‘Influential’ is one of the most over-used and misleading words in music journalism. If, say, Captain Beefheart were half as influential as many critics claim, the charts would be full of angular, yelping, left-field art-rock, but a glance at the Top 40 reveals that Beefheart are, in reality, far less influential than the bloody Bee Gees. Truly influential artists, i.e. those without whose existence the world of music as a whole (rather than a small list of music journo-approved alternative bands) would be very different, are actually very few – Robert Johnson, Elvis, The Beatles, Hendrix, Led Zep, the Pistols, The Clash and Public Enemy spring to mind, but even then if you were particularly determined you could argue a coherent case against any one of those acts being included in such a list.
Not so with Kraftwerk, without whom the musical landscape of the last fifty years would be a completely different place. To put it simply, they invented electronic pop music, and are thus responsible for house, techno, hip-hop and other subsequent strands. Erase Kraftwerk’s pioneering work from cultural history and the music we listen to today, and the way(s) in which we do so, would be altered beyond recognition.
Hence the excitement that surrounded 2003’s Tour de France Soundtracks, Kraftwerk’s first album of new material since 1986’s Electric Café. The world’s greatest cycle race (and the world’s most popular sporting event in terms of live spectators) is a fitting subject for the mysterious Germans. Not only is founder member Ralf Hutter an obsessive cyclist (the band’s lengthy silences have been attributed by many to the fact that Hutter was more interested in bikes than music), but more significantly, both Kraftwerk and the Tour are great European institutions, much-loved combinations of tradition and modernity which, despite keeping up with technological advances in their respective fields, still remain curiously old-fashioned.
And so, a mere twenty years after Kraftwerk first tackled the subject on their iconic 1983 single Tour de France, the idea was expanded into a whole album, to coincide neatly with the event’s centenary year. Now before I begin to ramble on about just how fucking marvellous this album it is (and it is totally fucking marvellous), a quick gripe about some of the idiotic reviews that it received, a couple of which complained that the opening three tracks were generic trance/techno “influenced by the likes of Underworld”. The fact that Kraftwerk invented this music in the first place seemed to pass these imbeciles by, and no doubt if Led Zeppelin were ever to reform those same ill-informed critics would accuse them of sounding like The White Stripes.
However, enough ranting and onto the music, which is very good indeed. A quick glance at the track titles (Titanium, Aero Dynamik, Elektro Kardiogramm for example) suggests that most of the album is concerned with the Tour as an example of technology in action, and thus continues the themes of previous ‘Werk albums such as Trans-Europe Express, Autobahn and Computer World. There’s little suggestion of grunting exertion here; the trio of opening tracks (Tour de France Etape 1/2/3) are smooth, seamless techno, pulsing basslines and metronomic rhythms occasionally interspersed with brief melodic flourishes, suggesting the melding of technology and humanity. The slower Vitamin with its liquid bass sounds evokes vitamin-packed blood pumping its way around the body, while the brilliant future-funk of Elektro Kardiogramm uses heartbeat as rhythm and is as effective in portraying movement as the paintings and sculptures of the Italian Futurist movement of the early 20th century.
The album ends by revisiting the original Tour de France single, which, although it was recorded all those years ago, sounds no less impressive than what has preceded it. Here Kraftwerk finally pay homage to the Tour’s traditions, ignoring the hi-tech side of the race and instead name-checking classic Tour landmarks such as Galibier, Tourmalet and the Champs-Elysees. It still sounds ahead of its time, which gives you some idea of just how amazing it was back in ’83 before the words house and techno came to have any meaning in a musical context.
They might use the same technology as everyone else, and these days they might be working within the same musical form, but Kraftwerk still sound like no one else. Fantastisch stuff.
TIM RUSSELL
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