Kraftwerk

For most Kraftwerk will need no introduction. Often referred to as the "godfathers of electronic music", many major developments in the last twenty or thirty years can be traced directly back to these guys. Not to say they invented electronic music - plenty of other bands (mostly German) were experimenting with electronic noise around then, but Kraftwerk were among the first to bring the melody to the forefront and make it danceable. Their use of electronic instruments in the late 70's caught the attention of, well, just about everybody, and the rest is history. To this day Kraftwerk remains among the most sampled bands of all time, and are responsible for some of the more recognizable beats in pop music. There's still a fairly large following for the band, and nearly all of their recent live appearances have become major events, to the point where they still headline major festivals despite releasing only one album of new material in 20 years. For the uninitiated, I can certainly recommend their newly-released live set Minimum-Maximum, which contains almost all of their best tracks in great sound quality, and represents the band better than any of their studio albums, which may be off-putting at first - they have not dated well in the fast-growing field of electronic music.

Kraftwerk's lineup fluctuated a lot during the early 70's. The two major members and creative forces of the best were always Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider, but the original band attracted a lot of percussionists. At one point, this lineup consisted of Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, who later formed the groundbreaking band Neu!. Although their box set Der Katalog implies that their career started with Autobahn, there were three albums released before it, all of which have been long out of print (though I've seen a lot of overpriced bootleg vinyl). These albums are really not very good and don't bare much of a resemblence to the later material - the first two were self-titled albums that are very abstract and minimal. They'll appeal to those to love the avant-garde but those who liked their later material will likely find them a bust. I can see why Kraftwerk has kept them out of print (or more accurately: not been interested in reprinting them). Wolfgang Flur joined in 1973, and Karl Bartos in 1975, thus completing the "classic" lineup that proceeded to dictate the landscape of electronic music for the next half-decade. After a long period of inactivity Flur and Bartos quit, being replaced by Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz. This group remained somewhat active and even released an album, until early in 2009 when Schneider quit. Despite losing one of their core members, it has been suggested that the group would soldier on with him.

One more note - as a fan of electronic music, Kraftwerk's material seems to always stand out from everything else. Even though the bulk of electronic musicians had access to more advanced synthesizers and computers, I think Kraftwerk's music will outlive most of their imitators and will always be seen as "classic", especially as electronic noises become more and more commonplace in modern music.

(Also, if you like Kraftwerk, check out the Yellow Magic Orchestra page - they're in the same vein, only they're Japanese and a hell of a lot more fun.)

Okay, one other thing - as the band progressed and became more interested in international audiences, they started to record in English (with some of their singles getting Spanish, French, and even Japanese versions). Starting with Trans-Europe Express most of the 'main' albums had an English language version and a German one. These change just the lyrics to their respective language and in some cases change the content slightly to rhyme better. Nothing else has changed. I only say this because sometimes international electronic musicians who record in different languages will provide different mixes or extended cuts for the different versions, making these valuable for collectors - believe me, there is no such thing in the Kraftwerk catalogue.

Special Note for 2009: The group's entire post-Autobahn discography has just been remastered and put into a box set - also, many of the cover artworks have changed. All I can say it that these remasters sound excellent. It's hard to recommend spending a lot of cash on them since the originals sounded fine - you probably wouldn't notice the difference on headphones, but they sound amazing on any decent set of speakers.

Organisation - Tone Float (1970) *1/2
Hutter and Schneider's first project, Organisation was essentially a improv-based jam band. Reminds me a lot of an episode of Doug (does anyone remember it?) where everyone wants to join Doug's band, but they have no direction and most of the people only know how to play drums anyway. Okay, so Schneider plays a flute instead of a banjo, but it's the same idea - lots of percussion mixed with a little bit of flute and violin. At least there's all flavors of percussion - triangles, cowbells, gongs, bongos, and lots of instruments I can't really identify. It doesn't really seem to matter that the first side has one track and the second has four, since it pretty much all sounds the same - the band barely ever plays as a band, with each member just seemingly banging their instruments whenever they see fit. Nothing anyone but the most hardcore Kraftwerk fan would want to bother with, which you probably won't be able to anyway - it was only released as an import and only currently avaliable on bootleg CD, which comes with a bonus track from a '71 live Kraftwerk performance.

Kraftwerk (1971) **
Technically the first Kraftwerk album, this falls a lot more into Krautrock than their more famous material, but it's not the good kind. There's plenty of drums but almost no rhythm or melody, with one big exception - "Ruckzuck" chugs along with determination, and even goes frantic in the middle. But things take a turn for the worse right after; the other three tracks are mostly minimal pieces featuring a lot of buzzing noises and the occasional drum outburst, but without much rhythm. Even when things start going on "Stratovarius" or "Vom Himmel Hoch", they deteriorate quickly into an ear-destroying noise-fest. The only real relief is "Megaherz", a mostly improvised flute-and-organ piece, and even that one can't help but be obnoxious through use of way-too-high frequencies. Irritating.

Kraftwerk 2 (1972) *
This is one of the most disappointing albums I own; given that it features Hutter and Schneider, plus Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, who went on to form Neu!. With that kind of lineup, you’d expect something brilliant. Unfortunately they decided to forsake the idea of making music in exchange for fruitless minimalism, resulting in a bunch of tracks that are really nothing more than the sound of breath, harmonica, or a metal pick scraping guitar strings. That, by default, makes “Kling Klang” the best track, a 17-minute piece featuring a Cluster-like drum machine and some sort of melody – it’s pleasant, but entirely overlong, as the ‘variations’ on the theme seem to be simply speeding or slowing the tape down slightly. None of this is particularly offensive or hard on the ears; but it’s not very musical either, and as a result I just can’t think of any other rating to give it.

As an aside...if you want to hear the kind of sound that I was expecting from the same Kraftwerk/Neu! collaboration that made this album, search for “Bremen Radio 1971” on Google – it’s a live show with a strong rhythmic element and some real hard rock playing from Rother – I’d say it’s the “real” artifact of early Kraftwerk.

Ralf and Florian (1973) **1/2
Shows signs of their eventual direction - the main difference between this album and what came before is a little something called "melody". Still as dull and repetitive as they always were, but simply being less irritating (no ear-splitting noise here) and adding in a few neat touches like Hawaiian guitar ("Ananas Symphonie") or a flute melody ("Tongebirge") helps things out immensely by actually making the music soothing instead of obnoxious. This is oddly insubstantial considering their previous two, but it's actually a pleasant listen; but in the end it's more or less a second-rate Harmonia album.

Autobahn (1974) ***
For all intents and purposes, this is the first 'true' Kraftwerk album. The title track, 23 minutes long here, became their first (and biggest) hit when edited - in 1974, nobody had heard music that was entirely synthetic like this, and as such it caused quite a stir. The song itself is more or less based upon a simple synth melody and a driving percussive rhythm called "motorik" (first pioneered by Neu!). At 23 minutes it certainly seems to overstep its bounds, but unlike "Klingklang" it goes places - there's probably 6 or 7 distinct sections, some of which almost qualify as jamming (except instead of guitar soloing, there's car noises). Seems to invoke the feeling of driving down the highway on a clear and sunny day, which I guess was the point. As for side 2? Not much different than Ralf and Florian - pleasant, but not particularly memorable. Well, except for "Kometenmelodie 2" in which the 'Werkers inexplicably break into electro-rockabilly mode. Still, despite all the great reviews this has gotten, pretty much all the praise is for Side 1, which, long as it may be, should be heard by everyone at least once.

Radioactivity (1975) ***
Cold and a little heartless, this was the beginning of the Kraut's eventual transformation into non-human machines. Some of the album concentrates on 'found' noises, with the actual music portion coming up a little short, but all things considered it's about on the same level as Autobahn. The title track was the single here, sometimes referred to as the spiritual successor of "Autobahn", but it's too slow and limp to really be considered a classic. Some of the other song material fares better - "Antenna" is a catchy, metallic pop song, and "Airwaves" brings fast-paced surf-rock to the mix. That was certainly unexpected and off-kilter for these guys, but both the tracks are among the best of Kraftwerk and are worth seeking out for those who would rather grab a compilation. Shame the rest of the material doesn't quite live up - okay, "Ohm Sweet Ohm" is a nice closer, and "Transistor" is a short and sweet instrumental seemingly ripped right off the soundtrack of Star Trek, but they're nothing to write home about, and the remaining seven tracks are mostly short linking tracks that can be a chore to sit through (particularly the 3-minute "Radio Stars", nothing but a bunch of high-pitched radio frequency noises). I'll bet this sort of thing sounded revolutionary in '75, but it doesn't do much today.

Trans-Europe Express (1977) ****
Kraftwerk's first real classic. Right from the opening synth notes of "Europe Endless" you can tell this one's going to be different - Kraftwerk have finally made a fully fledged transition to synth-pop and produced one of the most influential and forward-thinking albums ever. Sure, the synthesizer blips should sound dated to anyone who ever, say, bought a Super Nintendo, but ignoring that and concentrating on the actual melodies, you'll find that Kraftwerk finally struck gold. "Europe Endless" is indeed a synth-pop classic (although it's rhythm is clearly disco), and the semi-reprise "Franz Schubert" is just as good - beatless but still rhythmic, and the synthesized orchestra actually gives the track a sense of resonance, a rare thing in the Kraftwerk canon. The big one of course was the title track (split here into two parts, the second being "Metal on Metal"), featuring one of the most sampled beats of all time (most famously on Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock") and namechecking David Bowie, who the album was particularly inspirational for. Undoubtedly a classic, although it falls somewhat on the lower end of the range; all things said and done, there's really only four or five different ideas here, and despite a few killer touches (such as the industrial symphony that begins "Metal on Metal") the album comes off as ultra-repetitive. Plus, not all the tracks are great - "Hall of Mirrors" is unsettling but melodically weak, and "Showroom Dummies" is catchy but obnoxiously repetitive. It's not perfect, but when that warm synth melody comes in 1:40 into "Europe Endless", it's hard to think otherwise.

One more note - it's hard to think of any album in my collection that had as big of an influence as this one. Not only did it basically create the technopop genre, but it also had huge effects on New Wave and it's primary proponents (Bowie, Devo, Depeche Mode, Ultravox, etc.), PLUS helped kickstart hip-hop - let's not forget just how important "Planet Rock" was for that genre, not to mention how much Grandmaster Flash liked this album. Anyone with a serious interest in those types of music ought to get this for historical value alone.

The Man-Machine (1978) ****1/2
Kraftwerk hit the glass ceiling - removing nearly all traces of human expression from their work, they manage to create the perfect machine - not a single note out of place, not a single musical deviation from standard form, in fact almost no variation in the tracks at all. And yet, it's their most melodically strong, with four of the six tracks becoming Kraftwerk classics - notably "The Robots", a ringer for pretty much all the synth-pop that followed, the title track, which functioned as proto-trance, and "The Model", which was so ahead of its time that it didn't become a hit until 1982 when this type of music was starting to become popular. It's hard to believe this stuff was actually performed - rather, it just sounds programmed, right up to the robotic vocals that show up in half of the tracks (not to mention another creepy cover photo - they're all dressed the same, and this time, they actually LOOK like robots). It's extremely well done - no filler here, and some of the tracks are their most musically expressive yet. Case in point, the fantastic "Neon Lights", my all time favorite Kraftwerk track, even if it's only for the fantastic ending, featuring perhaps the only instance of the robots actually rocking out and jamming - sure, it's all as calculated and mechanical as anything else on here, but the shimmering synthesizer (playing nothing but major chords, of course) invokes some very strong feelings, showing that even if the music is cold and calculated, it can still be as beautiful and awe-inspiring as anything Lennon or Hendrix or Ray Davies ever wrote. And for a band whose new mantra was "we are programmed just to do/anything you want us to", that's a pretty huge accomplishment.

Computer World (1981) ****
The beginning of what was to be called techno music - sounds an awful lot like Orbital or Leftfield or Underworld, just 10-15 years earlier, before synthesizers and drum machines started to become powerful and loud. Take "Numbers", for instance - it's probably the most influential track on here, given that the beat behind it can be heard ad nauseum in today's pop music, and it can also be seen as the start of acid house as well. It's the first Kraftwerk album you can let loose and dance to, with the title track incorporating another disco rhythm and all, and needless to say the New Romantic movement ate this stuff up. Almost as solid as the album before it - there's even another moment of pristine beauty as the end of "Computer Love" (it doesn't quite match "Neon Lights", but it's a good try) - and the fact that the album's danceable makes it seems so much less alienating. Despite the obvious theme, Kraftwerk have started to take themselves less seriously - "Pocket Calculator" is pretty self-conscious and dorky, and combined with the irresistible melody becomes one of their most endearing tracks. Another great album, although not in the same vein as The Man-Machine or Trans-Europe Express was - this is more in line with early techno or dance music like New Order than anything else, and it can be argued that this was their most influential yet. Very nearly up to the level of The Man-Machine, except that "Home Computer" meanders near the end, and the reprise "It's More Fun to Compute" really wasn't necessary at all. Still, it completes a very important trilogy in the history of electronic music, and for any aficionado of that style these are essentials.

Techno Pop (1986) ***1/2
A brief history: In 1983, this album was completed under the name Techno Pop, with "Tour de France" being the lead-off single. Hutter then suffered a serious biking injury that sidelined the actual release until 1986, where it came out under the name Electric Cafe. That stood until just recently with the 2009 remasters, whereupon the original name was used. This was the only remaster to change the tracklisting - the previously 8-minute "Telephone Call" was replaced with a 3 1/2-minute version, plus "House Phone" - these were the A- and B-sides of the single. Since both the second half of the original "Call" and "House Phone" are similar, it doesn't really affect the overall quality of the album. Either way, it doesn't include "Tour de France", so I doubt that this is the way the album was originally intended - we can't know for sure, as there's almost no record of the original Techno Pop album, although Bartos has hinted that copies do exist. I wonder if they would have included it had they not re-recorded two decades later. Long story short: my comments on this album also mostly apply to Electric Cafe, and although that title is by far most common now, the remaster shows the group's desire to make Techno Pop the 'canon' album, so here you have it.

The year is 1986 and the landscape of electronic music is changing. Popular music was beginning to integrate the sounds that Kraftwerk had introduced. Production values were getting slicker and sterilized, snythpop was getting huge, and more and more huge acts (think Madonna and Michael Jackson) were using mechanical drumbeats. This all leaves Kraftwerk in the dust, and it's no coincidence that they soon released their first album in which they could be classified more as followers than as leaders. Not that there wasn't some innovation here - there are hooks made out of robotic vocal samples, an expanded library of vocoder settings, and the cool 3-D wireframe "Musique Non Stop" video was quite groundbreaking for its time. But for the most part, this is pure electronic dance music, as catchy and dated as anything else from the era. It gets slagged off quite a bit because it sounds a lot more disposable than the previous albums, but if you take as simply a fun electronic dance album, it's pretty good. So what does it sound like? I guess the group itself says it best - "synthetic electronic sounds/industrial rhythms all around". It starts off with robotic beatboxing, which is both intriguing and hilarious, before launching into "Techno Pop", a lengthy piece with a few hooks and a steady beat, but no real structure. We get a lot of this - there's an awful lot of breakdowns and jamming throughout, but things rarely get stagnant, despite the first side being essentially one 16-minute jam track. Side two is better - "The Telephone Call" is a synthpop gem, featuring Karl Bartos on vocals, who sings rather than un-emoting over everything (a Kraftwerk first!). The theme here is the phone (of course), and as a result the song turns into a lengthy "phone-related noise" jam, and a pretty good one at that ("House Phone" - the second half of "Call" that appears on Electric Cafe is not much different). There's also "Sex Object", which may be the most bizarre item in the Kraftwerk catalogue - the music itself uses a goofy synthesized violin lead, and the subject of the lyrics (delivered with no emotion as usual) is actually the band! Is this a grasp at hitting the mainstream, or just a wicked sense of humor? There's no doubt that there's some intentional campiness here - "Electric Cafe" was used as the theme song for SNL's "Sprockets"! It's nice to see the guys loosening up and having some fun, and as much as I appreciate the resonance and beauty of Kraftwerk's music, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this too. It's basically Kraftwerk's response to "Planet Rock" - goofy, but charming, and definitely not boring.

The Mix (1991) ***1/2
Needless to say, music tech changed an awful lot since Kraftwerk had hit their creative stride, and the musical landscape of the 90's was starting to let in bands like Orbital and Front 242 who had started to popularize Kraftwerk's ideas already. So while The Mix seems an awful lot like a cash in and an attempt to get Kraftwerk played on a 90's dance floor, they've certainly earned the right to do it. The Mix collects 8 Kraftwerk Klassics (through 11 tracks) and looks at them through an early-90's lens - meaning they're basically the same songs but with a louder bass drum. Okay, a few of the tracks get significant facelifts - "The Robots" is warmer and more danceable, adding in a few extra hooks here and there, and "Pocket Calculator" is completely re-done and even gets sung in Japanese ("Dentaku"). Some of the edits are simply for length - "Autobahn" is now 9 1/2 minutes, plenty of time to let all the ideas come across, and the entire first side of Electric Cafe is cleaned up, and modernized (pretty well I might add) in a mere 6 1/2. That's definitely an improvement, and "Radioactivity" finally gets the sprucing up it always deserved, turning it into somewhat of a dancefloor smash. I guess it's up to you which one you prefer - it's hard to give this a higher grade as there's very little new music, and, 20 years from now, these will arguably be seen as being MORE dated than the originals. Plus, it's now useless - all these tracks sans the lukewarm re-do of "Computer Love" are done in their new form on Minimum-Maximum, so it makes much more sense to just get that instead.

Tour de France Soundtracks (2003) **
17 years after the last Kraftwerk album, fans new and old alike were foaming at the mouth for a new Kraftwerk album, but all that seemed to be crushed in July of '03 when they released the "Tour de France '03" single, complete with four versions of the same track linked together to make an 18-minute snoozefest of the same acid-drenched beat over and over again. It had a nice sound to it but no development and not much of a real hook - surely the actual album would be better? Sadly, the entire single is more-or-less replicated here to begin the album - what a bummer. Kraftwerk rose from the grave only to find they had nothing to say, but thanks to the CD-age, they've more time to say it in. Certainly they've had a problem with tracks being overlong before, but that's just amplified here, as every track gets driven into the ground with repetition - reduced to the same length as Computer World, this would have been decent, but the 'coda' tracks are unnecessary, as is at least one of the "Tour de France Etapes". Still, I'll give credit where it's due - they still haven't updated their sound much, but the synthesizers are much more lush, making the release sound like something from Kompakt, and two of the tracks are actually pretty good; one, "Vitamin", is a catchy and driven tune on the order of something like "Pocket Calculator", and two, there's a re-recording of the '83 "Tour de France" here which fares quite well. But hell, "Vitamin" is too long anyway, and rerecording a 20-year old track is kind of like cheating, isn't it? Kraftwerk do show off their good sense of melody on "La Forme" but don't do anything with it, and some of the tracks just seem lacking in that department ("Aerodynamik" and "Elektro Kardiogramm" are pretty much all atmosphere). I suppose it sounds like I hate this album, but I don't - it sounds great, has its share of good moments and shows just how little they had to do to sound modern, but after 17 years, you'd think they could do a little better - they fall victim to their old tendencies but don't have the killer hooks to back them up.

Minimum-Maximum (2005) *****
You can argue all you want about whether or not Kraftwerk's live show really constitutes a "performance" - judging by the show I saw, perhaps 80-90% of it was prerecorded. I like to think we're past the era where everything has to be live in order to be considered "real" - certainly that is something I prefer in live shows, as pre-recorded tracks take out some of the spontaneity and interactivity, but come on, this is Kraftwerk we're talking here - "machines playing music" is their central theme! This is seriously excellent - the Tour de France tracks are all punched up and invigorated, not to mention shorter, and the old classics (mostly taken from The Mix) have never sounded better - this is the best-sounding Kraftwerk album yet. With a few exceptions, all of their notable tunes are on here, done in a way that's very much grounded in the 21st century, even though not much had to be done to these tunes to make them up-to-date. So you really do get the best of both worlds - fresh new sounds and production values and the stellar material of the past. Amazing - some of the highlights are tracks that were lame in the studio ("Tour de France Etapes", "Musique Non Stop", "Aero Dynamik"), and the full and powerful sound makes their good tracks sound even better ("Trans-Europe Express/Metal on Metal", "Numbers", "Autobahn"). "Planet Der Vision" appears to be a new track, but it's just a spruced up version of their surprise "Expo 2000" single. It's unusual to look at a live album this way, but this is really all the Kraftwerk you need - highly recommended.

Appendix: Kraftwerk tributes

Expect this section to fill up slowly - given the nature of their material, it really isn't too hard to interpret the group's material in a different light, and given their iconic status it's no surprise that there's like, a billion tribute albums out there. Here are some of the ones I've heard:

VA - 8-Bit Operators (2007) ***
There's a ton of Kraftwerk tribute albums on the market, but this may be the most intriguing one - it's the music of Kraftwerk as performed using almost exclusively the sound of the NES. Anyone who was born in the 80's or late 70's has got to be nostalgic for these kinds of sounds, which lived and died with the 8-bit console. I have my own reservations about "chiptune" (and yes, this is an actual genre) - it's usually fun, sometimes good but only occasionally great. It's tough to make this stuff come off as more than just a gimmick, and this album really is no exception. There's some great stuff in the beginning - the nearly polyrhythmic take on "Pocket Calculator" is as melodic and hooky as the original, and they manage to make "Computer Love" sound as haunting and desperate as it should. It's pretty hit-or-miss afterwards, with a ridiculous vocal line managing to ruin "Showroom Dummies", and funk guitar (the only non-chiptune instrument on the album besides vocals) muddying up the could-have-been-okay cover of "Radioactivity". It's fun to see a backwards-looking tribute to a forward-looking group, but I don't exactly see this racking up a huge play count on my iPod - the essence of the group is rarely tapped into, and most of these covers seem to do little to capture what made the originals great ("Trans-Europe Express", "It's More Fun to Compute"). Plus, the closing track seriously features some of the most horrible rapping I've ever heard (gwEm and Counter Reset's "Man-Machine", which also clumsily pays tribute to Scooter's "Hyper Hyper). Still, it's really not bad as a whole, and can definitely provide a lot of enjoyment on the first few listens - it was nice to see a few forgotten Ralf & Florian tracks pop up ("Kristallo", "Tanzmusik"), and some of it is a blast if you can ignore how impossibly campy it sounds (Bit Shifter's ridiculously upbeat version of "Antenna"). I guess you’ll already know whether or not you want an 8-bit version of Kraftwerk classics without needing a review, but don’t think the uniformity in sound changes the hit-or-miss nature of practically all tribute albums.