Everybody is supposed to have at least one Kraftwerk record, and "The Man-Machine" is mine !
When "The Man-Machine" was released in 1978 it received a fair amount of airplay on Nicky Horne's late night show on Capital Radio, although the tracks that were played were either "Spacelab" or the first half of "Neon Lights". New Musical Express also gave the album a thumbs-up, with the reviewer saying he doubted Kraftwerk would record anything better than this in their lifetime.
The album cover received much attention when it was released, with some Russian writing, the 4 members of the band facing to the right ( which was thought to be looking to the east ), and wearing red shirts with black ties also thought to be a nod to communism. On the other hand, many others claimed the red and black colouring was the use of Nazi symbolism !
Whatever the case, it certainly had a Cold War look to it, and the wording "Produced in W Germany" seemed to carry much importance.
"The Robots" received a lot of praise from the critics, but I never heard the track on the radio. Furthermore, I had never heard "The Model" either until it it was released as a double A-side with "Computer World" late in 1981. "The Model" received all the airplay, and it reached number 1 in the UK in February 1982. I read somewhere that "The Model" was the last song to reach number 1 in the UK without a promotional video, although there is an official video on YouTube. Maybe it was made afterwards.....
I paid £5.25 in WH Smith for my copy of "The Man-Machine", with the sticker on the front informing it included the hit single, helping no doubt to its highest placing in the UK album charts in 1982, four years after it's initial release. I liked the album, and finally got to hear the brilliant "The Robots", which became a UK hit in 1991 when a remixed version was released.
I thought the song titles were very appropriate to the music for each track, which seemed to cover a few of the topical subjects of the late 1970s such as robotics, automation, space, and growing cities.
Looking at the track listing I could remember four of the tracks, with "Metropolis" and "The Man-Machine" not ringing any bells.
"The Robots" opens side One with Sci-Fi warning sounds, a simple hypnotic beat and an encoded vocal. Some Russian is spoken, namely the line also written on the back cover, which apparently translates as "I am your servant, I am your friend". I had thought the lyrics included the line "We are marching onto victory" but I was
mistaken as it turns out to be "We are charging our battery" ! However, I can visualise John Cleese silly walks style dancing to the "We are the robots" refrain !
"Spacelab" come next with keyboard scales intro, synths and electronic percussion, before the dreamy main melody comes in around 1 minute 30. The encoded vocal consists of just "Spacelab" repeated a few times. For some reason hearing this again made me think of Star Trek, Space 1999, oh... and and Jean Michel Jarre !
"Metropolis" has a slow plodding beat before the pace increases and the main melody is introduced. The title is pronounced "May-tro-polis" rather than "Mer-trop-olis". It was apparently influenced by the 1920s dystopian Fritz Lang movie of the same name, which also influenced the video for Queen's "Radio Ga-Ga".
"The Model" is the only "song" on the album, with proper lyrics and sentences, and a verse/chorus structure, rather than just a few words over the music. It's almost perfect electronic pop. "She's a model and she's looking good".
"Neon Lights" lasts just over nine minutes, last 7 of which are instrumental. It shimmers, like the lights mentioned in the song.
Side Two closes with "The Man Machine" with a minimalistic, menacing, hypno trance rhythms but for me it is the least interesting track on the album but still highly listenable.
Much has been written about how Kraftwerk inspired electronic/synth music, from David Bowie, Depeche Mode, The Human League, Ultravox, Gary Numan, and later even Coldplay and Radiohead. "The Man-Machine" remains a very important album, and to these ears, it doesn't seem to have aged in the 46 years since its release. It remains a very important album in its genre.
Track Listing :
Side One :
1. The Robots
2. Spacelab
3. Metropolis
1. The Model
2. Neon Lights
3. The Man Machine
Released 1978
UK Chart Position : 9
The Model ( No 1 - 1982 )
The Robots ( remix ) ( No 20 - 1991 )
No comments:
Post a Comment