THE MAN-MACHINE [AKA: DIE MENSCH-MASCHINE]

There's a story by Steve Hillage where he states before one of his concerts in a club setting in '77 there was a disco party for young people, and the DJ had an advance copy of Man-Machine. Hillage watched the young people dance to Spacelab and We are the Robots played by the DJ over and over again. He said to Miquette "If young people are dancing to Kraftwerk, electronic dance music must be the music of the future".

How true. It took me a long time to appreciate this record, and finally it was pow! I can hear Man Machine in pop music from all over the world, especially Europe and even USA acts like Madonna and Prince. These guys were really onto something and knew it. Even their enigmatic appearance and interviews and image were highly influential. I think Kraftwerk can stake a claim as the second most important post Elvis Presley act in popular music behind the Beatles.

Diatribe over, this is an electropop album of the highest order and Kraftwerk at their peak. It's a pop masterpiece, not a prog one. In fact, because of the spin off genres that came from Kraftwerk like New Wave and Synthpop this may be the record that stuck a knife into the golden age of prog.