It’s the sound of simple joy, of the freedom to control your environment, movement and choice of destination. Now synonymous with the group in every way, the twenty-two minute opening track of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn presents itself now as it did in 1974, a nascent techno lullaby signposting the utopian future blueprinted four years later on The Man Machine.
It marked a rebirth for the group, which had formerly shrunk to the duo of Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter, whilst subsequently they have distanced themselves from the previous three releases Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf Und Florian, when questioned declaring them ‘Archaeology’.
In the beginning the public’s reaction, especially at home, was lukewarm. But the playlist eclectic Chicago radio station Triad began airing the opening track in it’s entirety and after a three minute version was released as a single, the cherubic stub was an unlikely Transatlantic hit.
Five decades and in keeping with the tight grip on the group’s legacy, the only tinkering that’s been permitted is Hütter’s new Dolby Atmos mix for Blu-ray. Of arguably more interest here are the five additional tracks, each of which offer an accurate depiction of musicians coming to grips with new technology. Here Kometenmelodie 1 feels heavily prescient of the British synth pop movement it helped to inspire, whilst Morgenspaziergang sits on the border of their folk-jazz past in the mode of a primitive Boards of Canada.
Still a highlight of their live show – especially when augmented with the remarkable 3D visual effects – Autobahn remains music in which to be ecstatically lost in, a window on the past seen from a further fifty years from now. Your electric, self driving car will love it.
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