In my opinion, Kraftwerk’s connection to the “Krautrock” scene of the 1970s is quite
limited. Their first two albums
(Kraftwerk in 1970 and Kraftwerk 2 in 1972) are certainly productions of that
era but are not generally regarded as major releases. It was only after the band reduced its
membership to the core of Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider and released their third
album, Ralf und Florian in 1973,that they began to find their all synthesiser/drum
machine sound with generally vocoder treated vocals. They then entered a golden period, releasing
five albums over the next seven years, at least three of which absolute
classics that I simply cannot separate. They
are, in effect, the electronic version of Bob Marley and the Wailers; being
viewed as the figurehead of a field that had already been established, and
probably doing more to inspire other musicians into exploring it just by dint
of the record sales alone. How a band like
this, as influential in rock’s development as Elvis Presley, Marley, Bob Dylan,
The Beatles, James Brown, Led Zeppelin and a handful of select other acts, is
not in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame remains a mystery and a musical crime.
(# 667) Kraftwerk –
Autobahn (1974)
This was their fourth album and the one which made the world
sit up and notice. Side 1 of the
original vinyl album was taken up the 22 minute title track basically extolls
the fun of travelling along Germany’s autobahns (super fast freeways). The synths, effectively replicate the sound
of cars, heavy traffic with car horns early on, and whooses as cars pass at top
speed on the autobahn afterwards. It brilliantly
evokes the experience of fast car travel; somehow, every time I play it I don’t
get the sense of the amount of time that has elapsed by its end. The band cleverly keeps the journey going by
an ending probably limited by the capabilities of vinyl. Just how long the track would have taken had
the CD been invented at the time of recording is anyone’s guess. Somehow,
an edited version of the track became a worldwide hit. The tracks on side two tend to be
ignored. The two part Kometenmelodie (or
Comet Melody) incorporates space travel themes that were probably unique at the
time but which have since been rendered familiar by numerous sci-fi movie
soundtracks, the ominous sounding Mitternacht (or Midnight) is extremely
effective and Morgenspaziergang (or Morning Walk) incorporates some elements of
the early Kraftwerk sound (notably the use of flute) as well as a vague
sounding return to the basic Autobahn “riff”. Perhaps, the morning walk was the precursor to
the return trip home?
(#668) Kraftwerk – Trans
Europe Express (1977)
This album appears to be a vague celebration of all things
European. Opening cut Europe Endless starts
with what sounds like a manipulation of one of The Who’s electronic rhythms
(such as on Won’t Get Fooled Again) before adding quite Germanic sounding synth
lines and choral themes that Rammstein would adapt decades later. The Hall Of Mirrors has a vague French feel
and Showroom Dummies is very German; the
band compares themselves to shopfront mannequins thus meeting the stereotypical
view of Germans as indistinguishable, emotionally aloof and rigid. The second half of the album – the vinyl side
2 – is effectively a suite in which the band attempts to replicate Autobahn,
this time by concentrating on train travel.
It kicked off by the title track on which the synths are employed to
impersonate train movement and the engine whistles. It segues perfectly into Metal On Metal, maintaining
the lyrics of the title track but giving listeners an idea of the train
travelling over various railway sleepers.
Franz Schubert and Endless Endless which follow seem to imply the end of
the trip.
(# 669) Kraftwerk –
Computer World (1981)
On this album Kraftwerk celebrates the computer in its then
basic form. The title track which
opens the album, and a second version, are based on a beautiful synth melody
that brilliantly contrasts the otherwise robotic sounds that dominate the
album. Computer Love takes the melody and
softens it further so that one could think that computer love is possible. Pocket
Calculator sounds exactly how you would expect it to sound complete with the
bored vocal of its operator. The
instrumental Home Computer serves up more of the same; you can hear sounds on
this track in particular that were to pop up and dominate pop songs in the
1980s. It’s More Fun To Compute which
attempts to pass the pace along seemingly anticipating and predicting Western industrialists
subsequent embracing of the concept that the using computers should speed up
productivity and thus should be “fun”.
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