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Kraftwerk (album)

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For the Sarah Connor album, see Kraftwerk (Sarah Connor album).

Kraftwerk
Studio album by
Kraftwerk
ReleasedNovember 1970
RecordedJuly–September 1970
Genre
Length39:39
LabelPhilips
Producer
Kraftwerk chronology
Kraftwerk
(1970) 		Kraftwerk 2
(1972)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]

Kraftwerk is the debut studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was released in Germany in 1970, and produced by Konrad "Conny" Plank.

Recording

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After the commercial failure of Tone Float, Organisation were dropped by RCA Records while Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider signed a new deal with Philips and named their new project Kraftwerk. To begin work, the duo rented an empty workshop in an industrial era near a railway station in Düsseldorf, which would eventually become Kling Klang Studio.[2]

The album was recorded from July to September 1970[3] and was produced by colleague Conny Plank, who shared the credit with Hütter and Schneider.[2] They were also joined by two drummers during the recording of the album: Andreas Hohmann and Klaus Dinger.[4] Hohmann played on "Ruckzuck"[4][2] and "Stratovarius",[2] while Dinger played on "Vom Himmel Hoch".[5] The other instrumentation features Hütter on bass, as well as both Hammond and Tubon electric organs, the latter made by Swedish factory Joh Mustad AB in 1966,[6][7] while Schneider plays the flute.[6]

The song "Ruckzuck" is driven by a motorik groove[2] and powerful multi-dubbed flute riff.[8] Hütter plays a piano line on a modified Hammond organ, and many instruments on the album were manipulated by a pitch-to-voltage converter, which converts sound into voltage that powers a synthesizer.[9] Jason Anderson of Uncut noted that "Stratovarius" features no synthesizers and begins as an "ominous cloud of electronic noise" that evolves into an "acid rock jam".[2] "Megaherz" is a more subdued track and the only one on the album to feature no drums.[2] Anderson describes "Vom Himmel Hoch" as a "doomy soundscape" that serves as an "aural simulation of a bombing raid", ending in an apocalyptic explosion.[2] The track has slight pitch curves that emulate the Doppler effect.[7]

Release and promotion

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Kraftwerk was released in November 1970.[10] The album cover features a drawing of a fluorescent-coloured traffic cone,[5] inspired by the works of Andy Warhol and the pop art movement.[2]

In early 1971, Hütter left the group to study architecture in Aachen,[11] leaving Schneider, drummer Dinger and newcomer guitarist Michael Rother.[12] The three-member Kraftwerk lineup of Schneider, Dinger and Rother made an appearance on Radio Bremen,[13] and also on the TV shows Beat-Club and Okidoki.[14] After this, Dinger and Rother left to form the band Neu!, with Hütter rejoining Schneider to continue Kraftwerk[11] and both parties recording under the mentoring of Conny Plank.[citation needed]

No material from this album has been performed in the band's live set since the Autobahn tour of 1975.[9] In later interviews, Schneider referred to the first three Kraftwerk albums as "archaeology", and while they have never been reissued, unauthorized releases have been widely available.[2] In 2007, Kraftwerk hinted that the album might finally see a remastered CD release after the Der Katalog boxed set.[15] Vinyl releases of the first two albums were scheduled for Record Store Day 2020 but were ultimately cancelled.[11]

"Ruckzuck" was used as the theme song for the PBS show Newton's Apple in the United States.[16] However, its use was unauthorized and the program later substituted a cover version of the song.[9]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Ruckzuck"7:47
2."Stratovarius"12:10
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Megaherz"9:30
2."Vom Himmel Hoch"10:12
Total length:39:39

Personnel

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Credited adapted from LP liner notes,[17] except where otherwise noted.

Kraftwerk

Technical

  • Conrad Plank – producer, engineer
  • Klaus Löhmer – assistant
  • Ralf Hütter – cover
  • Bernhard Becher – photo
  • Hilla Becher – photo

Charts

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Weekly charts

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Chart (1971) Peak
position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[18] 30

Year-end charts

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Chart (1971) Position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[19] 27

References

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  1. ^ Ragget, Ned. Kraftwerk at AllMusic. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anderson, Jason (April 2023). "02_Kraftwerk". Uncut - The Ultimate Music Guide - Kraftwerk. pp. 8–11.
  3. ^ Koch, Albert (2005). Kraftwerk (in German). Hannibal. p. 58. ISBN 978-3-85445-213-3.
  4. ^ a b c Stubbs, David (5 August 2014). Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany. Faber & Faber. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-571-28334-7. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Esch 2016, p. 22.
  6. ^ a b Albiez, Sean; Pattie, David (1 January 2011). Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop. A&C Black. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-4411-9136-6. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  7. ^ a b Smolko, Tim; Smolko, Joanna (11 May 2021). Atomic Tunes: The Cold War in American and British Popular Music. Indiana University Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-253-05618-4. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  8. ^ Adelt, Ulrich (30 August 2016). Krautrock: German Music in the Seventies. University of Michigan Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-472-05319-3. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Lamb, Benjamin (14 June 2023). "Retrospective: 53 years of Kraftwerk's Kraftwerk". Mixdown. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  10. ^ Schütte, Uwe (27 February 2020). Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany. Penguin UK. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-241-32055-6. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  11. ^ a b c Williamson, Nigel (April 2023). "03_Kraftwerk 2". Uncut - The Ultimate Music Guide - Kraftwerk. p. 18.
  12. ^ Thompson, Dave (1 August 2021). I Feel Love: Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, and How They Reinvented Music. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-4930-4981-3. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  13. ^ Esch 2016, p. 29.
  14. ^ Esch 2016, p. 32.
  15. ^ Witter, Simon (2006). "Dummy Magazine - Ralf Hütter - Spring 2006". Dummy. Archived from the original on 12 February 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  16. ^ Keeley, Matt (6 May 2020). "R.I.P. Florian Schneider: 5 Best Kraftwerk Songs to Honor the Co-Founder of the Influential Electronic Group". Newsweek. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  17. ^ Kraftwerk (1972). Kraftwerk (LP liner notes). Germany: Philips Records. 6305 058.
  18. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Kraftwerk – Kraftwerk" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts.
  19. ^ "Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. 1971. Retrieved 2 April 2022.

Bibliography

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