Customer Reviews

Radio-Activity

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When the name "Kraftwerk" is mentioned, I think what usually comes to most people's minds are "Tour de France" or "Computer World." I don't think I've ever heard anyone even mention this one. I grew up with a few Kraftwerk records, but I never heard Radio-Activity until relatively recently. This is a shame. I tend to think of their music as generally angular, sharp, cold, etc. Therefore I was surprised to hear so much warmth in this album (though the overall sound isn't THAT different... it's still unmistakably Kraftwerk.) It's probably their most "human" sounding album, for lack of a less ironic term. It's actually soulful. You can hear the genuine affection and romantic notions they clearly had for radio in all of its aspects. This is definitely my favorite Kraftwerk album and I insist that anyone who is even remotely interested in them gives it a try.

For whatever reason, when critics list the important albums in rock history, this relatively obscure little album by Kraftwerk is rarely (if ever) mentioned. Even in the context of the band's own canon, this album is often overlooked, most likely because it is overshadowed by the album the preceded it ("Autobahn" which was an unexpected worldwide hit) and the one that followed ("Trans-Europe Express" which was championed quite vocally by David Bowie and the music press in general.) It is this album though that was the real breakthrough. Originally released in 1975, here was the sound that would come to define pop music of the 1980's arriving fully formed and beautifully complete 5 years before the fact.
For this album, Kraftwerk has found the perfect balance of hardcore electro minimalism (the album's opening track "Geiger Counter" is 60 seconds of electronic pops and clicks - hence the title) and fully realized songs complete with gorgeous melodies and arrangements sounding like nothing that had come before or since (some of these songs are the most beautiful this band would ever record.)
The music contained on this CD is timeless. Unlike the worst of 80's synth music (i.e. the majority of it) this album sounds still sounds remarkably vibrant. The structure of brief vignettes coupled with more developed proto-techno workouts calls to mind the recent work of Scotland's Boards of Canada. This is the closest Kraftwerk ever came to perfection on record. If you have somehow managed to never hear this amazing album do yourself a favor and give it a play.

The first time I heard Radio-Activity, it annoyed the heck out of me, I suppose because I was too busy waiting for something to happen. But the next morning, I woke up with an urge to listen to it again, and suddenly loved it. Since then, I've been hooked. Out of Kraftwerk's albums, this one is bar none my favorite (with Autobahn close behind).

Radio-Activity is a concept album, and like most of the band's albums, it seems divided among two themes. One is a love of radio and communication. The other is a commentary on mankind's embracing of technology, especially radioactive energy (i.e. nuclear plants).

Those only familiar with Kraftwerk's dancier material will be caught off guard, as there really aren't any danceable beats to be found here. It's a very slow album, sparse and calm, with not much going on most of the time. Most tracks have a simple, soothing backdrop with a repeating melody, and a lot of random radio noises, geiger counters, and whatever else they threw in there. But there are downright beautiful melodies at the core of this album, and they will stay with you long after the initial listen.

And if you choose to think more carefully about the album's "concepts", it's even better. The title track sums up both themes succinctly, likely one of the most powerful tracks Kraftwerk has ever recorded. "Radioland" takes us on a random, soothing tour through the airwaves ("Turn the dials with your hand / Till you find the shortwave band"). "Airwaves" shows random static and beeps coming together into what resembles a song ("When airwaves swing, distant voices sing"). Then a brief newsbreak discusses nuclear power plants opening around the world. The centerpiece of the album is "The Voice of Energy", a short speech delivered by energy itself ("I am your slave and master at the same time / Therefore, guard me well"). It definitely pays to look up an English translation of some of the lyrics.

The second side isn't as thematically powerful, but still an entertaining listen, with the exception of "Radio Stars", which is a three minute waste of time that I always skip. But "Antenna", "Uranium", and "Transistor" are great, and the closer, "Ohm Sweet Ohm" is probably tied with "Autobahn" for my favorite Kraftwerk song ever. It starts seeming a bit boring, but it builds, until about 3 minutes in, when it becomes a full-fledged classical masterpiece.

This album affects me on a deeply emotional level. It's a great album to listen to at night, when you're all alone in the house, in a room lit only by the light of your stereo. The overwhelming message is that despite the possible perils, technology is a wonderful and amazing thing. Radio-Activity is an album by people who clearly spent nights at home listening to the comforting voice of the radio. This album is like an old friend to me, and I can't wait for it to be rediscovered...

This is my favourite of all the Kraftwerk albums and is a classic of the genre. Here they are still deftly straddling the line between very memorable pop melodies and electronic experimentalism. An absolute essential listen for fans of electronic and ambient music. They would go on to record more commercially successful albums like Trans Europe Express and the Man Machine ( a HUGE hit in Great Britain ) but they would never again achieve the perfect balance that they have here with Radioactivity. The opener " Geiger Counter" flows into the title track with effortless ease, and each track following pretty much sticks to a pattern of one song being ambient or experiemental and the next being more uptempo and/or more traditional in approach to the songwriting. My favourite tracks are "Antennae" "Ohm Sweet Ohm" and the aforementioned opening two tracks. I also really like " Airwaves" -it is a precursor to the techno-pop explosion of the late seventies/early eighties. Radioactivity is not only a criminally overlooked classic of electronic music, but it is also very influential and obviously way ahead of its time.

Kraftwerk's 1975 album Radio-Activity (this is the English language version), is apparently a concept album exploring the theme of radio communication. Interestingly, there is a staccato Morse code sound on the album that reminded me somewhat of the introduction to Astronomy Domine (Pink Floyd, 1967). Given the huge influence of 1960's Pink Floyd on the German electronic scene, this really does not come as a surprise. In general, this is a great Kraftwerk album and is a bit gloomier sounding than their famous Autobahn album (1974).

The lineup on Radio Activity included Ralf Hütter (vocals, electronic sound, drums, synthesizers, voice); Florian Schneider (vocals, electronic sound, drums, synthesizers, voice); Karl Bartos (electronic percussion); and Wolfgang Flür (electronic percussion). Although the liner notes do not say anything about instrumentation I was able to dig up the following "internet factoids" regarding equipment use on the album: (1) Ralf Hütter sings through a Roland RE-201 Space Echo on the song Antenna; (2) a military speech synthesizer, based on creating phonemes, was used on Radioland; and (3) In addition to the usual keyboard instruments (e.g. minimoog; ARP Odyssey; EMS Synthi A; and Farfisa electronic piano on "Transistor"), the Vako Orchestron (not a mellotron) was used to provide the warm choir sounds. For those of you that are curious (like me), the Orchestron was an analogue sampling instrument that used optical disks (rather than tapes) to store the sounds of real voices and orchestral instruments (e.g. choir, string and organ sounds). Initially Kraftwerk owned a single-manual Orchestron, but later, they used one with two keyboards which was used until the first half of the 1981 tour at which time it was replaced by the Polymoog (polyphonic) synthesizer. Other pieces of equipment used on Radio Activity included a vocoder, Farfisa Rhythm Unit 10, and even an oscilloscope. In contrast with Autobahn, the group did not use acoustic instruments (flute, violin or guitars) on this album.

The 12 tracks on the album are arranged in a suite of sorts that lasts for approximately 37'55", with the individual tracks ranging in length from 0'15" to 6'44. The music on Radio Activity is a bit more hypnotic, brooding and sullen than Autobahn, and yet is also more "mechanical" sounding than albums released by their peers including electronica giant Tangerine Dream at the time. Although the Orchestron contributes a very soft and spacey feel to the pieces with a luxurious cushion of "mellotron-like" choir sections, the thumping electronic percussion and "computerized" vocals lend a somewhat rigid feel to the music - yet not distractingly so. It actually makes for a nice contrast. Although I have described this music as brooding and sullen, there are a few cheery melodies and unaltered vocals that brighten the grey soundscape somewhat.

All in all, this is a great Kraftwerk album that is very enjoyable. Highly recommended to all electronica fans along with Autobahn (1974).

To me, this is Kraftwerk's masterpiece. They were past the Autobahn stage where they still wanted to give their songs an emotional touch, but they weren't at the Man-Machine stage where they got completely into the robot music sound. They were somewhere in between.

I've actually learned things from this album. Sure, it tells you about how uranium works and how stars emit radio signals, but I learned things about radio broadcasting. After listening to all the bleeps and buzzes of differing frequencies, you start to realize that that's all radio signals are. They're not songs being beamed through the air. It could never be that romantic. They're just waves of sound, manipulations of the air, if you will.

Radioacticity also gives one a faint chill about radioactivity itself. The first bunch of songs make radioactivity out to be a bad thiing that can endanger all of us. But by the end of the cd, we hear a voice repeating "Ohm, sweet ohm," that's followed by music that sounds almost gleeful, ignorant, and accepting.

I know I'm probably in the minority on this, but Radio-Activity is my favorite Kraftwerk album. It's perhaps the most experimental of Kraftwerk's albums from 1975 and later. The record is based on radios and radiowaves, so unsurprisingly, there's plenty of such noises on the record. This album also features some of the starkest pieces of minimalism to be found anywhere in short tracks like "Geiger Counter", "Intermission", "News", "The Voice of Energy", and "Uranium". Among the longer tracks, "Radioactivity" and "Radioland" are both a good bit more stark than later Kraftwerk material (particularly compare the original "Radioactivity" with the version on "The Mix"), while tracks like "Transistor" and "Antennae" are clear prototypes of much of the electronic dance music of the modern era (they're also both considerably better pieces of music than much of the electronic dance music of the modern era).

This release proves that, electronic music does not have to be obscured, complicated or disjoint to be good. Here is a sample of simple, smooth, and ever-pulsating space music, easily accessible and enjoyable. Still, by the standards of 1975, this is also a progressive work, a kind of electronic concept album that appears deceptively simple and easy to make. Well, not quite, for there is more depth here (especially in the title track 'Radioactivity' and in 'Ohm Sweet Ohm') than in Kraftwerk's previous album, Autobahn, also a good album in its own terms. I do like, though, Radioactivity (and Trans-Europe Express) better than Autobahn (personal preference, I guess). The synthesizers (not overbearing) and the electronic percussion are delightfully orchestrated, and the vocals do not take away anything from the album's atmosphere, they rather add to it... This CD can work as a background music, too, but its themes are so distinct and unique that they eventually demand the listener's attention: You really have to listen to this CD, both relaxing and stimulating, to enjoy it!

"Radioactivity" is the most difficult Kraftwerk LP to get into. Its corny lyrics ("Radioactivity, discovered by Madam Curie", "Ohm sweet ohm"), its ambiguous theme (pre-"The Mix" it was difficult to tell whether it was pro or anti-nuclear power) and its distinctly unfuturistic artwork (a World War II-era radio) somehow did not seem to fit with Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider's inscrutable coolness. Nevertheless, over the years, bit-by-bit, it has all come together for me...

The general concept, maybe, is this: it's late at night in the 1970s. An insomniac child plays with an old AM radio under the bedclothes in the dark. He is able to listen not just to the radio, but for the first time - via the radio waves - the universe. He is simultaneously fascinated and made uneasy by the noises he hears - distant voices and background radiation. For the first time he realises that there's more to the world than what is visible with the naked eye...he is connected to outer space from earth by primitive technology.

Kraftwerk's second "proper" album contains all the core elements of later electronica. Glacially cool melodies, a spirit of experimentation and a sense of menace - the kind of menace picked up on 15-20 years or so later by the likes of Suburban Knight and Basic Channel. For all that though, it remains a pop album - Kraftwerk never sounded closer to their heroes The Beach Boys than on this album and its predecessor Autobahn.

All of this makes even more sense in the context of this newly remastered edition. Beneath the incongruous bright red and yellow cardboard slipcase, you'll find that same old radio picture on the sleeve but this time with a full booklet which seems to draw on (the much more recent) Dopplereffekt (e.g. Calabi Yau Space) for its visual influences. This is interesting, since Dopplereffekt undoubtedly drew on Kraftwerk for their aural influences. And whilst I've always viewed remasters as being a bit of a cash-in, it must be said that the sound quality of this CD has truly been enhanced - dramatically so. The best compliment I can pay is that it's sonically on a par with fellow Germans Dubplates & Mastering CDs (the guys who did all the Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound and Maurizio albums).

If you're a fan of Kraftwerk who hasn't yet got around to purchasing "Radioactivity" - believe me, now is the time. If you're new to Kraftwerk it may take you a bit longer to appreciate, but I think you'll find that it's worth the wait. It's not only the most underrated Kraftwerk album but also the most atmospheric.

This album is really a turning point in the history of Kraftwerk.
I consider this to be one of their first really conceptual albums. This album is about radioactivity and shows the doublenature of this band. It's romantic about radiotransmissions and holds the sort of sublime beauty of listening to the shortwave a really cold winternight with stars glistning above, but it's also dark and tragic, warning about radiation. The title is really a quite dry pun. Active in Radio or Radioactive? And then there's of course the even more dry pun: the track called "Ohm sweet Ohm" that really evokes the classic german music tradition this band relies on, since the melody brings to mind the melancholy and monotony of Franz Schubert. I would really stress that this is the best Kraftwerk album and recommend it as an introduction to the band; it keeps the warm rock feeling from earlier days when the band played Hammonds and electric flutes but also points forward to the more cold and classic Kraftwerk sound. In fact, it's quite common that people who listens mainly to more "serious" music such as classical and modern art music - e.g american minimalism such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass - holds this to be their best album.