The concrete basement of Borough Wines on Robertson Street was the perfect venue for German electronic duo Krautwerk on Tuesday. The rough brick walls, bare lightbulbs and exposed pipework conjured the spirit of an underground Berlin nightclub forty years ago, with industrial, experimental music to match. Harald Grosskopf and Eberhard Kranemann have between them been members of electronic rock pioneers Kraftwerk, Neu! and Ash Ra Tempel, and are still carrying the futurist torch today. They’re not the robotic types you might expect; in denim dungarees, beards, shades and quirky hats, warm and thoroughly human, they come across as affable elder statesmen of a seismic musical revolution which brought the synthesiser to the fore and influenced generations of performers from the 1970s onwards. 

They set to work among a snakepit of cables with an array of keyboards, laptops, strings, drum pads and what looked like home-built electronica of dubious origin and obscure purpose. “This one’s called Tuning Up,” they announced, as the electronics clicked and fizzed into life. The music was delivered with a sort of improvised jazz approach; freestyle meanderings around layers of rhythms and hypnotic, repetitive melodies, sometimes trippy, sometimes rocky; soundscapes of factories, heavy machinery, travelling at speed. There was lightness too – the wry way in which
the Stylophone was introduced as if it were a third band member, a giggling German go at a Glaswegian accent. They use track titles such as “Happy Blue” and “Be Cool”. At times the driving beats and soaring synth sounds were euphoric and perfectly danceable – at one point a raver pushed towards the front shouting “why isn’t anybody dancing?!” – but most of the audience settled for a little light foot-tapping and discreet twitching.

It could have been louder and heavier, but for now, in this little room under the America Ground, it fitted well. At the end of the set Harald and Eberhard doffed their hats and smiled shyly at the effusive applause, played a thumping encore which was one of the highlights of the night, and then set about packing away their kit as the DJ played the Human League’s “Being Boiled” and similar Germanic musical delicatessen. 

Huge thanks to the organisers for bringing a slice of krautrock to town and giving us a simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic night to remember.

Link to a clip of the gig on YouTube