[KRAFTWERK] Man Machine - underrated?

[Toby Frith]

I believe Man Machine was originally debuted live in 1993?
 
I have to disagree with you on "Ohm Sweet Ohm" with regard to the last track - it's a perfect closing song - a dry but warm, humorous hymn that ends a very ambigious album in terms of its pathos. It and "transistor" go beautifully together. I think Airwaves is fine where it is...
 
Back to Man Machine....yes, it's a fantastic track - the original version is somewhat dwarfed by the Min Max live version, but it has its own charm - in particular the German one - the vocoders on the chorus are beautiful. I like the fact that it's so slow (85 bpm) but is remarkably funky and has a lot of kinetic energy in it, as if they're really restraining from it getting faster. It's the one track on the LP that sounds properly robotic - whereas Robots should be, it's in essence a pop song - replete with major to minor chord changes - this is hypnotic, like a machine should be.
 
Sampled to brilliant effect by the Fearless Four and 2 Live Crew as well.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: kraftwerk-bounces at activerecord.com [mailto:kraftwerk-bounces at activerecord.com]On Behalf Of Sytze en Theoliana
Sent: 07 November 2007 20:07
To: kraftwerk at activerecord.com
Subject: Re: [KRAFTWERK] Man Machine - underrated?




>>>1. The only song from Man Machine not to be released as a single (Robots and The Model were the standard releases, Metropolis was released as a single in Argentina, Spacelab was a single in Brazil and Neon Lights was a single in the UK)

It did get released as the b-side to the "Model" single in Holland at the time.


2.The band never performed it live until the late 1990s
 
I remember thinking at the time of the "Mix" release, they should have done MM too. Would have fitted in nice. Besides, "The Robots" was the only track from the Man-Machine album to appear on The Mix.

>>> 3.It's the last track on the album (not a good position to be in)
 
Personally, I find the last track on an album tremendously important. The opening shot is important too, but I think it's equally important on which note the artist leave the listener. If the last track sucks, I leave the album with mixed feelings instead of declaring it a masterpiece.
In KW's case, I like Franz Schubert at the end of TEE, followed by the repeating of "Endless Endless...". "It's More Fun To Compute" is a great closer too. I'm less keen on "Ohm Sweet Ohm" however. It's a great track, but I would have preferred "Airwaves" for example.

 



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