Kraftwerk Remastered - Part Two

Released in October 1975 Radio-Activity is the bands fifth studio album, although for the purposes of the back catalogue re-issue it is their second album, the four albums that preceded Autobahn were only available in limited quantities outside of Germany and only really found an audience once Autobahn reached the Top Ten in Germany, the U.S.A and U.K.

Radio-Activity is one of that much maligned type of album, the concept album. German's apparently don't have a sense of humour but you wouldn't think so from the clever word play used by the band with titles such as "Ohm Sweet Ohm" which closes the album and the title itself which can be taken as referring to either the chemical process or the sound of music on the old wireless.

This is the first album by what is regarded by Kraftwerk fans as the 'classic' line-up of Ralf Hutter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flur. It's also the first album in rock music to feature a wonderful electronic device called the Vako Orchestron Keyboard.

The album opens with "Geiger Counter" which must have had the boys at Kling-Klang Studios laughing their collective heads off at the thought of thousands of album buyers across the world checking to see if the needles on their record players had got stuck, the reason for the hilarity is the fact that for the first thirty seconds of the track it sound exactly like a needle stuck on vinyl. When the opening track gives way to the title track "Radioactivity" the band pull off a trick that they manage to repeat on every album without fail, the annoying melody that gets in your head and stays there. This track is one of the best the group recorded and features the Orchestron.

The Vako Orchestron was developed by former moog developer David Von Koevering and in its own quiet way it revolutionised electronic music by allowing keyboard players the opportunity to replicate the sounds of violins, flute, organ, cello, saxophone, pipe organ, hammond organ, french horn and, probably most importantly for the sound of Radio-Activity, a choir. In the years that followed the release of Radio-Activity the sound of the Orchestron would be heard on recordings by Yes, Rainbow and Foreigner as well as future releases by Kraftwerk.

Radioland begins with a swath of electronic strings before the voice of Ralf Hutter, both his 'human' voice and his 'electronic' voice speak rather than sing over the string base whilst the track pulsates with hisses, beeps, pings and sounds you'd expect to hear in a sci-fi film from the 1950's. There's a wonderful sound which is reminiscent of a ping pong ball being dropped onto a snare drum. As the track closes there is an almost nursery rhyme feel to it, a lullaby for the electronic age, this track is achingly beautiful.

Airwaves is the most radio friendly track on the album, the title of the album refers not only to the stuff of nuclear power stations but also the lack of what was perceived as non-commercial music on daytime mainstream radio during the early 1970's. Although the band still sing in German, Trans-Europe express is the first album where they sing in English, it sounds as if the band are saying, "Let the children sing."

Intermission follows, this is forty seconds of beeps, space and what sounds like the time signal from Greenwich. This is the first of three tracks which are noise rather than songs. News is a collection of voices talking over what is almost white noise for just under two minutes. It's what the phrase "Avant-Garde," was invented for. Next up is The Voice Of Energy, like the two preceding tracks this has little real 'music,' this is one minute of a synthesised voice speaking in German, even my o-level German is not good enough to understand what is being said. So that's three tracks coming in at a total of under four minutes, Kraftwerk treading dangerously close to Ramones territory!

Antenna takes the band back to the tree minute pop song. The lyrics translate as:

"I'm the Antenna
Catching vibration
You're the transmitter
Give information!
We are aiming antenna to the sky
Receiving tones no one knows"

Radio Stars poses the question, "Did Motown invent electronic music?" The question is posed because the beginning of this track features the same pulsing electronic sound as "Reflections" by Diana Ross and The Supremes. I think this track sums up what the album is really about, four musicians pushing the available technology to its ultimate limits. Like many of the tracks on the album this one could have been played on the soundtrack of the first, and still the best, Back To The Future film when Marty McFly plugs his Walkman into future father George's ears.

Uranium is the second track, after the title track, to refer to 'radio-activity' but blink (or whatever the aural equivalent is) and you will miss it as this track lasts a mere ninety seconds.

Transistor is the penultimate song on the album, like many of the tracks here it's ability to deliver pleasure to the listener is not diminished by the fact it's duration is less than two and a half minutes.

Ohm Sweet Ohm closes the album and consists of those three words being repeated for the first minute before the instruments kick in at a funereal pace. This is German rock walking down a New Orleans street as part of a procession to the graveyard. Then after two minutes the track speeds up, if you've seen the James Bond film Live and Let Die then this music would fit perfectly with the opening scene.

The band repeat the trick they achieved with Autobahn by closing with an upbeat track. I would have to say this is possibly the least accessible album for the non-Kraftwerk fan. Better to begin with the albums either side of it in their original release order or better still Computer World. For the fan of electronic music though this is pretty much as good as it gets and for many Kraftwerk fans this is the first true classic album. For any fans of Depeche Mode, The Human League (pre the girls joining) or Cabaret Voltaire this album is your year zero.

It's also the sound of my brother's bedroom in the early 1970's when he had one of the first synthesisers, courtesy of our neighbour who made them for a living. The actual keyboard area of the synth was completely overshadowed by the board above which featured a series of dials, with words such as 'frequency', 'pitch' and 'oscillate.' The ideal setting for enjoying this album is in a darkened room or in the middle of the countryside without any light pollution, with the stars, shooting stars and planets as nature's own backdrop to the 'volkmusik.'