26×26 – K is for Kraftwerk

1974 – I was fourteen when Kraftwerk‘s Autobahn hit the UK charts. There were rumours the album version was 22 minutes long. One song. We were aghast.

Three years later, they achieved the perfect balance between their earlier experimental Krautrock style and a more melodic electronic presentation, and a different mode of transport inspired the title of their best album, Trans Europe Express. It was an inspiration for some famous followers  (“From station to station/back to Dusseldorf City/Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie”) and an influence on countless practitioners of techno, electro, New Romantic and industrial dance music. It was a further five years before Planet Rock borrowed the Kraftwerk template and laid one of the foundation stones of hip-hop.

There’s wry humour in the seemingly deadpan vocals.. the self-mocking Showroom Dummies kicks off with an intoned “Eins, zwei, drei, vier” – let me see, which other band used to do that? Trans Europe Express and the variations on it’s theme, Metal On Metal, Abzug and Franz Schubert, develops from a shuffling railroad clatter into a grand corporate anthem. Europe Endless is a paean to a Europe without borders, reprised as Endless Endless at the close. The eerie Hall Of Mirrors reflects on fame. It’s not difficult to hear how music of such rigidity – so processed – can have a soul. Graceful grandeur.

N.B. Trans Europe Express was re-mastered and re-released last year. It sounds fantastic.

P.S. I could have just as easily written about: Kasabian and the album Kasabian

Wonder what L will be?