KRAFTWERK

One of the most successful early innovators of Germany's electronic music scene, KRAFTWERK went on to international success with its unique adaptations of the world of progressive electronic sounds to the ear wormy realms of catchy pop music. Self-described as robot-pop, this pioneering force led and founded by the duo Ralf Hütter and Florian Scheider has become legendary for its string of crafty synthpop based electronica that found them at the top of the world from 1974 to 1981. While the band's first taste of success began with the 1974 album "Autobahn," KRAFTWERK's origins go back a bit further originating in the world of Krautrock with the short-lived act Organisation which released a sole album titled "Tone Float" in 1970. Existing from only 1969-70, Organisation was amongst the first on the fledgling scene of Germany's unique brand of trippy psychedelic rock called Krautrock which deemphasized the catchy pop and blues aspects in favor of more lysergic freeform excursions into bizarre soundscapes as well as taking the acid rock ethos of the 60s and infusing it with a more progressively complex style of rock music.

While these early albums have been virtually abandoned by the band in the modern day, before KRAFTWERK became an international sensation, these guys released three earlier albums that were unlike the ones that came after. These three albums basically picked up the torch from the experimental rock techniques laid down in Organisation and unfolded them even further. During this four year period between the band's formation in 1970 and the international breakthrough in 74, KRAFTWERK was essentially Hütter and Schneider exploring bizarre musical improvisations that delivered the classic Krautish kosmische effect in which the early years of Krautrock were so heavily steeped. Throughout this era the duo worked with a rotating lineup of several musicians that included guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger who both quit the band to form Neu!, another pioneer of electronic music development from the Düsseldorf scene. The first album to emerge from this period was the 1970 self-titled release which emerged only three months after "Tone Float" appeared. This debut found Conny Plank tagging along after his work with Organisation to provide all the extra touches which propelled the album into a higher realm of quality control that the duo itself was not ready to tackle.

The greatest revelation about this debut release from KRAFTWERK is in how utterly innovative this album was for so many who passed through as guest musicians. As one of the pioneering Krautrock acts, album #1 was fairly advanced for 1970 with many bands still tangibly connected to the heavy psych 60s. A totally guitar-free affair, Schneider handled the flute, violin and electric percussion while Hütter on the other hand delivered some of the most outlandish synthesizer and organ performances of the early Kraut years. Only two guests appeared on this debut: drummer Andreas Hohman on the first two tracks and future Neu! drummer Klaus Dinger on the grand finale. Augmented by the production prowess of Conny Plank, this self-titled debut excelled at taking the listener to the most tripped out lysergic soundscapes that had yet evolved in the nascent world of Krautrock. The album roughly falls into two distinct categories. The first offered hints of the future world of KRAFTWERK on the opening track "Ruckzuck" as well as some final moments of the closing "Vom Himmel Hoch." That style alternated with the highly improvised space freakery of the middle section that swallows up the lion's share of playing time.

It seems that it wasn't Neu! at all that first developed the distinct motorik style that would make that act famous. It instead appears that the first track on this album "Ruckzuck" displayed the fledgling motorik style that drummer Klaus Dinger would adopt and make a career out of with future Kraftwerk member and second half of Neu!, Michael Rother. This track is an odd mix of that motorik rhythmic drive as presented on the opening track of Neu!'s debut release only hybridized with the world of kosmische psychedelic freakery with trippy flute runs and off-kilter progressive rock time signature deviations. Add the fuzzy psychedelic organ accompaniments and the spaced out electronic embellishments and you've entered Krautrock paradise however rhythmically speaking this is the style Neu! picked up and ran away with.

The second track "Stratovarius" contrasts greatly and rather offers an escapist's paradise into strange psychotropic soundscapes that showcase exotic uses of the organ and synthesizers and a freeform floating effect that ultimately breaks into a percussion sequence offering a steady rock drumbeat that also offers a bit of the motorik style similar to what the opening track is primarily based on. This track though morphs in and out of rock territory and improvisational freakery complete with a serious freakout of an ending that culminates into a haunting processed violin performance. "Megaherz" follows with a "Saucerful Of Secrets" pilgrimage to planet lysergia via rumbling atmospheric keyboards while free floating through a turbulent storm and maniacal organ thrashing before calmly drifting aimlessly for a few moments. This lengthy unaccompanied organ run is probably the weakest part of the album but eventually a flute joins in and the track ebbs and flows with outbursts of electronic freakery. The closing "Vom Himmel Hoch" slowly oozes into electronic existence and pulsates in and out while incrementally accruing electronic overdubs. For much of the track is sort of sounds like an airplane flying towards followed by a detonated bomb explosion and then repeating but ultimately ends in a percussive frenzy that returns to the motorik rhythms while the organ and synths go batshit crazy.

For anyone expecting anything remotely similar to the works from "Autobahn" on, this will come as a major shock. This earliest KRAFTWERK release is about as out there as you can get for freeform psychedelic mindfuckery. This can definitely be described as extremely avant-garde, exceedingly experimental and very much detached difficult listening music far removed from anything remotely resembling commercially viable music in the mainstream. This on the other hand is musical freedom in its most unadulterated form. Ralph and Florian had a knack for crafting bizarre sonic soundscapes that alternated with percussive-heavy outbursts of the motorik side of the Krautrock universe and if you're open minded and receptive to some of the farthest out there musical trips possible then you might actually enjoy this. Personally i adore this earliest KRAFTWERK oddity as it exhibits a monstrous gleeful disregard for all musical these non-conventionalities and which deliver a wild ride through a never-ending series of bizarre soundscapes which offer the occasional respite through a more rhythmic delivery system. Sure Ralph and Florian have utterly written off their first three albums of KRAFTWERK but i'm a fan of both sides of the fence. This album scratches that extreme avant-garde itch whereas the later synthpop robot vocoder albums satisfy me on a totally different level. Either way, KRAFTWERK was one of the true musical innovators from the very beginning.