The Vinyl of the Day is ‘Autobahn’ by Kraftwerk, 1974. Most music fans don’t really realize how influential and groundbreaking Kraftwerk was to decades of music to follow, with their utterly unique method of experimental, purposely machine-like use of electronic sound. This album isn’t the first one that Kraftwerk made, but it is agreed by many fans to be the first one released that really established the band, and gained them international acclaim, especially from the title track ‘Autobahn’, which at 22 minutes takes up the entire first side of the album; it’s intended to capture the feeling of driving on the Autobahn, from travelling through the landscape, the high-speed concentration on the fast lane, to tuning the car radio and the monotony of a long trip. The much-shortened version (to approx. 3 ½ minutes) became a huge hit throughout Europe, launching the band and the new ‘Techno’ music genre which swept the continent, and eventually to the US in the 80s as synthpop.
Now there’s honestly no mistaking the fact that Kraftwerk and techno is a hugely polarizing genre - you either love it or hate it, with no real grey areas. Kraftwerk’s sound is very different from following techno/synth, as it really doesn’t have the drive or energy as most club music. Their songs are mainly very repetitive, low-key, and machine-like - and to me, that was really their whole point, as experimenters and almost performance art instead of ‘music’. Personally, I view their sound as almost a Zen experience, with the repetition and sparsity as designed to put listeners into a relaxed and meditative state of mind, and that’s what I use it for. Of course, your results may differ; but that’s what makes Kraftwerk really interesting to me! Kraftwerk have exerted a lasting and profound influence across many genres of modern music, including synthpop, hip hop, ambient, post-punk, techno, and club music, and have inspired a wide and diverse range of artists. According to The Observer, “no other band since the Beatles has given so much to pop culture.”
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Although Kraftwerk’s first three albums were groundbreaking in their own right, Autobahn is where the group’s hypnotic electronic pulse genuinely came into its own. The main difference between Autobahn and its predecessors is how it develops an insistent, propulsive pulse that makes the repeated rhythms and riffs of the shimmering electronic keyboards and trance-like guitars all the more hypnotizing. The 22-minute title track, in a severely edited form, became an international hit single and remains the peak of the band’s achievements – it encapsulates the band and why they are important within one track – but the rest of the album provides soundscapes equally as intriguing. Within Autobahn, the roots of electro-funk, ambient, and synth pop are all evident – it’s a pioneering album, even if its electronic trances might not capture the attention of all listeners.
And of course, most people today are familiar with Kraftwerk from ‘Sprockets’ on Saturday Night Live — that’s ‘Electric Cafe’ sped up by 1/3. Now is the time on Vinyl of the Day when we dance!