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Minimum-Maximum is the first official live album release by Kraftwerk, released in June 2005, almost 35 years after the group gave their first live performance. It features two CDs and tracks recorded on their world tour during 2004, including concerts in Warsaw, Moscow, Berlin, London, Budapest, Tallinn, Riga, Tokyo and San Francisco.
Like many of their studio albums, Minimum-Maximum was released in two different language versions: the band's native German, and English for the international market. However, 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 Magazine, 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.”
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 a Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2006.
This album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.
User Album Review
Those who aren't really familiar with the work of the Dusseldorf elektronisch quartet have fun pointing out that, in their quest to celebrate the melding of man and machine, they have (literally) become robots themselves. Indeed, on their last world tour they were at times replaced by automatons modelled on themselves. Strange then, that Minimum-Maximum, their first official live album, reveals their show as being a spectacle of some considerable warmth and humanity. What's more (and here the cynics will shake their heads) - it rocks!
On first spec one may be tempted to say that, were it not for the suitably enthusiastic crowd noises in between tracks, youd be hard pressed to spot any differences between this and a greatest hits compilation (which is, after all, what most bands' live sets are). As always with Kraftwerk, the pleasure is in the intricate detail. The beautifully engineered beats and bleeps are, at times, quite radically different (and simplified) from studio counterparts, concentrating the mind wonderfully on the spacious melodies and crystalline arpeggios. This is, quite simply, the best way to hear Kraftwerk in a fresh setting.
Over the space of two discs we get treated to ALL the best bits too. The shimmering cityscapes of Neon Lights; The twinkling celebration of muscle power that is Tour De France; The quaint drum machine karaoke of The Model. Not only this, but their willingness to explore their back catalogue results in crowd-pleasing moments from way back, like Autobahn. Just listen to the joyful cries of recognition as the car doors slam! Of course none of this will convince the philistines who believe that making music this good involves nothing more complex than a good mains supply. But for those who kept the faith long enough to witness their heart-swelling return to public life, this is a very fine keepsake indeed.
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