Kraftwerk (German for "power plant") is arguably one of the most, if not _the_ most, influential bands on the contemporary electronic music that we hear today. Saying that they were ahead of their time is an understatement. They have been said to be as influential as the Beatles in genres such as House, Techno, Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Synthpop, New Wave, Trance, Electro, Electro Pop, and Electroclash (Petridis). Forced to settle with the technology they initially had to work with in the late ‘60's and ‘70's, Kraftwerk relied on the modification of their instruments or the invention of new ones altogether to create their sound which soon came to revolutionize electronic music as we know it (Villano 34).
Kraftwerk members Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter first met at the Kunstakademie (Academy of the Arts) in Remschied, near Düsseldorf , Germany . Ralf Hütter was born in Krefeld , near Düsseldorf, on August 20, 1946 . He remarks his early musical memories as "nothing… Silence." He admits to having listened to the radio but found it was "nothing exciting. No memory about that. No flash, no event, no shock." (Bussy 18). He spent years studying classical piano and went on to study the electric organ.
Florian Schneirder-Esleban was born in a small town in the Bodensee area in the South of Germany on April 7, 1947 . At the age of three, Schneider and his family moved to Düsseldorf. Schneider started playing the recorder and later moved on to playing the flute. He went on to study music, especially the flute, at the Düsseldorf Conservatory. Schneider remarks that he found it boring after studying up to a certain level. He found the flute was too limiting and looked for other things. He bought a microphone, loudspeakers, an echo, and then a synthesizer. He eventually threw the flute away (Bussy 19)
Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider met up again at an improvising class at the Düsseldorf Conservatory where they become inseparable friends. At the Conservatory they experimented with the improvisation of sounds. They "rushed into making industrial music, abandoning all [their] activities from before – [their] education, [their] classical background." (Bussy 19). This kind of experimental, avant-garde approach to music was part of a group of German musicians, dubbed by the UK music press as "krautrock" (Bussy 15-17). These musicians, influenced by figures such as Karlheniz Stockhausen, Russolo, and Pierre Schaeffer, wanted to react against the American idea of music and wanted to create a music that can be identifiably German. Hütter comments on this by saying:
| So you see another group, like Tangerine Dream, although they are German they have an English name, so they create onstage an Anglo–American identity, which we completely deny. We want the whole world to know that we are from Germany , because the German mentality […] will always be part of our behavior. We create out of the German language, the mother language, which is very mechanical; we use it as the basic structure of our music. (Kraftwerk) |
Schneider and Hütter formed the band Organisation in 1968. Organisation performed at various universities and art galleries and by early 1970, and they recorded their LP "Tone Float" with Rainbow Productions. With the invaluable help of producer Connie Plank, which specialized in producing German "krautrock" groups, Kraftwerk was able to release their first few albums. Plank's efforts led to RCA's release of the Organisation LP in Britain (Bussy 21-22). Since English audiences "were not quite ready for the "new wave of German groups," and "Tone Float" was only available as an import in Germany, the LP did not sell well (Bussy 23).
Kraftwerk's lineup varied throughout 1970 and 1974, where Hütter and Schneider ended up working with several different musicians, including guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger from Neu! (Kraftwerk). During this time, "Kraftwerk 1" was released in 1971, while "Kraftwerk 2" was released in 1972. These were the band's first two records under the name "Kraftwerk" after disbanding from Organisation. These two LPs featured traffic cones as the album art, one orange and one green, reminiscent of Andy Warhol's Pop Art painting approach of silk-screening everyday objects in different colors. These albums featured tracks in the same experimental "krautrock" style that they were initially working with. They made use of instruments such as the flute, electric piano, guitar, and organ in ways that distorted the traditional sounds that would come out of such instruments (Bussy 36). In 1973 "Ralf & Florian" was released, and although it was distributed internationally, it didn't do well. This album was like a "Kraftwerk 3," it had the same improvisational, experimental concept to it, except it was softer and smoother in atmosphere, with a cleaner sound (Bussy 49).
"Autobahn" came later in 1974, where Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür joined as electronic percussionists, forming what is known as Kraftwerk's "classic lineup." The title track features lyrics from Emil Schult, who also contributes to other albums, including much of the album art (Nusser 67). During this time, advances in technology made it so that Kraftwerk was able to link their drum machines to their synthesizers with sequencers (Bussy 53). With this album, Kraftwerk had dropped many of their experimental sensibilities and they slightly began moving away from the style of their fellow krautrock musicians. As opposed to the "cosmic" themes of krautrock groups, this album began focusing on everyday subject matter (Bussy 59). The 22-minute title track, about traveling along the famous German highway, was cut down to four minutes for radio airplay, and it proved to be successful. This album did well and enjoyed airplay on American radio stations in 1975 with the track "Autobahn" becoming a hit. "Autobahn" became the first record with German lyrics to enter the US charts, reaching to number 25. On the UK it reached number 11, where it stayed for 11 weeks (Bussy 61). Unlike the mediocre response to their past albums, this was Kraftwerk's first experience with popularity in the US and the UK .
"Radio-Activity" was released afterwards on Capitol records in 1976. This album was released in German and English, a trend that Kraftwerk would continue to do for their subsequent albums. Ironically, it received album of the year in France , where it stayed at the top of the charts for two months (Nusser 67). On the other hand, the album did not do very good in US and UK markets. Also, the nuclear theme of the album did not fair well with some, such as the people of Germany who were strongly anti-nuclear at the time and might not have understood Kraftwerk's use of sardonicism. With this album, Kraftwerk went back to their more experimental industrial sound of the past, but instead it was more "tamed" in a way that sounded like "electronic chamber music" (Bussy 75). Turning away from their initial hippie-like image, Kraftwerk had changed their look to that of a stream-lined, ultramodern "sonic engineer" (Bussy 74).
"Trans-Europe Express" was released March 1977, and it did a bit better than "Radio-Activity." The disco boom in New York helped in the popularity of "Trans-Europe Express" in the US . Going back to the subject matter of transportation like in "Autobahn," this album was structured around the concept "of a train moving across a continent that was rapidly becoming borderless and digital" (Blashill 56). It seems as though with this album Kraftwerk had perfected the synthesis of pop music and avant-garde sounds (Bussy 94). "Trans-Europe Express" had a futurist as well as a minimalist approach to it. As Ralf Hütter puts it: "Our music is rather minimalist. If we can convey an idea with one or two notes, it is better to do this than to play a hundred or so notes" (Bussy 90). The response to the release of "Trans-Europe Express" surprised Hütter and Schneider. This album, commented as sounding like "electronic blues," garnered listeners which were traditionally fans of R&B and disco. In response, Hütter explains:
| Electronics is beyond nations and colors. It speaks a language everyone can understand. It expresses more than just stories in the way most conventional songs do. With electronics, everything is possible. The only limit is with the composer. (Nusser 67) |
In 1978, "The Man-Machine" was released. This album did well, as it sold 200,000 copies in France and 100,000 copies in the UK , where it reached number 9 in the charts (Bussy 108). Characterized as having "chilling restraint and relentless sameness," listening to "The Man-Machine" has been compared to listening to a telegraph, "spare melodies, along with countermelodies, are repeated endlessly. As are the curiously trivial lyrics, usually delivered with the sternness of those voices you hear coming from Dictaphone units." (Schneider 88). The experimentation of the past albums has totally disappeared and replaced with a hi-tech, calculated feel (Bussy 105). The concept of this album deals with the future and touches on such subjects as robots and space travel. Kraftwerk also adopted a uniform look of red shirts with black ties. This uniformity can be implied as to having Kraftwerk being thought of as a company or a factory, where the members are just faceless cogs that make up the overall system (Bussy 104).
"Computer World" was released in 1981. This was a more playful album, and it realized Kraftwerk's goal of creating a music that was universal. For example, on "Numbers" we hear counting in several languages including: English, German, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, and French (Bussy 114-115). Darling suggests "Numbers" is about a human teaching a computer how to talk: "Voiced over a raw, slicing beat the computer has a vocal that sounds as if it were formed in the depths of hell. This gives way to the more placid ‘Computer World 2' where man has apparently made peace with machine." Darling suggests that this album's message is a warning of the dangers of computers and alienation (68). But the EMI press release says it best: "The concept of the album is that this _is_ the computer world. Every facet of our society is now influenced by computer technology, and our language has become the language of computer software" (Bussy 112-113).
In 1986, "Electric Café" was released. "Electric Café" was a reworking of the earlier "Technopop" album which was never released (Bussy 149). Bussy claims that the emergence of digital recording led Kraftwerk to remake "Technopop," which was recorded using analogue equipment (152). Possibly due to a long gap in releases or the idea of Kraftwerk "reaching a watershed," this album did not do well in the US or in the UK (Bussy 159). Despite the technological improvements of CDs, this album is only 35-minutes long, keeping closer to the traditional length of older records (Bussy 157). Unlike other albums, "Electric Café" did not have a single unifying concept which tied all of the songs together, except that it was mostly made up of dance-influenced songs. Though, like other albums, it continues the tradition of having multi-lingual songs for a global audience. We see here the debut of Karl Bartos' singing on "The Telephone Call," a song which may be either about not being able to get through to call a loved one or about feeling affection towards a recorded telephone message (Bussy 158).
Due to "the growing time between recordings, the rarity of live performances and the increasingly exacting and protracted nature of the recording process" Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos left Kraftwerk during the early ‘90's, replaced by various Kling Klang studio personnel such as Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz (Kraftwerk). "Tour de France Soundtracks" was released in August 2003, which was their first album of new material after a 17-year lull, and after the departure of Bartos and Flür. The concept of this album was based on the "Tour de France" and Ralf and Hütter's love for cycling. The lyrics are mainly in French and consist of phrases that have to do with cycling (Bussy 195). In a way, it can be seen as a part of a "transportation trilogy," with "Autobahn" dealing with automobile transport, "Trans-Europe Express" with rail, and "Tour de France Soundtracks" with transportation through cycling. The response to this album was 50/50, and the sales were disappointing (Bussy 197). Although, the good thing that came out of this album was that it revivified Kraftwerk and led them to performing live with all new equipment and some alternate versions of their classic songs (Bussy 198).
"The Mix" was released in 1991, which featured remixes of various Kraftwerk songs. Their latest release in June 2005 was "Minimum-Maximum," a compilation of classic Kraftwerk songs from their 2004 world tour. Also released was the "Minimum-Maximum" DVD which included live footage of their tour. There are plans for the release of "The Catalogue" (German: "Der Katalog") in late 2006, which will be a box set including all of their albums from "Autobahn" to "Tour de France Soundtracks" digitally-remastered. Ex-Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür wrote a book on the band entitled "I Was a Robot," released in 2003. Another noteworthy book on Kraftwerk is "Man, Machine, and Music" by Pascal Bussy, who's newest edition was released in 2005.
In 1970, Hütter and Schneider founded the Kling Klang Studios in Düsseldorf (Nusser 67). By 1981, the studio had been modified in a way that it could be interchangeable with the stage set, so the studio and the stage were two-in-one. Whenever Kraftwerk needed to do a show, they could just take their studio with them, and they didn't have to worry about any messy rewiring and other such issues (Bussy 112). The Kling Klang studio has been described by Hütter as having a digital, laboratory-like setup. "But there is no renting out of the studio. It's very personal, like a living room." The Kling Klang studio has been transported to and from each gig, where Kraftwerk would continue to compose in the studio between performances. (Chin 27) After seeing a 1981 performance, Darling comments that Kraftwerk's stage setup "makes Star Trek's U.S.S. Enterprise seem like some child's plaything by comparison" (35). Similarly, Regehr has remarked that their studio is "closer to ‘Close Encounters' than it is to rock ‘n' roll." They have scientists as part of their road crew, which come in to help them with their equipment and keep everything working. Their set includes 7 tons of custom-built equipment. The stage is a v-shaped computerized instrument panel, with four television screens as a backdrop. The screens depict random pictures such as computer printouts, videos for songs, and test patters that go on during a concert. Kraftwerk's mechanical image is further emphasized by the four life-sized androids, built in their own image, which "perform" during their stage show. The androids seem like the real thing, and later on the show these robots are joined by Kraftwerk themselves, where the audience cannot tell which are the real band members and which are their artificial copies. (Sutherland 52)
As a humorous side-note, sometimes the band members insist on having their robot copies stand in for press conferences; this highlights the reliance on technology and dehumanization that Kraftwerk is known for (Villano 34). Which brings me to my next point, Kraftwerk has been known to be notoriously secretive and stringent with demands. Kraftwerk rarely gives interviews, and when they do it is usually with strict demands. During a magazine interview with Hütter for example, he demanded that he would only speak about his bicycle collection during the interview and that there would be no mention that he was a member of Kraftwerk (Villano 34). As an example of Kraftwerk's privacy, Kling Klang studio in Düsseldorf has no form of contact with the outside world. There is no telephone, no fax, no reception and all mail is returned unopened. They haven't had a photo shoot since 1976, and the only images that remain of theirs are those of their live shows or their robotic counterparts. (Petridis)
Kraftwerk's music has been sampled by an array of artists including Depeche Mode, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, Fatboy Slim, 2 Live Crew, and the Chemical Brothers (Kraftwerk). Possibly most notable is Afrika Bambaataa's popular hit "Planet Rock" which samples the main melody from Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express" and the rhythm track of "Numbers." (Blashill 56). Various songs from Kraftwerk's have been covered by a range of artists such as Siouxsie & the Banshees, Rammstein, DMX Krew, Leæther Strip, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. In 2000, Señor Coconut released the album "El Baile Alemán" which covered various Kraftwerk songs in a Latin style of music (Kraftwerk). It is notable to mention that several albums exist that pay tribute to Kraftwerk. Such albums include: "The Radioactive Tribute to Kraftwerk," "Technicolour: A Techno Tribute to Kraftwerk," "Trancewerk Express: A Tribute to Kraftwerk," and "Trans-Slovenia Express."
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Works Cited
Blashill, Pat. "The Greatest Albums Ever Made: Kraftwerk- Trans-Europe Express" Rolling Stone 14 Nov. 2002: 56.
Bussy, Pascal. Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music. London : SAF Publishing, 2005.
Chin, Brian. "Kraftwerk Works at a Craft" Billboard 10 Jan. 1987 : 27.
Darling, Cary. "Closeup: Kraftwerk- Computer World" Billboard 22 Aug. 1981: 68.
Darling, Cary. "Talent in Action: Kraftwerk" Billboard 15 Aug. 1981: 35.
"Kraftwerk" Wikipedia.com. 21 March 2006 . Wikipedia. 22 March 2006
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk >.
Nusser, Dick. "Kraftwerk's Electric Plant Pulsating Funky Success" Billboard 22 Oct. 1977: 67.
Petridis, Alexis. "Desperately seeking Kraftwerk" Guardian Unlimited Network. 25 July 2003 . The Guardian. 22 Mar. 2006 <http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1004937,00.html >.
Schneider, Mitchell. "Kraftwerk- The Man Machine" Rolling Stone 18 May. 1978: 86+.
Sutherland, Sam. "7 Tons of Sound: German Kraftwerk" Billboard 4 July 1981: 52.
Villano, Mike. "In Print: I Was a Robot by: Wolfgang Flür" Billboard 2 Dec. 2000: 34.
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