By CHUA CHERN TOONG
“I program my home computer, beam myself into the future.”
(Home Computer)
The most influential and legendary progenitors of electronic music of the 20th century, Kraftwerk is the most direct ancestor of virtually all of today’s dance and electronic-music trends. It is no overstatement to state that without Kraftwerk, dance music would not be the worldwide phenomenon it is today.
Together with other German “Kraut-rock” groups of the late 70s like Neu, Can and Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk spawned a movement which later gave birth to ambient, house, techno, drum and bass, trance and a million other permutations of the dance genre.
Throughout the late 70s and early 80s, Kraftwerk would constantly push the envelope on electronic music further than any other act, until the 90s, when there was a noticeable slowdown in their output.
First formed as Organisation, an avant-garde ensemble by Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider, they later formed Kraftwerk and concentrated on utilising then-nascent synthesizer technology to create a unique brand of minimalist “robot pop”.
Their first three albums, Kraftwerk 1, Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf and Florian, were basically experiments in making new shapes out of the fledgling electronic-music movement, with complex layers of effects, melodies and rhythms, bound together by an austere production style and a noticeable absence of any guitars or other “organic” instruments.
But it was their fourth album, Autobahn, that signalled their first real breakthrough. Adding Wolfgang Flur and Klaus Roeder to their line-up, Autobahn was Kraftwerk’s first attempt at clear, discernible melodies; the title track was a repetitive, droney motif that nevertheless became a necessary standard in the Kraftwerk repertoire.
An edit of the title track was a key hit in Britain in early 1975, and Autobahn is today widely regarded as one of the seminal works of the early electronic-music era.
Their fourth album Radioactivity, a concept album of sorts, exploring a broadcast-communication theme, was released in 1975.
Radioactivity utilised effects like static, interference and oscillation to enhance the overall thematic concept, encapsulated in songs like the melodic title track, the minimalist News and the techno prototype Antenna. It was also at the time of Radioactivity that Roeder left the band, to be replaced by Karl Bartos. Radioactivity was modestly acclaimed at the time of its release, but its radio-related samples are direct precursors to today’s widespread sampling culture.
The next Kraftwerk record has been cited as the most influential electronic-music album ever, and has been plundered endlessly for samples and ideas. 1977’s Trans Europe Express was, like its title, reminiscent of a futuristic train journey through Europe, taking in the sights and sounds with a cold, dispassionate robotic eye.
Pristine, severe and mechanical to a fault, Trans Europe Express included influential tracks like the whimsical Franz Schubert, the expansive Europe Endless, and perhaps most of all, the precise, propulsive, relentless advance of the awe-inspiring title track.
Trans Europe Express would become the one album by which all forthcoming dance records would be judged by, hence dramatically changing the direction of music.
Riding on the massive success of Trans Europe Express, Kraftwerk shed all pretensions of being human, to the extent of publicly representing themselves as androids in publicity shots.
This cold, clinical persona manifested itself perfectly in 1978’s The Man Machine, another classic electro-pop record containing influential singles like the detached, mechanical The Robots, the shimmering Neon Lights and even a hit British single, the droll, radio-friendly The Model. Kraftwerk concerts also started featuring robots on stage and machines that played themselves. It was increasingly hard to tell the humans from the machines.
Kraftwerk then took an extended leave and sequestered themselves away in their Klingklang Studios in Dusseldorf, denying requests for interviews and generally shunning human contact. This self-imposed exile was broken in 1981 with the release of Computer World, a bemused observation of a world ruled by rampant technology.
It details the various facets of the modern world, including living in a Computer World, using a Pocket Calculator and a Home Computer, and the tribulations of computer dating in Computer Love (presaging the whole Internet-romance phenomenon a full two decades before it actually got into swing), but overall, it was definitely a step down from the futuristic majesty of Trans Europe Express and the robotic frigidity of The Man Machine.
After Computer World, Kraftwerk again ducked below the radar to spend a few more years in seclusion. They did come out for 1986’s Electric Cafe, but it was a derivative work bereft of any new ideas and certainly not coming close to match the past apexes of Autobahn, Trans Europe Express and The Man Machine.
Electric Cafe was widely regarded as Kraftwerk’s most uninspiring album, and rightly so, too, with formulaic, by-the-numbers electro-pop tracks like Techno Pop and Music Non Stop. It was hard to believe that this was the same band that came up with classics like Neon Lights and Trans Europe Express. They went into another one of their customary, periodic hibernations after Electric Cafe failed to set the charts alight.
Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flur left the band prior to the release of 1991’s The Mix, a retrospective with a difference; all of the tracks had been remixed or redone. Quintessential Kraftwerk cuts on The Mix included The Robots, Computer Love, Autobahn and Trans Europe Express, and all were successfully remodelled, revamped and given an even more futuristic sheen.
The Mix was to be Kraftwerk’s last known sighting for nearly a decade, before they quietly re-emerged in late 1999 for a single commemorating the Expo 2000 exhibition in Hanover, Germany, unimaginatively entitled Expo 2000.
In 2003, the first Kraftwerk album in about 15 years finally appeared, albeit it contained mostly rehashes of the band’s 1983 theme for the Tour de France bicycle race. Nevertheless, it was welcomed with open arms by patient fans who thought they had seen the last of these Teutonic eccentrics.
Kraftwerk embarked on an extensive world tour in 2004, taking in Europe, the US and Japan, and released a commemorative double-disc live album the following year, Minimum-Maximum. The live set featured sleek, updated versions of Kraftwerk classics like Trans Europe Express, Autobahn and The Model, with a sprinkling of new tracks from 2003’s Tour de France Soundtracks.
official website:Krafwerk
Picture Courtesy of and Copyright (c) 2005 EMI Records
article taken from the thestar.com.my
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