Kraftwerk 1 :before they were robots...Apr 25 '03 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line This album is a must have for Kraftwerk fans, though it doesn't sound like any of their other albums! Before they went driving on the Autobahn and became robots, Kraftwerk released some very weird, experimental albums! I've been a Kraftwerk fan for years and after reading Pascal Bussy's book on Kraftwerk entitled Man, Machine and Music, I became an even bigger fan. Bussy's book talks about all their albums, including their first three and their pre-Kraftwerk band, The Organisation. If you are trying to locate these albums, it is not easy, for the first three Kraftwerk albums have yet to be released on CD in the U.S. I have their third album, Ralf and Florian, on vinyl and the CD version of Kraftwerk 2 that I own(which was released on Crown Records in Italy) has the inside cover, along with the info.. like who played on it and the recording dates... for the first album! And the version I have of their first album has the songs in the wrong order! Of all their early albums, I would have to say Kraftwerk 1 ,(which was released in 1970),is my favorite...I actually think it's one of their best albums. (I got this album through E-bay and it turned out to be such a pain in the butt transaction, that I did not buy anything through E-bay for another two or three months!) Those who are familiar with later Kraftwerk albums like Autobahn and The Man Machine may be very surprised by Kraftwerk 1. For those of you, like myself, who found some of their more popular albums like Trans-Europe Express and Computer World to be a bit too repetitious and too simple, this album will be a pleasant surprise! For one( or two or three), there are no synthesizers and no real singing on it..it's all instrumental. There would be no synthesizers and singing until their fourth album Autobahn. Secondly, this is the only Kraftwerk album to have live, acoustic drumming on it. Because of this, Kraftwerk actually ROCK OUT on parts of this, albeit in a very King Crimson-like way, which gets no complaints from me! On this album, Florian Schneider(who plays flute, violin, electronic percussion and guitar) and Ralf Hutter( who plays organ, bass guitar and an instrument called the "tubon", which sounds like a cross between a sax and a kazoo) are joined by drummers Andreas Hohman and Klaus Dinger. There are only four songs on this album, and they are: Ruckzuck 7:52- I absolutely love the first three minutes of this song..I think it's the best thing these guys ever did! Florian plays several breathy and staccato, rhythmic flute lines, underneath which Ralf plays an incredibly catchy and simple four or five note organ riff. Underneath this, there is some very steady drumming and a two note bass line. I love the way it all fits together...this is one of their few songs where there is more going on than the main melody! At about three minutes into the song, everything comes to a crashing halt...the feeling is equivalent to a car wreck...and the rest of the song has the band improvising. Tis quite strange, really! The main melody is reprised at the end, albeit at a faster tempo. GREAT SONG!!! Stratovarius 12:12- The first four minutes of this song are dominated by Hutter's organ...it sounds like a soundtrack for a horror movie and I find it similar to Pink Floyd's songs "A Saucerful of Secrets" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene". At about four minutes and a half minutes in, the drums make their entrance, along with the violin and guitar...both the guitar AND violin are very King Crimson-like( King Crimson during their Lark's Tongue period). I love the heavier parts of this song, which saw Kraftwerk rocking out like they never would again. The song ends on an exciting, but weird note with a very heavy and pounding riff. Another great tune...very un-Kraftwerk like. Megaherz 9:35- This is the most relaxing song on the album..it has a very ambient, dreamy feel to it, with some very soothing flute and organ lines. Sounds a tad like Tangerine Dream. Like the previous song,parts of this sound like a sountrack to a Horror movie! A nice song! Vom Himmel Hoch 10:04- I believe the title is German for "the big sky". This song starts out with what sounds like some airplanes and there is some explosions here and there, just to make things fun. The drums come in at about 4:00 and like Stratovarius, this song is at it's most interesting during it's louder and heavier parts. I believe Hutter plays the "tubon" on this..at one point, there is a little back and forth thing going on between the tubon and some other annoying sounding instrument, that almost sounds like somebody breaking wind...or letting a "fanny burp", as one of my neighbors used to make her kids say! The drumming on this song and Stratovarius is very exciting! YAHOO! Overall, this is definitely an album worth trying to find!  |
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