Trans Europa Express (studio album) by Kraftwerk

From indieshins 04/24/2023 23:18

I hadn't listened to this in a long time, and only in the English version, but I'm learning German at the moment and so I revisited - but this time, listening to the German version, of course. I liked it a lot in English, but I think it works even better in their native language. Great, great record. Gonna check out more German-language Kraftwerk as well - Man-Machine (Mensch-Maschine), Computer World (Computerwelt) and Electric Cafe (retitled Technopop) all have German-language versions.

They stole from Zatsepin(Зацепин Russian electro-musician) from “Robot’s dance”(Танец роботов) 1975. That was soundtrack for movie Центровой из Поднебесья.

A record full of great ideas that work brilliantly in spells but they also have moments where it can feel repetitive and boring especially with the longer songs. An example of one song that feels elongated is Schaufensterpuppen with its 6:15 run time feeling quite long and drawn out. Despite this, the longest song and best song on the album, Europa Endless, doesn't fall victim to this and stays catchy and melodic despite being in the same style. The strongest run the album has is tracks 4 to 7 where all the songs blend together beautifully. This leads to the strongest moment in any Kraftwerk record as all the songs feel so cohesive in this section and you can really get lost in the music. Overall, this is a very important album in the history of electronic music and it has its moments when it is fantastic but this isn't maintained the whole way through.

Not a fan

Definitely ahead of its time electronic music that puts you in a trance. You feel like on a mad train, because of the haunting atmosphere that is most present on The Hall Of Mirrors and Metal On Metal.

Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre and Kraftwerk were all pioneers of electronic music each with their own individual styles. I like all three for different reasons. Each produced a number of classic albums in their early career and this was top of the tree for Kraftwerk. Each of the artists mentioned were using similar synths and drum machines around the time. However the results were quite different, the Kraftwerk sound being most structured and linear, a clean uncluttered sound and obviously with vocals, which TD tried once or twice but didn't really return to, not sure JMJ ever did. Always with a nod to the robotic influence, Kraftwerk delivered an album which would be the ideal accomplament to a journey on the Trans Siberian Express.

For me the greatest electronica album of all time, a really cool concept which has a timeless quality to it that a lot of Kraftwerk's records have

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From VictorVale 07/26/2021 18:37

Impecável!

One of those albums I wish I had the chance to listen to them when they came out, I'm sure it would have been huge.