When you consider just how far ahead of their time these Germans
\nwere, it blows your friggin’ mind.
\nComputer World<\/i>, from 1981, resonates with the crisp sound of
\nnew advances in analog synthesizers. Not only that — the beats on
\nthis album predate house\/techno\/drum and bass by 15 years and still
\nsound good. I love Germans; half my family is German, so naturally
\nI fell into a fascination with this group after picking up the
\nseminal
\nTrans-Europe Express<\/i> on a whim in a Providence, Rhode Island
\nrecord store.<\/p>\n
Check out the track “Home Computer” – a techno backbeat that
\nreally punctuates the vision of Kraftwerk’s future world of
\ncomputers and interconnected users. Considering the medium on which
\nyou’re reading this review I’d say the band was spot on in their
\nobservations of the coming “computer world”. Plus, the vocals and
\nstilted drum breaks are straight out of Mike Myers’ “Sprockets”
\nskit. One must imagine hundreds of German boheems in their black
\nturtlenecks bopping to this stuff.<\/p>\n
“Pocket Calculator” is the hit on this album. With an undeniably
\nnew wave feel to it, the song drags the synthesizer kicking and
\nscreaming into the synth-pop genre. Which is really a metaphor for
\nKraftwerk’s output in the 70’s — they brought all-electronic music
\ninto popular consciousness, in the meantime birthing the sound that
\nwould be the backbone for hip hop, electronica, and the
\naforementioned new wave. “I’m the operator \/ with my pocket
\ncalculator.”<\/p>\n
Admittedly, I’m no fan of most dance music. Unless I’m loaded,
\nsince that’s the only time I can dance. But for the most part it’s
\ndull and repetitive and mostly sounds like disco. I’ve often
\nwondered how folks sit in their cars blaring this shit and there is
\nabsolutely nothing going on except for that incessant
\nthud-thud-thud-thud and some wanky synth lines. Naturally break
\ndancing is another story. I’ll never master the “robot,” but damn
\nif I don’t try! ‘Course, I was a fresh popper in fourth grade.<\/p>\n
Kraftwerk really slams perspective on this entire (I’m not
\ngrandstanding or lionizing here – I’m sincere) genre. They started
\nit. Any of their early albums is sort of an epiphany where you
\nthink, “oh, I get it.” On
\nComputer World<\/i> it takes one listen to the title track to
\nunderstand that, in context, this group of musician-scientists
\n(props to anyone making their own rhythm units in the early 70s)
\nestablished an entire genre. “Computer World” the song is an
\nelectronic cornucopia, with granite heavy lyrics describing a world
\nmoved by money, people, and technology.<\/p>\n
It’s probably worth your while. I’m a guitar freak but this
\nstuff is so sincere I find it hard to resist. I recently picked up
\nan old analog synth to try my hand with the electronic pulse. I
\nhighly recommend checking out any Kraftwerk titles. If you have any
\naffinity for the fat synth you’ll love this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":25527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6395],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36733","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kraftwerk","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36733"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36733"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}