I finished listening to the
Kraftwerk 3D album in
Dolby Atmos....
Unlike Pure Audio Blu-Rays, this one has footage, apparently taken from a live concert with background footage for each of the songs that basically alternate between the live views and the footage that was projected behind them on the cinema screen. The blocky image on the front of the album is a representation of the 4 members standing at "stations" in front of the screen. When the lights were up, as best I could tell, only two of them had actual synthesizer keyboards on their workstations. The other two appeared to have some kind of computer kiosk type setup. I'm not sure what they were doing (selecting/adjusting screen footage and/or lighting? Or just pretending to do something in what is an otherwise computer controlled playback of the songs?) That sort of thing is a common issue among synth/pop bands (e.g. The Pet Shop Boys had a live stage show instead based more around dancing groups, props, etc. It wasn't really my thing, but at least it let them perform live). Kraftwerk does a good job of at least giving the appearance they're doing something and it does appear the vocals were at least live and perhaps some of the synth parts (lighting/angles not conducive to see what they were doing, really).
The ATMOS. The Atmos mix does a pretty good job of moving the synth sounds around the room. It starts off a bit slow in "Autobahn" but eventually you get sounds and voices pretty much all over the place including common ceiling locations (oddly orientated around actual Auro-3D speaker locations with distinct parts at "center height" and "VOG" quite often which makes me wonder if the album might have originally been mixed in Auro-3D and then converted over to Atmos or something (not that Atmos can't image in those locations with phantom images, but I do wonder since most immersive albums started with Auro-3D mixes with Atmos concentrating on movies early on and Auro concentrating their Blu-rays more on music, or at least getting more traction/releases in music). Either way, the mix doesn't lack for bouncing sounds around the room. However, their music seems to be largely based on old style analog and FM synthesis type sounds rather than a more modern type of sound so it's a little strange somehow in that often it just feels like sounds are being bounced around just for the heck of it, rather than any kind of "plan" to the music style or something (an impression that Yello's album manages to impress in that it almost sounds like it was designed with Atmos in mind even though that really wasn't the case as it was mixed for stereo and sent for an Atmos version from the stems too, but their use of rhythm, percussion and other sounds perhaps makes it at least
seem more natural somehow). Still, it really hasn't gotten old here listening to sounds bounce all around the speakers in the room (since I have 17.1 speakers installed in a 11.1.6 config). Some tracks specifically seem to use Front Wides a LOT (notably
Techno Pop) for those that are looking to test their front wides which often get complaints of movies not utilizing them enough.
The Music. I'm not expert on Kraftwerk. This is the first album I've ever heard from them. I did a bit of reading on their history and contributions to electronic and eventually what would become techno music, but in practice I'm not sure what to make after just one listen.
Autobahn went on for over 10 minutes and the cheesy 1990s looking 3D driving footage got kind of old fast as did the song.
Trans Europa Express was like the "train" version of the same concept (with odd 3D train views), but I think the song was much better on that one.
Radioaktivitat seemed to be some anti-nuclear type song with mentions of various meltdown and bomb sites in the song. I felt like I was being put to sleep a bit on these tracks. But other tracks like
Techno Pop, Die Roboter and even
Tour De France had pretty nice layers of analog synths with some more modern techno beats and bits thrown in. I think
Techno Pop was probably my favorite track offhand. It had a pretty nice layered effect and just seemed more exciting than the other tracks. The video had some old style wire forms and low polygon count renders of a robot that kept saying things like "Music non stop, Techno-pop" with Atmos placement around the room were oddly interesting, although like most of the tracks, I felt like they often went on a bit too long (sometimes less is more), but I didn't mind as much with this one.
Die Roboter replaced the band members with robots on stage (or what looked like on-stage; it was hard to tell if it was just footage or they really used them from the angles). I thought I was in Disney World....
Tour de France lyrics were in French and featured lots of old looking bicycle footage from the race. It seemed oddly upbeat in a way that made me think I was watching a some 1970s promotion film. I don't know whether that's a complement or a scratch my head moment, but it was still pretty catchy, I think.
Overall, it was an interesting old school sounding 1970s type synthesizer rehash using sounds I never would have used on my own album (I tend to prefer the more Pink Floyd use of old school synths mixed with guitar), but they certainly found a way to use them fairly effectively. I can't help but be reminded of Commodore 64 music demos (many of which came from Europe) for the old SID chip, which certainly was more analog sounding than today's sampled sets, but even Apple's Logic Pro has plenty of old school synths you can patch and modify like the real things if you want to take the time to come up with your own analog or FM type sounds. Given how different the music is from modern pop, some might want to preview the tracks on YouTube or something first unless of course you're already a fan.
