Kraftwerk

KRAFTWERK – German Electro Pioneers Released 8th LP ‘COMPUTER WORLD’ Today 45 Years Ago

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Significant longplayers from the past

11 May 2026

German electro pioneers KRAFTWERK (1970–1983, 1986–present / 11 albums)
released their 8th LP, COMPUTER WORLD, on May 11 1981, today 45 years ago.

The album is themed around computer technology and its rise within society.
As was the case with the two previous albums, the record was released in
both German and English.

AllMusic – Ned Raggett in retrospect: “The last great Kraftwerk album, Computer World captured the band right at the moment when its pioneering approach fully broke through in popular music, thanks to the rise of synth pop, hip-hop, and electro.

With this album, Kraftwerk – over a decade on from their start – demonstrated how they had stayed not merely relevant, but prescient, when nearly all their contemporaries had long since burned out.”

SINGLE

ALBUM


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Instagram – All Albums

KRAFTWERK – ‘TOUR DE FRANCE’ 1983

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45prm singles on vinyl

5 June 2025

Band: KRAFTWERK
Song: TOUR DE FRANCE
Year: 1983
Score: #22 in the UK
#6 on the US dance charts
#47 in West-GHermany

It became later the title track of their 10th LP released in 2003.

The song is notable for the use of sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling that were used to supplement a simple electro-percussion pattern. An approach Kraftwerk had used on earlier tracks.

The song is a joie de vivre celebration of cycling,
marking the group’s increasing interest in the sport.

Allez, circulez.

Instagram – Discography

KRAFTWERK – The German Robots’ 4th LP ‘AUTOBAHN’ Is 50

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Back in time

5 November 2024

Electronic music pioneers KRAFTWERK released their 4th LP, named AUTOBAHN
on 1 November 1974, 50 years ago (their self-titled, debut album came out in 1970).

The album marked several personnel changes in the band, which was initially a duo consisting of Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter; later, the group added Klaus Röder on
guitar and flute, and Wolfgang Flür on percussion. From there on Kraftwerk became
the complete robot-like act, as we know it.

The LP peaked at #4 in UK, #5 in the US and
Canada, #7 in Germany and #9 in Australia.

AllMusic/Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: “Although Kraftwerk’s first three albums
were groundbreaking in their own right, Autobahn is where the group’s hypnotic electronic pulse genuinely came into its own. The main difference between Autobahn and its predecessors is how it develops an insistent, propulsive pulse that makes the repeated rhythms and riffs of the shimmering electronic keyboards and trance-like guitars all the more hypnotizing.”

SINGLE

ALBUM


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Kraftwerk: Story – All Albums

UNCUT MAGAZINE Celebrates Iconic Sound-Explorers KRAFTWERK

Posted on by JL

26 April 2023

Uncut Magazine celebrates the return to touring of iconic sound-explorers
KRAFTWERK with an Ultimate Kraftwerk Music Guide. From their origins on the
fringes of the German art scene over 50 years ago, the core duo of Florian Schneider
and Ralf Hutter brought their influence to bear on David Bowie and Iggy Pop and an entire
generation of electronic musicians. All you need to know and more about them in this special issue.

Kraftwerk are back on tour soon.

All 2023 Krafwerk Tour Dates HERE.

You can order a copy and let it be sent to your home address. Info here.

KRAFTWERK – German Electro Pioneers Released ‘POCKET CALCULATOR’ 40 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Top singles from the past…

11 May 2021

Band: KRAFTWERK (Germany)
Active: 1969–1983, 1986–present / 11 albums

Single: POCKET CALCULATOR
Released: 11 May 1981 – 40 years ago today

Note 1: The track was released in various languages
including in Japanese and Italian
Note 2: For their 1981 concert tour, the Kraftwerk merchandise
included a customised Casio VL-80 calculator with a Kraftwerk logo on
the body of the calculator and the leather-effect wallet. This calculator
model is able to play notes in sequence. The calculator is able to store
up to 100 notes, which must be initially keyed in manually using the
calculator buttons

Album: COMPUTER WORLD

Studio version…

Live version in, yes, Italian…

KRAFTWERK: Facebook

PLAY LOUD! 5 Classic Crackers To Ease The LOCKDOWN XMAS BLUES

Posted on by JL

C’mon, get out of your bed, clear your living room and dance yourself
dizzy. Middle-finger to the lockdown blues. It’s Christmas!

1. Home by IGGY POP (1990)

Home, boy
Everybody needs a home
Home, boy…

2. I’m Going Home by TEN YEARS AFTER (1968)

Gonna see my baby, see my baby fine
Gonna take my baby, want to take my baby mine
Hoping my woman treats me real kind…

3. Safety Dance by MEN WITHOUT HATS (1982)

Say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come
From out of this world
Leave the real one far behind…

 

4. Home Computer by KRAFTWERK (1982)

It’s more fun to compute
I program a home computer
Beam myself into the future…

5. Our House by CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG (1970)

Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy ’cause of you
And our house…

‘DIE ROBOTER/THE ROBOTS’ By KRAFTWERK – R.I.P. Florian Scheinder

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Top singles from the past…

7 May 2020

Band: Kraftwerk
Active: 1970-present
Single: Die Roboter / The Robots
B-side: Spacelab 
Released: May 1978
Score: #20 in the UK, #18 in Germany
and #38 on the Dance Charts in the US
Album: The Man-Machine
The band’s seventh LP

Official video…

Live robot version…

Rest in peace Florian Scheinder, Kraftwerk’s co-founder (7 April 1947 – 30 April 2020)

KRAFTWERK: Facebook / photo: AP Press

Legendary German Visionaries KRAFTWERK Released 7th LP ‘THE MAN-MACHINE’ Forty Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

Going back in sonic history looking for memorable albums…

17 May 2018

Band: KRAFTWERK

Album: THE MAN-MACHINE

Released: 19 May 1978 – 40 years ago

ROLLING STONE wrote back then: “As with Trans-Europe Express, the new record has a built in ambiguity that pretty much accounts for the group’s charm. Though Kraftwerk would seem to worship machines — totally unlike Brian Eno, who, on his brilliant Before and after Science, explores their possibilities — the band might actually be committed humanists, documenting how emotionless the future will be if we continue to cheer such “innovations” as the Chemical Bank Cash Machine. Maybe. Whatever its stance, Kraftwerk still parodies us dumb mortals.”
Score: 5/5 – Full review here.

Dance with the robots here in full…

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KRAFTWERK: Website – Facebook – All Albums