Week 3 Entries

Kraftwerk

The music of craftwork was revolutionary! Their aim was always to be fresh and come up with new sounds. Most bands from that time were all about perfection and experience while Kraftwerk was about experimentation and bringing back humor into the music. Their name means a power plant or power station. Starting out playing regular instruments their fist three albums were nothing unique. It wasn’t until their fourth album where they became what we know today. A huge contributor to this was producer and engineer Konrad “Conny” Plank who guided the band in their early years.

Between 1974 & 1981 Kraftwerk release five albums, one even earning them an international tour. In 1974 they released Autobahn. Autobahn is said to be the album where you really heard a change in their sound, through it the band gained financial help and were able to tour the US, Canada and the UK promoting it.   Shortly after the tour the band began working on their next album Radioactivity. This album didn’t do the best in the UK but went gold in France. Like with Autobahn this influenced a new tour and another album after the tour. Released in 1977 the album was called Trans-Europe express. It’ entirety was recording at the bands studio “King Klang Studios” and was mix at the legendary “Record Plant” out in Los Angeles. Due to the great work by the band this album earned them a disco award.

Another album released in this period was The Man Machine. This was the bands seventh studio album and was the first to see someone other than Hutter or Schneider. Both the percussionist Karl Batos and Emil Schult received co-writing credits. After a three year break the final album of this period was released. It was titled Computer World. This album was very unique, it consisted of vocal lines created using a Texas Instruments Language Translator and sequencing elements were heavily used for improvising. The Man Machine would send the band on yet another tour.

Two things that make Kraftwerk the biggest influence on electronic music today is their thought process. The way that they were able to come up with some of there production technique in a time where technology was limited. Everything from using vocoders to creating vocals with a Texas Instruments translator was genius, especially for that time. The other thing that makes them such a huge influences is there mindset of always wanting to be innovative. Electro/Pop music is something that can either always sound the same or can be something that amazes you and Kraftwerk managed to make it refreshing every time. They set the standard for what pop music is today, people are always trying to find ways of being innovative and amazing their audience.

As a listener and better yet an industry professional. The work of Kraftwerk leaves me with a simple yet important message. Always be innovative, no matter your position within the record making process. They’ve also showed me to forget about expensive gear you can be innovative with anything once you put your all into it. 

The Moog Synthesizer

The moog synthesizer is by far one of the most popular vintage synthesizers used to this day. Some may even call it the “MPC” of electronic music but it’s a lot more than that. Designed by Dr. Robert Moog these synthesizers came out in the 1950’s and quickly became popular through bands like Kraftwerk. Moog created the first modular synth and paved the way for more to come. Having such a unique sound the Moog became an industry favorite, it was in everything from movies to some of the top music acts such as The Beetles, Diana Ross and the Byrds to name a few. It was being talked about by industry professionals all over and still is to this day.

When talking about the Moog one of the characteristics mentions has to be the modular technology. This is mainly because they were the first to do it and it was a big deal that you could get all of these modules, expand the synth and therefore get more sounds through a simple patch cable. Another would have to be the sound. The Moog wasn’t just popular for it’s good looks and technology. It sounded amazing! When you listen to the quality of it’s sounds compared to any other synth, it’s evident why it caught on so much back then.

As an industry professional the Moog makes me appreciate vintage synths and how they work. Seeing and reading about it make me want to twist actual knobs rather than mess with a software emulation. It also humbles me because my generation is blessed; we are at the point in where we can have a million Moogs on our computers without a problem. However, back then they had to deal with this massive machine which had patch cables.