Kraftwerk - Tribal Gathering (2023)

BROADCAST RECORDING OF KRAFTWERK’S FIRST FESTIVAL SET\nOne warm evening in May 1997, in the grounds of a country house just off the M1, thousands watched Kraftwerk, the enigmatic Mensch\-Maschine, successfully evolve. Their appearance at the dance music one\-dayer Tribal Gathering was the group’s first ever festival set. To be there was to witness Kraftwerk in the context of the black dance music they had inspired and were inspired by.\nThe performance was a timely reboot for the band. Their last original album – the lacklustre Electric Café – was released in 1986, when early jack, house and techno was leaving Kraftwerk behind. A 1991 remix album, The Mix, also received lukewarm reviews, although it reshaped their older tracks within cleaner, clubbier lines. The Tribal Gathering set was about Kraftwerk acknowledging where their influence properly pulsed – and where its future lay. That night, they were the only act playing live in the main tent. The Detroit stage next door had shut for Kraftwerk’s set, as techno royalty such as Kevin Saunderson and Jeff Mills didn’t want to miss their spiritual forebears. Before the first “eins zwei drei vier” of Numbers, entry was closed to prevent dangerous overcrowding.\nThe tent was filled with a healthy mix of electro\-warriors, club night regulars and curious, slightly square undergraduates who loved Underworld and Leftfield as much as Pulp and Suede. The Trans\-Europe was opened by Two Lone Swordsmen on the final leg of their eight\-hour sound\-system set (a neat way of the stage being readied for Kraftwerk’s precise specifications).\nBut by 11pm, the tent was a mass of tight, whooping waves made up of every demographic: most revellers by now felt accepted in the festival’s mix of glammed\-up ravers, trance hedonists and hoodie\-wearing ordinary Joes. Then as a robotic voice cut through. “Meine Damen und Herren,” it began …\nBefore Tribal Gathering, Kraftwerk played theatres and tribute shows. After it, they became festival fixtures. For almost all attendees it felt precious to be there at that pivotal moment, at both a peculiar homecoming and something of an annunciation.