Review Summary: Their breakthrough album. One of the most iconic too.
“Autobahn” is the fourth studio album of Kraftwerk that was released in 1974. The line up on the album is Ralf Hutter, Florian Schneider-Esleben, Klaus Roder and Wolgang Flur.
Kraftwerk’s influence on “modern” music is so huge that it’s rather difficult to pinpoint all its real dimensions. The group is responsible for popularizing electronic music and is always remembered when we are talking about the origins of techno, electro, dance music and also of funk. However, being Kraftwerk one of the most important, revolutionary and influential groups in the history of “modern” music, it’s curiously one of the most unknown too.
Kraftwerk was founded in 1970 by Florian Schneider-Esleben (flute) and Ralf Hutter (keyboards) in Dusseldorf, Germany. They met when they studied at the Dusseldorf Conservatory in the late 60’s, participating in the experimental scene of the time, the movement later called Krautrock. The band had other members in their line up all over the years.
The origin of the name Kraftwerk (Power Plant, Electrical Complex) comes from the place where the group’s tests and experiments were carried out, a Refinery (Complex) in Dusseldorf. It’s in this industrial ambient with the mechanical rumination of factories in the background that Kraftwerk records their first works, “Kraftwerk” in 1970, “Kraftwerk 2” in 1971 and “Ralf & Florian” in 1973, merging noise, sound, poetry and industrial folklore. The progression of the group’s sound came gradually assimilated to technology and its elements. This dedication mixed with “genius” gave rise to the masterpiece “Autobahn” in 1974. With “Autobahn”, Kraftwerk was able to create the glacial beauty of cyber music.
“Autobahn” has five tracks. The first side of the album is only filled by the title track suite “Autobhan”. The 22 minutes of the title track became a big hit when it was released in edited form as a single, and that was quite an achievement for a song with German vocals. It begins with the slamming of a car door and the throaty whirr of an engine ignition, intro this iconic track, which takes up all the side one of the album. The track evokes the feeling of driving on the Autobahn, from journeying through the landscape, in the high-speed concentration of the fast lane, to tuning the car radio and the monotony of a long trip. It describes the A555 from Cologne to Bonn, the first Autobahn. The track featured some of Kraftwerk’s finest themes, built around sequenced electronic rhythm patterns. Schneider’s atmospheric flute gives some passages an almost otherworldly feel, but he would unfortunately stop using it after this album. The band also used the electronic equipment to imitate the sounds of speeding cars along the Autobahn, and the experimentation was taken even further on the completely instrumental second side of the album. This is an amazing work of electronic art.
The second side of the album has four tracks. The 12 minutes of the two-part “Kometenmelodie” feature lots of spacey sounds that illustrate flying comets, especially in the first part. Both were inspired by the Kohoutek comet, which passed close to Earth in 1973. “Kometenmelodie 1” is a ponderous, yet entrancing, piece of space-inspired electronica which serves as a preface to “Kometenmelodie 2”. The theme from the first part had evolved in the second part, and should be counted as yet another classic Kraftwerk’s theme. In contrast to “Kometenmelodie 1”, “Kometenmelodie 2” embraces a structure and melody more akin to the title track of the album. The gloomy and sinister “Mitternacht” is the most obscure track. It lives up to its name, which means “Midnight”. The sombre feel of this track seems at odds with the prevailing mood of the album, but lends to it a true ominous beauty. The rural “Morgenspaziergang” featured lots of electronic imitations of birds and running water, with a simple and repetitive melody played on flute. It’s one of the most natural songs the band ever made. It belies their reputation for producing pure electronica. It also showcases the diversity of the album, delineating the track from the rest and ending the album on a true high point. The ending reintroduces a musical motif first heard in the instrumental section of “Autobahn”. It’s a potent end to a peerless album.
Conclusion: In 1974, Kraftwerk created an electronic epic. Five decades on, “Autobahn” is hailed as a masterpiece. At the heart of Kraftwerk was the relationship between humans and technology, where the synths dominated the sound, which was sparse, linear and rhythmic, but beneath the machine-like ethos breathed elegant and enticing melody. On this album, Kraftwerk created a sound that was transformative and unique, a hypnotic and insistent electronic pulse populated by shimmering electronic keyboards, rhythm loops and trance like guitars. “Autobahn” is an album that saw man and machine working in perfect harmony. It was a pivotal step forward for contemporary music. It’s a timeless and profound piece of work that still remains relevant, even today. It’s an almost mystical reverence for the ordinary objects of an industrial world. “Autobahn” remains as one of the best and most memorable electronic prog albums of the 70’s.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
