Computer World
Occupation
Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Fluer
Computer World is the eighth studio album by the band Kraftwerk. It was released as German, English, French and Japanese versions. The single " calculator" was the only text in the local language. The album is considered to be the trend for electronic music and the genres House and Techno.
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The album was recorded in Dusseldorf during a comparatively long period 1978-1981 in the Kling Klang studio. The studio has thus far been modernized in this period that the recording technique was almost identical, which took the band on tour. Ralf Hütter summed up the basic idea of the album as follows: " We live in a world of computers, so we made a song about it." In some countries the record company sent promotional recordings, where there was a real calculator, on which stood the band name and album title. These copies are now valuable collectors' pieces.
Music and lyrics
The album begins with the song " Computer World ". Although the song is reminiscent of organizations such as Interpol, the FBI or Scotland Yard, there as in Germany, the RAF was published at a time when resurgent. The song was about the possible misuse of computer data by the police against the backdrop of an affair about a central file at the BKA in Wiesbaden.
In contrast to this song is the second track "calculator" rather light and playful. The band began Samples of calculators Casio and Texas Instruments Company. It was recorded in English, French and Japanese except in German. Reportedly, there were also versions in Polish and Spanish, which were never officially released.
The third song " Numbers" is very rhythm emphasizes the distorted vocals counted in different languages like English, German, Russian, Japanese, Spanish and French from one to eight, which is why this piece was later played at the opening of live performances as a countdown. It goes straight into "Computer World Pt. 2 "above. The following " Computer Love " is comparatively quiet and melancholic held, band biographer Bussy referred to it as "possibly the first robot Blues".
The sixth song " home computer " is with his ' wicked sounding sound segments, the syncopated electronic rhythm, over which a two-line rhyme is repeated at various intervals ", considered one of the most influential pieces of electronic music. The first five seconds are similar to the sound of a computer game published in 1980 called Speak & Spell. The French manager of the band Maxime Schmitt later emphasized that this similarity is purely coincidental. The last piece "It's More Fun to Compute " picks up the theme of the previous piece on again. The text shows the ironic humor of the band because he plays with sounds of different pinball machines.
Shaping
The yellow-black cover shows the distorted heads of the four band members on a terminal. On the back of four dummies of the musicians are posted at their consoles. The insert shows the same dummies in uniforms and with pocket computers. Ralf Hütter dummy holding a mini keyboard in hand, a computer Schneider, Bartos ' Dummy a Stylophone and Flür working on a kind of remote control. All props used were designed and built by Wolfgang Fluer, the photos were taken in the Kling Klang Studio. For the band, and especially Hütter promotional photos were lost time they could better spend in the recording studio. For this reason, they decided to use the dummy.
Tour
After the release the band began the longest tour in its history. She was almost precisely organized militarily, the band traveled in an air conditioned Nightliner. It was the first world tour of the band while they played about 90 shows in half a year, and that led them to Australia, Japan, India and Eastern Europe. Sony power plant had had made four large video screens for the stage on which they showed their music videos during performances. For the performances, the musicians dressed in black stood in a semicircle, each in front of a console and behind one of the video screens showing always the same images expired synchronously. Before the musicians fluorescent signs were with the first names of the band members. The entire assembly should express the unity of the band as a " man-machine " in which no person should be located in the foreground. All shows were from the same scheme: First, the visitors were welcomed half an hour of gentle electronic sounds before a robot voice announcing the concert:
"Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, tonight from Germany, the man-machine - KRRRAFT - WERRRK "
The setlist of the two-hour concert was always the same. While the track " The Robot " came the dummies used. The last show of the commercially very successful tour took place in Utrecht in December 1981.
Title list
Reviews
The album is regarded as one of the most important albums of electronic music. Siggy Zielinski of Baby Blue Pages classifies the tracks on the album as " refined, then innovative electronic - pop songs " and keeps the piece " numbers" for " a true techno - orgy ". For Ned Raggett of Allmusic power plant was the album that they belong even ten years after the band was one of the pioneers of the genre. The online magazine Leonard 's Lair holds the album for its " economical and clear production and the inherent mood " for timeless. The mirror showed in a contemporary review of 1981 little enthusiasm and wrote that the " internationally renowned Düsseldorf electronic band Kraftwerk in banal Popstückchen the blessings of Computer World ' " celebrate.