Customer Reviews

Man Machine

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

1978's 'The Man Machine' is Kraftwerk's most focused, and strongest album to date. Although short, clocking in at just over thirty minutes, the six tracks that comprise 'The Man Machine' are of high quality and filler-free. The album can easily be listened to straight through several times without boring the listener.

The album kicks off powerfully with 'The Robots'. It's pulsating bassline, machine-like rhythms and heavily processed vocals set the tone for the rest of the album. I actually prefer this version of 'The Robots' to the one on Kraftwerk's 1991 release 'The Mix'. I find 'The Man Machine' version to be a lot more robotic than 'The Mix''s more human, organic reworking.

Next is the first of the two almost completely instrumental tracks on `The Man Machine', `Spacelab'. `Spacelab''s weightless, dreamy synth lines say more to the listener than any vocals could ever describe. The only vocals that enter the mix are the vocoded words "Space-lab". A very relaxing, beautiful track.

Third up is the other vocally minimal track on the album, the dystopian `Metropolis'. This track is the most ominous of all of the tracks on `The Man Machine', perhaps the most ominous of all of Kraftwerk's songs (`Radioactivity' would be a close second). Likely drawing from Fritz Lang's 1926 masterpiece of the same title, `Metropolis' invokes the listener with the feeling that this futuristic city may not be the utopia we would all like it to be.

`The Model', the album's fourth track is a strange, somewhat poppy, but very catchy song. The lyrics are very simple and the synth sounds are very dated, but that is what is so charming about this song. "Charming" could very easily describe the appeal of all of Kraftwerk's work, as a matter of fact.

`Neon Lights'. Soothing, vocally minimal, long, experimental. Perfectly positioned in the track listing, `Neon Lights' helps to hold the album together. It is the perfect transition between the poppy `The Model' and the animatronic title track.

The closing track on the album is the title track, `The Man Machine.' It's toy-like staccato synth line and "pop-hiss" drums that run throughout the song sound as if they were played by automatons. The vocals are a stark contrast to the synth lines as they are warm, smooth and reverberating. This is one of the best tracks on the album, it is so much different in structure than the other songs, yet has many musical similarities. A great way to end the album.

Overall, `The Man Machine' is my favourite Kraftwerk album. Every song is focused and contributes in it's own way to the one overall feel of the album. If you want to get into Kraftwerk, I would suggest buying `The Mix' as I did. It is a bit of a greatest hits album, as well as a reworking of older Kraftwerk favourites. It is a good overview of Kraftwerk's career thusfar, even though they haven't done much since '86. But if you want some solid, vintage Kraftwerk, definitely pick up `The Man Machine.'

I ran into a copy of this album, by Kraftwerk while dropping by the library yesterday. I hadn't heard their work before. I was very impressed. Big names from the late seventies/early eighties, like Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre and the whole Gary Numan-Depeche Mode-wave come to mind. These guys really set a standard in the seventies! Very interesting material. Worth listening to attentively.

Kraftwerk's 1978 album, "The Man Machine" is art. The German electronic quartet of Ralf Hutter, Wolfgang Flur, Karl Bartos, and Florian Schneider have impressed me with this six-song piece of pleasure. It's material like theirs that get me to buy more of their music. All six tracks are sweet. Track one is "The Robots." This song includes a singing robot. Just for having robotic vocals (which I can't get enough of) this automatically becomes an enjoyable tune of mine. I also like the electric percussion in the song. "Spacelab" is track two on the album. It's very mysterious sounding. I feel as if I'm in a space station, all alone, lightyears from everything else in the galaxy. Next, there's track three, "Metropolis." It starts out slow with percussion that sounds like drops of water and long notes. The bass comes in and the percussion changes after that. The vocalists sing out "Meeeeetroooooopoliiiiiis" in the song. "The Model, track four, is my favorite song on the CD. It's also the shortest of all the six tunes found on this disc at 3:42. The song's about a supermodel woman whose beauty and charm led her to fame and popularity. Track five, "Neon Lights" is nine minutes long. It's the longest track in the album. The lyrics for the song are "Neon lights, shimmering neon lights, and at the fall of night, the city's made of light." They're only heard in the first half of the song. The second half contains psychadelic sounding synthesizers. The final track is "The Man Machine." This track includes singing robots, different from "The Robots." This is a very nice tune, a good song to finish off the album. All six tracks are great. This CD has "genius" written all over. I could listen to it the whole way through whenever I'm in the mood, and I get into that mood quite often. I'm glad there's a music group like this.

It's now been 26 years since Kraftwerk released "The Man Machine", the second of the classic trilogy of albums started with 1977's "Trans Europe Express" and concluded with 1981's "Computer World". I'm gonna have to disagree with the London reviewer a couple of reviews below, and believe that the album has clearly stood the test of time. In my opinion, Kraftwerk synthesized everything here, and this album noses out "Computer World" as their best ever.

"The Man Machine" (6 tracks, 36 min.) can be divided up in 3 parts: (1) the singles "The Model" and "The Robots" are irresistable (I remember being in France the summer of '78 when this just came out and the discos were blasting "The Robots", make sure you crank up the volume on this one); (2) the (mostly) instrumentals "Spacelab" and "Metropolis" are nice; (3) the most important, and best, tracks are the 2 last: "Neon Lights" is mostly instrumental, with an incredible hypnotizing outro, just amazing; and the title track is a dark, yet highly "robotic" danceable song that sums up the album perfectly.

At 36 min., there is not a second, not a moment wasted. How many albums can make that claim? Also, if you haven't checked out "Tour de France Soundtracks", Kraftwerk's 2003 'come-back' album, make sure to do so. It is a delight, unexpectedly so in my opinion after a 17 year break.

Although most people, and by that i mean kraftwerk fans, would state that 'computer wordld' and 'trans europe express' are kraftwerk best albums, I find this one by far the better one. Not one bad song (ok only six songs I know), and with metropolis, spacelab, the model and the man machine 4 of the best ever kraftwerk songs... brilliant...

Most people loves "experimental" Kraftwerk works... possibly they just cheatin' us, 'cause these "experimental" works by Kraftwerk now seems simple and commonly acceptable by experienced enough listener.
The biggest Kraftwerk legacy now is the "Man-Machine" - their tremendous hybrid of electronica innovations and pure pop.
- Think of best Kraftwerk songs? They're all here (however, some gems must be found on 'Radioactivity' & '...Express')
- Think of Kraftwerk influence? It's here (this album kicked the whole neo-romantic movement)
- Think of the album for you, for your girl, for your dad, for your serious music critic from local newspaper? 'The Man Machine' is the best solution.

If some well-meaning sadist were to pin me in a corner and demand to know what my favorite Kraftwerk album of all time was, I would pause for about 5 seconds, and finally sigh, MAN-MACHINE. This would almost be as difficult as asking me what my favorite abum would be by the likes of Tangerine Dream...Vangelis...Jonn Serrie...Jean-Michel Jarre...Pink Floyd...YES...Genesis...PFM...Constance Demby...Michael Stearns...ELP...King Crimson...Jade Warrior...and on and on. But...I can recall when this album was released and immediately being hooked. Not by the dance beats, necessarily (although we were in the heyday of disco back then, and I was eating up the latest releases by Donna Summer [for Giorgio Moroder & Harald Faltermeyer's electronics] and underground club bands like Voyage), but by the damn-near HUMAN-NESS of the tracks. It's like the boys were trying to meld 2 distinct universes together: the steely, cold, mechanical landscapes explored on TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS, and the warm, engaging washes of electronic keyboards on the likes of tracks like "Morgenspaziergang" and "Ananas Symphonie"(<--one of my all-time favorite tracks of theirs, from RALF & FLORIAN). Let their be no doubt: For those who, like me, absolutely love the allure of electronic dance music on a dance floor crammed full of fun-loving warm bodies being bathed in shimmering strobes and pulsating colored spotlights, this is the album to play, start to finish. The first 3 tracks give strong hints of the techno/rave craze to come. The last 3, though (which made up side 2 of the LP) are the ones that really took me. "The Model" was probably their strongest bid for Top 40 fame, and if I recall correctly, in some locales, they succeeded. The song is very radio-friendly and infectious, in spite of their insipid lyrics (and let's call a spade a spade: Kraftwerk will never be remembered for their heavy, meaningful lyrics...but hey, who cares? This is not Joni Mitchell/Michael Franks/Duncan Sheik territory we're in here.). The next 2 tracks, "Neon Lights" and the title track are the ones I love most, and especially "Neon Lights." Clocking in at 9 minutes, this is, hands-down, the most pleasant, enchanting, and ultimately WONDROUS dance song Kraftwerk has ever done, IMO. When I d.j. at dances from time to time, I love to drag this track out just to see how people react to it...invariably someone will come up to me and ask, "Who IS this?" in a nice way. I cannot give this song enough praise...when it breaks into the crystal-clear, glimmering synth break at the close of the vocal section, the jam session that follows is simply delightful. If Kraftwerk were ever to do another live album, my fantasy would be to hear them do an extended version of this, maybe the length of the original "Autobahn," allowing for all possible electronic improvisation on it. Wouldn't that be great? And finally, the hypnotic groove of the title track with the finely-crafted vocoder singing is simply a masterpiece in itself. Should anyone wonder what a good album would be to start out with, were he/she curious about Kraftwerk, this album would get my recommendation in a heartbeat. Getting to see the boys in Lincoln, Nebraska back in 1975 when they were on tour with Pavlov's Dog was a treat for the eyes and ears I will never forget. I just hope they will remain with us as long as humanly possible and accept the gratitude and love of us, their legion of fans, for all these years of incredible music they've shared with us. A final request to all German electronic music fans: If anyone knows where a CD of Fuhrs & Frohling's AMMERLAND is available, please Email me.

This is my favourite Kraftwerk album of all time, and the middle of a stunning trilogy of works - Transeurope Express, Man Machine and Computer World.

When this album was made, Kraftwerk had mastered their analogue synths and sequencers, and had complete confidence in their style, coming off the success of TEE. They were so far ahead of everyone else that they were free of the nagging doubts which plagued Electric Cafe and The Mix.

Every song is good as a song in itself (witness the Balanescu String Quartet's versions of The Robots and The Model), but it is the brilliant sound and arranging which stands out. Kraftwerk made the cleanest, most uncluttered music I have ever heard.

If you are looking for your first Kraftwerk album, start here (or TEE or CW).

You're able to listen to this CD without knowing it has been recorded 21 years ago. The only problem it it's only a 36 minutes CD...

To this day "Man Machine" is still my favorite Kraftwerk album, although "Computer World" runs a close 2nd. For some reason the sound of "Man Machine" takes me back to the late '70s (a time period on which I'm oddly fixated) like no other recording I own. I think the reason runs deeper than just nostalgia, I think Kraftwerk really captured the "spirit of the time" with this one, while still riding the cutting edge. Regardless, it would be a shame if this music were forgotten - Give It a Try!