We all know that legendarily non-chatty German electronic musicians Kraftwerk have been in the news lately for dazzling some lucky mofos at New York’s Museum of Modern Art during their recent eight-night residency there, during which the band consecutively performed eight albums from their classic “catalogue” (Autobahn through Tour de France) in full, as well as a bunch of their favorite Bruce Springsteen and Moldy Peaches covers. Furthermore, we’re all aware now that guys that don’t talk much tend to sound really wise and important when they do open their mouths to say something. So it should come as no surprise that, when founding pocket calulator-operator Ralf Hütter told the New York Times (via The Quietus) that the band are currently at work on a new record and that, in his words, would be ready for release “soon,” everybody in the music scene went totally ape shit! James Murphy brought back LCD Soundsystem, Kurt Cobain came forward and admitted that he’s been alive all this time disguised as Taylor Hawkins, and federal governments around the world quickly passed laws mandating that “Happy Birthday to You” be permanently replaced by all eight sobering minutes of Trans-Europe Express’s “Hall of Mirrors.” Hooray?
Anyway, upon its arrival, said new album will mark the band’s first release in almost a decade (the most recent being 2003’s Tour de France Soundtracks), not to mention the first album following the departure of co-founding member Florian Schneider back in 2008. But why has it been taking so long to press down a special key and play a little melody?
“We didn’t fall asleep,” Hütter says. “The 168-hour week is still going on since the beginning, since 1970 […] Music is never finished. It starts again tomorrow. The record is just a record, but for us it’s nearly boring. We like better the programs that we can operate with. So we are operating, we are upgrading, we are updating continuously. There’s continuous reprogramming going on, and composition and new concepts are also coming […] We learn from noise, and we learn from going to clubs.” So, there. I guess the answer is for you to shut up and stop asking questions.
• Kraftwerk: http://www.kraftwerk.com
• Kling Klang: http://www.klingklang.com
• EMI: http://www.emimusic.com
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