I’d love to give credit, but I don’t know who made this.

(source: KMFW)

 
Remember that amazing Kraftwerk sweater by Mishka I posted about a few weeks back? Well, the same company also produced these Wire 154 and Eraserhead lambswool sweaters. Neither which is available anymore. I think it’s high time for Mishka to start making these fine garments again. I’d certainly buy the Wire one.

 
Thank you, Brett Burton!

 
I’m so bummed to find out this sweater titled “Man/Machine Sweater” by Mishka isn’t available anymore. It retailed for $160.00. Make more, please!

(via KMFW)

 
Evil Mad Science Laboratories has step-by-step instructions (and video) for a DIY Kraftwerk-inspired LED necktie.

The good news is that it’s actually easy to make one. And the starting point? A circuit with nine red LEDs and just the right spacing: our open-source Larson Scanner kit. With minor modifications—a software change and dumping the heavy 2xAA battery pack—it makes a pretty awesome tie. In what follows, we’ll show you how to build your own, complete with video.

 
(via Nerdcore)

 
Seldom-seen footage of the short-lived Krautrock “power trio” iteration of Kraftwerk consisting of Florian Schneider, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger that existed ONLY briefly when Ralf Hütter left the group to study architecture in 1971.

As Rother and Dinger went on to form Neu! at the end of 1971, this could be looked at more like this is Neu! with “special guest” Florian Schneider (who totally rocks out here!) but this is a Kraftwerk performance. And the quality is stellar!

Below, “Köln II”
 

 
“Kakteen, Wüste, Sonne” (which translates as “Cactus, desert, sun”)
 

 
(via Testpiel.de)

 
Tracklist:
1. [00:00 05:56] “Numbers”
2. [05:56 03:39] “Computer World”
3. [09:35 07:53] “Radio Activity”
4. [17:28 09:41] “Trans-Europe Express”
5. [27:09 11:21] “Pocket Calculator”
6. [38:30 05:30] “The Robots”
7. [43:00 04:32] “The Robots II”

(via KFMW)

 
Kraftwerk’s Minimum Maximum recorded during the group’s 2004 world tour.

Part 1

01. Meine Damen Und Herren
02. The Man-Machine
03. Planet of Visions
04. Tour De France 03
05. Vitamin
06. Tour De France
07. Autobahn
08. The Model
09. Neon Lights
10. Radioactivity
11. Trans Europe Express

Part 2

01. Numbers
02. Computer World
03. Home Computer
04. Pocket Calculator / Dentaku
05. The Robots
06. Elektro Kardiogramm
07. Aero Dynamik
08. Music Non Stop
09. Aero Dynamik / MTV
 

 
Previously on DM

 
‘Minimum Maximum’ part 2, after the jump…
 

 
“I am the operator with my… iPhone?”

I suppose that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, should it? It’s actually kinda perfect coming from Kraftwerk.

At first glance I thought that this was maybe just some random/semi-random “remix” algorithm tied to a GPS (which it seems to be) but it sounds like once they work out the kinks, that they’ll be adding new functionality.

“It’s a novel system that creates music and sound based on realtime data depending on your location that are continuously feeded into the app, meaning the KLING KLANG MACHINE No1 can’t be compared with other generative music apps which mostly utilize pre-programmed algorithms. There are some nice ways to manipulate sound and store personal preferences. For now the functionality is still kind of basic but the original concept will be more and more implemented in future updates and releases.”

—Norman Fairbanks

Then again, this is Kraftwerk isn’t it? Hopefully there’ll be updates more frequently than once a decade…

Download at the iTunes Store
 

 
Via Exile on Moan Street

 
Simply stunning work entitled “Music Concert Series” by Los Angeles-based artist Hyejung Bae. The Yellow Magic Orchestra poster is my favorite.

Poster series for a concert of electronic musicians playing classical music with digital instruments. Newspaper illustrations from the 1800’s combine with contemporary optical patterns to represent the timeless value of classical music and its digital interpretation

.

 
One more after the jump…

 
Tracklist:

Tongebirge
Nachrichten
Radioaktivität
Metropolis
Die Roboter
Schaufensterpuppen
Endlos Endlos
Trans Europa Express
Musique Non Stop
Boing Boom Tschak
Die Stimme Der Energie
Sex Objekt
It’s More Fun To Compute
Heimcomputer
Computerwelt
Nummern
Taschenrechner
Expo 2000 (Kling Klang Mix 2002)
Tour De France (Kling Klang Analog Mix)
Das Model

(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk)

 
Listen to “Computer World” played on a Casio VL-80 calculator here.

View larger version of the notations here.

 
(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk and Poecker)

 
New-generation samba-soulster and actor Jorge Mario da Silva a.k.a. Seu (“Mister”) Jorge has risen from drug addiction and homelessness in Rio’s Belford Roxo favelas to international renown. The world has seen the Brazilian go from playing the amazing villain Mané Galinha in City of God, to crooning Bowie tunes in Portugese as Pelé Dos Santos in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Now filmmaker Kahlil Joseph has captured some of the Jorge magic in conjunction with the singer’s eponymous album with the group Almaz, made up of folks from the Recife-based mangue bit band Nação Zumbi. In the two elliptical b&w vignettes below, Joseph finds Jorge wandering around a tasty Hollywood bungalow, musing on his mysterious muse, The Model, the undergoddess, the Oshun. His opaque handling of Kraftwerk’s tentative klassic is a sight to be heard…
 

 
After the jump: Check out the revelation of the Model…

 
Often incorrectly identified as a promo video for the 1974 release of Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” album, this animated head trip by Roger Mainwood was actually made in 1979 and neither Kraftwerk or their record label had anything to do with the making of the film.

Mainwood discusses the history of his creation:

“Autobahn” was actually the first animated film I did once I had left the Royal College of Art Film and TV school in London. I am rather embarrassed by it now of course, but I suppose if we can look at it as an historical curiosity then it may still have some value ! It certainly gave me an opportunity to learn a lot of things about animation.
I’ve never actually had to explain in words exactly what it was all about. There was a lot of what you might call “psychedelic pop” imagery around at the time that to be honest never had a great deal of actual “meaning” to it at all, and I guess I was tapping into that. Thinking back to my thought processes at that time, I remember wanting to specifically not have conventional cars in the film. I wanted a sense of a repetitive journey, and alienation, which I took to be what the music was about,............hence the solitary futuristic figure, protected by large goggles, moving through and trying to connect with the journey he is taking. The automobile “monsters” are deliberately threatening ( I have never been a big fan of cars or motorways ! ) and when our “hero” tries to make human contact (with different coloured clones of himself) he can never do it. In the end he realises he is making the repetitive and circular journey alone but strides forward purposefully at the end as he did in the beginning . All of which sounds rather pretentious….......but I was a young thing in those days ! Anyway it gave me an excuse to do a lot with the animation which I enjoyed and I think some people also have, although I can see it could be viewed as a rather frustrating film for anyone looking for a conventional storyline.

I never made contact with Kraftwerk, and they had no input into the film images themselves. John Halas got the commission from Kraftwerk’s record company, and it was deliberately experimental in nature and designed to be released on one of the first ever laser discs. Unfortunately the laser disc technology never took off.
The film was entered into various film festivals around the world and won a few prizes, but it never got a commercial release in cinemas but was shown on the TV a bit in the UK and I presume in Germany too. I have no idea what Kraftwerk think about it or whether they have even ever seen it.”

Mainwood’s “Autobahn” appears on Youtube in various forms, mostly chopped up and in black and white. Here’s the full color, uncut original in the best quality I’ve been able to find.
 

 
They would probably sound a little like this. Hey, at least they look good while they’re doing it. 

(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk)

 
Kraftwerk before Autobahn.
 

 
Bonus clips of early Kraftwerk in performance after the jump…