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 comprised of 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