Something 4 The Weekend # 68

In honor of this month's EVERYTHINGATHON! podcast, wherein I explore the year that was 1977, I thought that this week's S4TW could feature a song released into the wild that year...

Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express: "Showroom Dummies" [mp3]

By 1977, Kraftwerk were seven years and six albums into their career, and Trans-Europe Express is nowadays considered a masterpiece by many tasteful people who are good at considering these sorts of things...

I think what sets Kraftwerk apart is just how ahead of "the times" they were and are...This is 1977, and they've not only conquered the synths of that era, they had to build and program their own machinery in order to get the kinds of sounds and make the kind of music they wanted to make...and get...

Synthesizers...Drum machinery...Computers...You might think they would make for cold, sterile sounding music, and sometimes that's exactly what Kraftwerk delivered, but oftentimes there was a great warmth to their sound, which I believe came from a sublime melodicism that transcends the limits of mere machinery. There was soul in their exacting music. There was even a dry, distinctly German sense of humor in some of the songs. In the end, despite all calculations, these guys were a bonafide Pop group.

And someday they'll be in the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame, for what that's worth...It may take awhile, because no matter how many artists they've influenced over the past 28 years, they're still unmatched and clearly ahead of "the times" today...

Personally, I listen to Kraftwerk to an absurd degree in my office at work. The steady rhythms help me push my way through Oracle...The steady crunching of inventory numbers and punching of purchase orders...Tappity tapping along to the band's steady rolling sounds, but with that human element, that soul and melodicism, it helps elevate my mood juuuust enough to make it all seem...

Pleasant?

Hotcha! Hank