KRAFTWERK

Kraftwerk I is the debut full-length studio album by German krautrock act Kraftwerk. Members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider has been part of the pre-Kraftwerk act Organisation that released the experiemental krautrock album Tone Float in 1969 and then disbanded. The two musicians joined forces with drummers Klaus Dinger ( later of Neu!) and Andreas Hohmann and became Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk is mostly known for their later electronic releases but their early albums are in the krautrock genre.

The music on Kraftwerk I is in the repetitive krautrock style with driving beats and a psychadelic instrumental approach but there are also many ambient experimental sound parts. Keyboards, flutes, violin and woodwinds are a part of the instrumentation in addition to the percussive assault. The album starts very well with the excellent Retreat (Ruckzuck) which is by far my favorite on this album. This song is a great krautrock track with repetitive beats and some cool flute playing. After listening to Retreat (Ruckzuck) I had high hopes that the rest of the album would be a treat too but already on the second song Stratovarius something goes wrong. The experimentation which was a treat in Retreat (Ruckzuck) becomes annoying to my ears because it´s noisy and ambient. The middle part of the song is pretty good though. The last two songs Megaherz and From the High Skies (Von Himmel Hoch) have way too many ambient experimental parts too and that´s not the element in krautrock that I enjoy. I love the repetitive beats and the psychadelic/ avant garde instrumentation but when the music gets too ambient and noisy I´m simpy turned off.

The production is actually quite fantastic for an album released in 1970. Very enjoyable, sharp and professional.

I started out really liking this album but the farther I got into it the less I enjoyed it so a 3.5 - 4 star rating is now down to a 2.5 star rating. If you enjoy your krautrock with long experimental ambient parts in addition to the more typical repetitive beat parts of the genre this might suit your taste. I´m afraid it doesn´t really suit mine so a 2.5 star rating is deserved.