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Trans Europa Expressrelease date: Mar. 1977
format: cd (2009 remaster)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,28]
producer: Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider
label: Kling Klang / EMI - nationality: Germany
6th studio album by Kraftwerk following
Radio-Aktivität (Oct. 1975) is the band's second album in their most classic and longest-lasting line-up. Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, who are credited the majority of the tracks are both credited on vocals, synthesizers and 'electronics'. Additionally, Hütter plays on 'Vako Orchestron' and 'synthanorma sequences', while Schneider also handles vocoders and 'votrax'. Apart from the two 'band leaders', the two remaining members are percussionists Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos, who are solely credited 'electronic percussion'.
At first, the album sounds much like a close progression from the '75 album, but new electronic instruments add completely new possibilities and sound bits to the band's electronic soundscape. With the use of especially sequencers, vocoders and electric percussion, the band once again marks itself out as musical avant-garde and perhaps takes a larger leap in the electronic genre than the one you find from
Autobahn (1974) to the predecessor. Kraftwerk has now moved away from the small electronic quirks we find on the '75 album, and instead they have in a way focused the musical expression - made it more rigorous without simplifying - and at the same time they have created the band's most coherent album to date.
The highlighted tracks above are seven out of eight from an album with no fillers - last composition is the 47 seconds "Endlos Endlos", which basically only serve to resume the album's main theme and melody from track #1, so that the album ends the way it starts. In fact, there are fluid transitions between many of the tracks, even though they appear as distinctively different compositions.
Trans Europa Express was (as the second of the band's classic albums) released in both a German version and in a versioned English album with translated song titles and lyrics titled Trans Europe Express. The album landed at number #32 in Germany, but peaked at number #2 in France, and as number #8 in Italy. Two selected tracks: the 4th and 3th tracks, respectively, were released as singles without charting.
The album was released to generally positive reviews, but over the years it status has heightened to one of modern music's most significant cornerstones. In retrospect, it has achieved finer status than Autobahn and is naturally included in countless lists of the best albums of all time, e.g. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" (Rolling Stone), "The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made" (Mojo), "Top 100 Albums of All Time" (NME), "The 50 Best Albums of the 70s" (Q Magazine), "The 20 Most Influential Albums" (The Times), etc. etc. - just as the album is naturally found in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
The album has been released in several first editions with different front covers. The first German and some European editions came with a black and white cover with Hütter and Schneider flanked by Bartos and Flür (original Kling Klang / EMI releases), and a (second) colored cover with Schneider and Hütter on the right of the picture (Capitol editions) released in the UK, Scandinavia, and in the Netherlands, and with Kraftwerk's own 2009 remastered edition, the album was launched with a brand new cover without the four band members.
Trans Europa Express is possibly Kraftwerk's finest and greatest achievement. Autobahn, with its groundbreaking form, upholds a very special positions, and Die Mensch-Maschine and Computerwelt have their obvious individual strengths, but both lack a tiny bits in absolute coherency, which the band's brilliant 77 album contains.
Personally, I didn't listen to the album until sometime in the 80s, and unfortunately only after becoming acquainted with bands and artists who have clearly been heavily inspired by Kraftwerk and this very album. Imho, the album is of huge importance for the musical heritage - for the development of synthpop, new romantic, and other related styles. It's hard to imagine the distinctive sound of many artists from diverse styles without thinking of Trans Europa Express. When not counted among my top three favourites from 1977, the album is only absent because of the fact that I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the electronic genre until much later. Back then, I focused on punk rock and post punk during this period, and here are three albums with three of my biggest favorites from the time: The Ramones, The Clash, and The Jam - artists I listened to far more than the brilliant German band. By detours I discovered Kraftwerk's music and the band's enormous musical influence - and it's for that reason alone I pay tribute to the band and this album. Another note of interest, is the colossal difference in sound production quality when comparing releases by the aforementioned punk bands to that of Kraftwerk releases from the same period. In this way, Kraftwerk stands out as a band from an almost distant future. The album is also demanding to listen to if you subsequently listen to (perhaps) more popular releases from bands such as Human League, Devo, Yellow Magic Orchestra, New Order, Depeche Mode, Per Shop Boys, and then it even seems obvious to compare with much later releases from artists like The Orb, Sigur Rós, Mogwai, The Chemical Brothers, etc.
Highly recommended.
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1977 org. cover
l-r: Bartos, Schneider
Hütter, Flür |
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1977 UK cover
l-r: Flür, Bartos
Schneider, Hütter |
Note the two founders of Kraftwerk, Hútter and Schneider
are in grey suits, while the two newcomers, Flür and Bartos - by the way
not credited one single track - are dressed in black suits.
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