#238 Kraftwerk, 'Trans Europe Express' (1977)

Previously #256

A totally hypnotic piece of music, this album was the forerunner to Electronic Dance Music, Alternative Rock, Synth Pop, New Wave, Pop, Hip Hop and everything in-between. Following World War II, Germany was a broken country. Having been sheltered from pop culture due to the war, and then later Communism, German baby boomers were forced to create their own sound. Post-war, all Germans knew, music-wise, was German Folk Music. Kraftwerk looked to change that. They had analogue sequencers developed, which allowed them to play a melody, record it and then have it repeat for the length of the song, or however long they wanted. They could also trigger the sounds they had created. ‘Franz Schubert’ and ‘Endless Endless’ are two examples of songs that use complex systems of sequencing. 

The result is a record with multiple electronic melodies interwoven together to create complex songs, the likes of which hadn’t heard before. This album would become the blueprint for albums like ‘Kid A,’ ‘Planet Rock’ and Joy Division’s ‘Closer’ (#309). And is it just me or does ‘Abzug’ sound like the theme song for ‘Knight Rider’? Or even ‘Airwolf’? Or is it just that those themes sound like a lot of other synth music from the ‘80s which was influenced by this album?

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