Kraftwerk ‎– Computerwelt

SEMINAL!!

Kraftwerk's most visionary album and in 1981 way, way ahead of the game.

I'm not sure if its just mine but the version of this LP I purchased actually has Trans-Europe-Express pressed on it and not Computer World. I can't imagine how that happened and didn't get noticed by the people bootlegging it. I'm not complaining though, Kraftwerk is Kraftwerk and that's all that matters.

As expected the sound quality isn't the best but short of finding the original pressings, this release is going to do just fine - the picture printing is a nice little gimmick too.

When this was released some questions arose. First and foremost the establishment asked: How come such a band released an album in so many languages and countries?
Kraftwerk knew and acted proactive. After contemplating, consulting friends and creative thinking they re-recorded a track with french lyrics, this with the intention of a pleasant gesture towards the french audience. In fact it is in Kraftwerk's direction to do this. After all one of their goals is to unite people.
The french artcritics however reacted cumbersome and quite negative. It's good to see and heartwarming that even french artcritics run beside the truth.

Kraftwerk moved on with every next release, trying hard to push the future's boundaries towards technological extremes but 'Computerwelt' (or 'Computer-World' if you like it), is undoubtedly one sole example of such perfection when there is no need for any further updates.

The bizarre case of the group's sometime-multilanguage album/single versions here reflects in the very mix - German variant of more popular English one is at times different or say, confusingly errored - while 'Computerwelt 2', 'Heimcomputer' and 'Taschenrechner' all appear in irrelevantly different but still altered mix, 'Computerliebe' on the other hand suddenly slows down at the end, seeming like a tune disobeying its computer's pre-programmed session.

As a whole, only geniuses like Kraftwerk could have made such an album - thrilling in the wake of forthcoming techno-progressive mankind but just as equally as fightening for all of that very mankind's weaknesses before total control and power. In seven songs, or better - topics, 'Computerwelt' summarizes economics, financial disputes, administration and the secret services, virtual sex, the internet and by the time 'It's More Fun To Compute' ends this virtual trip, you're left with fair share of anxiety - 'the future is always now but it's still not...'

Kraftwerk are very wisely suggesting the ways the future can be directed as friendly but also leave sharp, discrete warnings of its abuse.

Whilst "Trans Europe Express" and "Die Mensch Maschine" are arguably Kraftwerk's finest works, "Computer World" is contentiously perhaps their most influential, at least to the modern electronic generation. Detroit Techno was already in an embryonic state of genesis when the LP was released, but even after a period of 3 years of silence, Hutter & Schneider redefined the dancefloors yet again. Interestingly enough, the LP was rejected by many fans on its initial release, as it showed a relative progression from the austere and stark vision of the previous LP, moving, perhaps ironically given its theme, to a warmer, more playful Kraftwerk that contrasted against the more definitive imagery of the previous LPs.

The core of Kraftwerk's artistic brilliance relies on a polarisation or dichotomy as it were of futurism and romanticism, two opposing aesthetics that they combine with precise skill. It reaches its nadir with "Computer World" - predicting the future with "Home Computer" and "It's more fun to Compute", and at the same time romanticising, especially in hindsight, with "Pocket Calculator". They almost single-handedly defined genres with "Numbers" and "Home Computer" ", but the album's masterpiece is the gloriously romantic "Computer Love" - a lovelorn melodic piece of brilliance that sums up Kraftwerk beautifully, in that behind all the electronic databanks and austere facade remain a very human and soulful band.

That bleepy sound and synthesized voices that are second in line from the Macintosh Voices when it comes to commercial voice synthesis come from a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell. You can generate a random sound sequence like the ones Kraftwerk use by simply pressing the Start button over and over again.

When people call Kraftwerk influential, they're referring mostly to the music from this record and from Trans-Europe Express. The beat from "Numbers," especially, has been widely sampled. Classic.

Surely of all Kraftwerk this had the most obvious influence on late 20th century electronic music.

When the main melody from Computer World finally drops after the minimal industry of Numbers it's like a breath of beautiful fresh air.