Harkive 2017

Here we are again, another Harkive and another excuse to use this blog and pretend that I still update it regularly. If my memory serves me right this is the fourth Harkive I've done (2013 being the first), and whilst I can't promise that anything exciting will happen today or that I'll listen to anything unusual and worth writing about, hopefully there will still be enough tracks to make a decent blogpost and perhaps even a playlist if I feel so inclined.

It's currently just gone midnight, 00:09 to be precise, and I've just gotten back from seeing Dune (dir. David Lynch, 1984) in the cinema. Whilst it isn't commonly regarded as his finest work, this is probably the fifth time I've seen it this year alone, and that must be worthy of some sort of award. Annoyingly, this year's Harkive has come at a point where I'm stuck in a bit of a rut with the music I listen to; I haven't discovered anything new for ages and seem to end up listening to the same ten songs over and over again for hours at a time. Two of these songs are Echo Beach - Martha and The Muffins and I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Daryl Hall & John Oates, and they are also the two songs I have listened to so far today. Just a warning - this post may end up looking like the track listing of an 80s hits compilation album by the end of the day.

It's now nearly 12:30 and I'm just about to head into town to run some errands and mope around Selfridges for a while. I intended to go out earlier but spent the two hours after I woke up at 8 listening to Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre. As I was getting ready I put on Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's self titled debut album - because if it isn't from the 80s and it doesn't have a synthesiser in it - I'm not interested.

On the bus I listened to The Associates - a band I discovered in a Popular Modernism lecture at uni this past spring, and was frankly horrified that I hadn't ever listened to them before. Sulk has become my go-to album for when I don't know what to listen to, and today is one of those days. I didn't listen to anything whilst I was out and was instead treated to whatever background pop the shops and cafés had playing. Sometimes I'll get lucky and somewhere will be playing a song I love, but I wasn't so fortunate today.

It's almost 20:00 and I should probably put the oven on and cook something for dinner. Instead, I'm halfway through the Kraftwerk 3-D Catalogue that I've listened to almost every single day since I saw them at the Royal Albert Hall last month. It really is a brilliant album.

23:43 and Harkive 2017 is almost over. I watched several episodes of Seinfeld whilst I had dinner, and now I'm currently listening to some Suede to work out how to create a dumb Twin Peaks meme video I just thought up. It worked, and you can watch it on my Twitter here.

And that's a wrap on Harkive 2017! I'm editing this post the day after and I can't remember if I listened to anything else after I spent the best part of ten minutes editing the Suede song He's Dead to a clip from S3 E11 of Twin Peaks. As always, I never know how to finish these apart from with some drivel about how I absolutely 100% will start writing on here again and never do, so, see you in a year.

Day 11 – A song from your favourite band (+bonus story thing!)

Just in case you hadn't already noticed, Kraftwerk are my favourite band. I first knew who they were back in 2000, when I first heard "Expo 2000". Even today, that song sends shivers down my spine. It's not my favourite, but it's a brilliant, brilliant song.
My love for Kraftwerk only really fully developed about a few months ago when I found out I'd be going to Germany. I decided to listen to some German music, and I put on "The Model" because it was the only Kraftwerk song I knew well. After listening to it several times, I decided to look at the recommended videos in the sidebar and settled on listening to "Die Mensch Maschine". I instantly knew I'd found a band that I'd love for life. I spent the entire night on YouTube, listening to songs and watching videos. Then, the next day, I downloaded (almost) their entire discography. I was suddenly overwhelmed with this beautiful electronic music. It was like nothing I'd heard before. To be honest, I actually cried when I listened to a few of their songs, just because of the sheer beauty and magnificence they held. These beautifully orchestrated synthesisers made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. I couldn't believe that I only knew one song by them. How had these four brilliant men from Düsseldorf passed me by? Why hadn't I bought all their albums years ago? Why wasn't I born several decades earlier, and in Germany?
I started to save up to buy their records. I was planning to start with "Autobahn", and move along in chronological order until I owned every single album - in English and in German. But alas, I still don't own any records. I'm hoping I might get one for my birthday, along with "The Best of Kraftwerk Songbook" and Wolfgang Flur's book, ""Kraftwerk": I Was A Robot" - two books I simply have to own (!)
I'm starting to agree with people now, and admit that I'm slightly obsessed...
If I were to explain everything I love about Kraftwerk, then we'd be here all night, so I'm just going to put up all of the songs that have videos to go with them.
But before I do that, I think I'll have to thank those four brilliant men from Düsseldorf, because they have just been a massive influence on me, and if I'd never gotten in to Kraftwerk, then I wouldn't have discovered other brilliant German bands like NEU!, CAN, Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream and all the other Krautrock bands that I have grown to love. So Dankeschön, Ralf, Florian, Karl and Wolfgang.
(The original line-up of Kraftwerk, for those who are unaware.)

If there is mecca, then it is The Kling Klang Studio - Mintropstrasse 16, 40215 Düsseldorf, Germany.
(Yes, I know the address. The actual studio isn't there anymore. They moved a few years ago, but this is the site where it was during their "heyday", as some might say.
















 These were the only ones I could find with embed codes.

Ich liebe Kraftwerk

Neon Lights...

This song has invaded my brain, and it won't get out. I'm not complaining though! It's the most mesmerizing song I've heard for a long time. Whenever I hear it I enter a trance-like state and am transported to another world.


Kraftwerk - Neon Lights (The Man Machine, 1978)

Isn't it just brilliant? So captivating and magnificent. Such a shame that you can only buy it album only on iTunes, and there's one song on the album that I'm not sure I want to buy yet.

Here are some Neon Lights


Pacman ghost! I want this in my house...

Here you have the classic flamingo island design



Various Neon signs. I'm quite taken with the Bicycle and Chili pepper ones. 


Enjoy the song and the pictures


(Images 1 + 2 from Google Images, 3 from Bing Images)