Latest news with #Kraftwerk
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Booker T Reveals What Made Him Choose His Iconic Entrance Theme
Booker T has had some great entrance music in his career. Booker T and Stevie Ray, also known as Harlem Heat, used one of the most well-known theme songs in WCW. Their theme song later played a big part in Booker T's entrance theme when he became a singles wrestler. Advertisement While speaking on the Club 520 Podcast at WWE World, Booker T revealed how he and Stevie Ray first heard their entrance theme. As soon as they listened to it, they knew right away it was the perfect fit for Harlem Heat and said it sounded like a champion's theme. Booker T says his theme song was meant to sound like a champion's 'I remember back in late '91 when they first approached us with this sound right here. It was just out of an abundance of music that we just had to pick from. As soon as we heard it, man, I was like, 'Man, that's it. That's the song.' Just because it's very, very important as far as the music you have. You do your name, like Booker T and Stevie Ray, [we thought they were] championship names. We wanted championship music as well. And I wanted everybody, all of the fans, to have an experience when they heard that music. 'And that music was so unique it wasn't rap, you know what I mean? It had its own feel, its own flavor, and when you heard it, you'd go, 'Oh, man, here come them boys, and they about to come out here and do some work.' Man, that music still, to this day, man, it hypes me up. Man, my wife got that on her phone, and so I got to hear it every day, you know? But it's awesome, it really is.' Did you know that 'Rap Sheet' was full of shocking samples? Harlem Heat's theme was originally called 'Rap Sheet,' a song written by Didier Leglise & René De Wael. However, the song featured several surprising samples of other songs. This includes 'Music Non-Stop' and 'Sex Object' by Kraftwerk. Advertisement There is also one other pretty prominent sample in the song, which was discovered by Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp in 2021. Sapp revealed that the snippet of an odd 'brrr-like' sound actually came from a sample of 'Hateful Head Helen' by Sweet Pussy Pauline. On her song, Pauline describes how men want to stick their faces in a woman's buttcheeks and motorboat them, but 'they don't know how to ask.' Sapp asked a pretty fair and important question that still rings true… what are these wrestling music producers thinking? If that wasn't hilarious enough, non-wrestling fans even remember 'Rap Sheet' being used in a sketch on the classic comedy series Kids in the Hall. Read More: Booker T Reveals The Crowning Moment Of His Career: I Wouldn't Change It For Anything If you use these quotes, please credit the original source and link back to WrestleZone with an h/t for the transcription. The post Booker T Reveals What Made Him Choose His Iconic Entrance Theme appeared first on Wrestlezone.
Times
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Adam Buxton: ‘I met Johnny Cash on the beach and introduced him to my mum'
First film I saw at the cinema Disney's The Rescuers, quite an odd film about a United Nations-style organisation run by mice, who go on a mission to rescue a human girl kidnapped in the bayou. I remember an incredibly exciting boat chase involving a dragonfly. First cinema event Star Wars. We were living in south Wales, but my mum drove us all the way to London to see it. I remember stumbling out, dazed, desperate to buy merch. My mum bought me the soundtrack on cassette, and I was initially gutted that it was just the music and not the actors' voices too. First TV obsession I remember being so excited about The Muppet Show. In a pre-VCR age, I wanted a record of it. Borrowing my dad's Dictaphone [he was a travel journalist], I would lie right in front of the TV, recording as close to the speaker as I could. I would shush anyone who came in: 'No talking during the Muppets!' I liked Gonzo best, because he was hapless but funny. First single I owned Kraftwerk's The Model. When I was nine, I was shipped off to boarding school. On Thursdays, seniors were allowed to stay up to watch Top of the Pops. With few exceptions, I loved it all, but particularly synth-pop, so, Gary Numan, Landscape, who had a hit with Einstein a Go-Go, Ultravox and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. First concert I went to My first memory of live music was seeing a reggae band in Jamaica or Barbados during one of my dad's travel trips. It wasn't a tourist gig but something we had been taken to by a local PR. I was quite young and found it gut-quakingly loud. My dad asked the PR if they could ask the band to turn the music down. She laughed, then realised he was serious. The first band I saw for myself was Prefab Sprout at the Hammersmith Palais, along with my comedy wife Joe Cornish [the screenwriter and director]. • Joe Cornish: 'I turned down every franchise out there' Buxton met Johnny Cash on holiday as a child JACK VARTOOGIAN/GETTY IMAGES First famous person I met Possibly on that same Caribbean trip, while playing in the sea I got talking to a man with a boy about the same age as me. This dad, who was nice and gentle, asked me what I liked doing. I said: 'Drawing robots and watching TV.' The boy liked TV too. 'Come and meet my mum,' I said. Afterwards she said: 'Do you know who that was? He's very famous. He's called Johnny Cash.' First break While at art school, I sent a videotape into a Channel 4 public access show called Takeover TV. I'd recorded a comedy song over a Velvet Underground instrumental about a pretentious performance artist called Randy Tartt. The guy who ran the production company, Fenton Bailey, loved the video, and also felt it was a sign that he had a partner called Randy and a band called The Fabulous Pop Tarts. That led to The Adam and Joe Show. First podcast I enjoyed We took over from the Ricky Gervais show on XFM when he and Stephen Merchant went off to film the second series of The Office. They already had a hit podcast of that show, so we were offered that option too. I was quite insecure and soon discovered it was nice to have the opportunity to craft something, rather than just stumbling live on air. First moment I felt I'd made it A recent notch was having Paul McCartney on The Adam Buxton Podcast. In the days when it was less offensive to do so, I used to joke that my Native American name would have to be Stumbles at Hurdles, because at any point in my career when the pressure was on, I'd f*** it up. I was nervous McCartney would be another one of those challenges. But I think it was really good, and people liked it. I Love You, Byeee by Adam Buxton is out now (Mudlark £22 pp320). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
Forbes
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Uncovered World: Kraftwerk And The Philosophy Of Technology
Kraftwerk in Austin The Bass Concert Hall turned dark, seeming almost cavernous. A low frequency electronic pulse filled the air, mechanical yet strangely alive. Scintillating. Vibrating. Evocatively turning deep, electronic guttural sounds into something that resembled human speech. Deconstructing information into component frequencies. In Austin, far from Düsseldorf and Zürich, Kraftwerk performed what may be one their last world tours. Florian Schneider is gone. Ralf Hütter is 78. These artists are to me, more influential and important than the Beatles. More primal than Elvis. And greater philosophers than many who have dedicated their life to this subject. What unfolded in their performance was the furthest thing from an ordinary concert. It was a revelation. An introduction to, and a glimpse into a potent, fascinating, yet hidden world. A world not of nature. Not of man. A third realm, that of technology itself. Throughout history, human understanding has been framed around two dominant spheres: The world of nature, existing independently of our will. The world of man, shaped by mind, imagination, and society. But there is a third realm, often overlooked as a place unto itself; the world of technology, distinct, autonomous, yet seen, discovered and perceived through human hands and minds. It is not a mere extension of man, nor a deformation of nature. It is something else. A reality lying latent, awaiting uncovering. Like mathematical truths that exist before their discovery, technology embodies structures and possibilities inherent in the fabric of reality itself. Kraftwerk, through sound and image, strips away the familiar, and for a moment, exposed this world to view. The struggle to distinguish between the natural and the artificial is as old as philosophy itself. For Plato, reality was not the flux of nature, but the eternal, immutable Forms, perfect ideas underlying the chaotic surface of the world. The material world was a mere shadow, a poor imitation of deeper truths. In this light, human creation was often seen as one more step removed from authenticity. And yet, if the Forms exist, if reality has an underlying structure, then acts of creation, invention, and discovery are not degradations, they are gestures toward uncovering deeper truths. Technology, seen through this lens, is not a corruption of nature, nor a rebellion against it. It is another projection of the universal truths. It is an alignment, a striving to manifest hidden structures of existence. The discovery of numbers, the construction of machines, the algorithmic symphony of logic. All are not mere human artifice, but the surfacing of something real. Something that was always there. Consider the wheel exists in nature's circles, electricity in lightning, binary logic in the on/off of neural firing. We do not invent these principles; we uncover them, give them form, allow them to emerge into visibility. Kraftwerk's brilliance is, then, not merely music. It is not merely the visual art. It is in the comprehensive and accessible act of uncovering. In the twentieth century, Martin Heidegger reframed the ancient dialogue. Technology, he argued in The Question Concerning Technology, is not simply a collection of tools. It is a mode of revealing, a way in which reality itself is brought forth into visibility. Heidegger called this Entbergen, an act of uncovering. Through technology, aspects of the world hidden from ordinary experience are made accessible. Yet, Heidegger warned, there is also a danger. Technology may reduce the world to a mere standing reserve, stripping away mystery, reducing being to resource. But at its heart, technology is revelatory. It makes visible that which was veiled. As the figures of Numbers cascaded across the screens in Austin, integers tumbling in German, Japanese, English, Russian, I realized these were not merely intended to be seen as familiar, mundane symbols. They were aspects of reality, uncovered by the mind, given form through machine, presented as pure abstraction. Numbers collide. Numbers emerge. Numbers equate. Numbers exceed. They exist absent all else. This is the paradox. While technology requires human consciousness to be revealed, what is revealed transcends the merely human. Like a mathematician discovering rather than inventing mathematical truths, we are conduits for technology's emergence, not its sole authors. Each song in Kraftwerk's set was a meditation on different aspects of this hidden realm: Numbers presented pure abstraction, numbers not as human symbols, but as ontological realities, revealed through machine logic. Pocket Calculator emphasized the act of operation over creation. I'm the operator of my pocket calculator. The device exists apart from us; we interact with it, but we do not author it. An electric ambience pervades the entire performance... Radioactivity captured the duality of nature and technology. A phenomenon that exists both in the heart of stars and in the heart of human made reactors, creation and destruction blurred. Transported into the world of man, radioactivity is the harbinger of destruction. But on its own… The Robots explored the emergence of a new entity which is neither human nor merely mechanical, but something third, something that occupies a new ontological space. Here, perhaps, we glimpse what artificial intelligence may become: not mere tools, but entities with their own form of being, uncovered at the intersection of mind and mechanism. Autobahn is a celebration of technological connectivity, of a machine conduit. Of a platform that unlocks more of what the machine can do. Accompanied by images not of people, but German machines on a low poly German road, expressing the machine capability of speed; of transit; of unimpeded flow. Tour de France is a meditation on the tour not as a human endeavor. Not as a journey across nature. But as a network; a graph; a succession of nodes. A tour enabled by a machine; the bicycle. This is the projection of the concept of Tour de France in the world of technology. It is distinct from the projection of this concept into the world of man, or the world of nature. Each performance abandoned traditional human emotions, focusing instead on precision, abstraction, minimalism, all in service of revealing technology's independent existence. It is no accident that Kraftwerk arose from the German speaking world, a civilization with a profound, sometimes ambivalent, relationship to technology. This relationship became clearer to me when I read that great ode to German invention and technology, "German Genius," recommended to me by my brilliant friend, Paul Achleitner, who is both deeply interested in art and a leader of German finance. In Germany, technology was never merely a means to an end. It was something closer to a metaphysical destiny. "Vorsprung durch Technik", or advancement through technology, is not simply an Audi slogan. It is more a declaration of belief. Just walking in the German speaking world, in Zürich for example, you come across streets named Maschinenstrasse ("Machine Street") and Enginestrasse ("Engine Street"). Here man decided to pay homage not to nature, not even to humanity, but to the idea of machinery itself, an acknowledgment that technology has a life and dignity of its own. This cultural recognition reflects a deeper truth. That technology deserves reverence not as our creation, but as a fundamental aspect of reality we have learned to perceive. German Romanticism, industrialization, and the later traumas of the twentieth century all layered into this complicated reverence. Technology was seen as both salvation and abyss, a force capable of transcending human limits, but also one that could eclipse the human altogether. Kraftwerk inherited this dual consciousness. Their music is neither celebration nor lamentation. It is the pronouncement of prophets. It is an act of witnessing. It is the declaration of a truth. A truth many don't yet see. In The Man Machine, Kraftwerk advanced perhaps their deepest philosophical statement. The man machine is not fully human, stripped of frailty, emotion, decay. But it is not merely mechanical either, it possesses autonomy, responsiveness, a shadow of intention. It is a new quantity. Less than human, because it lacks spirit. More than human, because it transcends biological constraint. It is a being uncovered at the intersection of mind and mechanism, a glimpse, perhaps, of what is to come as artificial intelligences evolve beyond narrow tools toward autonomous existence. Standing between nature and humanity, technology births beings that are neither, yet partake of both. Nature will endure, with its forests, rivers, stars. Human culture will continue, spinning its myths, its struggles, its dreams. But the third realm, the uncovered world of technology, is rising. It is not merely a byproduct. It is a domain of being: real, structured, autonomous. Technology is not our invention alone. It is an unveiling, a drawing forth of latent realities woven into the fabric of existence itself. Even if we were not, technology would be, in the same way that mathematical truths exist independent of minds to think them. We are the occasion for its revelation, not its ultimate source. Through minimalist beats, robotic voices, and cascades of pure data, Kraftwerk offered us a glimpse into that domain. A world not of nature. Not of man. But something new. Something uncovered.
Scottish Sun
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Techno pioneer Dan Curtin returns with new tracks 15 years after album… as he reveals his favourite tunes
PLAY IT Techno pioneer Dan Curtin returns with new tracks 15 years after album… as he reveals his favourite tunes AFTER 15 years away from the album format, US born, Berlin based techno pioneer Dan Curtin returns with The 4 Lights on Belgian imprint De:tuned. The long player is a cosmic, groove-laden collection of tracks that bridge the past and future of electronic music. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 1 Dan Curtin has revealed The 4 Lights on Belgian imprint De:tuned Credit: Supplied The playlist Dan has put together for us digs deep into 10 pivotal tracks that influenced his creative process, each carrying a piece of the musical DNA that pulses through The 4 Lights. From the mechanical funk of Kraftwerk and the raw Motor City soul of Model 500 to the ethereal textures of The Cure and the beat science of J Dilla and The Alchemist, these selections reflect Curtin's wide-ranging sonic world. A world where electro, house, techno, and hip hop collide with emotion and forward-thinking production. These aren't just tracks he likes. They're moments that marked turning points, altered life paths, and etched themselves into the core of his artistic identity. Each selection is accompanied by Dan's personal reflections, giving you direct insight into how these records helped shape his new album. Kraftwerk – Numbers When I first heard this, I honestly thought it was a NYC electro crew because it was such a big hit with hip hop DJs and breakers at the time. I was shocked to learn they were German—but the funk, the futurism, the innovation blew me away. Kraftwerk remains, to this day, my all-time favorite band. Model 500 – Nightdrive (Through Babylon) This record set the stage for me in so many ways. Somehow it was even more futuristic than Kraftwerk—it took the best of Kraftwerk's futurism and mixed it with Motor City soul to bring about a paradigm shift in music. All forces converged to start a musical revolution. BFC – Chicken Noodle Soup This record became a part of my soul. Probably every record I've ever done has some of this in it—if not in sound, then in spirit and soul. The ethereal chords and rough, sampled beats—nothing can top this masterpiece from Carl Craig. Rhythm Is Rhythm – It Is What It Is I'll never forget it. After a gig with my goth band, I was driving through the Cleveland city skyline on the Shoreway around 3 a.m., listening to this in the car with the windows down—Lake Erie to the left, downtown to the right—and at that moment, I quit my band and knew that techno was going to be it forever. That feeling is most definitely present in my new album. Mr. Fingers – Can You Feel It I had never heard anything like this before—those lush chords, that melody, that bassline. Music from heaven. My number one house track of all time. It didn't just influence my music; it changed my life. You can tell when the divine touches our souls. 69 – Ladies and Gentlemen Carl Craig again, absolutely delivering a groundbreaking shift in techno before anyone even knew what was happening. His sample-based approach to Detroit techno resonated deeply with me—it was like the sound I'd always been waiting for. If you hear the tracks on my new album, many are sample-based. I love this way of making techno. Slum Village – Climax Is it this track more than any other Dilla track? Maybe. This is one of my absolute favorites from him, but Dilla's music is etched on my soul—it's impossible for it not to come out every time I step into the studio. The Cure – Faith I'd be remiss not to include The Cure—especially their early albums. They had a huge impact on me. It's not always a one-to-one influence, like 'this track influenced that track"—it's more that the music becomes a part of me, and then I can hear it later when I create something. And in my 4 Lights album, it's definitely there. Armando – Confusion's Revenge This had a big impact on me—it was shockingly new and otherworldly, like no music I'd ever heard. Yet it had groove and funk—so futuristic, but tied to humanity through that groove. To me, it's the ultimate expression of hope, stating that we will make it. This is one of the main themes in my album and all my music: hope for a bright future for humanity. To me, the future always looks bright. Mike, Wiki & The Alchemist – Mayor's a Cop The Alchemist is my current top hip hop producer. He's the artist I listen to the most these days—daily—and he's heavily influenced my newer productions. He's like J Dilla in that everything he touches turns to gold. And he doesn't just work with any rappers, but always the right rappers. His music so often has that touch of beauty, longing, hope, and truth—going deep into the soul every time.
The Sun
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Techno pioneer Dan Curtin returns with new tracks 15 years after album… as he reveals his favourite tunes
AFTER 15 years away from the album format, US born, Berlin based techno pioneer Dan Curtin returns with The 4 Lights on Belgian imprint De:tuned. The long player is a cosmic, groove-laden collection of tracks that bridge the past and future of electronic music. 1 The playlist Dan has put together for us digs deep into 10 pivotal tracks that influenced his creative process, each carrying a piece of the musical DNA that pulses through The 4 Lights. From the mechanical funk of Kraftwerk and the raw Motor City soul of Model 500 to the ethereal textures of The Cure and the beat science of J Dilla and The Alchemist, these selections reflect Curtin's wide-ranging sonic world. A world where electro, house, techno, and hip hop collide with emotion and forward-thinking production. These aren't just tracks he likes. They're moments that marked turning points, altered life paths, and etched themselves into the core of his artistic identity. Each selection is accompanied by Dan's personal reflections, giving you direct insight into how these records helped shape his new album. Kraftwerk – Numbers When I first heard this, I honestly thought it was a NYC electro crew because it was such a big hit with hip hop DJs and breakers at the time. I was shocked to learn they were German—but the funk, the futurism, the innovation blew me away. Kraftwerk remains, to this day, my all-time favorite band. BFC – Chicken Noodle Soup This record became a part of my soul. Probably every record I've ever done has some of this in it—if not in sound, then in spirit and soul. The ethereal chords and rough, sampled beats—nothing can top this masterpiece from Carl Craig. Rhythm Is Rhythm – It Is What It Is I'll never forget it. After a gig with my goth band, I was driving through the Cleveland city skyline on the Shoreway around 3 a.m., listening to this in the car with the windows down—Lake Erie to the left, downtown to the right—and at that moment, I quit my band and knew that techno was going to be it forever. That feeling is most definitely present in my new album. Mr. Fingers – Can You Feel It I had never heard anything like this before—those lush chords, that melody, that bassline. Music from heaven. My number one house track of all time. It didn't just influence my music; it changed my life. You can tell when the divine touches our souls. 69 – Ladies and Gentlemen Carl Craig again, absolutely delivering a groundbreaking shift in techno before anyone even knew what was happening. His sample-based approach to Detroit techno resonated deeply with me—it was like the sound I'd always been waiting for. If you hear the tracks on my new album, many are sample-based. I love this way of making techno. Slum Village – Climax Is it this track more than any other Dilla track? Maybe. This is one of my absolute favorites from him, but Dilla's music is etched on my soul—it's impossible for it not to come out every time I step into the studio. The Cure – Faith I'd be remiss not to include The Cure—especially their early albums. They had a huge impact on me. It's not always a one-to-one influence, like 'this track influenced that track"—it's more that the music becomes a part of me, and then I can hear it later when I create something. And in my 4 Lights album, it's definitely there. Armando – Confusion's Revenge This had a big impact on me—it was shockingly new and otherworldly, like no music I'd ever heard. Yet it had groove and funk—so futuristic, but tied to humanity through that groove. To me, it's the ultimate expression of hope, stating that we will make it. This is one of the main themes in my album and all my music: hope for a bright future for humanity. To me, the future always looks bright. Mike, Wiki & The Alchemist – Mayor's a Cop The Alchemist is my current top hip hop producer. He's the artist I listen to the most these days—daily—and he's heavily influenced my newer productions. He's like J Dilla in that everything he touches turns to gold. And he doesn't just work with any rappers, but always the right rappers. His music so often has that touch of beauty, longing, hope, and truth—going deep into the soul every time.
