1975: KRAFTWERK - Music of the FUTURE? | Tomorrow's World | Classic BBC Music | BBC Archive

Derek Cooper reports on Kraftwerk, a German pop group who are pioneers of a new kind of electronic music. Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos create and programme sounds at their Dusseldorf laboratory and recreate them on stage using a variety of synthesisers and bespoke electronic instruments.
Here, they perform an excerpt from their most popular track to date, "Autobahn".
Originally broadcast 25 September, 1975.
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[@MSP_aviation]

A rare moment of a wild Florian Schneider smiling.

[@bennylloyd-willner9667]

He probably just got a jolt from one of the DIY instruments😁

[@gallitron7803]

The pioneer of electronic sound R.I.P. Florian Schneider.

[@pressureworks]

Incorrect.

[@Synthematix]

Nicola tesla was

[@GeoNeilUK]

@@Synthematix "Nicola tesla was" You spelt Delia Derbyshire wrong. *EDIT:* So did I. It's not surprising the BBC covered Kraftwerk to be honest, considering the BBC Radiophonic Workshop had been going for decades by this point.

[@garrybaldy327]

That drum machine is a model that's looking good. I'd like to take it home, that's understood.

[@nutster9000]

When they recorded this Kraftwerk weren't using a drum machine live. That's thanks to Karl & Wolfgang & the home made electronic drum pads wired up to a Mini Moog.

[@JackBobsonOfficial]

@@nutster9000 Not wired to a Minimoog, but instead to a Vox Percussion King.

[@commandingjudgedredd1841]

What if it plays hard to get, and smokes from time to time?

[@sophiepooks2174]

@@commandingjudgedredd1841 Just boil an egg, or throw on some chops.

[@RobertoGinsburg]

@@JackBobsonOfficial Vox Percussion King was used by Grandmaster Flash. I know that *Kraftwerk used a italian ELKA Rhythmbox* .

[@paulohrodriguesbr]

Kraftwerk is one of the reasons I fell in love with technology as a child, graduated and worked in the field, and taught computer classes in college.

[@thesatisfiedcustomer4869]

Saw kraftwerk in Manchester in the early 2000’s. Brilliant live.

[@painfulsilence316]

I saw Kraftwerk live around 2016 and they were amazing live. I'd always loved them, but live was a whole other experience. Truly exceptional performance and I'm happy I was able to experience it.

[@Synthematix]

Minimum maximum live was an absolutely amazing experience, planet of visions is the best track ever made imo

[@JasmineSurrealVideos]

They obviously bypassed the electronic lapels to have instruments embedded in their brain so they can make glacial, wonderful, oddly humorous tunes straight from their heads, such is the power of Kraftwerk. Also that Florian smile. Kind of nutty, awkward, INTJ and friendly all at the same time. It's the best smile in pop history to be fair.

[@GeoNeilUK]

I have to remind myself that Sparks are actually from California and *NOT* German. I honestly think is based on the stern faced moustachioed keyboard player!

[@2steppa3]

Just as science had discovered that electric stimuli sent straight into the brain could supersede the senses and achieve the same reaction, Kraftwerk had discovered a way to do the same with digital sound, obviating the need for analog instruments or what was thought of as "traditional music".

[@JackBobsonOfficial]

I have a question. Is the full footage still availible? I know that the BBC had junked a lot of its stuff back in the day, but some of it was salvataged. So maybe someone has it?

[@A-ProductionsYT]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKi0qoiMptl8jZo

[@club882]

It indeed was the music of the future.

[@rmfigue]

Nice one BBC!! I ♥ Kraftwerk, greetings from Argentina

[@phia_sky_]

So happy to finally have the Florian smiling gif in glorious HD

[@ianheath4332]

I’m still waiting for the electronic lapels As I remember seeing this as a 10 year old kid

[@southpaw2k1]

I saw Kraftwerk perform in Atlanta, back in September, 2016. They were great!

[@VJFranzK]

👨‍💻👨‍💻👨‍💻👨‍💻 One of the best views of the early era Kraftwerk! (This clip was featured later in the documentary "Better Living Through Circuitry" I think.)

[@mortofied]

Klaus isn't in this video. It's Karl Bartos

[@imlxh7126]

apparently Ralf thought his name was Klaus the whole time. ended up pissing Karl off so bad he quit

[@thaiboxing67]

they were and still are ahead of their time

[@michaelemonds]

Arguable the most influential group of all time.

[@RobertoGinsburg]

One of the.. one of The..

[@unduloid]

There was also this other group. They were English, from Blackpool, I think. Their name was something like "The Cockroaches" if I remember correctly.

[@Hysteria98]

Indeed it became. Electronic music is so fast, easy, and accessible to create now, a 7-year old can download a DAW for free in 10 minutes and crank out anything better than mainstream chart music has put out in 15 years. That's mostly why it took over. Still, you take the bad with the good. Kraftwerk were absolute pioneers and helped pave the way for so much amazing new music, I would not have had it any other way. Traditional instruments and recordings would have eventually gone stale and desperately craved a new edge. What's most important is that we have balance. The HMV shops are amazingly still around, and I was more surprised to walk into one just last week and find a bigger selection of Vinyl than I can remember them having for a long time. Among it all, front and center, was the Autobahn album.

[@nutster9000]

When they recorded this, Karl was still in a 60's covers rock band & in a German national orchestra. So he could play anything guitar, keys drums etc. I think Ralph & Florian were also multi trained.

[@nutster9000]

Occasionally I visit the HMV in Norwich & I guess I see young people buying or looking at the vinyl much more than they do the cd's.

[@nutster9000]

I remember when I first heard Kraftwerk & not many artists have come close in comparison. Until I discovered Ukrainian band Onuka. I think she is the Ukrainian equivalent of Kraftwerk. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpKaoXhthMytl9E Would love to see some of her vinyl albums in HMV. The Mozaika live album on vinyl fetches up to £300.

[@Ballissle]

Tf is up with the comments?

[@qxqp]

Still better than 99% of music today 😂

[@michaelwilson2340]

And even though it was electronic, more organic than most of today's music.

[@Andrew_Erickson]

99.9995%

[@nutster9000]

I'd say 100% of electronic artists today already have the electronic tools at their disposal & very unlikely have to invent anything to perform on. Also how many can say they are classically trained drummers in national orchestra's. You have to factor in so many variables with the members of Kraftwerk coming together as they did. Ralph & Florian were the Simon & Garfunkel or the Lennon & McCartney of early 70's Germany.

[@PaulMillard1973]

Agreed!!

[@sophiepooks2174]

Is sad so many people say that, when it is not the case if you know where to look. there is still good music, just that not much is truly original anymore.

[@Elektragen]

The Beatles of electronic music 🎶 🎵 👌

[@FatherMcKenzie66]

They are legends

[@SalDOWN]

Legends!

[@frankzelazko]

where's the full length documentary?

[@Vingul]

0:26 "Last year, they removed the last recognisable instrument, a violin" -- does he mean the flute? There was plenty of flute on the Autobahn album.

[@smegulate9826]

I think he's referring to the pre-Autobahn stuff

[@Vingul]

@@smegulate9826 what I mean is that they still used the flute a year before, as Autobahn was released in 1974, but I can’t think of a Kraftwerk track that has violin on it.

[@smegulate9826]

@@Vingul Florian played violin on the first three albums before Autobahn but I don't know that he was still doing that live by the time of this video

[@Vingul]

@@smegulate9826 well that’s embarrassing, because I’ve listened to those albums quite a lot - especially Ralf & Florian, which is their best album to my mind. The flute was always Florian’s main instrument throughout those days, I guess they used the violin in a non-obvious way.

[@soepil]

@@Vingul There is some "picked" violin on the first album, I think. But you are right about the flute being Florians main instrument.

[@kraftwerklover69]

I saw kraftwerk live 3 months ago in Italy, they’re absolutely amazing and nothing can beat them as the gods of electronic music.

[@A-ProductionsYT]

The gods of techno, the gods of electronic musik, the gods of maschine musik, Kraftwerk!

[@paulmorphy6187]

Das ist wunderbar!

[@EazySpeezyLemonSqueezy]

Wow! I never saw this in such video quality! I hope they upload the full performance!

[@EazySpeezyLemonSqueezy]

@SynthMusicFan 501 maybe, but who knows if they just played for a really short amount

[@A-ProductionsYT]

The most full recording of this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKi0qoiMptl8jZo

[@EazySpeezyLemonSqueezy]

@@A-ProductionsYT i know i was talking about that. They cut out some parts

[@axelazaryan]

01:12 ETERNAL LOVE❤

[@littleplutomen]

musique non stop.. techno-pop !

[@davedogge2280]

"I'm the operator with my pocket calculator" was a lyric referring to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[@unduloid]

I didn't know the Chancellor was ever a Casio FX-501P.

[@atomictraveller]

i had one of those ooh.. 1984?? broke quickly :/

[@depechemode101]

Kraftwerk ❤️

[@bradjones1977]

The very clip that introduced me to the band when it was shown as part of Sounds Of The Seventies.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Saw them at The Brixton Academy in the early nineties. Great gig.

[@nutster9000]

Same here, the Saturday night performance. 1991. Paul McCartney was in the audience & remember standing next to the actress Jane Asher. You could see she was a huge fan. Oh & Colin Angus of The Shamen. Will never ever forget it. It was my first ever gig as well. Remember Ralph handing the mini hand held keyboard to the people at the front of the stage so they could play along to Pocket Calculator.

[@AtheistOrphan]

@@nutster9000 - Yeah I remember the Pocket Calculator audience interaction! Good times.

[@A-ProductionsYT]

You saw the last concert with Fernando Abrantes in 1991?

[@AtheistOrphan]

@@A-ProductionsYT - I suppose it must have been. 🎹

[@nutster9000]

@@A-ProductionsYT Apparently he danced & moved around too much which Ralph wasn't happy with.

[@tangibleandroid285]

I wonder if they got around to making those lapel suits, I don't recall hearing about it so I don't think so but that's a pretty big idea

[@thecoxlong4316]

There were concept drawings and a prototype unit made, but it was abandoned pretty quickly I think due to it being unpredictable in a live setting. Wolfgang stood inside a cage like structure where his hands controlled the drum triggering. You can see this at the beginning of the video for radioactivity, but it's just a shot of the hands "werking"

[@thecoxlong4316]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eX_cc4SGitODh5o

[@tangibleandroid285]

@@thecoxlong4316 You're the man now dog! Thx

[@VJFranzK]

1:12 a rare SMILE! 🤖😁

[@sophiepooks2174]

Quite terrifying really.. like the terminator smiling. :D

[@kgbinfo]

More Kraftwerk please

[@koolroskii9746]

Well they didnt quite get to the musical jackets stage!

[@nutster9000]

To anyone watching this, check out Sky Arts 12th August

[@spiritusinfinitus]

Okay Internet freaks. Your challenge should you choose to accept it. In the 1970's there was a children's TV show (which featured horses I think) which used a section of Kraftwerk's Autobahn as the theme song (from about 9.09 into the album - the synthesed base drum pulsing boing-boing and the cha-cha-cha-cha, cha-cha-cha-cha repeating over and over. I had no interest in the show at the time but remember being enthralled by the music. I'd never heard anything like it a the time. Would love to know what that TV show was if anyone remembers!

[@merlin5476]

Electronic lapels that can be played by touching them !! I see John Ottway do that in the 80's.

[@tonefloat]

Finally a version of this footage that isn’t in five whole pixels

[@cupidstunt22]

Ja. For sure.

[@rayinpau.s.a.6351]

GERMAN Engineering @ its Finest !

[@javislazuli]

Where is Ralf?

[@perge_music]

Pity they stopped writing new music and just play endless (endless) versions of their hits. Still, sounds great though

[@nickelodeonstuff1572]

BBC should not have thrown away the original 20 minute video tape. That’s sad

[@A-ProductionsYT]

There are short 2 minute clips of this performance.

[@Jimyjames73]

I like Kraftwork - also J. M. Jarre!!! 🙂🚂🚂🚂

[@RobertoGinsburg]

*Elka rhythmbox* wired to sensitive pads for be hitting by sticks.

[@JackBobsonOfficial]

It's a Vox Percussion King and a Farfisa Rhythm 10

[@cetocoquinto4704]

Pioneers!

[@mohawksixx]

👽🤘

[@thecaveofthedead]

It's often difficult to distinguish genius from gimmick except in retrospect.

[@thebadgamer1967]

Don't remember seeing the label 🎹

[@AtheistOrphan]

Lapel.

[@DecentralEyes]

Kraftverk

[@heffe4257]

The founding father’s of boots and cats and bleep bloop.

[@vicentetroncoso8051]

Longlive to Kraftwerk!

[@brizzieleif5258]

Autobahn was released in 1974, when most rock bands from that era were still messing about in flared trousers.

[@stringer-ik1pc]

Brian eno and Roxy music were making better electronic music (and selling it) in 1972.

[@malereileviathan1127]

@@stringer-ik1pc rockmusic :-)

[@brizzieleif5258]

@@stringer-ik1pc Roxy music was more Glam Rock, flared trousers plus sequin jackets, make-up. But Brian Eno has done some great ambient/ electronic music I have to say

[@kelechi_77]

lots of great punk artists were just starting out in 1974

[@steviewondek]

Wouldn't class Kraftwerk as a rock band, experimental electronic, admittedly they were krautrock band at first. .

[@danthe7942]

[@MarkHolloway1972]

If you want to see black American men in their 50's and 60's, who still think they can breakdance, put on "Tour de France" and watch us go 😂

[@Lumibear.]

Still working on those lapels, huh?

[@michaelturner4457]

Needs more cowbell.

[@neilfoster814]

Kraftwerk machen schon electrisch musik! Wunderbar. Vorsprung durch teknik!

[@unduloid]

Na. You'd better check out these new youngsters calling themselves _Neu!_

[@gdebruin82]

That’s Karl Bartos @BBC, Klaus Röder had already left the band by this point…

[@80ssynthfan48]

They have made a few mistakes on these Archive videos. Very sloppy.

[@beausexon7546]

Very over rated band. Mostly unlistenable noise rather than melodic music. At least bands like YMO had some kind of melody. This was nothing but a PR stunt, at best. Name anyone who actually enjoys kraftwerk.

[@johno4521]

Sounds nothing like the album... BBC reporting this like it's something new whereas Kraftwerk had been experimenting with electronic sounds since 1969.

[@VJFranzK]

It's probably a "remix" of their session by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Dr. Who, etc.) I've noticed a lot of these stories have modular music as backing

[@Vingul]

​@@VJFranzK what do you mean? They're playing Autobahn in this clip.

[@dannydougin3925]

Thankfully *not* in my musical future!

[@steviewondek]

You can tell the future?Or just think your opinion is so important?

[@michelvondenhoff9673]

German humor isn't funny yet very efficient.

[@unduloid]

Ach, Sie haben ja keine Ahnung. Aber davon jede Menge!

[@imwithname843]

FIRST.

[@Veni_Vidi_Vortice]

It will never catch on. They should learn to play the guitar instead.

[@MrBUESUM]

Was soll das?

[@coloradostrong]

Great Caucasian music.

[@stringer-ik1pc]

They were absolute crap. The beatles. Pink Floyd and Roxy music were using synthesisers in the early 1970s, making better music than this 'one fingered crap.

[@Vingul]

Wrong. They weren't crap (just the opposite), and The Beatles had broken up before 1970. Brian Eno, who played the synthesizer in Roxy Music (what made some of that band's output pretty great, imo) had massive respect for Kraftwerk and the German scene of this era. He recorded with Harmonia in 1976 and released two albums with the members of Cluster.

[@HAZARDOUS88]

There's always one ignorant, uneducated person lol

[@DenkyManner]

Electronic pioneers yes, but everything they made sounds awful. I like electronic and computer music. Kraftwerk's stuff is extremely childish and amateurish.

[@Maximustard]

How did they hurt you?

[@VJFranzK]

They didn't have Ableton Live to use at that time, you know. 😉 Later things have to have starting places

[@AlternativeLoffen]

Check tom dissevelt

[@nasdkhan254]

Yr talking s hit

[@tonefloat]

Well can you give some examples of electronic music that isn’t childish? I’m a kraftwerk fan myself, but I’m always open to broadening my horizons or whatever that saying is lol

[@stevens3158]

this sounds absolutely dreadful. not music.

[@watchfan6180]

How ridiculous. This is stupidity of the highest order.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Why?

[@Vingul]

No.

[@unduloid]

Blödsinn!