Ahhhh you gotta love Kraftwerk. I was watching a documentary about Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre called “The Defiant Ones” about their experience coming up in the music industry to becoming eventual billionaires with Beats by Dr. Dre. Some of Dr Dre’s old crew were talking about the early days in the studio and I forget exactly who it was that said that at the dawn of rap and hip hop Kraftwerk were a massive influence on them! I was flabbergasted!

So i relistened to some old kraftwerk and was blown away by ‘The Model’. Sure it’s a product of its era but it still holds up well today. A wonderful mish mash of Teutonic sensibility with a wholehearted embrace of a technology that was totally raw at the time. When you marry this potent mix to the group’s functional grasp of the language you get a really heady mixture. It shouldn’t be good but it just works!

After downloading their greatest hits though and trudging through most of it, i’m not so sure about the rest of their oeuvre. Some of it has aged like milk.

by Hugh O'Malley, Beauty Photographer and Videographer based in Shanghai

A police car and a screaming siren
A pneumatic drill and ripped up concrete
A baby wailing and stray dog howling
The screech of brakes and lamp light blinking

That’s entertainment, that’s entertainment

A smash of glass and the rumble of boots
An electric train and a ripped up phone booth
Paint splattered walls and the cry of a tomcat
Lights going out and a kick in the balls

I tell ya that’s entertainment, that’s entertainment

Watched The Gentlemen movie directed by Guy Ritchie. Enjoyable yarn. Heard this over the end credits and was struck by Paul Weller’s poetry. Classic song.

by Hugh O'Malley, Beauty Photographer and Videographer based in Shanghai