REVIEWS:
"Kraftwerk was a German electro-pop band whose monotonous, repetitive, emotionless music influenced everyone from Nirvana to Sheryl Crow." This is pretty much a rehash of everything said about the band, and guess what: almost all of it is false or partially false. It's a little hard for me to write about one of my favorite bands; I normally wouldn't write an introduction like this, but I have to clear up some of what I see as misconceptions.
While they were sometimes monotonous and repetitive, particularly on Computer World (the former) and Trans-Europe Express (the latter), I can think of many bands who are on average more monotonous (between songs) and/or more repetitive (within songs). I can see how some of their stuff could be considered "emotionless", but when they wanted to be resonant, they could pull it off excellently (of course, I usually get it from the music, not the lyrics). Their influence is very over-rated, in my opinion; they *did* influence a lot of people, but to say that they influenced every new musical movement is a huge exaggeration, and if I only liked them for their influence, I would hate them.
Their basic problem with accessibility is that they don't fit any particular pattern. They have pop songs, and a lot of their songs have verses, choruses, and hooks, but a lot of elements of their style make them inaccessible to those who mostly like pop. They were certainly experimental, but excluding the earliest albums I don't have (which are not available on CD), they usually avoided weirdness for weirdness' sake, so people who mostly like "weird" stuff won't like them either. Their music was rooted in minimalist classical as much as in rock, and while some prog fans like them, many dismiss them as "too simple". Obviously, those who hate synthesizers should avoid them at all costs.
Kraftwerk's main talents were in being musical perfectionists. The flaws they had were minimized as a general rule; lyrics often were only a few lines long, and vocal melodies were often only a few notes (and played second fiddle to the much more interesting instrumental melodies). I don't normally enjoy "simplistic" music, but they had a talent for making sure that the chords they chose were the *right* chords, for instance, and very rarely were they flat-out repetitive; the instrumental melodies usually develop quite a bit over the course of a song. They really knew how to do exactly the right thing with their music to get the exact effect they wanted, which is a lot harder than it seems.
Lineup: Ralf Huetter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Fluer, Karl Bartos. I don't feel like listing the ever-changing instrumental roles (or the pre-Autobahn members, most of whom never recorded); it will suffice to say the first two were listed as "voice/electronics" and the last two as "electronic percussion/sound effects" on the late 70's albums. Bartos was not on Autobahn, but Klaus Roeder (guitar/violin) was. More recently Fluer and Bartos have been replaced with Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmidt.
--Alex Harris
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
Despite probably being Kraftwerk's best-known album, Autobahn is not very representative of what their later sound would be. In addition to the usual synthesizers, Autobahn includes a few acoustic instruments, and no song on here has a remotely "pop" song structure (I don't see how the title track became their only US hit; it's not accessible compared to their later work). While most other Kraftwerk albums don't fit the term, most of this album definitely counts as prog-rock (if Pink Floyd fits, then this album certainly does). It's weird, but it's not weird in a typical way, since consonance and optimism prevail. In other words, this is a very unique album that may take a few listens to get into, but it's certainly worth it.
The 23-minute title track is very exciting, with a lot of different sections that help to keep it interesting. The only real flaw in this song is the horrendous "singing"; the way "Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn" is being sung, you'd think they were swearing at you. (Of course, maybe they meant to offset the mainly consonant music with some dissonant minor-second harmonies.) Kraftwerk's vocals were never great, but on here the more, um, "punkish" style is hilariously obnoxious and totally does not fit with the music. (It is no wonder that the vocal style changed completely by the next album.) Everyone else sees a connection with the Beach Boys, but I can't hear any connection. The instrumental parts are all very good, however, especially the part with the flute, and most of the vocal parts are very nice as long as the vocals are ignored.
However, the entirely instrumental second side is where the band really shines. Why? It contains "Kometenmelodie", a 12-minute piece that is strangely split in half at a tempo change, and which is one of my favorite Kraftwerk songs of all time. Most people who criticize Kraftwerk for being "emotionless" have obviously never heard music like this; this is some of the happiest music I have ever heard, and not in a cheesy way, either. (Either that, or they simply feel that all emotions in music should be negative, in which case they should never listen to this album.) Afterwards, "Mitternacht" proceeds to bore me for four minutes as it introduces a heavy metal bass line that is not developed at all while the band makes "creepy" noises over top. Finally, "Morgenspaziergang", also four minutes, peacefully closes the album with electronic bird sounds and mainly acoustic (!) instrumentation.
I certainly don't recommend this as a first Kraftwerk purchase, but anyone who enjoys some of their other stuff should definitely get this at some point, as well as fans of the electronic side of prog-rock.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
Radio-Activity is very likely Kraftwerk's most underrated album. Despite the presence of several short linking tracks consisting mostly of noise, most of it is actually more accessible than its predecessor Autobahn. The vocals are a lot more subdued (and sing multi-note melodies this time) and the songs move a lot closer to "pop" structures. The concept is a pun on the title; everything has to do either with radios or radioactivity, sometimes both at the same time. Unlike many concept albums, no two songs sound very similar to my ears. Much of the album reminds me of Pink Floyd, from the "spacey" atmosphere to the "concept" to the slow tempos to the fact that the song titles aren't listed on the back of my copy (I HATE that!).
The best song is probably the title track (track 2), with a very catchy melody augmented by some Morse Code. Second best, however, is the closing "Ohm Sweet Ohm" (track 12), a near-instrumental that keeps a relaxed atmosphere without being in any way boring. More unusual songs on the album include "Radioland" (track 3), which sounds like a scene in a movie where a little kid has just discovered the wonders of radio, and "Transistor" (track 11), a short instrumental jam session that actually starts with the sound of changing stations. On the pop side, however, are the songs "Airwaves" (track 4) and "Antenna" (track 8). "Airwaves", the only fast song on the album, is mostly a showcase for some dueling synth solos that are literally made for headphones, while "Antenna" is Kraftwerk's first-ever song with a clear verse/chorus layout.
The linking tracks deserve their own paragraph. "Geiger Counter" (track 1) is nothing more than what sounds like rhythmic surface noise on an LP, fading into the title track; obviously, the impression was supposed to be the music rising out of the surface noise, but it probably just led to a lot of returns of "blank" LPs instead. "Intermission" (track 5) is just some plinking sounds, while "News" (track 6) recreates the irritating sound of having a whole mess of TVs on at the same time (yes, I know, they're radios). "The Voice Of Energy" (track 7) is just a robot voice saying stuff in German (German and English lyrics are mixed together on this album), "Uranium" (track 10) is a robot voice saying stuff in both German and English over a D minor chord, and "Radio Stars" (track 9) is an irritating synth-noise over which some irritating vocal lines are looped for 3 and a half minutes, possibly to try to be as annoying as possible. Still, they're all fun (except "Radio Stars"), contribute to the concept of the album, and are short enough to not be irritants (except "Radio Stars"!!!).
Possibly the only flaw with the album, other than "Radio Stars", is that many of the songs have such simple chord structures (never more than four chords per song) that they start to get on my nerves after a while. I wouldn't change any of them, however, and that means a lot. Certain linking tracks, on the otherhand...
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
Trans-Europe Express is probably Kraftwerk's most overrated album. Why? It may have the revolutionary ideas that everyone copied, but musically it's a lot weaker than the albums surrounding it, and the songs are sometimes so repetitive that I can't listen to them all the way thru. It's sad that this is considered their "classic" recording by many, because it's easily the weakest album of their mid/late-1970's period. While it's still a good album, I can understand why so many web reviewers get turned off from Kraftwerk after listening to this one.
"Europe Endless" starts this album off on a very optimistic note, with a U2-ish sequencer line and an electronic disco beat underlying some wonderful synth solos. The song is 10 minutes, but it's a lot less repetitive than the next song, the 8-minute "The Hall Of Mirrors". This song really annoys me; the lyrics are kinda interesting, but the fact that the song *never develops* from its single two-measure riff pretty much outweighs any positive benefits. However, "Showroom Dummies" doesn't suffer from this problem much except for maybe a minute at the end; it even comes with more Ray Manzarek-ish synth solos (perhaps TEE's biggest strength), and these solos actually contain a bit of technical impressiveness. Make sure to listen to the lyrics (if you can understand them); they're pretty funny. I don't think the word "pretentious" could possibly apply to this band. Next up is "Trans-Europe Express"/"Metal On Metal", which is supposed to be a simulation of a train ride. It's a few minutes overlong (like practically everything else on here), especially in the second part, but it possibly has one of the best drum parts in any Kraftwerk song, and it's very listenable. Finally, we have "Franz Schubert"/"Endless Endless", a quiet, almost ambient near-instrumental featuring the "Europe Endless" sequencer (otherwise the songs sound VERY different) and some very relaxing mellotrons.
I guess Trans-Europe Express is, in a way, Kraftwerk's answer to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Both albums contain roughly five songs, both have similar opening and closing tracks providing thematic unity, and both have the title track as the fourth track. In addition, the second and third songs on both have similar themes (in TEE, dissing fake people, and in WYWH, dissing the record industry), and the second one drives me up a wall and the third one doesn't. I haven't bought Wish You Were Here yet (so I may not know what I'm talking about), but I've heard all the songs (except for the last two parts of Franz Schubert, er, Shine On You Crazy Diamond). I'll probably buy it soon, however. I wonder if it will get the same rating as TEE; I'll probably actually rate WYWH higher (and I like Kraftwerk more than Pink Floyd). Go figure.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
In my opinion, this is Kraftwerk's best album. It is currently (late 2003) the only album by any band that I can give an honest 10 to; I enjoy every minute of every song. Why is this? The typical Kraftwerk flaws are still present, such as repetitiveness, minimal lyrics, and poor singing, but they are minimized to such a degree that they are never annoying, and I can very comfortably listen to the album without ever skipping a track. This is probably Kraftwerk's most accessible album, too, showing that "pop" influences frequently do not cheapen the sound of music. (They were accused of selling out with the album Autobahn because they used vocals and no longer recorded what sounded like deaf people falling asleep on top of heavily distorted organs.) The Man-Machine isn't perfectly flawless, but it's as about as close as anyone can get to a flawless album (to me, at least), and I'll take what I can get.
"The Robots", while not my favorite, is perhaps the most prototypical song on the album and works excellently as an opener. It is perhaps as close as the band ever got to "emotionless" music. The near-instrumentals "Spacelab" and "Metropolis" follow; "Spacelab" has a somewhat melancholy melody line, while "Metropolis" has an absolutely stunning intro section that gives no indication of what lies ahead. By the end of "Metropolis", the album might start to feel a little monotonous (three 6-minute songs in a row), but that soon changes. "The Model" is perhaps the prototypical synth-pop song and also happens to be Kraftwerk's only UK #1 hit (it was a hit in 1982, however, after this style had become popular). Please ignore the lyrics on this song, unless you find misrhymed lyrics to be hilarious, in which case you'll love this song. Still, I prefer "Neon Lights", a lengthy ballad which I didn't care for much at first (apart from the first few minutes) but which has grown on me tremendously to the point where I consider it my favorite song on the album. The song might end in a lengthy repetitive one-chord jam, but it's *interesting* and not monotonous, unlike, say, TEE's "The Hall Of Mirrors". Finally, the title track closes the album with an interesting rhythm (incidentally, this is the only song with a hi-hat sound) and some more compositional tricks.
Overall, The Man-Machine is a must for anyone who likes 80's synth-pop or anything else from that side of electronic music. It's too bad that, at the time of this review, the album is out of print in the US, since it is truly classic. In fact, the band seems to have reached a stylistic dead-end here, since they took a three-year break before their next album, and these breaks between albums would characterize the rest of their career.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
Not many people know about the story behind this album. It appears that Kraftwerk wanted to take a few more years off, but suddenly one of the most abominable of tragedies happened: a computer kidnapped them, and they were stuck inside, Tron-style, forced to release a computer-themed album before they could be released. (Considering the cover photo, it's amazing that nobody caught on.) The computer was a big Talking Heads fan, so the rhythms are a lot more complex than before. Unfortunately, the computer hardly ever makes good use of the rhythms; most of the time they're "just there", and only in "Computer Love" and "Home Computer" do they ever really do anything interesting like using different rhythms in different parts of the song. In addition, the computer demanded that all the songs be the same tempo, so there's not too much variety on here.
"Computer World", with lyrics written by "Bartos/Huetter/Schneider/Schult" (actually the computer wrote them to intimidate non-computers into submission), is a good enough opener, albeit an uneventful one; it is also reprised a few songs later in a much more boring way. "Pocket Calculator" is the high point of the first side; despite hanging on one chord all the way thru, it is saved by some hilarious lyrics and vocals that must be heard together for maximum impact. This is the definitive version of the song; other versions just aren't the same. "Numbers" seems to have been written using a "random note generator" program and is thus unlistenable.
Now, for the absolute high point of the album. (My English professor would give me an F for this review because that was a sentence fragment, and "every fragment gets an F".) "Computer Love" shows that great art (such as this song) can come out of tragedy (such as being stuck inside a computer). There is no way I could ever get tired of this song. Everyone talks about the lyrics being about computer dating and/or cybersex, but I think they're actually about trying to get in touch with your girlfriend while you're stuck inside a computer. I hardly hear the lyrics, anyway; the song's resonance is almost purely thru the music, and the instrumental coda *never* gets old. This song is alone worth most of the price of the album; it's one of Kraftwerk's best. The next song, "Home Computer", isn't very notable except for some good percussion work (and ego-boosting lyrics for computers), and "It's More Fun To Compute" is a very boring closer that practically just stops at the end with no warning.
Thankfully, the computer released them right after this album and got caught by police a year later. The album cover was used as evidence against it. It is currently unplugged and serving a 48-year jail sentence.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
This is almost a compilation, but not quite. You see, they re-recorded all the songs featured on here; in addition, it is missing several important songs, most notably "The Model", so it is definitely NOT a good overview of the band. It's a good album to get if you're a fan (or if you have most of the original albums). I really don't like most of the versions on here as much as the originals, largely due to the percussion style. Most of the drum parts are basic "four-on-the-floor" rhythms that overwhelm some of the songs (the version of "Computer Love" in particular is FAR inferior to the original from Computer World, largely due to the rhythms). It's easy to tell that Computer World is their favorite album (or at least it was at this point); most of the songs from the album make it on here, except for the pair of title tracks and "Numbers" (and reportedly they still play those live, too). "Pocket Calculator" loses its wacky vocals on the first part, but "Dentaku", the Japanese version (!), redeems much of the humor value the song has. The version of "Home Computer" (with "It's More Fun To Compute" tagged on as an opener") is certainly at least equal to the original.
As for the tracks that are NOT from Computer World, here they are: "Autobahn" is presented in a 9-minute version that is actually pretty good, despite a boring shuffle rhythm thruout that doesn't change (even when they DON'T do four-on-the-floor, it's usually still boring). "Radioactivity" (note the lack of a hyphen) actually benefits from the generic dance beat, giving it some REAL power; it's too bad the newly politicized lyrics are so poorly written that they completely undermine any point they were trying to make (quote: "Stop radioactivity is in the air for you and me").
The version of "Trans-Europe Express" is actually a little better than the original, with its newly acquired "2 AM feeling" (sadly, the verse about meeting Iggy Pop and David Bowie was removed, but that's about the only way it's inferior to the original). Finally, the closing "Musique Non-Stop" (from Electric Café, which I currently don't have) makes no sense to me with its barrage of vocal samples and almost total lack of notes; some parts are amusing but some are just boring.
I noticed that there were no reviews of The Mix on any WRC sites so far. I guess I decided to change that. Every Kraftwerk review I've written has followed the "introductory paragraph + 2 body paragraphs describing the music + closing paragraph" format.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
This album is easily one of the biggest disappointments in musical history; most critics seem to see it as a Great Comeback, but not me. For one thing, most of the songs are about 8 times as long as they should be. Any time there's an interesting melody line, it quickly changes back to something generic and boring. The worst part is that almost all the vocals on the album are croaked by an electronic frog whose French pronunciation leaves me thinking that the aforementioned frog must have had a cold on that day. The robot frog proceeds to butcher almost every track; couldn't they have written a few melodies for the robo-vocals instead?!
"Prologue" isn't particularly notable, thus making it one of the best tracks on the album. "Tour De France Etape 1" manages to bore me for about four minutes before cutting abruptly into "Tour De France Etape 2" (slightly different theme), which is a little better but not by much (for one thing, do we HAVE to hear "Radio-tour information/Transmission télévision" 8000 times?!?!?!). "Tour De France Etape 3" manages to bring in a different theme that somehow manages to not provide ANY diversion at all from the previous one; not only that, but la grenouille électronique (thanks, Babelfish) also is more prominent. A nice theme comes in eventually, however... RIGHT AT THE END! And then it disappears! ARGH! "Chrono" extends the audio torture for another three minutes before FINALLY closing a lengthy groove piece on an extremely boring groove. This makes "Hall Of Mirrors" from Trans-Europe Express seem interesting.
"Vitamin" follows and actually manages to be interesting and kinda catchy (and frog-free); it's something of a Pocket Calculator rip-off, but don't let that distract you. The only thing is that it goes on for at least twice as long as it should. "Aéro Dynamik" and "Titanium" manage to top the "Etape Suite" (my name) in annoyingness; both are based on a TWO-NOTE riff that gets old after thirty seconds, so they extend it for eight minutes without a single chord change or anything to make it remotely interesting. "Elektro Kardiogramm" is just boring; it uses a sampled heartbeat as part of the rhythm, but other than that it's just your typical one-chord melodyless drone. "La Forme"/"Regeneration" is actually a good composition at its heart, containing multiple chords and the like; the only thing ruining it is the amphibian vocals (and the fact that it goes on for way too long). It desperately needs a good vocal melody to go with the instrumental melody. Finally, at the end, however... the song "Tour De France" (no relation to the "Etape Suite") arrives! It's a well-written song with hooks, melodies, an interesting rhythm, and everything. The catch: IT WAS WRITTEN IN 1983, and co-written by Karl Bartos, who is no longer in the band!
The worst part is that this doesn't even sound too different from the band that did Computer World; the difference is that back then, they had *talent*. It's not like "my favorite band changed styles, so they suck now" or anything. To put it nicely, this album sucks, and only the 1983 "Tour De France" and the first half of "Vitamin" save this album from getting a 0.
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