Remembering Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider

[Celerity]

The Kraftwerk cofounder died aged 73. Here, we look back on 11 essential records from the catalogue of his pioneering band.

https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3696

Florian Schneider was born in occupied Germany just two years after the end of World War II. With Kraftwerk, the band he co founded, he would come to define everything hopeful about postwar-Europe: technological advancement, prosperity, open borders and freedom of movement. By bringing synthesizers into the mainstream and inspiring the originators of techno, hip-hop and electro, Kraftwerk has had a profound impact on 20th century music. Schneider started out playing the flute in an early version of Kraftwerk (after one album as Organisation) that created earthy, pulsating jams. Though the flute was beloved to Schneider, after the group's first three albums (which have never been officially reissued), he discovered the potential of synthesizers on "Autobahn," the group's first hit, and never looked back. "Autobahn" proved you could have a hit song made with just synthesizers. From there, the group made several albums of inspired electronic pop, with themes that touched on the Cold War, travel, robots, emerging technology and the encroaching loneliness of the modern world. And they did it with style, creating rhythms and melodies that reverberated far beyond Germany. Schneider left Kraftwerk in 2008. (The band hasn't put out any new music in his absence.) From their early longhair hippie jams to the suave, suited man-machines they became, Schneider was a member of a group that helped define the way we see synthesizers, computers and electronic music as a whole.

Kraftwerk - Ruckzuck

Though Schneider and co. would probably like to forget this exists (all three early Kraftwerk albums have never been re-released), it's a crucial hint at the musical invention that was to come. More in line with German peers like Popol Vuh and Ash Ra Tempel, "Ruckzuck" might not have the futurism and synth savvy of later albums, but the discordant organ, proto-motorik beat and unforgettable flute offer evidence that this was a band trying to do something different.

Kraftwerk - Tanzmusik

While Kraftwerk would become known for their man-machine rhythms, their transitional 1973 record, Ralf And Florian, has decidedly human charms. Recorded with the legendary Conny Plank at the yet-to-be-named Kling Klang Studio, the band's third studio album feels of a piece with the greater exploratory spirit of Düsseldorf's Krautrock scene. There's a wooly, hippie energy behind ambient flights like "Tongebirge (Mountain Of Sound)," but it's on "Tanzmusik (Dance Music)" that the motorik cool which drove 1974's landmark "Autobahn" emerges. The track is an ecstatic mix of the organic (handclaps, wordless voices) and the electronic (synths and sequenced rhythms), a tantalizing view of the road ahead.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Depending on who you ask, "Autobahn" is the world's first "techno" hit, a 23-minute synthesizer odyssey distilled into three minutes of breezy cruise control for the version you'd hear on the radio. Combining the longform, upbeat experimentation of the group's early work with the simple pleasures of The Beach Boys and a penchant for melodic switch-ups and synth sweeps, "Autobahn" is where the Kraftwerk we know and love truly begins, a song that gets across one of the simplest pleasures in life—driving down the open road—with only machines, making synthesizers sing at a time when most people could barely figure out how to use them.

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[Ron Obvious]

1. The Guardian has an article with their top 30

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/07/kraftwerk-their-30-greatest-songs-ranked

Don't really agree with their top 30, as I don't think any of their post Computer World stuff is all that great, but it's an interesting read nonetheless, especially the comments.

Back in the early 70's, I certainly couldn't have foreseen an article like that. Only myself and one other friend loved Kraftwerk (as well as Tangerine Dream, Ashra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, etc), while everybody else didn't merely dislike them, but positively loathed them.

Last Sunday I had a discussion with that friend (with whom I've recently reconnected), and we talked about Kraftwerk and how everybody now appreciates them and their influence on music.

I said, "you know, it turns out we actually had really good taste in music after all", and we both laughed.

[Celerity]

2. +100000