#atoz-2015

[atoz-2015]

Computer World - Computer World 2

Great pads on the #2 version with all the robo counting you could hope for. Only listened through this once or twice before the big change but the sounds are perfect with great little clicky drum tracks.

[atoz-2015]

The Man Machine - The Robots

I loved all the tracks on this album. I was expecting all of Kraftwerk to sound like Autobahn and that I would only appreciate it from a historical perspective but I finally hit on some stuff that I could just play cruising around, which I did about half a dozen times before deciding to move on to Computer. Of note, Neon Lights has an unmistakable vibe that sets right with the chill wave crazy of the early 10′s, especially the namesake Neon Indian.

[atoz-2015]

Trans Europe Express- Trans Europe Express + Metal on Metal + Abzug

You probably are wondering where I have been. I had a baby on Wednesday night and it is about as busy as you would imagine for a first time dad. Let me play a little catchup.

You get three tracks here because they are all contain the same theme even though they have different names which is a nice practice and each can be taken on its own but better as a group. There is that funky little synth line that would fit right in with some Detroit techno and I am sure I have heard it played before on mixes or other places so it is nice to put a name to the face.

[atoz-2015]

Radio Aktivität - Radioland

This album has a nice solid theme of radioactivity and the cold war. It is hard to imagine Kraftwerk in a divided, ground zero Germany in the mid 70′s but it puts an entirely different spin on the music were it just another American or British group. I didn’t really read too much into the theme since I have been quite busy myself but I enjoyed all the synths and simulated flutters of invisible radioactivity as though it were to be perceived as some kind of zipping and zapping filter sweep. 

I haven’t ever taken the time to appreciate the context that synthesizers and electronic music were introduced to the world.  It was long enough after WWII that people would have forgotten much of the immediate violence but still with the awareness that we now had the power to destroy our world and that nations were actively acquiring the ballistics to do so. Trying to pose such grand awareness for the world based on an event 30 years prior seems like stretching it but it is more like what it evolves into over those thirty years. It hasn’t even been quite half that since the Twin Towers were destroyed but I could surely make connections with how many of our current fears and desires could trace their ways back to that event and the surrounding changes with the war on terror. 

If you saw Ex Machina then you will recall the Oppenheimer quote that the two characters discuss briefly. I will put it on sometimes to hear his voice and his inflections and imagine how he felt as he talks about watching the first atomic bomb tests out in the deserts of New Mexico. It never fails to send chills down my spine: I am become death, destroyer of worlds. it is more than just his guilt or thousand mile gaze beyond the camera as he says these things that makes the clip so powerful. There are so very few moments in a lifetime that feel like they can really be classified as an awakening of any kind but to hear him talk, it is as if a fundamental truth about reality and the meaning of our own existence was revealed to him right there and what he saw changed him forever.

[atoz-2015]

Autobahn - Autobahn

Apparently there are over 100 different releases of Autobahn with cuts ranging from 3 to 20 minutes long. I have listened to several different lengths and they all come down to what I would have to describe as synth porn. As absurd as it sounds, it reminded me of the new Mad Max in this regard.

Other than the two hour car chase comparison (obviously), Autobahn has some of my favorite qualities in electronic music while lacking many others, much like Mad Max lacked a compelling plot or dialogue. But damn if I don’t love a good arpeggio bass, which I only just realized Grimes directly riffed off for 2012′s huge Genesis and holy shit if that isn’t a Mad Max inspired video with funked up babes with swords hanging out of car windows in a deserted landscape. Anyway, I make this comparison to say that if Kraftwerk didn’t use such sweet sounding instruments, like if someone did an acoustic cover of the song, I would have no interest much like if someone did a black box theater cover of Mad Max, it would be pretty disastrous although perhaps quite humorous. As long as Kraftwerk keeps up the synths (which I know they will) I won’t have a problem this installment

[atoz-2015]

K is for ... Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is absolutely the obvious choice. It was so obvious that I almost forgot to post it but I blame Memorial day weekend. I have little exposure to Kraftwerk but I have been known to fahr’n on the Autobahn a little. I am not sure what the arc for them is but they embrace futurism so hard they are practically the model of retro future. What a warm feeling to think that the future could have been just emotionless robots helping us to do all the wholesome things that keep the fabric of society tightly woven and supporting all of the hardworking people of the world.

[atoz-2015]

Even Truer - You’ll Improve Me (Caribou Remix)

Well, well, well, look who it is popping up on the a to z again but our friend Caribou. The other tracks on here were fine to good but I didn’t even bother listening to the other tracks on here more than once because it would mean I wasn’t listening to this one. Caribou did this remix in 2011 amid a slew of other remixes that I didn’t have time to touch on but I am feeling I should revisit at some point.

I really like the title of this album based on my current trajectory of investigation into truth and beliefs. It is meant as an extension of the original It’s All True while being tongue in cheek because something can’t be truer than something else as it is either true or false. It’s nice to hold up the truth of that last statement itself. How can we use truth to examine truth? At some point it has to become axiomatic and axioms can’t be true or false just accepted as a pretense. But we accept it because it is useful just like we accept that there are colors and sounds but it is all just phenomenon in relation to us as humans. We will never get to experience the joy of truly sensing electro magnetic fields no matter how many subdermal magnets we get implanted; that’s is just a synesthesia.

[atoz-2015]

It’s All True - ep

JB really got it on this album. They weren’t trying to do it any way but their own and they came out with a catchy album with a balance of chill of vocals that don’t sound out of place or ironic. To my dismay, I only just realized that this was the last album JB released. I will dial up Even Truer for the final installment but it is all just remixes. Luckily they are some of the better tracks on IAT like Banana Ripple which has a life of its own it seems. 

I actually surprised myself a little with the featured track after latching on immediately to a couple tracks but something about ep grooves so hard. I think it speaks to the importance of third impressions. Sometimes, it is more powerful when a track can imply a dope beat than if it were to actually put it in the mix, you just have to pay attention to get your mind to do the rest. That won’t stop me come Q2 mix from making it a little more obvious though...