the human machine

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the human machine
Kraftwerk studio album

Publication
(s)

May 1978

Label (s) Ring sound

Genre (s)

Electropop , pop music

Title (number)

6th

running time

36:18 min.

occupation Ralf Hütter : voice, electronics,
Florian Schneider : voice, electronics,
Karl Bartos : electronic drums,
Wolfgang Flür : electronic drums

production

Ralf Hütter,
Florian Schneider

chronology
Trans Europa Express
(1977) 		the human machine Computer World
(1981)

Die Mensch-Maschine is the seventh studio album by the band Kraftwerk . The album was released in German and English as The Man-Machine . The single The Model was a number one hit in the British charts in 1982 .

Creation and publication

Musically, the album builds on its predecessor Trans Europa Express , with the use of rhythm machines taking a back seat and making the album sound softer overall. The album was created in Kraftwerk's own Kling Klang studio in Düsseldorf and was also recorded there. The album was mixed in the Rudas studio because the mixer in the Kling Klang studio was insufficient. Joschko Rudas was responsible for the mix and was supported for some songs by Detroit sound engineer Leanard Jackson of Whitfield Records, who had worked on Rose Royce 's second album the previous year . Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter acted as producers . Among other things, the Sennheiser VSM 201 vocoder was used .

Like the previous albums, Die Mensch-Maschine is a concept album. While Autobahn and radio activity dealt with more German topics and Trans Europa Express with Europe, the seventh album is thematically more global and deals with future topics such as space travel , robots and the big city. The source of inspiration for the album was the German silent film classic Metropolis by director Fritz Lang from 1927. Both the album title of the man-machine , the song Metropolis and the motif of a world dominated by technology in which the free human being is degraded to the servant of a complex machine , are influenced by this UFA film.

For promotional purposes, the band had dummies made, which were used at some press meetings in connection with the publication.

The graphic design of the cover image comes from Karl Klefisch and is based on a work by the Russian constructivist El Lissitzky . The words "inspired by El Lissitzky" are noted on the cover. The cover picture is an adaptation of a graphic from the children's book Suprematitscheski Skaz (of two squares).

After its release, the album peaked at number 12 in Germany, 9 in the UK and 130 in the United States.

reception

The album brought the band the first cover story on the British New Musical Express . The NME confirmed the "almost perfect implementation of their musical and political ambitions" and used a photo of the inner cover of Die Mensch-Maschine on the title page , as the band did not provide a photo for the cover picture. Melody Maker spoke of a "cool, majestic album". The uniformed clothes on the cover in red shirts and black ties wrongly put the band in a fascist light and met with rejection, especially in the United States.

A number of British artists took the album as a model, musically and stage-wise, alongside the second page of David Bowies Low . Kraftwerk's music was played in British clubs such as Billy's in London. The use of synthesizers resulted in a wave of synth-pop and new romantic bands in the UK. One of the first epigones was Gary Numan in 1979 , who took over the stage outfit of shirt and tie (both in black). The Human League took up the concept of making machines work for them for the tour in the opening act of Talking Heads , during which the band was not present and only used tape recorders and slide projectors. The early Depeche Mode put the synthesizers, like Kraftwerk, in a row next to each other on the stage.

Track list

Side one

  1. The Robots / The Robots (Hütter, Schneider, Bartos) 6:11
  2. Spacelab (Hütter, Bartos) 5:51
  3. Metropolis (Hütter, Schneider, Bartos) 5:59

Side two

  1. Das Model / The Model (Hütter, Bartos / Hütter, Schult) 3:38
  2. Fluorescent / Neon Lights (Hutter, Schneider, Bartos) 9:03
  3. Die Mensch-Maschine / The Man-Machine (Hütter, Bartos) 5:28

The texts come from Ralf Hütter except for Das Model . He wrote this together with Emil Schult. At Spacelab and Metropolis, only the name of the respective title is sung.

occupation

power plant

Additional staff

  • Günther Fröhling - photographer
  • Leanard Jackson - sound engineer
  • Karl Klefisch - script
  • Joschko Rudas - sound engineer
  • Henning Schmitz - assistant technician

Information taken from the cover of “Die Mensch-Maschine” (2009).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pascal Bussy: Neon Light - The Kraftwerk Story . Bosworth Edition, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86543-037-6 . , P. 110.
  2. ^ A b c Christian Graf, Burghard Rausch: Rockmusiklexikon . Europe / Vol. 1, ABC – Kursal Flyers. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-12387-9 (pp. 1-750). , P. 740.
  3. ^ And Red organizes a settlement on the black square. Retrieved May 22, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Steve Huey: Review - The Man Machine. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved May 22, 2011 .

Web links