rtradm@ihlpf.UUCP (Vangsness) (11/12/86)
The new full-length Kraftwerk album "Electric Cafe" has been out in the United States for about one week. I obtained the last copy at a record store two days ago and have been listening to it since. Four record stores were sold out of their first shipment within a couple of days. This review is biased. Since I first encountered the album "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk in the early seventies I have always liked their mixture of electronics, simple melodies and satirical lyrics. This unique mixture makes them my favorite electronic music band. Comparisons with Keith Emerson, Isao Tomita, Prince, etc. are useless as these other artists do not produce the music that Kraftwerk has produced. Kraftwerk is a "love'em or hate'em" group. Their new album "Electric Cafe" is their first full length album release since "Computerworld" which was released in 1981. I wouldn't want to wait another 5 years for another album, but the music is great nontheless. I've found the album to be an exciting "Toy for the ears;" it is best listened to on a walkman-type player, headphones, or in a car with a great stereo system with speakers all around you. The album serves as a great demo for NEW percussion sounds, and uses of various digital reverb effects and panned, bouncing stereo delays. All the things you've heard that the new digital effects devices can do are used. Kraftwerk's talent lies in their use of electronins and fancy production tricks -and they use their talents well on the new album. There are six songs on the record: Boing Boom tschak: These three words are sampled and used as a base for the ultimate sampled-percussion experiment. Noises that serve the same functions as hi-hats opening and closing as well as other vocal samples circle around your head. Techno-pop: The lyrics "music nonstop, techno pop" are spoken using various vocal techniques, i.e. sampled voices, vocoders, and computer-generated speech, and spoken words in various languages. Even the "The voice of energy" vocoder patch from their album "Radioactivity" has resurfaced again! Lots of playing with different percussion effects with constantly changing reverb for each individual percussion instrument. Sounds like they've also started using Emulator II strings. Music Non-stop: Are they using a cheapo roland snare? Whatever, its very effective against spoken computer-generated words, spoken a couple of octaves below normal. One interesting effect is a sampled or synthesized vocal "ahh" chord which has a reverb effect that continues for two beats until it is "gated" by a dry percussive vocal "beep" chord. Side two: The Telephone Call: They've finally done it- they've taken every telephone-related sound known to man and written a song around it. Touch tones flash across the stereo spectrum while rotary dialings, ringing, and error messages "the number that you reached has been disconnected" establish the rhythm. Ralf (or Florian) sing lyrics like "I give you my affection and I give you my time, I try to make a connection on the telephone line". A third of the way through the song a funky bass riff takes over. This is a GREAT track. Sex Object: Various lyrics like "I dn't want to be your sex object, you turn me on, and then you forget" are surrounded by sampled words in various languages, "Yes, No, Maybe, Perhaps, Sex". Sounds like Emulator II strings again, with sampled funk bass slaps and a few bars of sampled rhythm electric guitar. Electric Cafe: Vocoders and sung words used for lyrics over more dance rhythms and vocal chordings. Arpeggios happen throughout the song. All this and accordion sounds to!!! The record is exciting to listen to. The percussion and digital reverb effects change constantly, and you will always hear something new after repeated playing. I'm looking forward to a CD version to appear. Bob Neumann