‘Trans-Europe Express’ - Kraftwerk, 1977/1991
Right, let’s get this out of the way first. I love Kraftwerk, and have done ever since I heard the remixed version of Trans-Europe Express. Seeing them at Electric Picnic 2005 was a revelation, and I’ve been a committed fan ever since. Hell, I’ve even got a “Best of Kraftwerk” playlist on my iPod. I got into the song first when I was inter-railing, and of course a song about train journeys would fit well on such an odyssey.
The original version of ‘Trans-Europe Express’, from the 1977 album of the same name, is nowhere near as good as the remixed version from 1991, but I can’t find a studio-recorded version of the remix on YouTube. However, here is a live version from Budapest that’s very close to it. Lord, isn’t YouTube great?
The song has been acclaimed as a pivotal track in electronica, and was sampled by Afrika Bambaataa (real name Kevin Donovan, apparently!) for his seminal 1982 hip-hop single ‘Planet Rock‘. I think I’m breaking a record for YouTube links in a blog post here.
The drum machine, or percussion, or whatever it is, is synthesised to sound like a train running on the tracks - ‘metal auf metal’. It’s persistent, and works really well within the song. The keyboard line is really apocalyptic and, considering this was 1977, extremely innovative for its time.
Kraftwerk have some great albums - Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine, Computer World, etc. They were a big influence on Bowie’s mid-70’s stuff (which is, of course, the best Bowie), Joy Division, and pretty much all electronic music now, right up to LCD Soundsystem and…who’s the big electronic thing of the moment? Oh, nevermind.
What I like most about Kraftwerk is the cold, clinical way in which the music builds up. You imagine them donning white labcoats and going into the studio to conduct musical experiments. Each track builds up in just the right way, introducing a repeated sound here, percussion there, a keyboard line, and everything gels together perfectly for a little bit before the voice comes in. The voice, like the music, is generally cold, dispassionate, observant. My type of music.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
[...] Here’s a great user-generated (cheers ‘Dosswerks’!) video of the song here. If you like it, check out probably their best albums, The Man Machine and Trans Europe Express. There’s another thishereboogie post by another classic Kraftwerk song here. [...]