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Versione 1
Rating: Kraftwerk ergo “How To Build Your Own Automaton”.
Chapter IV: Linear journey — astral journey.
From industry to its products.
From industry to the paradigm of its products: the automobile.
Finally.
Point of arrival, serenity rediscovered.
The song form, the catchiness, the singing.
The sun shines on the horizon.
The entire first side (22 minutes) is an airy excursion in a Volkswagen and a very swift journey towards Volksmusik. So it seems.
However, moments of dismay interrupt this serene excursion. Without continuity, the journey from airy becomes claustrophobic; from linear, it becomes astral.
Once again, lightheartedness and anguish coexist.
As if they were one.
The cosmic yearning will explode as soon as the vinyl support is flipped.
From solar linearity to the most dizzying despair.
Two melodies of the comets, a midnight, a morning walk: a parabolic journey.
From the smooth, polished, and predictably lucid journey, to cosmic, floating, gloomy disorientation without coordinates.
In other words: from horizontal to vertical.
And yet, things are not so simple.
It is not a matter of opposition, but rather of decentralized and decentralizing exploration (never was the transfer of opposites more imperceptible).
From the linear emerges — from within— the cosmic (first part).
From the cosmic emerges — from within— the linear (second part): the straight and sunny highway, the glistening chrome returns again, without continuity, to find its way back from the cosmic vertigo.
From the dark and raven despair of “Mitternacht”, to the sunny gaiety of “Morgenspaziergang”.
Cathartic process on four wheels.
CHAPTER 5: https://www.debaser.it/kraftwerk/radio-aktivitaet/recensione-123asterisco
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Autobahn (22:43)
Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn
Vor uns liegt ein weites Tal
Die Sonne scheint mit Glitzerstrahl
Die Fahrbahn ist ein graues Band
Weisse Streifen, gruener Rand
Jetzt schalten wir ja das Radio an
Aus dem Lautsprecher klingt es dann:
Wir fah'rn auf der Autobahn...
03 Kometenmelodie 2 (05:51)
Die Sonne tönt nach alter Weise
In Brudersphären Wettgesang
Und ihre vorgeschriebene Reise
Vollendet sie mit Donnerklang
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Other reviews
By Airone
"Autobahn is a masterpiece, pure as spring water."
"In the 23 minutes you're about to listen to, there are all the elements of modern disco, enriched by the suite format, beautiful progressions, and avant-garde experimentation."
By Eneathedevil
"Autobahn... stands as a naive appetizer to what would become the first popular phenomenon of Kraftwerk’s production."
"Kraftwerk positioned themselves as precursors... their music is not and never would have been disco dance, but it accompanied it without involving it."
By supersantoss
It’s a must-listen, just this song alone, for the entire electronic and kraut genre of the period.
This music needs to be listened to; the sacrifice is non-existent. Stop and hear the electronic noises, so sophisticated yet so wonderfully profound.
