Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited review – Kraftwerk boldly reimagined

Watch the original live performance of Radioland: Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity Revisited.

In March this year, keyboardist Matthew Bourne and electronic composer Franck Vigroux teamed up with the installation artist Antoine Schmitt to mark the 40th anniversary of Kraftwerk’s 1975 album, Radio-Activity with a “live performance experience”. Radioland builds on that collaboration, but rather than settling for a straightforward recreation of one of the electronic pioneers’ more underrated albums, it uses it as a starting point, taking the motifs and melodies (and the moments of silence), and reinterpreting them. Airwaves and Radioactivity benefit most, the former stripped of its vocals and now undercut with an air of menace. Less successful is Antenna, which doesn’t become any more lovely for having an abrasive coda tacked on. Still, this is a bold reimagining that stands up well next to the original.