Kraftwerk & The Electronic Revolution (MVD DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: B
So much
Dance genre music and pieces of Hip Hop, Rock and even Pop have so much of an
electronic component, what once seemed weird is now both banal and shallow, but
there was a time when electronic music was always interesting and taken more
seriously. Some of the best came out of
Germany and in the late 1960s, an entire scene had arisen with some of the eras
trappings (like the Psychedelic movement) but with Progressive Rock and other
developments, bands like Can and Kraftwerk arrived and rewrote music
history. Kraftwerk & The Electronic Revolution is an excellent new three
hours-long documentary about the band, the history surrounding them the movement
and how they became the most important band of that movement.
While
Wendy Carlos was doing Bach and Stanley Kubrick films, the various German bands
were finally finding a form of German music without any outside influences,
which was not easy considering the huge successes of Motown, The Beatles and
California Rock. However, many of the bands
still had some loose connections to those or other outside ideas. Can (whose catalog just arrived on Super
Audio CD) had singing that might remind one of Yes or Santana to some extent,
but Kraftwerk were pushing into new direction, breaking new ground and Germany
would finally solidify a post-WWII music identity a quarter-century after its
fall.
Even with
three hours, a band like Can and the many others who also came up with great
albums only get so much coverage, so separate volumes should be produced on
them, but you do get the best impression possible of the time with plenty of
informative information to match. In the
end, you can see how all the bands and Kraftwerk in particular changed world
music and influenced the New Wave and Punk to some extent, plus were one of the
few forerunners of a band as important as DEVO.
Best of all, this shows how good, unique and talented they were outside
of the robo-stereotype of them that is often done in fun. You will realize how underrated and key they
are, which makes this required viewing for all serious music fans.
The 1.33
X 1 image has some letterboxed 1.78 X 1 images, but all looks good considering
the older footage, which is in decent shape and new materials look good too. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is plays the
music and interviews back very well. Extras
include text on the contributors, weblink info, a 5-minutes-long Krautrock
Divide Special Feature: The Düsseldorf Scene vs. The Berlin Scene and Extended
(10.5 minutes) Interview: Karl Bartos: I Was A Robot. All are must sees.
- Nicholas Sheffo
