Karl Bartos Live at the ICA in London 22nd July 2003

21:00 hours

The vibe is hot and sweaty on a lovely summer evening in London. In the small and intimate ICA main hall the stage is prepped and this eager crowd is waiting for… Karl Bartos, the ex member of Kraftwerk, to play this one off concert. Just what is he going to play? His last released material (the "15 Minutes Of Fame" single) was two years ago! Karl is actually here to play a showcase for his new album "Communication" to be released in September 2003.

The room is full of techno geeks and emotional hooligans, their attention caught, when suddenly there is movement on stage. There are three keyboard sets up on stage and behind each of these three large screens for the animated graphics and video. On top of one keyboard set there is an Apple Powerbook's logo glowing brightly in the darkness… Three people appear and the central person is Karl Bartos himself.

The music starts and… Kraftwerk die and fade away. Their recently rehashed material just doesn't cut it (c'mon we do NOT need yet another remix!!!). Where's the spark? Where's the energy? Where's the heart? What comes forth from the stage here on this humid night has all of this and more!!! Karl Bartos is crowned King of Techno-Pop within about thirty seconds.
" The Camera" pulses its way into the crowd's hearts and minds and quite simply this is where Kraftwerk should have been twenty, yes read it, twenty years ago. But they are not. And Karl Bartos is. Pulsing beats, electronic percussion, vocoded vocals and digital imagery add up to something spectacular. This is Karl's audio snapshot and it is digitally clear and full of colour and precise edges.

Brilliant black and white computer images accompany "I'm The Message" (destined to be the first single) taking the audience back to many years ago when stage performances were all about lots and lots of electronic kit and the visuals being the only optical stimulant.

So the music and emotion flows like those radioactive electrons from yesteryear and when "15 Minutes Of Fame" starts geeks play air synth and ambient ravers sway and pulsate. Those that maybe aren't sure of what they are witnessing just stand and nod their head in rhythmic motions. Time? It's been a long time and this is so refreshing it raises goose pimples on your body and sends shivers down your back.

" Reality" draws people into the master's fold and they are captivated by the mesmerising beat, hypnotised by the swaying techno synthesisers. As the music continues new kids on the block just start to pale in comparison. This is the master at work before our very own eyes.

Communication, instant coffee, photographs, commercial breaks, laughter, marmalade, roller blades and love – we are all connected. Where did Kraftwerk go wrong? Well one possibility as voiced by Wolfgang Flur in his autobiography "I Was A Robot" was that they never allowed their genes to cross with another artist's. Thus the originality broke down and the creativity began to fade. Thankfully Wolfgang moved on to form Yamo and work with many different people and here is Karl after working with various artists most notably Electronic on their Raise The Pressure album.

And to show there is some fact in all of this Karl calmly announces on stage that "this next song is dedicated to New Order". From the people that krafted Blue Monday comes the stimulation for Karl to create "Life". Beginning with the familiar bouncy bassline that immediately hooks you, through the sequencer driven layers to the unaltered Summer vocals. Quite frankly the lyrics are dragged kicking and screaming from deep within Karl's heart and psyche with such lines as, "I have to get on with my life"…

And then as quickly and authoritarian as he had unleashed the new beginning, suddenly Kraftwerk were back – well at least their music was. Karl and his new cohorts relived "Computer World", "The Model", "Trans-Europe Express", "The Telephone Call" and the encore finale "Tour De France". The latter of which was not remixed or rehashed - this was the real thing performed live with Karl on vocals!

So retro!!! The older stuff will naturally stand the test of time but Karl's new material is fresh, innovative and simply brilliant which deserves to last at least twenty five years in itself. A chance to see a legend. A chance to hear the original and compare. But… more importantly a chance to see the way forward and at last believe that truly great music can still be created amongst all of this commercial drudge. Kraftwerk are history. Karl Bartos is the future. Welcome to the new era…

Graham Needham