December
16th marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Kraftwerk’s ninth
studio album, Electric Café, which was issued this day in 1986. After a
five year gap since their previous LP, Computer World (1981), this
album would mark the end of their “classic” period and lineup of Ralf
Hütter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos, which had been
consistent since 1975 following the release of their groundbreaking
Autobahn LP.
Though Wolfgang was still credited as a member of
the group and performed with them during their tour to support Computer
World in 1981, he had not actually played on that album and would not
contribute anything in the studio for Electric Café either. With the
increased reliance on sequencers, his duties as percussionist became
drastically reduced and, coupled with certain creative differences, he
chose to make his permanent exit from the group shortly after the
release of Electric Café.
Work on the album began in 1982 and
one of the first songs to emerge from these sessions was Tour De France,
which was originally intended to be part of the new album. After
completing their last tour, Ralph had become obsessed with the idea of
finding a form of exercise which fit in with the philosophies and
aesthetics of the group and become an avid cyclist, even encouraging the
rest of the group to take up the activity as well as become vegetarian.
He was so enthusiastic about it that he campaigned to make cycling the
central theme of the new album, but was ultimately unsuccessful in that
effort. Instead the original concept for the album was to call it
“Technicolor”, but this idea had to be abandoned because of the branding
of that name, so it became “Techno Pop” for a while before being
renamed to Electric Café for its initial release. However, it ended up
being renamed again for its remastered CD reissue back to “Techno Pop”.
Though the album’s production began in 1982, Ralph’s obsession
with cycling kept him out of the studio more and more, delaying
production. This was greatly exacerbated when he was involved in a
serious cycling accident, which left him in a coma for several days. A
long recovery kept him out of the studio for some time. As a stop-gap,
the group released Tour De France as a single and decided to keep it as a
stand-alone release and not include it on the new album.
As
Ralph recovered and production gradually got back on track, the group
sought to develop their sound in order to keep pushing the envelope of
the technology. This involved moving to progressively more digital
based sound production and processing gear. Tour De France had set the
stage for this with its extensive use of sampled sound effects of
bicycle gears, breathing patterns and other associated noises. Even so,
when it came to trying to put together the finished mixes, Ralph was not
confident that they were reaching the level he had envisioned in terms
of keeping the group on the cutting edge of their genre. To help them
with this, they brought in the help of New York DJ/producer, François
Kevorkian, who had helped with the mix on Tour De France. Aside from
the move towards a more digital sound, the album also features the first
and only lead vocal from Karl Bartos on The Telephone Call.
Upon
the album’s initial release, it was rather limply received. The gap
between Computer World and Electric Café had seriously lost the group
the momentum it has gained from that previous release and Ralph was
right to worry about the group not seeming cutting edge anymore as the
album, despite their best efforts, still managed to feel more “of the
times” than ahead of it. Critics called it dull and sales were
disappointing. I remember buying it when it came out and my own initial
reaction to it was a feeling that the group weren’t anticipating the
future like they’d done on previous albums. I loved the opening track,
Boing Boom Tschak, with its syncopated voice samples and had hoped to
hear more of that throughout the album, but it all seemed like familiar
territory after that and even a bit like a self-parody in some cases.
Ultimately, it would be the groups last full album of new material until
the release of Tour De France Soundtracks in 2003. The only other
releases before then were the 1991 “best of” rebuilds for The Mix and
the 1999 single, Expo 2000.
Though it is mostly considered one
of Kraftwerk’s weaker albums, lacking the focused conceptual framework
of classic period masterpieces like, Radio Activity, Trans Europe
Express, The Man Machine and Computer World, several of its songs have
become mainstays of their live performances and have proven themselves
to be durable and just as melodically infectious as anything else in the
upper echelons of their catalogue. The title song, Electric Café, in a
slightly sped-up form, became something of a cultural meme thanks to
its use by Mike Myers on SNL in the 1990s for his recurring "Sprockets”
German television spoof. My own appraisal of the album has changed for
the better over the years as I have grown to find more and more to love
about it now that it no longer seems to feel diminished by its
relationship to their earlier works. I’m more able to appreciate it on
its own merits. These days, I think it has earned its place as an
essential piece of the Kraftwerk puzzle among the sacred 8 of their
official “Catalogue”.
