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| 2009 cover |
release date: Nov. 1, 1974
format: cd (2009 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]
producer: Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider
label: Kling Klang / EMI Records - nationality: Germany
4th studio album from by German band Kraftwerk as follow-up to Ralf und Florian (Oct. '73) is by many considered the start of the band's success story - a group which originally, and partly still here, is a duo with Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. 'Partly' because Kraftwerk is at this point both a functioning duo-project and an artist collective at the same time. Although, not yet an official member during these recording, percussionist Wolfgang Flür plays on the album - and he will be a stable member from the release and up until '86. On the other hand, both guitarist Klaus Röder and songwriter Emil Schult (who is also credited the front cover) appear together with Hütter and Schneider inserted in what should look like a rear-view mirror on the front cover, where a picture of Flür has been inserted onto the dashboard of the car, as illustration of the band's five official members - however, Röder already left the band by the time of the album's release. On some later vinyl releases, Schult is not mentioned as a member... And on other releases, the rearview mirror image and dashboard have both been retouched. However, there is no doubt that the two musical driving forces are the founders of the band: Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider.
Autobahn with its five tracks has a total running time of approx. 42 minutes, and it has achieved iconic status in music history as a groundbreaking avant-garde album with a colossal significance for the beginning of synthpop, ambience and the entire electronic genre, and an album that has inspired contemporary and later artists across genres, and it's not only the title track, which has given the album this extraordinary status. On the band's previous albums, it was mainly or partially unmistakable krautrock and musique concrete which characterised Kraftwerk's music, but with this very album, the band marks the start of a predominantly electronic approach with the inclusion of elements from musique concrete. On the vinyl edition, the track "Autobahn" - credited Hütter, Schneider and the poet Emil Schult (who often co-wrote the songs) - with its nearly 23 minutes running time fills the entire A-side, and the song has become a modern evergreen. A song like "Kometenmelodie 2" has significant similarities with some music by Jean-Michel Jarre, while inspiration especially from this and from the final track "Morgenspaziergang" may be heard on several compositions by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, who have shown great admiration throughout the band's career on multiple occasions via album and song titles, in compositions, as well as on covers. David Bowie, Roxy Music, and Brian Eno are also indebted to the music by Kraftwerk.
Personally, I didn't give the band much importance until they made "Das model", or rather: not until the song was re-released with an accompanying video in '81, and then I didn't even know that the track featured on the album Die Mensch-Maschine ( 1978). The band and its music was always in the periphery of what I found interesting, without the understanding that much of the British synthpop that I was particularly excited about in the early '80s owed huge debt to Kraftwerk. One of the great Danish bands from the 80s was the new wave band Kliché, and their two acclaimed studio albums Supertanker (1980) and Okay Okay Boys (1982) are nearly unimaginable without Kraftwerk and especially this very album.
The album peaked at No. #4 on the UK albums chart, as No. #5 on the US Billboard 200, and as No. #7 in Germany. The title track released as a single went to No. #9 on the national chart list, No. #11 in the UK, and made a 25th place in the US. Still, the track has achieved iconic status.
Autobahn is a piece of music history on par with the best works of the greatest artists. And it's not just huge because it's original, but because it anticipates and forms new styles and helps creating a whole new genre. The album is naturally included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The band has reissued this album and most other albums in 2009 in remastered editions, however, it's worth noting that the first three albums by Kraftwerk have never been officially reissued in any format. This rejection is also seen on the 8-disc box set Der Katalog (2009), where they enlists all their studio albums from 1-8 on the back cover starting with Autobahn, thus completely omitting the first three albums, just as Hütter says that with that collection they have collected all of their previous albums. On a later occasion he said that they have plans to release a second box set containing the earliest recordings, although, this has not yet materialised.
Essential.
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| original cover |
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| detail from cover |
