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Computer World was Kraftwerk's most concise and focused conceptual statement, their most influential record and crowning achievement. Computer World transformed the way pop music was composed, played, packaged and released and, in the process, helped create entire new genres of music including hip-hop, techno, trance, electro, industrial and synth-pop. They influenced the influencers.
Upon its release on 10 May 1981, the record was a revelation. It was unlike anything created for mainstream consumers of music at that time, an electronic suite of assured and industrious propulsive forward movement. Kraftwerk set off a sonic detonation that is still being felt today.
This book explores Kraftwerk's revolutionary sonic template, their conceptual and artistic preoccupations and lyrical obsessions to provide new insights into one of the greatest records ever made.
List of contents
1. Ohm Sweet Ohm
2. We Are the Robots
3. Planet Rock
4. Speak & Spell
5. From Station to Station
6. "We had no fathers".
7. Interpol and Deutsche Bank, FBI and Scotland Yard.
8. Hiroshima Mon Amour
9. Tomorrow's World
10. "Here's to the Crazy Ones"
11. The Pleasure Principle
12. Neon Lights
About the author
Steve Tupai Francis has over 25 years’ experience in writing in a range of contexts including music, academia and civil society. Steve is obsessed with music, with David Bowie, Kate Bush, Prince, Japan and Kraftwerk taking pride of place in his collection of over 3,000 records.
Summary
Computer World was Kraftwerk’s most concise and focused conceptual statement, their most influential record and crowning achievement. Computer World transformed the way pop music was composed, played, packaged and released and, in the process, helped create entire new genres of music including hip-hop, techno, trance, electro, industrial and synth-pop. They influenced the influencers.
Upon its release on 10 May 1981, the record was a revelation. It was unlike anything created for mainstream consumers of music at that time, an electronic suite of assured and industrious propulsive forward movement. Kraftwerk set off a sonic detonation that is still being felt today.
This book explores Kraftwerk’s revolutionary sonic template, their conceptual and artistic preoccupations and lyrical obsessions to provide new insights into one of the greatest records ever made.
Foreword
Explores how Kraftwerk impacted so significantly the broader music world from the relative solitude of their Kling Klang studios in Düsseldorf.
Additional text
Francis brings clarity to subjects like Bauhaus-influenced design, the Düsseldorf division of IBM, Hazeltine 1500 computers (the monitor that graces the album’s cover) and the intricate details of how Kraftwerk's Kling Klang studios came to be.
Report
Steve Tupai Francis pops the hood on Kraftwerk's Computer World and delivers a lovingly exhaustive examination of the road to realizing their perfect sonic vision, the reverberations of which are still felt today . Artfully balancing key elements from the band's previous work while shedding light on the various tools that helped create Computer World, (shoutout Speak and Spell!), Francis does an exceptional job of managing an avalanche of information, and keeping it moving and relevant. Wayne Jessup The Owl Mag
