All Hail Kraftwerk

Aloof and ephemeral in their public presence over the last forty years, the footprint left by Kraftwerk on late twentieth century music is as mighty in its repercussions as names like Marley, Bowie and Hendrix. This month, all eight of Kraftwerk’s albums are being reissued in a stunning box, entitled ‘12345678’. Listening to them now, it's possible to not only pinpoint countless elements that helped shape electronic dance music from late-’70s drum patterns to modern minimal shadows, but rock music from mid-’70s Bowie and Iggy to U2 and even Coldplay.

Below we asked some of Kraftwerk's famous fans to explains what it is about the group that they find so inspiring.

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Thomas Dolby:

How significant was Kraftwerk’s development of electronic music?

Before Kraftwerk, electronic music was an obscure elitist pastime for balding hippies with PhDs. Sadly it's ended up being a popular career choice for poorly educated people with shaved heads.

How did this impact on your taste in music and your career?

Hearing Kraftwerk made me realise that I didn't need to join a band to make pop records, I could do it all myself.

Kraftwerk never existed: describe your vision of the musical landscape in 2009.

I think electronic music would have evolved without them. But its popularity would have fluctuated like hairstyles. Because Kraftwerk are timeless, above fashion, and genre-defying, they have become an authentic yardstick by which all electronic music is judged.

In what distinguishable manner did the album 'Computerworld' impact when it was released?

With 'Man Machine', Kraftwerk had defined the gritty sound of analog electronics, and it had a dark, farty, fuzz-pedal sound to it. When they first released 'Computerworld', it was shockingly clean. It took a few years for public tastes to catch up, for our collective ears to adapt. Also, at the time computers seemed too insignificant to be worthy of having an album title devoted to them! It was actually ten years before pop culture was really impacted by computers and the Internet, yet Kraftwerk were highly attuned to it.

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Joe Goddard:

Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard reflects on when they remixed 'Aerodynamik':

What makes Kraftwerk brilliant is the combination of fascinating textures and sounds, simplicity and efficiency in production, and a habit of writing beautiful melodies.

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Dr Alex Paterson (The Orb)

How did Kraftwerk impact on your taste in music and your career?

I was listening to 'The Man Machine' on acid in the 70s and it gave me a benchmark of what I consider perfect electronic muzik. They gave birth to the Detroit Techno scene and their own three demi-gods. Also Conny Plank produced Killing Joke's third album in Köln in ‘81 giving me ideas that sprang up in The Orb years later.

In what distinguishable manner did the album 'The Man Machine' have an impact when it was released?

The Man Machine tour was bringing a brave new world to a depressed UK. Trans Europe Express: clubs like Studio 21 were playing this out & when I went to a disco in Köln in 1980 I saw the real deal, German kids being robots on the dance floor.

Do you agree that they were ahead of their time? If so in what way?

Smell the flowers and hear the sounds. Live they are brilliant. Last year The Orb played with Kraftwerk and I got to chat with Ralph a few times. Their music has changed so many peoples ways of listening to music it's beyond words. It’s like a weather system that brings the warmest sunny summers for decades to come.

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Marty Rev (Suicide):

While Kraftwerk were formulating their pristine robo-pop in Dusseldorf, Suicide were unleashing trail-blazing electronic carnage over in New York City which would also be cited as hugely-influential by future generations. According to Suicide’s Marty Rev, both groups were pioneering electronic music during the 70s but in parallel, very different universes.

"I actually didn’t hear about Kraftwerk until after I’d been doing what I’d been doing for several years. I definitely related to them as significant but in connection with the German school of electronic groups like Can and NEU!. They were a link in just the fact that someone else was doing it in a smaller world that early in the 70s. I understood it but it was more of a German technological view. I was just playing out of my own roots: rhythm and blues and stuff that I grew up with, so it was a different focus and naturally we came from two different environments. They came from a whole different world with more sophisticated equipment and a larger band, which was really out of my reach, but it helped the way I was gonna do what I was gonna do. I just had to find a way of doing it."

"Kraftwerk were more accessible and got radio play. There was no way we were gonna scratch the underbelly of that world! People weren’t necessarily ready for us at that time but Kraftwerk could still be a link with the past because they were a group in a stage set-up with guys playing drum-pads, which were closer to a live drummer, It wasn’t as radical in terms of the format so they so they had more understanding and readiness from audiences, but with us most people said, ‘If this is the future we don’t like it’, like on our first European tour with The Clash."

"I could tell Kraftwerk were important, even with my kids at that time, particularly 'Trans-Europe Express'. The closest contact we had was when the first Suicide album came out in ‘77. Lester Bangs told us that when Kraftwerk were in New York they were in his apartment. He said, ‘This has just come out; now hear this!’ Apparently, they were so blown away and it hit ‘em so potently they said, ’We have to have this’ and just took Lester’s record!"

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Read ClashMusic's review of '12345678 - The Catalogue', the full, re-issued Kraftwerk back catalogue HERE.