songs in a way that may well make them more accessible to a new audience. This CD couldn't sound better if it had been a studio recording, and the mixes are as close to perfection as humans can get.

Does that mean these versions are better than the originals and can replace the originals? Not always, and not in all ways. I still like the restrained power of the studio version of "Radioactivity." "The Robots" from Man-Machine is nearly perfect as is. But these versions standup on their own and are fully enjoyable as separate visions of the compositions.

Whereas The Mix tended to water-down the originals by adding electronica elements used by other artists, the variations and additions on this CD are pure Kraftwerk. If a piece contains a musical cliché, it is only because Kraftwerk first coined it. This is wall-to-wall Kraftwerk, so the pieces aren't weakened by the change in arrangements.

The only way this live outing fails is as "an excuse to pad the artist's catalog." There is no padding here.

Kraftwerk have always been something of a reclusive artist. Instead preferring to avoid the irritations of having to conform to press releases, interviews or general promotion of their albums. (in most cases carefully prepared photo shoots, and pre-written statements are generally handed to the music press, before any albums release, as the band, rarely give interviews). And coupled with the fact that, over the years, the band's album workrate, has...not so much ground to a halt, but suffered. But any new material is met with anticipated glee. (Last album: 2003's "Tour de France Soundtracks" containing a mixture of retooled or remixed work). So the decision to take 2004's World tour, using the ensuring material as from the Live performances and releasing it as a pseudo-unofficial:"Greatest Hits" album, was a strange choice for sure.

The tracks collected here, are from the various cities around the world that the World Tour encompassed. (Moscow, Warsaw, Budapest, San Francisco, London, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, etc), and although these performances are live, crowd noise has been kept to a minimum, with any crowd appreciation relegated to the beginning or end of tracks. This is a incredibly useful approach for those that routinely feel that crowd noise spoils the performances on live recordings. In fact there is the slight suspicion that these recordings may have had a little bit of studio engineering applied to them, as the recordings are pin sharp, with little interference, glitches or incorrect sound levels on all of the material/tracks. Whether this can be taken as a not wholly 'Live' recording is a subject for debate, but everyone will agree that a great deal of care and attention, has been taken over the recording of the material here. (and seeing as Kraftwerk, were always 'Perfectionists', this comes as no surprise).

What will come as a surprise, to those hearing this album for the very first time, is the fact that the material played here, isn't merely the retro-sounding, detached, cerebral and clinically perfect music that we all know as familiar. Instead Kraftwerk have taken every track, and not so much 'Remixed' it, but think more of each track being either 'Retooled', 'Updated', 'Modernised'. Because each track has been modernised, and brought up to date, with a more contemporary sound, and undoubtedly uses far more advanced studio equipment, than the original recordings, which would in someways, now sound a little bit antiquated. So although every track sounds as you'd expect it to sound, they all have a far more 'refurbished' sound, and where as the previous sound may have been more akin to cheap Casio keyboard/Synth sounds, it now sounds a little less Retro, (although they remain resolutely faithful, to the originals), and have merely been performed on more expensive, richer sounding equipment. So favourites such as: "Trans Europe Express", "Tour De France", "The Model", "Radioactivity", "Computer World", "The Robots"...bristle with a slightly more sophisticated cool, and where previously the music was limited by the ability of the studio recording techinicalitys of the Mid-70's, and Kraftwerks actual vision for the music, possibly limited by the technical ability of the equipment....it now sounds more fleshed out, hypnotic, and more refined, and possibly even more muscular sounding. The effect, is astonishing, with arguably music that was era-defining to begin with, now having a slightly new twist, and now sounds more glorified, and less sparse than the originals. Kraftwerk are also very careful to maintain the integrity of the originals, so nothing sounds out of place or added merely for effect. With a great deal of care and consideration of the originals, left perfectly intact, just newer sounding and more energised. Although they are definitely NOT replacements for the originals, they serve as extremely well-judged accompaniments to the stunning originals.

As is the way with the usually evasive Kraftwerk, a normally produced 'Best of', wouldn't have sufficed. Instead what we get is a (studio enhanced??) Live album, recorded in around various different cities, that contains all the fans favourites, which have been modernised and engineered to mirror the originals, but with the limitations of the original studio equipment, no longer an obstacle. That now makes the tracks sound very 'Familiar', but almost 'New' sounding. And this will cause of debate amongst purists. Some will quite rightly argue that what made the originals so brilliant was their 'simplicity', and Sparse, clinical robotic sounds, and should have been left in their untouched glory, if this is a supposed to be a (unofficial) 'Best of' of their work. And there will be those that argue that Kraftwerk have always strived towards technological perfection, and the 'Retouching' of their back catalogue is merely in keeping with the constant evolution of their music, and these 'updated' versions of their tracks, sound absolutely fantastic, and most fans will have the original albums in their collection anyway. It's two very valid arguments and if pushed for a decision, I'd have to say that I probably fall into the latter camp, as the sound is so beautifully arranged & sequenced, that I truly can find little fault with the fidelity of the recordings. Irrespective of where you stand on this issue, it has to been made clear that anyone with a fondness for Kraftwerk (Die-hard fan, Causal, or otherwise), needs to immediately pick up this exceptional/essential double CD live recording of one of electronic music original forefathers.

What a surprise! A live Kraftwerk album and only 2 years after the "comeback" Tour De France Soundtracks! Wow! It has been 29 years since I first listened to them, as an avid young music fan always seeking new stuff I tried the single Radioactivity/Antenna and I instantly became a totally committed Krafterk fan. One of the few, to be honest, especially in Italy, where they were obscured by other German groups such as Tangerine Dream and Can (of course, I like them too). Funny, very funny to me, that it was Kraftwerk who had to experience critical acclaim and mass success with their post-Radioactivity albums and who became the most influential band since the Beatles, one could easily say that there is nothing electronic in the pop world which has not been influenced one way or another by them. Funnier still thinking about their first albums, virtually unknown by most and sadly erased in their minds by Ralf & Florian themselves, excellent experimental electronic music borrowing from the best sources (Stockhausen, Glass etc.) but wildly (?!) creative (get them if you can, 3 albums that will change the way you see Kraftwerk, the progression from the first album to Computer World is absolutely rigorous and logical). However, personally I rank Kraftwerk among the most important musicians of the 20th century (the judgement is suspended for the 21st...) and I think there is not a single wrong note in any of their albums, so I'm a little biased, you understand. This live album works best if seen as a Greatest Hits of sorts, all in all is electronic music, you hardly expect an incendiary guitar solo or an "impassioned" vocal interpretation! Nonetheless, Ralf & Florian still manage to infuse some new life in past gems or renew old arrangements or slighly alter even the tracks taken from the last album and the sound, of course, is great, so who's complaining? Not me, of course, even though I would have appreciated a couple of inedits (don't be mistaken, Planet of Vision is Expo 2000 with new "words"). But in the end I'm only to happy that they're still "alive" and "kicking" and let's hope they enjoy the ride and not make us wait 17 years again to hear a new studio album.

This is Kraftwerks first live album and it rocks. I'm sure all Kraftwerk fans will be very pleased with this 2-disk live recording because it features all of Kraftwerk's greatest hits inluding Autobahn, The Model, The Robots, Trans Europe Express, and 18 others. To me, these live tracks sound better than the old recordings because of the big basses and pads sounds.

If you are a Kraftwerk fan, or a new one, this live album is a must. It's just great!

Kraftwerk appeared very little in North America for their 2004 2005 concerts. I was able to attend three separate concerts. This isn't as good as being there but this is the actual 2004-2005 concert song list as it was in the concerts! Sound quality is great on the CD. Get it now! Kraftwerk rocks on!!!

I've been a Kraftwerk fan for 36 years. I took my family to see them live in Seattle about 8 months ago. I was overwhelmed. They initially thought dear old dad was nuts to take them to the concert. By concert's end, they too had become Kraftwerk fans. This live CD is amazing. I am not a fan of most live CD's since the tunes usually don't sound as great as the studio versions. This is just terrific. If you're a fan of techno-rock......these are the guys who started it all. They've basically influenced almost every rock band on planet Earth. These are the guys..........listen and be amazed.

One wouldn't generally think of Kraftwerk as a naturally great live band. Interestingly enough, they turn out to be brilliant live! With the tweaks to the original versions just different enough to make it clear that these numbers are in some sense actually being "performed."

Kraftwerk's influence on the music scene cannot be overstated. Their best albums date indeed back from the 70s, but with the excellent "come-back" 2003 "Tour de France Soundtracks" album, Kraftwerk proved they continue to be relevant. There has never been a proper "greatest hits" album, although the 1992 compilation "The Model" is a decent attempt. Nor has there been proper live album, although the 1998 release "Concert Classics" is a worthwhile recording of a 1975 concert. All this has been solved now.

"Minimum Maximum" (2 CDs, 22 tracks, 120 min.) is an overview of Kraftwerk's 2004 Spring tour of the US and Europe (although curiously only 1 track is in fact culled from the US tour). It offers nothing short of the greatest hits album we have all been waiting for, even if the songs are live. CD1 (10 tracks, 54 min.) focuses heavily on the "Tour de France Soundtracks" album, with 6 tracks (there are 2 more on CD2), but also offers great versions of "Autobahn" and "Neon Lights". CD2 (12 tracks, 66 min.) is even better, with a greatly reworked "Radioactivity" kicking things off. "Trans Europe Express/Metal on Metal" is equally entrancing. Then comes a stretch of the "Computer World" album tracks, just awesome. The closer "Music Non Stop" is better than that album ever was.

This is a terrific album all around. Even if you have most of Kraftwerk's albums already (as I do), it is great to have the best known and loved Kraftwerk's tracks in a single place. Highly recommended!