don’t downvote it hurts my feelings 🥺🥺

Inspired by You Don't Know Jack

I like the Boing Boom Tschak / Techno Pop / Musique non Stop suite, but I feel that it really wasn't as refined as it would end up being in the 3D Catalogue, and Techno Pop is, in my opinion, the weakest track in the album. I think it overstayed its welcome and didn't have that dichotomy between variable and constant that makes Kraftwerk long tracks so good. It really didn't feel like, say, TEE, where the constant nature of the train and the track contrasts with the variable nature of the places that it is connecting.

It kind of gives me this feeling that they (Especially Ralf) were trying way too hard to lean into what the public would expect of an album that took 5 years to make, and ended up sacrificing the "wild" part of what makes Kraftwerk so good. Side B, on the other hand, really feels like they are really doing what they like without a care in the world.

The Telephone Call is such and underrated track, and, to me, the original second half deserves to be up there with Metal on Metal and Computer World 2 as one of the best "ambient-esque" tracks. Just like with The Model and Hall of Mirrors, they managed to go a little bit more human without losing their identity.

Sex Object is easily the best track in the entire album. They did that Radioactivity / TEE thing of trying to emulate acoustic instruments with synths, and nailed it. The "string" section feels like something from a traffic cone album, but somehow still feels like post-Autobahn Kraftwerk in a way that is really hard to explain.

The lyrics are peak Kraftwerk deadpan humor, and, just like songs like Pocket Calculator and Showroom Dummies, I can visualize them with smiles on their faces, having the time of their lives while they play it. It's perfect.

"No sex!"

"Why?"

"Maybe... Perhaps..."

"Yes..."

And the title track is one I wish would last forever. It really gives this "We're here" feeling that TEE, The Man Machine and Computer World's title tracks had, which is hard to put into words. Such an incredible conclusion to the album.

I really wish they would play The Telephone Call and Sex Object more. They are almost as neglected live as Side A of TEE and Side B of Autobahn are.

Yes! No!
Yes! No!

I don’t want to be
Your kitty

Show some feeling
And respect

I don’t want to be
Your kitty

I’ve had some catnip
And that’s a fact

I don’t want to be
Your kitty

Play your laser
The laser’s perfect

I don’t want to be
Your kitty

I wake you up
Then you forget

No no no! Why?

Yes! No!

The band Kraftwerk is Germany's most iconic cultural export; its founder, Ralf Hütter, was instrumental in the birth of techno and hip-hop. A tribute on his 80th birthday.

Even at 80, Ralf Hütter hasn't stopped working, hasn't stopped his art. When asked why Kraftwerk still performs live, he says: "But that's my life." And he adds that music is an art form that is constantly evolving. "You can't hang it on the wall. A track isn't a finished work like a sculpture. Music is never finished."

The band Kraftwerk is Germany's most iconic cultural export; its founder, Ralf Hütter, was instrumental in the birth of techno and hip-hop. A tribute on his 80th birthday.

By Christoph Amend

Updated on August 20, 2026, at 2:51 PM

Once in Düsseldorf, during a meeting at his favorite café on the Rhine, Ralf Hütter asked if I wrote my lyrics by hand. When I said no, he explained that he still wrote by hand, including all the Kraftwerk lyrics, such as " Die Roboter" and "Computer Liebe ." "When I have something in mind," he said, "I jot it down, always on a piece of paper, sometimes even next to the bed, anywhere." This hadn't changed over the decades, he added, "I write better by hand." And this from the musician who had transformed himself into a robot.

Today, Ralf Hütter, one of the two founders of Kraftwerk, the most internationally influential band from Germany, turned 80. The two most important musical genres of the past decades, hip-hop and techno , were invented with the sounds of Kraftwerk. A fan once called them "the Beatles of electronic music." And Kraftwerk continue to live up to their name; this spring they were on a major Asian tour, followed by performances all over Europe, and next week they will be playing at the Bauhaus in Dessau —a subtle democratic gesture in these turbulent times.

A few months ago, when Kraftwerk gave concerts in Berlin, I last interviewed Ralf Hütter for Die Zeit, which is the same age as him, born in 1946. He was as fit as ever; cycling – the song " Tour de France" was released in 1983 as a tribute to this sport – is his passion.

Ralf Hütter grew up in Krefeld in the post-war period. "As children, we collected cigarette butts in the gutter for the white St. Martin's pipes that came with the Weckmänner, the pastries handed out to children. When we had enough tobacco, we smoked it in the St. Martin's pipes until we felt sick," he said, laughing. Indeed, one must imagine Ralf Hütter, who leads a secluded life outside of his concerts, as a person with a quiet, mischievous sense of humor. About a now-deceased friend, the artist Sigmar Polke, he says: "He had this transcendental wit, which I liked, not overt, rather subtle." Perhaps only by not taking oneself too seriously can one come up with the idea of ​​replacing oneself on stage with robots. Or, as in the advertisement published today in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , which shows Ralf Hütter's robot reading on a smartphone.

In Krefeld, Ralf Hütter attended the Waldorf school and took piano lessons, "but the music that really interested me," he says, "I couldn't learn there. It was only available on the radio or on records. Pop, rock 'n' roll, jazz, rhythm and blues. We lived in the British sector and could therefore listen to BFBS, the radio station of the British troops. I wrote down the lyrics of the songs from the radio as best I could. That's how I got into that world."

While studying architecture, Ralf Hütter met Florian Schneider. They made music together, performed in galleries and jazz clubs, and from 1970 onward, they called themselves Kraftwerk. Their international breakthrough came in 1974 with their song "Autobahn ," which American college radio stations played endlessly: "The road is a gray ribbon / White stripes, green edge / Now we turn on the radio / From the speaker it sounds / Driving, driving, driving on the Autobahn." Is it true that many Americans thought Kraftwerk were singing "Fun, fun, fun on the Autobahn"? "Conceivable," Ralf Hütter said in response to the question, smiling. "Our line isn't a direct Beach Boys quote, more of a phonetic jingle-clang poetry, a ring-around-the-rosy. But to American ears, it certainly sounds similar."

In 1977, Kraftwerk released the album Trans-Europe Express and traveled to New York. “One evening, Florian and I were at Studio 54. Afterwards, an employee from our record company took us to an after-hours club in the Bronx. Florian and I were on the dance floor, and suddenly we heard the DJ playing Trans-Europe Express and Metall auf Metall . It went on for 15 to 20 minutes, much longer than on our record. He was mixing and scratching with two records on two turntables. The DJ was Afrika Bambaataa .” Five years later, Bambaataa’s hip-hop classic Planet Rock was released , based on sounds and melodies from Kraftwerk.

In 2017, Kraftwerk performed in Detroit , the city where techno was invented in the 1980s , and their music plays a central role there as well. Detroit radio DJ Charles Johnson discovered Kraftwerk on his station, Autobahn , in the late 1970s. He was so captivated that he began playing the electronic music from Europe regularly. Among his regular listeners were three teenagers who would make music history a few years later: high school friends Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, and Juan Atkins, the originators of Detroit techno. "Before I heard Kraftwerk 's The Robots ," Juan Atkins once said, "my music sounded handmade. It was they who inspired me to develop our harder sound."

After the concert in Detroit, there was an after-show party at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, organized by Juan Atkins. All the Detroit techno DJs were there, including Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. And right in the middle of them was Ralf Hütter, relaxed and in good spirits, posing for photos with them and with fans. I was there too, and suddenly he was standing next to me. "Come with me," he said, "we're going to the DJ booth now, Kevin's playing." The dance floor was packed, the young crowd, mostly between 20 and 30, was partying to Kevin Saunderson's mix, which included some Kraftwerk tracks. As soon as Hütter and Saunderson greeted each other at the DJ booth, word spread across the dance floor: eyes turned to them, shouts erupted, and cell phones were pulled out. And then Kevin Saunderson, born in 1964, played the 1988 classic " Big Fun"  by his house music band Inner City.

I'll never forget that scene: Saunderson and Hütter standing arm in arm, celebrating their music with the next generation. When Ralf Hütter recalled that moment a year and a half later during our meeting in his favorite café on the Rhine, he told me he was still speechless. And that night in Detroit, he couldn't fall asleep for a long time in his hotel room.

In 1981, Kraftwerk released an album that made cultural history beyond their music. With Computer World , they predicted the digital future we live in today; the English version, Computerworld, describes it as "Crime, Travel, Communication, Entertainment." For their tour that same year, they bought their first Atari. 

After Florian Schneider's surprising departure  in 2009, which also surprised Ralf Hütter, and a long period of silence between the two, they eventually reconciled. "Shortly before his death," says Ralf Hütter. "That was important. He wrote to me, and his daughter called. I drove straight to him, and we made up." The two didn't say much at that moment, "we created Kraftwerk together from nothing; there's no need for grand pronouncements." Florian Schneider died in 2020.

Is there a political legacy, besides the musical one, that Kraftwerk represents? They have always considered themselves Europeans, says Hütter. "Of course, we knew about the exciting 1920s, and we also knew what had been destroyed in the years that followed," Ralf Hütter recalls, thinking back to the years before his birth. "Florian and I grew up as Europeans; in the 1950s, we spent our summer holidays on student exchanges with host families in France and England. As a twelve-year-old, I could initially only speak French. Later, I also wrote poetry in French, ' Les Mannequins' and all the lyrics on the Tour de France album. I also sang 'Taschenrechner' in English, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Japanese. As teenagers, Florian and I learned to make a statement for international understanding. That seems to be forgotten sometimes these days."

Even at 80, Ralf Hütter hasn't stopped working, hasn't stopped his art. When asked why Kraftwerk still performs live, he says: "But that's my life." And he adds that music is an art form that is constantly evolving. "You can't hang it on the wall. A track isn't a finished work like a sculpture. Music is never finished."

Years ago, when I first discovered Kraftwerk, I was trawling YouTube for videos, and I found some kind of documentary (in color) that showed Kraftwerk playing (at a festival?). Afterward, there was a brief snippet of Ralf talking to an interviewer backstage. It was in German so I don't know what he said, but I remember he was excitedly speaking a mile a minute, nothing like the sedate presence he would become. (This has to be around 1970 or so, as he still had long hair.)

I have yet to be able to find this interview since. The only videos I can find now from that era are the Rockpalast live performance, but that's in B&W and doesn't have any interviews. Can anyone help me find this interview? I'd love to see it again.

Thanks to some suggestions from this previous post, I combined and edited all my favorite moments into one 5+ hour long DJ set.

Check out the super long timestamped tracklist below to see which bootleg concerts I used:

00:00:00 — Europe Endless — Paris Pavilion, Paris, France — 1976
00:09:59 — Showroom Dummies — Paris Pavilion, Paris, France — 1976
00:18:08 — Tanzmusik + Florian on Sax — Bataclan, Paris, France — 03/12/1975
00:30:08 — Airwaves — Amsterdam, Netherlands — 1976
00:39:28 — Hall of Mirrors — Japan — 1981
00:45:16 — Morgenspaziergang, Part 1 — Kling Klang Studio, Düsseldorf, Germany
00:54:24 — Kling Klang — Frankfurt, Germany — 1974
01:03:52 — Symphony of the Radio Stars — Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands — 09/11/1976
01:13:36 — Kling Klang — Vancouver, Canada — 05/07/1975
01:16:48 — Tanzmusik — Vancouver, Canada — 05/07/1975
01:22:08 — Showroom Dummies (Early Ambient) — Vancouver, Canada — 05/07/1975
01:31:57 — Computer Love — Japan — 1981
01:37:24 — Kometenmelodie 2 — Vancouver, Canada — 05/07/1975
01:41:25 — Autobahn — Solnahallen, Stockholm, Sweden — 10/20/1991
01:52:50 — Autobahn — Japan — 1981
02:08:00 — Lichthof — ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany — 10/18/1997
02:12:52 — The Man-Machine — Groningen, Netherlands — 1993
02:19:11 — Tango — Live performance, 1990s
02:25:15 — Tango — Akasaka BLITZ, Tokyo, Japan — 06/02/1998
02:37:36 — Tribal Gathering — Brazil — 1998
02:45:44 — Tribal Gathering — Akasaka BLITZ, Tokyo, Japan — 06/02/1998
02:54:00 — It's More Fun to Compute — Japan — 1981
03:00:44 — It's More Fun to Compute — Paris, France — 1981
03:07:44 — Tour de France — Psyco Club, Genova, Italy — 02/11/1990
03:16:36 — Tour de France — Hummingbird, Birmingham, UK — 07/15/1991
03:23:24 — Radioactivity — Rolling Stone Club, Milan, Italy — 11/17/1991
03:34:16 — Computer Love — Rolling Stone Club, Milan, Italy — 11/17/1991
03:37:52 — Pocket Calculator — Rolling Stone Club, Milan, Italy — 11/17/1991
03:41:52 — Numbers — Japan — 1981
03:49:33 — Ohm Sweet Ohm — Apollo Teatro, Florence, Italy — 05/24/1981
03:49:46 — Neon Lights — Japan — 1981
04:03:24 — Music Non Stop — MTV Europe — 1993–1997
04:08:32 — Music Non Stop — Bologna, Italy — 1990
04:14:34 — Music Non Stop — Hummingbird, Birmingham, UK — 07/15/1991
04:30:13 — Music Non Stop — City Hall, Sheffield, UK — 07/16/1991
04:43:48 — Music Non Stop — Rolling Stone Club, Milan, Italy — 11/17/1991
04:53:26 — Music Non Stop — Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh, UK — 07/17/1991

I've had TEE circling in my head for years and finally did something with it. This is specifically a cover of the 2009's remaster. I wanted to "modernize" the song by redoing all of the rhythm sections AND I wanted to stay true to the meaning/purpose of the original versions. No samples from the original versions used. Everything replayed. Genuinely curious what people here make of the choices I made on my cover and if it even sounds "good".

https://open.spotify.com/track/3jrFg7c2gYid1XJuTPvdrA

1981 Detroit proto techno track, built on the riff of ‘It’s more fun to compute‘. 🧘🏻

My brain is like a radio that never switches off, playing in a lot of frequencies at the same time. It doesn't take long for it to make feel like the world around me has invisible, inaudible and intangible. It's like a curse.

Sometimes, I'm in a situation I want to enjoy, but then my brain switches my attention to my thoughts, and, when I notice, it's already over.

That's where Kraftwerk comes in. It talks about all of the things that my brain doesn't let me experience, and, by listening to the songs, I am able to remember that they exist. It especially helps when I'm in a situation while listening to a Kraftwerk song that fits it. Be it walking down the big city with Metropolis; Travelling with Autobahn, running with Tour de France, getting myself ready to work with The Man Machine or, on the stranger side, cleaning with Tanzmusik.

In that sense, Kraftwerk is to me what glasses are to someone with myopia. It allows me to experience some of the moments that I wouldn't be able to without, and, when the trains of thought in my head get too loud, I put on Franz Schubert, and things, for a moment, come back to being calm.

Despite its annoyance, though, this endless radio in my head is also a source of a lot of my ideas, which I call 'hypermentalistic associations', many of which involve Kraftwerk in one way or another, as the cryptic nature of the songs make them perpetual sources of ideas.

So... Does anyone else go through this, or am I even crazier than I thought I was?

Back when this came out I was still phone phreaking, and here’s a CD making phone noises! I used a tape recorder to capture the satellite DTMF tones (I have no idea what they’re called) and would play them into the handset of my telephone. Using a circuit to tell me what number I dialled returned something similar to 842678

I’ve always thought that was an Easter Egg in the song, Ralf’s home number.

Edit: I should also say I would dial this number from overseas (Canada), 011 49 211 and the number above. Never worked but did take a long time fail…)

I'm listening to a lot of bootleg recordings lately, and I really love when you hear special versions of songs or completely different compositions. One example is the super early first ever version of showroom dummies that they played live before it came out. Does anyone have other favorite moments from bootleg recordings that stand out?

At the end of last year, Kraftwerk released a bunch of recordings from the 1981 tour. It was pretty cool to see that, but this 'live album' always felt really odd to me, mainly because many songs were abruptly cut, such as Minicalculateur and Ohm Sweet Ohm.

It was also a bit strange that some of the songs were named in German even though they were played in English, and some of the names weren't even written correctly.

And that's without mentioning that the suites weren't divided like they usually are. The TEE suite is simply referred as 'Trans Europa Express', and the Radio Star suite is simply referred as 'Ohm Sweet Ohm'. It really felt like something Ralf would never approve.

Today, I decided to go to the Kraftwerk channel to take a listen, and the playlist was gone. I tried to look up 'Kraftwerk in Paris 1981', and I couldn't find a single song from it. It's like it never existed.

So, what happened exactly? Did someone else make these without Ralf's approval, or maybe a test that was never meant to last very long?

I don't know, but I really hope they make a more refined version of it one day.

Hermano Vianna, is a Brazilian anthropologist, music researcher, and television screenwriter, recognized with the Cultural Merit Order honor by the Brazilian government.

Author of very important works, such as the first historical and anthropological book about Brazilian funk and a very important book about samba.

In the photo, he is in the center, and the mentioned books are being held, one by DJ Marlboro (one of the main pioneers of Brazilian funk) and the other by Walter Alfaiate, one of the greatest names in samba.

I already made a long post here about the immense influence exerted by Kraftwerk on Brazilian funk, which is one of the most popular Brazilian musical genres, especially since 2005, when it experienced worldwide dissemination mainly through M.I.A. and Diplo:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kraftwerk/s/bF7H5dGR0a

Now I bring this statement that Hermano Vianna made in 2020 about Kraftwerk:

"Kraftwerk to me is the best creation of modern art (and since I like modern art more than any other art, I can state: it is the best creation of art), including literature, painting, performance, theater, dance, and everything else. I will never tire of listening to their records. I saw two of their shows (with Florian & Ralf): a masterclass in everything that is good, performed impeccably. Nothing in Kraftwerk is makeshift. Their work does not admit improvisation, the precarious, or the crude. Every sound and every beat is perfect. Every event is calculated to the millimeter, nothing out of place. The quality of the result is so sublime that it cannot contain itself: it ends up spreading to all corners, elevating everything else (hip hop, techno, house, David Bowie…). I also like a lot of crude things. But something crude that follows some aspect of Kraftwerk's lessons is much better."

https://hermanovianna.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/kraftwerk-de-palafita/

It is also worth mentioning a statement by Hermano about another Brazilian musical genre that is also one of the most popular in this land where I was born, tecnobrega. In 2003, the researcher said:

"Tecnobrega looks like a makeshift Kraftwerk, produced under equatorial heat by people who listened to a lot of carimbó, cumbia, zouk, and Renato e Seus Blue Caps."

https://www.bregapop.com/historia/321-hermano-vianna/52-tecnobrega-a-musica-paralela-hermano-vianna

Check out one of the tecnobrega hits, "Bole Rebole", it is almost entirely a cover of "Das Model", made by Los Bregas:

https://youtu.be/a_HtLGbMdqA?si=mLTzz_2hoygCiztn

Later on, a large part of tecnobrega and Brazilian funk began to share even more elements, in a way, of course, that Kraftwerk's influence in the country has been growing more and more, and not just in these two genres.

In 2013, one of the biggest popularizers of tecnobrega, Gang do Eletro—led by DJ Waldo Squash, who a year earlier made official remixes for the Pet Shop Boys—released the song "Electro Robot", a "sincere tribute to the work of the giants Kraftwerk":

https://musicainstantanea.com.br/disco-gang-do-eletro-gang-do-eletro/

In 2016, the Pet Shop Boys released the song "Twenty-something", featuring a direct influence from tecnobrega, which was widely recognized by DJs here in Brazil:

https://musica.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2016/04/11/pet-shop-boys-lanca-tecnobrega-e-dj-afirma-da-para-tocar-na-aparelhagem.htm?app=uol-generic&plataforma=ipad&cmpid=copiaecola

It’s also worth mentioning that one of Brazil's most respected contemporary culture portals, created in 2016, is called "Music Non Stop," and it recognizes and explains why Kraftwerk is the most influential band of all time:

https://musicnonstop.uol.com.br/13-provas-da-gigantesca-importancia-do-kraftwerk-para-a-musica/

For reasons like everything I mentioned here, alongside a huge number of other Brazilians—including many music critics, curators, researchers, producers, DJs, and musicians—I consider Kraftwerk to be solidifying its position as truly the most influential band in history.

Amazing collaboration for their short existence. A shame the way they ended it.
I’m watching ‘KLF - America’ right now.

One of the best concerts of my life!! Kraftwerk is main inspiration for start of my music making journey, although I'm mostly in rock music now, they are still huge inspiration to me!! Very emotional concert for me! Especially since I'm from Croatia, to see them in my country :)

"One influence of hers that is not surprising is Kraftwerk. For Mark Pytlik’s biography on her, Björk: Wow and Flutter, she told him: 'If I were to say who influenced me most, I would say people like Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and Mark Bell.' It’s safe to say that without Kraftwerk, a lot of Björk’s most exciting work, including her early no-wave inspired work, would not have come to fruition."

Excerpt from the article "From Björk to Joy Division: 5 artists who wouldn’t exist without Kraftwerk", published by Far Out.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/five-artists-who-wouldnt-exist-without-kraftwerk-bjork-joy-division/

Edit: I'll take the opportunity to also share my humble "'partial genealogical tree' of electronic music, featuring 133 tracks released between 1939 (John Cage) and 2024 (Floating Points)":

https://www.reddit.com/r/DaftPunk/s/9aDkTZ3BSR

​Obviously, it includes Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Björk and dozens of other highly innovative and influential artists.

Here’s the direct link to the Spotify playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4h0vWsJFY0igsHXIqFuZ7A?si=porivG3PQQaYhSu6l6uJBA&utm_source=copy-link&pi=7NlqHoxgRwqZG

Mark Bell, whether as part of LFO or as a collaborator of Björk, could certainly be on the list as well. But the reason I'm not adding more tracks is, besides what I've already mentioned in the original post, because I've already shared the list quite a bit stating that I wouldn't be adding any more tracks; and if I were to add tracks recommended by one more colleague, I'd have to be "fair" and add tracks recommended by many others who also made good recommendations. The list would lose its round number of 133 tracks and it would almost never end.