ELECTRIC CAFÉ [AKA: TECHNO POP]

"Electric Café" is the 9th full-length studio album by German experimental electronic pop/rock act Kraftwerk. The album was released through EMI/Warner Bros. in December 1986. The band re-released the album in October 2009 under its original working title, "Techno Pop". Kraftwerk had already began work on the album in 1982 but various issues and problems post-poned it´s release until 1986.

Five years have passed since the release of their last album "Computer World (Computerwelt) (1981)". Like that album "Electric Café" is unmistakably an album made in the eighties. The synth sounds, the drum programming and the sound production all points in that direction. "Electric Café" features 6 tracks and has a total playing time of 35:38. A relatively short album by today´s standards.

The first three tracks on the album work as a kind of suite with reoccuring themes while the three last tracks are seperate individual tracks. The music style is simple and repetitive electronic pop/ rock. Electronic beats, simple synth themes and processed robotic vocals. By this time in Kraftwerk´s career that´s no surprise. The music is generally a bit darker and harder edged than on "Computer World (Computerwelt)", but the sounds used on the album are still very recognisable as being from the eighties. All tracks are memorable and of high quality.

"Electric Café" appeals slightly more to me than "Computer World (Computerwelt)" did, but it doesn´t reach the heights of neither "Trans-Europe Express (Trans-Europa Express) (1977)" nor "The Man-Machine (Die Mensch-Maschine) (1978)", both of which I still see as the most essential albums in Kraftwerk´s discography. "Electric Café" is a pretty good album by Kraftwerk though and deserves a 3 star (60%) rating. Kraftwerk would take a longer (17 year) recording break after the release of "Electric Café" but would return with a new lineup and a new album in 2003 called "Tour De France - Soundtracks".