KRAFTWERK

KRAFTWERK

The first time I was exposed to Kraftwerk was when I was about four years old. I don’t recall how I stumbled upon the record but I remember spinning the black circle of Tour de France Soundtracks on a regular basis. As a child, I was blown away by their sound as it stood out from the majority of the albums I owned. Intrigued to hear more of their work, I remember I had my mother take me to the Peaches record store and she bought the Trans-Europe Express album for me. This was the start of my addiction to electronic music and by the time I was about six or seven years old I was heavily into bands such as Ministry, Depeche Mode, New Order etc.

Kraftwerk, which means “Power Station” was formed by Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider and were pioneers in the field of electronic music. They didn’t just create music, they created art. With their electronic style they brought a whole new meaning to experimental music and paved the way for many artists.

The album Autobahn released in 1974 was way ahead of its time. Its an electronic album that includes violin and flute instrumentation and themed as a soundscape for traveling. Radio-Activity, their follow up album was a concept album dealing with nuclear activity as well as activity on the radio. Radio-Activity brought a whole new sound to the music scene and also bilingual, containing lyrics in English and German. Kraftwerk released Trans-Europe Express in 1977 and didn’t get the initial respect that it deserved but is now perceived as one of the best albums of all time. The main concept of the album was based on train travel across Europe. In 1978 the band released The Man-Machine and was the first album where they linked a sequencer to a drum machine and took on a more robotic feel to their style. Computer World was released in 1981 and the main theme of the album was technology and society.

Kraftwerk has definitely earned the position as one of the biggest influential bands of all time. The art they were creating in the early 70’s was just insane if you think about it. The obscure music and conceptual themes was just a staple in the electronic realm of music. The way they would utilize the vocoder and robotic instrumentation paved the way for many electronic and experimental artists to branch off and create more genres of music. Kraftwerk is simply inspiring. They inspire me as an artist to be creative and not succumb to the mediocrity that many bands fall into these days. Two of my favorite bands of all time are Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails and they wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for the genius of Kraftwerk.

Howard, D. N. (2004). Sonic alchemy: visionary music producers and their maverick recordings. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp.