Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express - New Clear LP
Format: New Clear LP Label: Parlophone Cat. No. 5099996602010 Barcode: (stickered) 0190295272357 Released: 09/10/2020
Kraftwerk celebrate Europe's romantic past and shimmering future (even more so now post Brexit) with a glistening panorama of elegance and decadence, travel and technology. The infinite vistas of Europe Endless and Endless Endless' bookend the album, which includes the unsettling kafka-esque fable The Hall of Mirrors' and Showroom Dummies - Kraftwerk's elegantly ironic reply to critiques of their deadpan manner. But it is the streamlined rhythmic locomotive of Trans Europe Express' which dominates with its doppler-effect melodic swerves and hypnotic, pneumatic, piston-pumping rhythm. along with its sister track, Metal on Metal' which New York DJ Afrika Bambaataa would re-construct five years later for his own seminal Planet Rock, this milestone in avant-pop modernism later becomes a crucial influence on the early pioneers of hip-hop and sampling, electro and industrial music. Poetry in motion.