Kraftwerk: Kraftwerk [ENDLESS HAPPINESS]

Why you'll love it

This edition comes in a gatefold jacket with the track times printed inside. It's where the Düsseldorf pioneers started, a freeform krautrock record a long way from the robot pop that made them famous.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Kraftwerk's debut studio album, issued in Germany in 1970, marks the beginning of the band's exploration of experimental electronic music. Produced by Konrad "Conny" Plank, it shows the band's early interest in combining acoustic and electronic sounds. Key members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider worked with two drummers during the sessions; Hütter handled bass and played Hammond and Tubon electric organs, while Schneider played flute, often manipulated through electronic effects.

"Ruckzuck" features a powerful multi-dubbed flute riff, along with electric violin and guitar, both processed through an Electronic Music Studios pitch-to-voltage converter, and it shows off the fusion of organic and electronic elements that marks their early work. "Vom Himmel Hoch" uses slight pitch curves to emulate the Doppler effect. Mostly instrumental and steeped in krautrock and the German avant-garde, the album favours freeform jams over the structured, minimal sound Kraftwerk would later become famous for.

Different as it is from their later synth-driven work, the debut laid the groundwork for their evolution into electronic pioneers, shaping the future of genres like synth-pop and techno. Not bad for a band that hadn't yet got round to buying the matching suits.

Also at Kops: more Kraftwerk on vinyl · browse Electronic

Tracklist

Listen

On Endless Happiness (cat# HE70015), a reissue of the 1970 album.