Kraftwerk: "Spacelab"

The piece begins with an industrial noise that echoes distantly, being nearly comparable to a drum, and then a hypnotic melody that escalates into a sound that wouldn't be out of place emitting from an arcade game. After this beginning, the floating, cosmic sensation of Kraftwerk's "Spacelab" comes to life, through rising and falling tones that gradually become more drawn out in pace, before the synthesizer's bass instrumentation comes into effect. By this point, there is a danceable medley of synthesizer arrangements backed by the occasional chants of "Spacelab," which utilize the robotic vocoder most associated with "The Robots," also in The Man-Machine album. The entire piece is one that brings to mind the enthusiasm of space exploration, yet it also represents the more chaotic side as well. By 2:17 in the track, the melody stops abruptly, to immediately bring on an ominous movement that represents the dangerous risks of space, bringing to mind inhospitable environments in which life is either disrupted or cut short. I have been thinking of the astronauts aboard the International Space Station experiencing problems, for example. Perhaps even an alien attack is implied by the music at this point? Later at 2:41, the music once again becomes upbeat, featuring the danceable rhythm that characterized much of the first half of "Spacelab," as though those aboard the space lab are safe and ready to continue their scientific endeavors. At the end, the piece also features the whirling electronic sound from around the start. "Spacelab" is a mesmerizing, almost completely instrumental piece, and a great way to continue The Man-Machine album after starting with "The Robots," a revolutionary for the time of 1978 vocoder song deliberately meant to evoke the imagery and sounds that characterize robots.

10/10

Kraftwerk: "The Robots"

Are they men, or are they machines?

Kraftwerk certainly look the part of unnaturally stiff, synthetic, and emotionless androids in "The Robots" music videos, based on the song from The Man-Machine album of 1978. The first version of the song is in English, and the second is "Die Roboter" in the band's original German language. When I first discovered Kraftwerk a year ago, my initial reaction was that they were a rather strange band, perhaps an obscure one or two hit act of the 1980s. They also positively reminded me of science fiction, and especially the android character Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I found out that instead of coming from later, Kraftwerk had released "The Robots" and the rest of The Man-Machine album in 1978, which puts it a few years earlier than my initial guess. I understand now why fans of Kraftwerk believe that they are generally ahead of their time, relative to the release date of their work. Upon viewing the video of "Die Roboter," then "The Robots" video, I couldn't remember seeing another band that looked and sounded quite the way Kraftwerk did, and they certainly are a very distinctive part of the music industry. I had discovered Kraftwerk coincidentally, while searching for strings music featuring avant-garde, dissonant sounds. I came to discover "The Robots" through a video of the Balanescu Quartet's "Robots" piece, from their album Possessed, of which version of the song is also a favorite of mine for many of the same reasons, being represented through the violin sounds of a strings quartet. I believe that Kraftwerk's "The Robots" is the definitive electronic song about robots, featuring my favorite use of the vocoder. Few other pieces represent machine sounds alongside a compelling melody as perfectly as this does. Some find Kraftwerk to be slightly creepy, which is understandable due to their intimidatingly expressionless, mannequin-esque appearances and robotic movements, even when not only photos of their mannequins, but certain pictures of the band itself. Since last April, "The Robots" has become one of my personal favorite songs, representing the ideals of mechanical perfection, and an obligation to duty I am able to identify with.

10/10