Kraftwerk HHV Records 50 Items

The dawn of a new era

German coal-fired power plants gradually closed their doors in 1975 and were replaced by nuclear power plants, which became the new flagship of the West. Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter were big fans of the new technologies and jumped on the bandwagon of progress. In 1968, the two met at a music improvisation course at the conservatory in Düsseldorf and set themselves the task of transforming the change in their world into acoustic and visual poetry. Schneider and Hütter initially played a German copy of British beat music; Krautrock, as it was condescendingly called by the British soldiers who occupied the city after World War 2. Among them were bands like Guru Guru, Can and Ash Ra Temple. Florian Schneider rented a room in an electronics store and produced the first electro-pop in history. Phone booths, trains and limousines whizzing across the roadways of North Rhine-Westphalia became emblematic of their new creation.

Overtaken on the right

The debut album Autobahn was the starting shot of their career. Unknowingly, with their first creation they created a new genre that would influence many modern music styles and artists. The album cover, designed by Emil Schulte and featuring a stylized symbol for a highway, made them seem very modern for their time, which may have been the reason for the fame of their 22-minute title track in America. In 1975, Kraftwerk followed up with their classic album Radioaktivität, which once again featured a stylized symbol on the cover. They changed this symbolism to a symbiotic meaning, in which pop music is also allowed to be influenced by other social concepts. The cover of Trans Europe Express shows the group in black and white with a glamorous Hollywood look, which was a slap in the face of the rocker fashion. The group’s sound became harder and more percussive. The vinyl was also crucial to the birth of DJ culture and, according to stories, the only record that Grandmaster Flash played without interruption. The Man Machine was heavily influenced by the look of Russian Constructivism and was born out of the idea that the future would be built by technicians and scientists. The members saw themselves as workers of a sound factory. The album Computer World and the accompanying tour were Kraftwerk’s greatest success. Coldplay’s Talk is a tribute to Computer Love and an acknowledgement of a compositionally timeless melody. The album We Are The Robots was Kraftwerk’s coming out as a creative androgynous group. Many radio stations in America played the album’s songs among funk classics like Donna Summer or Danny Brown. Kraftwerk worked on the album Techno Pop for half a decade. Production began immediately after the release of the previous album Computerwelt. The Mix is a remix album released in 1991. It consists of a selection of songs that had originally appeared on Kraftwerk’s previous albums, rearranged and re-recorded. All the themes Kraftwerk draws from: travel, communication or the coexistence of man, nature and technology live from the dynamics of a forward movement. This is best embodied by their passion for cycling, which underlies their vinyl Tour de France.

Prophets of the modern age

David Bowie’s change of course to Heroes (V-2 Schneider), the techno genre and some new wave and punk records were all thanks to Kraftwerk. Factory Records was clearly influenced by them, as was the early work of Malcolm Garrett. Before they knew it, the four stiff Germans were the most influential white artists in the history of black dance music. They were giving back what rock ‘n’ roll had stolen. Kraftwerk foresaw a future that led us to Google, Facebook, Apple. Who would have thought in 1981 that the home computer would one day play such a big role in our lives?