The Electric Adolescence Guide to Kraftwerk
It could be argued that Kraftwerk’s obsessive relationship with technology was a response to the anarchistic post-war regret felt by many of their countrymen at the time. With the band presenting a version of Germany set far enough in the future to make its troubled past seem light years away, the predictive nature of Ralf Hutter and Florian Schumann’s progression reads like a science fiction novel about man slowly consumed by the machines he helped devise.
The early days of Kraftwerk were replete with semiconscious instrumental jams with a fluctuating lineup of musicians who would take a part in defining krautrock on a whole. The result was earthy and flawed, using technology to accentuate unmistakably human musical behavior. The 1974 release of Autobahn would redefine the band to a point that they would all but dismiss the three records that preceded it. Synthesizers and drum machines created a sonic palette impeccably suited to their ultramodern sensibilities, and the vocoder previously used as a flourish was brought to the fore, giving the man-machine its voice. A critical consensus marks this as the heyday of their harmony between man and technology.
Track List
Ruckzuck
Kling Klang
Ananas Symphonie
Autobahn (1981 Reissue Version)
Uranium
Antenna
Die Stimme Der Energie
Showroom Dummies
Trans Europe Express
Europe Endless
Neon Lights (Single Edit)
The Robots
The Telephone Call
The Model
Pocket Calculator
Nummern
It’s More Fun To Compute
The Man Machine
Tour De France (1983 Kevorkian Extended Mix)
Musique Non-Stop (Edit #2)
Techno Pop
Elektro Kardiogramm
Expo 2000 (Virus 13 Mix)
The Man Machine (Black Sand 7 Inch Remix)
Ohm Sweet Ohm
A Selection of Bootleg Live Recordings
For those who want to take a deeper dive into this seminal music act are invited to appreciate this mix of bootleg live recordings taken from several decades of he band’s storied existence.
Track List
Vocoder Intro/ Tuning (Secret Gig, Festival Hall, London. 9-01-75)
K4 (Bremen Radio Live Session 1971)
Die Stimme Der Energie (Live in Paris 1981)
Mitternacht (Leverkusen 4-22-74)
Trans Europe Express (Tokyo 09-07-81)
Autobahn (Live Unknown)
Verstehen Sie Deutsch (Budapest 8-14-81)
Home Computer (Tokyo 09-07-81)
Computerwelt (Live Tokyo)
Hall of Mirrors (The Computer Tour, Italy 7-6-81)
Das Model (Tempodrom, Berlin, 03-24-04)
Franz Schbert, Endless Endless (Museum Modern Art, New York 4-12-12)
Radioactivity (Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo)
The Robots (Livorno, Italy, 7-18-09)
The Man Machine (Live, Unknown)
Aero Dynamik (Live From Riga, Latvia, 5-29-04)
Vitamin (Live from Moscow 03-06-04)
Music Non Stop (Live from Moscow 03-06-04)
Post Concert Interview (Triad Radio, Chicago 1975)
