KRAFTWERK レコード& CD

Review: Kraftwerk's 1975 performance at Fairfield Hall in Croydon is the stuff of legend. Finally it is available as a high quality audio pressing that allows you to relive all its glorious futurism. The show was broadcast on radio as part of a short tour of the UK that came after the release of the German computer music pioneer's hugely popular Autobahn. It features tracks from that album as well as 'Die Sonne, Der Mond, Die Sterne' and 'Showroom Dummies.' A real piece of electronic music history that will spice up any collection.

Review: This vinyl curio does an excellent job in capturing two interesting moments in the history of one of the most celebrated electronic bands of all time. On Side A Kraftwerk are in the midst of their Autobahn tour, and the warmth that emanates from the primitive synthesisers speaks volume for the craft of the group in their classic formation in 1976. On the flip the production levels are astoundingly different, as we transport to Utrecht in 1981 to hear the big smashers from Computer World get blasted out to a positively ecstatic audience. It's a marvellous study of the evolution of a band who in turn had a strong hand in evolving modern music.

Review: "Electric Café" reissued on 160G gatefold vinyl and remastered. Although it came out in 1986 after computers had revolutionized music for ever, Kraftwerk still managed to up the ante with this amazing album and its classic cuts "Muzique Non Stop", "Telephone" and "Boing Boom Tschak". Very limited.

Review: 'The Man-Machine' is closer to the sound and style that would define early new wave electro-pop. Less minimalistic in its arrangements and more complex and danceable in its underlying rhythms. Like its predecessor, 'Trans-Europe Express', there is the feel of a divided concept album, with some songs devoted to science fiction-esque links between humans and technology, often with electronically processed vocals ("The Robots," "Spacelab," and the title track); others take the glamour of urbanization as their subject ("Neon Lights" and "Metropolis"). Plus, there's "The Model," a character sketch that falls under the latter category but takes a more cynical view of the title character's glamorous lifestyle. More pop-oriented than any of their previous work, the sound of 'The Man-Machine' in particular among Kraftwerk's oeuvre had a tremendous impact on the cold, robotic synth pop of artists like Gary Numan, as well as Britain's later new-romantic movement.

Notes: When they were creating and releasing their most influential albums in the mid to late 1970s, Kraftwerk were far from the musical mainstream - and yet it is impossible now to imagine the history of popular music without them. Today, Kraftwerk are considered to be an essential part of pop's DNA, alongside artists like the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, and Little Richard. Kraftwerk's immediate influence might have been on a generation of synth-based bands (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the Human League, Depeche Mode, Yello, et al), but their influence on the emerging dance culture in urban America has proved longer lasting and more decisive. This collection of original essays looks at Kraftwerk - their legacy and influence - from a variety of angles, and demonstrates persuasively and coherently that however you choose to define their art, it's impossible to underestimate the ways in which it predicted and shaped the future.