Radio-Activity
Radio - activity is the fifth studio album by the Düsseldorf band Kraftwerk. It was released in November of 1975 in a German and an English version, which differed only by the label in the respective language. The English version was titled with Radio -Activity.
Creation and publication
The album was recorded in the band's Kling Klang studio in Dusseldorf and was the first album composed by Karl Bartos. For the first time electronic instruments were exclusively used, which considerably influenced the band style turn meant by krautrock through to electro.
On the album cover, the Volksempfanger model German small receiver is shown. Inside lay each LP in a label depicting the international symbol for radioactivity.
The album was mixed by Peter Bollig and Walter Quintus; it may - be construed as a concept album, as all the songs lyrically deal with either radioactivity or nuclear energy or radio - in terms of word game radio activity.
The album's title track reached number one in France in the charts. For the 1991 published remix album The Mix of the title song was re-recorded and provided with new lines of text, since the original text from various sites was considered to be too uncritical of the risks of nuclear energy.
2009 appeared a new edition of the album as " Kling Klang Digital Master 2009". In contrast to previous editions, the album cover shows a red to yellow Trefoil held as a warning sign against radioactivity.
Title list
It will be called the German and English names of the songs.
Occupation
- Ralf Hütter - vocals, keyboards and synthesizers
- Florian Schneider- Esleben - vocals, keyboards and synthesizers
- Karl Bartos - Electronic Drums
- Wolfgang Fluer - Electronic Drums
- Walter Quintus - sound engineer
The music pieces
This piece consists primarily of a rhythmic, slow accelerating cracking, which imitates a used for measuring radioactive decays Geiger- Müller counter. Later, an irregular noise and a further electronic noise added. Shortly thereafter passes Geiger counter seamlessly into the title track.
The title track in A minor is based on a constantly repeated theme, the melody of which is largely characterized by Quart jumps. The harmonic progression is limited to tonic A minor and F Subdominantparallele alternately Tonikaparallele C and their dominant G.
Key Issues: song with the pun in the title. It will be - alternately in German and English - "Radio - activity" ( Broadcasting ) and sang " radioactivity". Here, ( " When it comes to uns're future." ) Both Marie Curie and on popular slogans advocacy of nuclear energy reference. Between the passages the word " radioactivity" in Morse code is recorded.
The second remixed version of the song for the album The Mix is also the version that is used for the concerts of the band. It differs from the old version with the new text ( radiation death and mutation by rapid nuclear fusion), by the " STOP " before " radioactivity" and the beginning, in which nuclear accidents from an Robovox voice are enumerated.
This song is sung passages, instrumental themes processing and electronic effects alternate. Everything is backed by a pounding rhythm in 4/4-time, which take place on the beats 1, 2 and 3 beating.
The slogan -like lyrics are by setting a transistor radio. Each text passage is first sung German and then repeated in English.
The song lines are alternately sung by Hütter and Schneider- Esleben, which is exceptional in the sense, as you can hear the voice of Schneider- Esleben otherwise the entire work of the band just electronically alienated ( = Vocoderstimme ).
This song is based on a rather simple, with second -run downward melody, which is used by instruments and singers and played on two pitches terzverwandten. The song is characterized by a fairly high pace.
Lyrically, the song is quite simple. It describes sending and receiving the radio in a poetic way ( " distant voices sing " ) and is also sung alternately in German and English.
This piece is a brief transition, which is modeled with a succinct interval signals a transmission pause on the radio.
In this piece be moved while playing different spoken news broadcasts on the radio, in part, and played with electronic effects and noise.
The messages come from the alleged WDR, NDR, by Bayerischer Rundfunk and Radio Bremen. The message texts tell of planned and built nuclear power plants, development proceeds in energy technology and limited uranium resources.
A vocoder using a robot -sounding voice tells of the energy dependence of modern society of electric current.
In the famous style the song describes an antenna that receives from a transmitter emitted radio waves as vibrations. The verse in German, the chorus is sung in English. It is characterized by the vocals provided with many reverb effects.
Only a rhythmically repeated, exponentially enhancing its frequency Oszillatorton forms the basis of this piece of music. The vocals are provided once again with Hall effects and reports of quasars and pulsars, which release radio waves in space and on Earth can also be received. Here the words of the text are sampled in rhythm, what again puts a distorted voice that emphasizes the core words of the text ( pulsars and quasars ).
This piece follows on seamlessly from radio stars and describes with a distorted voice to the radioactive decay of uranium. The text is again reproduced in English and backed by an atmospheric held chord.
Introduced by radio samples, this is a short, marked by many echoes, instrumental piece, whose title alludes to transistor radios.
The last piece is introduced by a vocoder voice repeating the song title more than once. This alludes to the English phrase " Home, Sweet Home" and the unit of measurement for electrical resistance to ohms.
There follows a longer, provided with some solo passages instrumental piece, the tempo is constantly increasing and the through-composed, in contrast to the previous track and is only a little repetitive. It ends in unison and disappears.
Reception
Commercial radio activity was somewhat less successful than its predecessor album highway, but peaked in the German album charts in 22nd place
The music offered on the album was initially evaluated in contrast to the previous album as a break in style:
" Much less poppy as a motorway and with experimental elements was a similarity with the earlier Kraftwerk pieces can be seen. You continue to put a consistently modern technology, the industrial sounds of the early days have been tamed but for radioactivity to a type of electronic chamber music. "
"With ' radio activity ' switched power plant completely to electronic instrumentation, after their previous albums yet emerged to a large extent with electronically distorted conventional instruments. "
In the evaluation, the album came off well with critics:
" Radio - Activity ' fascinated with immaculate Technopopsongs, emotional and powerful electric ballads as well as with experiments and a fair amount of corners and edges. That makes it even today, 28 years after its release, a tremendously exciting and inspiring listening experience. "