Random notes on Chapter 3: Kraftwerk and the Electrification of Modern Music
from Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany by David Stubbs (2014)
from Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany by David Stubbs (2014)
Many Germans probably object to the krautrock moniker for the obvious reason it is an ethnic slur. Equivalent to, say, calling British rock Limey-rock or French rock Frog-rock. And coming from Brits (John Peel, Ian Macdonald, or Brit advertisers used the krautrock term first, it's not entirely clear) probably makes the term an even more annoying dig to a German. But another objection to the krautrock label could be that a lot of the early records that get thrown into that marketing bucket were not in fact very rockin' or rock-like music at all.
Much of krautrock in its heyday, 1968-1975, was more instrumental, soundtrack-like sounds, more ambient, more post-rock, or even anti-rock. Can and Faust owe obvious musical debts to the Velvet Underground. So rock music. Schmidt says the presence of vocalists Mooney and Suzuki in Can's early years decisively turns the band's music towards rock. Sometimes I can mistake Amon Duul ii for a Brit prog rock band. But Tangerine Dream, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel, Cluster, and Klaus Schultz, the latter a pervasive figure on the experimental ambient instrumental soundtrack side of krautrock in its beginnings, called a compilation of their music that came out in 1972, Kosmische Musik (or 'cosmic music'). And Kraftwerk, originally calling themselves the Organisation, are the models or pop kings, the "Showroom Dummies" of this more electronic and downtempo ambient side-- and possibly more revolutionary side?-- of krautrock. (1)
Kraftwerk were formed in Dusseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider. I think I've always thought of them as a group I admire more for their influences than their actual music. Devo, Talking Heads, New Order, and The KLF, all obviously influenced by Kraftwerk, are personal faves. Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother of Neu! begin in Kraftwerk, and as I've mentioned before Dinger was a major influence on Kraftwerk's version of the motorik sound. No doubt Kraftwerk were true pioneers of electronic music, synth-pop, Goth, electro, EDM, or really almost any other flavor of electronic pop music. Gary Numan's "Cars" (1979). Human League's "Don't You Want Me" (1981). Martin Gore of Depeche Mode credits Kraftwerk as the "godfathers" of electronic pop music. Their legacy is remarkably widespread. But my first teen exposure to Kraftwerk was more passive and relatively indifferent. I had a school friend that played the Autobahn album all the time. That song and "Showroom Dummies," about the only Kraftwerk songs I remember from the '70s, were funny and I kind of liked them as a novelty songs but I didn't like them enough to buy their albums.
The first Kraftwerk single I actually got physically excited about and went out and purchased was a 12" single version of "Tour de France," which appeared prominently in the 1984 hiphop movie Breakin'. The song is now known widely as Breakdance, as in the song origin of breakdance music. They put out an album called Tour de France Soundtracks in 2003, elaborating on the EDM associations in Kraftwerk's electronic sound. It was actually hiphop founding godfather Afrika Bambaataa's praise of Kraftwerk in the early '80s that got me to eventually give Kraftwerk a second and closer listen.
Trans-Europe Express (1977) is perhaps their best, my favorite anyway, an electronic road/train song theme or two and a seamlessly gloomy electro Goth soundtrack. On the album "Hall of Mirrors" is a dramatic prelude to "Showroom Dummies," the song I'd only known as a radio single. And the whole second side, "Trans-Europe Express," "Metal on Metal," "Abzug," "Franz Schubert," and "Endless Endless" melds into one immaculately dark synth-pop suite of music. Their rock and anti-rock tendencies in perfect tension.
That said all their peak run of albums in retrospect, Autobahn (1974) to Computer World (1981), have their moments and seem to effectively burnish Kraftwerk's robotics and cybernetics pop mystique one way or another. I can see Kraftwerk fans getting behind any one of these five albums, preference based mostly on timing, when and how they came to find the album. I think another old music pal used to rank Computer World (1981) his favorite Kraftwerk album in more or less these terms. And "Numbers," off that album, is a touchstone for early '80s Detroit techno and all kinds of later '90s EDM. Carl Craig, second wave Detroit techno pioneer, said of this vintage of Kraftwerk, "they were so stiff they were funky." Anyway, "Numbers" in the early '80s Black dance music context is not to be missed.
To be honest, though, in my most recent check-in with the Kraftwerk catalog I still found myself reaching most for Kraftwerk's first two experimental albums, the least familiar to me, and especially Kraftwerk 2 (1972). No motorik tempos, more flute, even some guitar; absolutely minimum words, strictly experimental and generally chaotic. Meandering and slow building jams eventually reach these momentary peaks and then recede again like the tide. Maybe a precursor to Einstürzende Neubauten, the '80s German industrial band? Lots of bell ringing clanks and industrial like atmospherics anyway. Hypnotic and, again, vaguely psychedelic.
I never caught up with Kraftwerk's funky appeal until late but can see now their dark gothic melodicism, always in evidence, was maybe their greatest lasting influence. Anyway, they were a significant influence on Goth and hiphop and electro and EDM, that's a pretty impressive legacy. But I guess I'm still admiring them most for their influence and not how personally satisfying I find playing their records.
Footnotes:
1. Apparently, later, Schulz is dismissive of the 'kosmiche musik' name as too corny and sci-fi. Hawkwind indulge in this even worse-- corny sci-fi allusions, I mean-- but like 'space rock' I think 'cosmic music' fits. Or fits as well or better in many instances as krautrock, anyway. Psychedelic tinged German instrumental soundtrack music circa 1968-1975.
2. Full disclosure, Bam, an old school hiphop music favorite, has now posthumously, he died in April, been charged with sexual abuse of several under age boys. Ugh.