Kraftwerk ‎– Electric Cafe

By 1986 the musical seeds that Kraftwerk had sown in the late seventies were flowering to great effect, so much so that at the time Electric Cafe was released, it was felt that they had been hauled back by their contemporaries, and were indeed mortals.

The genesis of this particular LP was tortured by Kraftwerk's standards, and set the standard for a lengthy and protracted period highlight of relative unease with recording and activity that was to be the case until their re-emergence in 2003 with "Tour De France Soundtracks". The 1983 single "Tour De France" was originally scheduled to be a part of an LP tentatively called "Technopop" that was, in 1984 ready to be released. EMI had given the LP a catalogue number and the artwork had been done. Ralf Hutter then apparently suffered a serious cycling accident, and whilst in recent interviews he has refuted claims that he was out of action for a year, it was clear that the project had to be put on hold. Two years later, "Electric Cafe" was released, without Tour de France.

This is generally seen as the weakest of Kraftwerk's LPs since Autobahn, but I think whilst it struggles to compare to the rest of their back catalogue, that does it an injustice. The concept in hindsight, is revelatory - a global meeting place where people of all nationalities and languages can meet - the internet. The retrofuturism of all their previous works is summed up on this LP in "The Telephone Call" - the only track that Karl Bartos sings on - and one of their finest works. The German language version of this track is even better, having more lyrical melody than the English one. Whilst the actual music contained within it is possibly their worst track, the mood of "Sex Object" is revelatory - in that like "Hall of Mirrors" and "Computer Love" it offers an insight into the personal life of Ralf Hutter, who had become, according to rumour, something of a recluse by this time. It's the side-long medley of "Music Non Stop" though that is the LP's attraction, containing throughout a mantra-like paean to Kraftwerk's dictum on music itself, "industrial rhythms all around", and then in Spanish, "music will bring new ideas and will continue forever" - thus describing their adherence to the laws penned by Schaeffer and Boulez of musique concrete and the idea that music must have kinetic momentum, looking relentlessly forward to continue. The playfulness that pervades throughout their work is here in "Boing Boom Tschak!"

After this LP Kraftwerk would go back into hiding, something that they would be keen to do often for the next two decades. Florian Schneider once commented that there was "too much sonic pollution". Amusingly enough the band released promo copies in 2004 of their much-sought after and yet to be properly released Remastered "Der Katalog" with Electric Cafe being Stalinistically renamed "Technopop".