Minimum-Maximum Explained

See also: Minmax.

Minimum-Maximum
Type:live
Artist:Kraftwerk
Cover:Minimum-Maximum 2005.png
Border:yes
Released:6 June 2005
Recorded:2004
Genre:Electronic
Length:120:39 (combined)
Prev Title:Tour de France Soundtracks
Prev Year:2003
Next Title:The Catalogue
Next Year:2009

Minimum-Maximum is the first official live album release by Kraftwerk, released in June 2005, almost 35 years after the group gave its first live performance. The album features two CDs of tracks recorded on the group's world tour during 2004, including concerts in Warsaw, Ljubljana, Moscow, Berlin, London, Budapest, Tallinn, Riga, Tokyo, and San Francisco.

Like many of its studio albums, Minimum-Maximum was released in two different language versions: the band's native German, and English for the international market, although of the 23 tracks on the album, only the recordings of "The Model", "Radioactivity", "Trans Europe Express"/"Metal on Metal", "Computer World", "Pocket Calculator" and "The Robots" are actually different between the releases. The album title, an excerpt from the lyrics of the song "Elektro-Kardiogramm" (which only exists in an English-language version), is the same for both German and English versions.

In an interview for Mojo, Ralf Hütter regretted the fact that they could not include recordings from their 2004 concert in Santiago de Chile:

"We have great recordings from Santiago, Chile, but couldn’t incorporate them into Minimum-Maximum because we'd already mixed the album," says Ralf. "The Chileans were the only audience in the world who clap in time, in perfect synchronisation."[1] [2]

The album was also released as a double live concert DVD with DTS 5.1 sound on 5 December 2005.

The track "Planet of Visions" is a reworked version of the song "Expo 2000", based on a 2001 remix by Underground Resistance. The vocoder text "Sellafield 2" at the start of "Radioactivity"/"Radioaktivität" is included for the first time on the CD and DVD set. The intro vocoder text before "The Man-Machine"/"Die Mensch-Maschine" is included only on the DVD release.

Minimum-Maximum was nominated for the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album.[3]

Critical reception

Minimum-Maximum received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 86, based on 17 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Track listing

English version

Disc one

  1. "The Man-Machine" (Karl Bartos, Florian Schneider, Ralf Hütter) Warszawa, Sala Kongresowa - 27.05.04 – 7:55
  2. "Planet of Visions" (Fritz Hilpert, Hütter, Florian Schneider) Ljubljana, Križanke - 24.05.04 – 4:45
  3. "Tour de France (Étape 1)" (Hilpert, Hütter, Maxime Schmitt, Schneider) Riga, Olimpiska Hall - 29.05.04 – 4:22
  4. "Chrono" (Hilpert, Hütter, Schneider, Schmitt) Riga, Olimpiska Hall - 29.05.04 – 1:29
  5. "Tour de France (Étape 2)" (Hilpert, Hütter, Schmitt, Schneider) Riga, Olimpiska Hall - 29.05.04 – 4:48
  6. "Vitamin" (Hilpert, Hütter) Moscow, Lushniki - 03.06.04 – 6:41
  7. "Tour de France" (Bartos, Hütter, Schmitt, Schneider) Paris, Le Grand Rex - 22.03.04 – 6:18
  8. "Autobahn" (Hütter, Schneider, Emil Schult) Berlin, Tempodrom - 25.03.04 – 8:51
  9. "The Model" (Bartos, Hütter, Schult) London, Brixton Academy - 20.03.04 – 3:41
  10. "Neon Lights" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) London, Royal Festival Hall - 18.03.04 – 5:58

Disc two

  1. "Radioactivity" (Hütter, Schneider, Schult) Warszawa, Sala Kongresowa - 27.05.04 – 7:41
  2. "Trans-Europe Express" (Hütter, Schult) Budapest, Sportaréna - 25.05.04 – 5:01
  3. "Metal on Metal" (Hütter) Budapest, Sportaréna - 25.05.04 – 4:28
  4. "Numbers" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) San Francisco, The Warfield - 28.04.04 – 4:27
  5. "Computer World" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Moscow, Lushniki - 03.06.04 – 2:55
  6. "Home Computer" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Warszawa, Sala Kongresowa - 27.05.04 – 5:55
  7. "Pocket Calculator" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Moscow, Lushniki - 03.06.04 – 2:58
  8. "Dentaku" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Tokyo, Shibuya Ax - 04.03.04 – 3:15
  9. "The Robots" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Moscow, Lushniki - 03.06.04 – 7:23
  10. "Elektro Kardiogramm" (Hilpert, Hütter) Tallinn, Exhibition Hall - 30.05.04 – 4:41
  11. "Aéro Dynamik" (Hilpert, Hütter, Schneider, Schmitt) Riga, Olimpiska Hall - 29.05.04 – 7:14
  12. "Musique Non-Stop" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Moscow, Lushniki - 03.06.04 – 9:51

German version

Disc one

  1. "Die Mensch-Maschine" (Karl Bartos, Florian Schneider, Ralf Hütter) Warszawa, Sala Kongresowa – 7:55
  2. "Planet der Visionen" (Fritz Hilpert, Hütter, Florian Schneider) Ljubljana, Križanke – 4:45
  3. "Tour de France (Étape 1)" (Hilpert, Hütter, Maxime Schmitt, Schneider) Riga, Olimpiska Hall – 4:22
  4. "Chrono" (Hilpert, Hütter, Schneider, Schmitt) Riga, Olimpiska Hall – 1:29
  5. "Tour de France (Étape 2)" (Hilpert, Hütter, Schmitt, Schneider) Riga, Olimpiska Hall – 4:48
  6. "Vitamin" (Hilpert, Hütter) Moscow, Lushniki – 6:41
  7. "Tour de France" (Bartos, Hütter, Schmitt, Schneider) Paris, Le Grand Rex – 6:18
  8. "Autobahn" (Hütter, Schneider, Emil Schult) Berlin, Tempodrom – 8:51
  9. "Das Model" (Bartos, Hütter, Schult) Berlin, Tempodrom – 3:41
  10. "Neonlicht" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) London, Royal Festival Hall – 5:58

Disc two

  1. "Radioaktivität" (Hütter, Schneider, Schult) Tallinn, Exhibition Hall – 7:41
  2. "Trans-Europa Express" (Hütter, Schult) Riga, Olimpiska Hall – 3:21
  3. "Abzug" (Hütter) Riga, Olimpiska Hall – 1:40
  4. "Metall auf Metall" (Hütter) Riga, Olimpiska Hall – 4:28
  5. "Nummern" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) San Francisco, The Warfield – 4:27
  6. "Computerwelt" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider, Schult) Riga, Olimpiska Hall – 2:55
  7. "Heimcomputer" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Warszawa, Sala Kongresowa – 5:55
  8. "Taschenrechner" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Berlin, Tempodrom – 2:58
  9. "Dentaku" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Tokyo, Shibuya Ax – 3:15
  10. "Die Roboter" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Berlin, Tempodrom – 7:23
  11. "Elektro-Kardiogramm" (Hilpert, Hütter) Tallinn, Exhibition Hall – 4:41
  12. "Aero Dynamik" (Hilpert, Hütter, Schneider, Schmitt) Riga, Olimpiska Hall – 7:14
  13. "Music Non-Stop" (Bartos, Hütter, Schneider) Moscow, Lushniki – 9:51

In the German version of the track listing (as on The Mix album) after "Trans-Europa Express" is an extra title, "Abzug", followed by "Metall auf Metall". For the international version of the album the title "Abzug" was dropped and the music incorporated as part of "Trans-Europe Express", thus making the disc appear to be one track shorter. The original 1977 German album has these track titles in a different order, though the music is basically the same arrangement.

Notebook

A special edition box set entitled Notebook, comprising both the DVDs and audio CDs plus a commemorative hardback book of tour photos, was also issued, in both German- and English-language versions. The box is designed to resemble a laptop computer, with the front cover of the book being the keyboard (with German keyboard layout).

Personnel

Equipment

The performances were created using 10 Sony VAIO laptops containing Mobile Intel Pentium 4 M processors. Four were used for audio, running Steinberg Cubase SX, the remaining 6 provided the video system.

Since 2002, all sounds were created using virtual technology (i.e., software replicating and replacing original analogue or digital equipment). According to an interview in 2009 with Fritz Hilpert, "the mobility of music technology and the reliability of the notebooks and software have greatly simplified the realization of complex touring setups: we generate all sounds on the laptops in real time and manipulate them with controller maps. It takes almost no time to get our compact stage system set up for performance. […] This way, we can bring our Kling-Klang Studio with us on stage. The physical light weight of our equipment also translates into an enormous ease of use when working with software synthesizers and sound processors. Every tool imaginable is within immediate reach or just a few mouse clicks away on the Internet."[4]

Charts

Weekly charts

Release history

RegionDateLabelFormatCatalog numberLyrics
Germany6 June 2005EMICD3 12046 2German
Germany6 June 2005EMI4 x vinyl3 11828 1German
EU except Germany6 June 2005EMICD560 6112English
EU except Germany6 June 2005EMI4 x vinyl560 6111English
EU except Germany24 April 2006EMISACD3 34996 2English
United States7 June 2005AstralwerksCDASW 60611English
Japan10 August 2005EMICDTOCP-66427German
Japan10 August 2005EMICDTOCP-66425English
Australasia18 July 2005EMICD7243 5 60616 2 0 (Australian 2 CD release)English
EU except Germany?EMI2 DVD336 2949English
[5] [6]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dante de Conti & Marcelo Duarte . DATA - INTERVIEWS - MOJO MAGAZINE - RALF HÜTTER - AUGUST 2005 - 2012-MAR-1 :::: . Kraftwerk.Technopop.Com.Br . 28 January 2011 . 1 March 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070328222333/http://kraftwerk.technopop.com.br/interview_115.php . 28 March 2007 . dead .
  2. Web site:

    KRAFTWERK.TECHNOPOP.COM.BR - DATA - INTERVIEWS - MOJO MAGAZINE -…

    . https://archive.today/20120709131259/http://www.technopop-archive.com/interview_115.php. dead. 9 July 2012. 9 July 2012. 8 October 2017.
  3. Web site: BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Grammy Awards 2006: Key winners. BBC News. 2 July 2015. 9 February 2006.
  4. Interview: The Future Is Virtual – Music Tech Talk With Fritz Hilpert, Sounds & Performance magazine, 2009
  5. Web site: Kraftwerk International Discography. 8 October 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212034/http://www.poecker.homepage.t-online.de/01/discog.htm. 3 March 2016. dead.
  6. Web site: Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum. Discogs. 8 October 2017.

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