Kinetik News Archives - August 2001

Long time Kinetik acquaintance Paul Wilkinson recently invited Kinetik to attend his 30th birthday celebrations in Blackpool towards the end of July. Paul Wilkinson’s association with the band goes back to the UK Kraftwerk conventions which he helped to organise in the early 90’s. (see Part 2 of "The Kinetik Story" for full details). Originally, it was hoped that Kinetik would actually perform a live set at the party, but it unfortunately transpired that this would not be possible as a suitable (and affordable) venue could not be located.

Instead, Kinetik’s very own Andrew Slegt was DJ in residence for the evening. Under the pseudonym ‘DJ Jacques Coustard’, he kept the turntables spinning all night with a varied selection of 80’s nostalgia, though he did manage to slip in the occasional piece of Kinetik material towards the end of the evening. As Andrew remarked later, “It was just like being at home in my bedroom on a typical Saturday night really !!!!”.

Another Kinetik flavour was added to the celebrations when an exclusive Kinetik remix of Paul singing the Kraftwerk song “Pocket Calculator” was played over the PA system. Paul had originally recorded a version on cassette accompanied by a kiddies toy keyboard. As detailed in Part 2 of “The Kinetik Story”, his tape was actually played at the 1994 Kraftwerk Convention as a “mystery Kraftwerk recording”. For the party, Kinetik had taken the original cassette and sampled various sections. The entire song was then totally reconstructed and given the full Kinetik remix treatment, complete with pounding rhythm and assorted added ‘bleeps’. Andrew had attended a Kinetik recording session in Cornwall especially for this project, mere days before the party. Unfortunately it is unlikely that this milestone recording will ever see the light of day on a commercial Kinetik release, though it’s possible that we may issue a one-off CD of the track as a very special unique competition prize in the near future…

Part of the reason why there has been a sizable delay in updating the news section of this site has been due to the fact that for some time we have been awaiting news of a possible Kinetik live date in Sweden. We were all set to make an announcement on the site as soon as the final details were confirmed. Negotiations had been taking place since April this year and had reached quite an advanced stage. Kinetik would have been one of three electronic bands performing at the event in Stockholm during December and there were even tentative plans to launch the new album MODEM TIMES at the concert.

Unfortunately, due to various reasons (one of which being that the promoter was recently involved in a serious road accident) the concert has had to be cancelled, though it is sincerely hoped that Kinetik will be invited to participate at a similar event in 2002.

Work has been progressing slowly but steadily on the album throughout the year. At the time of writing, the new album is approximately half finished. It is planned that MODEM TIMES will be launched on December 12th 2001, this date being exactly 100 years to the day since radio pioneer Marconi successfully transmitted the first trans-Atlantic radio message from Poldhu Cove, Cornwall just a couple of miles away from Kinetik’s new studios. This anniversary ties in very well with the album’s themes of digital technology and communication and we intend to do our utmost to meet this completion schedule for the CD.

Originally it was hoped that the aborted Swedish concert would tie in well with the album launch and would showcase much of the new material destined for the CD. It is now hoped instead, that Kinetik will be able to play a live date in London later in the year. We have an open invitation to appear at an electronic music club, but negotiations are currently in the very early stages. More news if and when it happens…..