CD reviews: Kraftwerk – Autobahn Remaster Vinyl

Released late last year, The Catalogue represents what founding member Ralf Hutter considers to be the Kraftwerk canon. Beginning with 1974′s Autobahn, actually the group’s fourth release, the collected remasters introduce Kraftwerk as they wish to be seen.

Autobahn‘s title track attempts to faithfully recreate the hypnotic experience of hurtling down the freeway at high speed, which Kraftwerk largely achieve. Even if you’re not able to sublimate the dangerous levels of kitsch to take the experiment seriously, what’s cute about Kraftwerk is also inherently creepy.

While the first side delves into electronic prog and funk, the second plumbs ambience. ‘Morgenspaziergang’ isn’t any less weird for being an antique, dropping hints that maybe Ralf and Florian thought they were writing classical music…

What’s astounding about Autobahn is its durability: despite soaring developments in the kind of technology Kraftwerk use to make music, I’d guess they wouldn’t change Autobahn if they had the chance.

The record remains inventive and engaging for reasons other than being one of the first historical documents of a new kind of music.

Autobahn isn’t as sharp or defined as remasters of later albums like The Man Machine, but that’s probably because it didn’t sound as great in the first place.

Ralf copped a bit of blog flak for his use of noise reduction and sharpening in places, but if you’re not spending all your time trainspotting records about robots, you’ll just notice the depth and tightness of the organ-like bass, and the surprising warmth of Autobahn’s first-generation synths.

Even hardcore fans of robot music have probably never heard the album reproduced on heavyweight vinyl. If that’s not a compelling enough reason to lash out on Autobahn, it also features the stylish blue-and-white cover motif rather than the slightly naff hand-painted one. TG

Music: 4

Sound: 4.5