Early custom Kraftwerk vocoder on the auction block

You wax faux-nostalgic about the heyday of early robo-Kraut-rock, your early signed pressing of Radio-Activity is rivaled only by your original Neu! Super / Neuschnee 7-inch, and you got a belly laugh at that one scene about the record the nihilists once cut in The Big Lebowski. Kraftwerk fans, today is your lucky day. The original one-of-a-kind prototype vocoder Kraftwerk pictured on the rear cover art of and used to record "Ananas Symphonie" and "Kristallo" on their 1973 release Ralf & Florian. As of the time of this writing it's already up to five grand, so if you want yourself an extremely expensive piece of history for electronics and electronic music, you'd better get a move on, schnell.

[Via Music Thing]

[alcaron Posted Jun 29th 2006 2:18AM]

Did I miss something or is kraut no longer a racial "slur"?

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2006 2:39AM]

Their version of popcorn is the best.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2006 3:44AM]

"We are the robots"...
Is a killer track do do some serious fraggin'. :-)

Kraftwerk is incredible. The most infuential electronic band of all times and rightly so!

Their music is 30 years old and not a bit outdated.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2006 4:28AM]

mastershake916: Actually, Kraftwerk never made a remix to Popcorn. However, it's not a commone mistake to think that; a no-name techno group "M & H Band" remixed it long ago, around the time of Kraftwerk. Since then, it's been often discredited, such as on P2P networks; which is most likely where you got confused.

But yes, a great remix none of the less!
Cheers!
Or,
Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2006 10:11AM]

So I read the description. I read the Q&A. It *still* isn't clear if this is *the* unit, or "the one and only prototype" of the unit that was actually used. The wording is slightly dodgy, though by design or because its one of those people who can't seem to bring themselves to say "yes" is unclear.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2006 12:20PM]

"Kraut" is a slur, but "krautrock" was the name for a certain genre of music (containing bands like early KW, Can, Silver Apples, etc) that flourished in the early 70's.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2006 3:01PM]

btw Silver Apples were from NYC..and 'Krautrock' was never adopted by the German groups who much preferred 'Cosmiche music'(sp?)

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2006 3:28PM]

Wow, music gear from the guys who made "Autobahn". I find it hilarious that anyone who has actually heard Kraftwerk's three-finger synth rock can publicly praise the band! :o

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2006 4:25PM]

> and 'Krautrock' was never adopted by the German
> groups

Well, right, and I wouldn't liken much of kraftwerk (maybe their early "Tone Float/1/2" era stuff...) to krautrock either, but it was the term that the music press used then and it seems to have stuck.

Perhaps kw did write 3-finger synth rock...but back in 1974 nobody was really charting any-fingered-synth-anything beyond a few novelty tracks and the occasional semi-academic Wendy Carlos album. That in itself was a big step. Plus, you can directly trace the development of synthpop, house, techno, and hip-hop from said 3-fingered synth-rock, and many pop and rock luminaries publicly claim a debt owed to kraftwerk. Whether you like their music or not, it was fairly important stuff.

[Monkey Fighting Snake Posted Jul 11th 2006 5:42PM]

I find it hilarious that a guy called Poopmaster knows a great deal more about music than everyone from Autechre to Afrika Bambaataa. Props to Eric for being pretty much right on.

Still... that's a bunch of money for something that (as Paul above said) may or may not even be _the_ unit. A vocoder you'd actually _use_ is expensive enough. Come to think of it, so are Kraftwerk tickets these days.