“Trans-Europe Express คือ ดนตรีอิเล็กทรอนิกส์จากยุค ’70 ซึ่งไม่เป็นที่แปลกใจเลย ถ้าเปิดให้ฟังแล้วคนทายบอกว่าเป็นอัลบั้มออกใหม่ เพราะซาวนด์ดนตรีทันสมัยจริงๆ Kraftwerk คือ วงดนตรีชาวเยอรมันสี่คนที่มีหัวก้าวหน้าที่ต้องการสร้างซาวนด์ดนตรีที่ไม่ล้าสมัยโดยใช้เทคโนโลยีเสียงสังเคราะห์จากซินทีไซเซอร์ ถือได้ว่า Kraftwerk และ Trans-Europe Express คือ อัลบั้มที่เปลี่ยนแนวทางเพลงป็อปไปตลอดกาล และเป็นแม่แบบของเพลงอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ที่ได้ยินได้ฟังกันในปัจจุบัน ผมเคยดูพวกเขาเล่นสดครั้งหนึ่ง แล้วรู้สึกทึ่งและสนุกมาก ลองจินตนาการคุณลุงอายุห้าสิบกว่าๆ สี่คนยืนเล่นคอมพิวเตอร์แล็ปทอปอยู่บนเวทีดูเหมือนกำลังเล่นเกมส์มากกว่าแสดงคอนเสิร์ต ทั้งแสง สี เสียง และภาพประกอบที่ฉายบนฉากด้านหลังที่เปลี่ยนไปตามเพลง โชว์ความเหนือชั้นและความคิดสร้างสรรค์ของคุณลุงกลุ่มนี้ได้เป็นอย่างดี ”

 

1. Europe Endless

2. The Hall Of Mirrors

3. Showroom Dummies

4. Trans-Europe Express

5. Metal On Metal

6. Franz Schubert

7. Endless Endless

Rolling Stone

With their 1974 international smash hit "Autobahn," Kraftwerk had coolly demonstrated that an experimental electronic group from Dusseldorf, Germany, could kick out perfect pop on par with anything by the Beach Boys. In fact, Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider, the band's creative nucleus, were huge fans of Brian Wilson and loads of other American music. But with Trans-Europe Express , they set out to reinvent a different legend: that of Europa itself. In the process, they changed pop music forever.

In 1976, as the group was beginning work on the album, a friend casually remarked that its music was like "electronic blues," and suggested it do a song about the Trans-Europe Express. Kraftwerk structured the album around the concept of a train moving across a continent that was rapidly becoming borderless and digital. The album glimmers into motion with "Europe Endless," a flowing, glowing hymn to the "real life and postcard views" of the Old World . The beats are crisp, the synths lush and percussive, and the track shines like a pre-emptive elegy for history as we know it. The eerie "Showroom Dummies" is both richly melodic and formally fresh; the tune is driven by a cybernetic hand-clap sound that's heavier than most Zeppelin riffs. When the infamous, haunting melody of the title track segues into "Metal on Metal," you hear the clacking sound of a train, which morphs into a Morse-code synth riff before the song returns to the original angst-ridden motif. Conceptually, Kraftwerk were as prophetic as Orwell; musically, they helped jump-start hip-hop with an electro shock and set the stage for techno, especially after Afrika Bambaataa borrowed the melody of "Trans-Europe Express" for his 1982 smash, "Planet Rock." One of their inheritors, techno king Carl Craig, probably said it best: "They were so stiff they were funky."

All Music

Although Autobahn was a left-field masterpiece, Trans-Europe Express is often cited as perhaps the archetypal (and most accessible) Kraftwerk album. Melodic themes are repeated often and occasionally interwoven over deliberate, chugging beats, sometimes with manipulated vocals; the effect is mechanical yet hypnotic. Thematically, the record feels like parts of two different concept albums: one a meditation on the disparities between reality and image ("Hall of Mirrors" and "Showroom Dummies" share recurring images of glass, reflection, illusion and confused identities, as well as whimsical melodies), and the other the glorification of Europe. There is an impressive composition paying homage to "Franz Schubert," but the real meat of this approach is contained in the opening love letter, "Europe Endless," and the epic title track which shares themes and lyrics with the following track, "Metal on Metal." The song "Trans-Europe Express" is similar in concept to "Autobahn," as it mimics the swaying motion and insistent drive of a cross-continent train trip. What ultimately holds the album together, though, is the music, which is more consistently memorable even than that on Autobahn. Overall, Trans-Europe Express offers the best blend of minimalism, mechanized rhythms, and crafted, catchy melodies in the group's catalog; henceforth, their music would take on more danceable qualities only hinted at here (although the title cut provided the basis for Afrika Bambaataa's enormously important dancefloor smash "Planet Rock").