COMPUTER WORLD [AKA: COMPUTERWELT]

Three years have passed since Man Machine and the world had changed. Countless synth-based new wave bands like Ultravox, Gary Numan, Simple Minds, Depeche Mode and New Order had picked up on the blueprint created by Kraftwerk. So how would Kraftwerk answer to that?

Well, simply by continuing to do what they had always been doing: stay true to their principles and look further ahead. With Computer World and Computer Love they delivered strong synth-pop songs like they had on the preceding albums. (By the way, didn't Coldplay nick the theme from Computer World for one of their own hits?)

But with songs like Numbers, Home Computer and It's More Fun To Compute they delivered a new outline for later generations. Numbers is pure industrial in my ears, be it done in the usual gentle Kraftwerk way. The main thing Ministry and Nine Inch Nails had to add was to make it louder.

The two closing tracks list among my favourite Kraftwerk tunes and they announce techno in a big way. Front 242, Underworld, Orbital and many generations after them would emphasise the entrancing beats, grooves and the typical synth sequences/bleeps that appear here.

As Umur already pointed out, the sound is generally too soft and muffled here. I had hoped the 2009 remaster would solve this but it didn't. Luckily my favourite tracks also appear on Minimum Maximum in an enhanced format. Anyway, boost the bass and treble and you have another masterpiece. Even at a length of 35 minutes I'm tempted to the maximum rate again.