Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk I

The Kraftwerk are unanimously considered, and rightly so, as one of the most important groups in the history of music, and it wouldn't be surprising to see them recognized in future centuries as one of the most representative and innovative musical icons of the 20th century, classified for historical importance in the way we consider Beethoven today. The influence that their music has had on all subsequent electronic music, from industrial to synth-pop to techno, is indeed impressive.

Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider trained under the great guru of German avant-garde Karlheinz Stockhausen: the duo's programmatic intent is ambitious, there is a desire to create a "German" trademark, a "new strictly Teutonic music" that distinguishes and separates them from the prevailing Anglophone clichés. The early sound experiments can be seen as a sort of electro-cacophonic rumble, after all, the name "Kraftwerk" means "power plant." It is noteworthy that members of Neu! were also part of the early formation.

The first album is in any case light years away from the typical "robot music" sound that will make them famous: in these grooves, uncompromising sound experiments are heard.

The album begins with "Ruckzuck", a track where a skewed and minimal melody that may remind one of the later "sound" of Neu! and also features a flute, is abruptly interrupted by the abrasive tones of an atonal organ and experiments that anticipate industrial, before finally returning to the starting point with the "riff" that opened the piece. "Stratovarius" is pure urban paranoia, it is the sound generated by nightmare cities dominated by suffocating skyscrapers: the sound of the experimental organ opening this sonic nightmare pierces the brain like a sharp blade, the track then proceeds on apparently calm minimal canons before suddenly accelerating on itself and imploding in a noise explosion, only to regain a semblance of rhythm and dissolve into a chaotic endless nightmare. Surely Stockhausen would have appreciated it.

"Megaherz" opens the second side with quiet cosmic sounds disturbed by noise frequencies, then transporting the listening onto almost mystical tracks thanks to a sidereal organ and a calm flute. It is still a great piece. "Von Himmel Hoch" closes this epochal album in a disruptive way: it feels like being under aerial bombardment during World War II, the "sound" of this piece is pure paranoia that anticipates industrial, where the buzzing of airplanes and the explosion of bombs on the ruins of German civilization are reproduced.

This is an epochal album. The subsequent evolution of Kraftwerk, which will lead them to become the champions of mass "robot-music", is therefore not accidental and their metamorphosis should not be considered a betrayal by fans of the first phase as it is the logical evolution of avant-garde in consumer electronic music.