More old school than old school!

Because music has always played a major part in my life when I hear the term old school two things instantly leap to mind old school hip hop and old school techno. The thing is without the subject of this shot would either have existed?

Way before Afrika Bambaataa sampled this when he landed on Planet Rock near the beginnings of hip hop, or Juan Atkins was influenced by it when things became Clear to him, Kraftwerk were breaking new ground musically. I have several of their albums on both CD and vinyl but they are all later re-pressings or re-masters. This one is the real deal, the original 1977 promo 12" titled Kraftwerks disco best. On this side Trans Europe Express and Showroom Dummies, on the flip side The Robots and Neon Lights, it's even still in it's original Capitol "Disco single" sleve fantastic stuff! Seeing them live a couple of years back in Glasgow was an awesome experience. thir music still sounded pioneering even after all these years.

And to anyone who, like my dad, question how musical they actually are, check out the Balanescu Quartet album Possessed the bulk of which is Kraftwerk played by a string quartet. If you ignore the actual subject matter and skip to about 1.45 on the video you can get a taster of it here.

While on the subject of groundbreaking stuff I should point out that I met up with G and Joe tonight and went to see In the shadow of the moon. It was a fantastic film, I'd highly recommend it to anyone. It was a documentary but one that kept you gripped for the whole hour and forty minutes. There were some incredibly funny moments, as well as some incredibly poignant ones, in the interviews with the astronauts, and some of the footage was completely awe inspiring.

I have to let you in on a secret though, I've long been vocal in my suspicions that the whole thing was a hoax, if truth be told though I only do it because I know it winds Joe up. There were two parts of the film which should convince even the most sceptical. Firstly in the video clips of the moon, despite there being a pitch black sky the lighting on the scenery is wonderfully even, particularly on the big panoramic shots which are just too large to be filmed in a hangar as has been suggested. Secondly the bit G pointed out which was the astronaut at the end saying "we've been to the moon nine times, why would we fake it nine times?".

Great stuff, go and check it out while it's on the big screen.