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The Man-Machine

Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine Audio CD

A fair review of the Kraftwerk "The Man-Machine" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Kraftwerk reviews here, or go back to the Kraftwerk tabs.

Band: Kraftwerk
Title: The Man-Machine
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-09-26
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Robots 2: Spacelab 3: Metropolis 4: Model 5: Neon Lights 6: Man Machine

A must own
If you don't own this already, what are you waiting for?
Pomme. The original proto-robo-dance album.

Hit and miss, important nonetheless
Like many Kraftwerk releases 30 plus years after the fact, much can be divided into two separate categories- those tracks where the rigidly methodical productions transcend and those that do not. This was called a historically important mark in the historic electronic acts career; a warming up of the cold, sleek sound they virtually pioneered into something a little more accessible and willingly receptive to human interaction.

The best trance album ever
The song is all melody, but it still has that certain chill that radio just didn't consider very friendly at the time. Forget Gary Numan's "Cars", Kraftwerk's "The Model" single-handedly invented synth-pop as we know it. It could have been a huge hit in 1982, but in the year it was released, 1978, it didn't resemble disco, so it didn't get the attention it deserved. Gary Numan would have loved to have written this song. It remains probably Kraftwerk's most influential moment because of its eerie similarity to much of the synth-pop of the early 80's. Here's the best part though: "The Model" isn't even the best song on The Man-Machine! That honor goes to "Spacelab". While "The Model" influenced the synth-popsters, "Spacelab" influenced the more serious electronic artists such as Depeche Mode, Paul Oakenfold, the Chemical Brothers, and The Orb. "Spacelab" is the one song on The Man-Machine that sounds like it could be recorded today. It truly is a high-water mark for electronica. There really are no clunkers on the album. It is remarkably consistent. The only flaw, and it's a minor one, is that "Neon Lights" could be about two minutes shorter. It's the longest and least hypnotic song on the album, although it is not filler by any stretch of the imagination. I am a big fan of ambitious double albums, but The Man-Machine is proof that all you really need is about 38 minutes or so to churn out an ambitious masterpiece. Everything great about Kraftwerk is right here and it only continues to grow on you after repeated plays. When I think Kraftwerk, I think The Man-Machine. A.

dull "music of der future".
Fortunately, man has still some sense of individualism, but barely, and Kraftwerk's fascist goal for music has not rendered vocals obsolete. There is something inherently prosaic in this dead dull "music of der future". Listening to this, it harkens back to the techno geek 1970's when Germans laden in neo-fascist uniforms with thin ties and a pound of grease on their hair, showed no emotion on stage, acting like machines. Most of them wore leather pants so tight that they froze while playing, hence the dumb and inarticulate Krautbot look. They copied architecture chic from the 1930's, added some 70's porn montage and called it "modern" 1970's and praised the revolution of robots and computers. Not only is that very idea horrifying, but it is also silly. "Kraftwerk" means "cheese plant" in German and they are very cheesy.

The CD is probably one of the most horrible things I've listened to. If you can get to the end of it, you'll find all sorts of unwanted electronic noise, Krautbot voice dubs, electro fuzz, beeps, computer konks, repugnant computer-generated vocals, static, repulsive synthesizers, and extremely unpleasant clamor that goes on forever, that you'll soon be reaching for a hammer to crush the CD. In my estimation, all crap. A few American bands at the time tried the stale trend with deadly results, Gary Numan The Pleasure Principle (1979), Styx Kilroy Was Here (1983) , both tossed their careers away because of it.

You'll be reminded of foolish telephone companies, lumbering computer screens, electronic wires, gay 70's discos, and moronic techno cabarets in smelly, dark German cellars. So, unless you're a nerd or have little taste in music, forget this stuff ever existed.
.

Almost perfect
In fact it is, in conceptual terms, way stronger than other Kraftwerk albums. This is an extremely well crafted production (like most of Kraftwerk's work). Much more than just highways, radios, trains, pocket calculators and "techno-pop", this album delves into the concepts of society, aesthetic proposals from the European pre-war context (expanding upon the Trans-Europe Express initial try), working class struggle, and even revolutionary Russian constructivism, all in a clever, almost double-meaning yet naive and innocent lyric composition.

Check for instance the true thematic opposition between Metropolis and The Model; or the significant links between The Robots, Metropolis and The Man-Machine, and even The Model or Neon Lights. Spacelab might seem a bit out of place unless you relate it with a cold-war/space race era context, a seemingly permanent by-product of the Russian Revolution, and World War II.

The album's cover art might remind us of revolutionary forms of art and political expressions in constructivism and suprematist propaganda (check the red and black color palette, the Chelovek typefaces and El Lissitsky's artwork in the back of the album (part of the Suprematist story of two squares in six constructions), while at the same time re-presents the aesthetic and make-up used in European silent-film making of the 20's decade. Films like Fritz Lang's Metropolis (I doubt there's not a coincidence), which talks about a social struggle between workers almost turned-into-robots (check that for the other meaning of all that We are the robots thing, along with the ya tvoi sluga ya tvoy rabotnik messages in the song) and the Masters of Metropolis, living in a very rich yet superfluous ("Elegance and decadence") European setup, much like the one reflected in The Model and Neon Lights.

The Man-Machine might be, in certain terms, a great quasi-concept album. The music production is truly great and I really love this album. Its only drawback is, of course, the language. Although the message in the German and English versions is virtually the same, it is much more impacting to listen to Wir Sind Die Roboter instead of the plain-sounding We are the robots. It's the same thing, actually, just a matter of choice.

By the way, all the art-concept blah blah, etc. thing is obviously not mine (except for the things in parentheses and all that social struggle thing). Check wikipedia for the real thing.

You can see a complete list of all Kraftwerk discography, or go back to the Kraftwerk tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.