Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Midway Between Old and New, July 19, 2004
This album contains some of the last vestiges of the experimentalism of their first three albums. As such it doesn't always flow as well as the better integrated albums that followed it, or the preciding hit album Autobahn. The band also moved away from their German-only approach by making this a bilingual album, before they started recording separate versions. However, it does contain great songs like Antenna and airwaves as well as the title track as well as the spoken pieces, and Transistor is a gem. As a friend of mine once said, 'this is an album we would show to the aliens who visit us to show what we're capable of.'
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Turn the dials with your hands", July 26, 2005
Kraftwerk's 1975 album, "Radio-Activity," is an interesting album. It's sort of strange though. And it doesn't match the quality from some of their later albums, "Man Machine" from 1978, or "Computer World" from 1981. However, I still like "Radio-Activity." Where ever these four guys from Dusseldorf got their ideas from when puting this together, I don't know. But I have to say, this is sure something.
There are twelve tracks featured on this disc. Track one, "Geiger Counter," is just over a minute long. It begins with these thumping sounds. They go at around one beat per second and go slightly faster through the first half of the track. There are these two other sound effects, a zipper sound and some other sound (I don't know exactly what it is though) in the second half. Near the end of the track, the thumping sound speeds up and continues through the beginning next track, the song, "Radio-Activity," fading away after the first few seconds of the song. "Radio-Activity" is a very mysterious sounding tune and is the longest track on the CD at 6:45. It's sung in both English and German, and includes morse code. Track three is "Radioland," a soft melody featuring both regular human vocals and robot vocals. The song also includes various radio sounds. It's sung in German and then in English. "Airwaves" is track four. It's a more faster, more lively tune. It's a little weird. The Jetsons are the first thing to come to my mind when I hear "Airwaves," mostly because of how intergalactic sounding it is. Either than that, this is my favorite song in the album. Tracks 5-7 are all short tracks. "Intermission" is just musical tones, "News" is just people talking (It's hard to make out what they're saying) and different sound effects, and "The Voice of Energy" features only a robot talking in German. "Antenna" is track eight. It's a strange song with echoing vocals and laser sounds. Things get even more strange, and even spooky, when "Radio Stars" plays. "Radio Stars" features deep human vocals and the robot vocals from "Radioland." The only other thing included in the three-and-a-half-minute long track are these like broadcasting signals that go on through the whole track. This isn't even the spookiest track on the CD. "Uranium" has given me oodles of goosebumps the first time hearing it. I was driving down this rural road at night with no one else driving when I first heard this, a perfect time and place to be that freaked out. This track features a whispering robot voice saying "Through constant decay, uranium creates the radioactive ray" and then whispering in German. "Uranium" is ninety seconds long. Track eleven, "Transistor," is an istrumental at only two minutes and fifteen seconds long. It sounds something like a theme song to maybe a TV production company. The last track in the album is "Ohm Sweet Ohm." The track begins with these robots singing "Ohmmmm... Sweet Ohmmmm" seven times before the music starts. The rest of the track is instrumental, starting calm and getting more lively till its a happy, joyful sounding tune.
Overall, this is a neat album. I like it. I only wish they didn't need to use tracks 5-7. Tracks nine and ten I still like, even though I got shivers from those two tracks. I find this an enjoyable album.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kraftwerk/ Radio-Activity, June 21, 2005
Radio-Activity is a concept album about radio waves and their travels through space and time. This disc launched a series of classic music from Kraftwerk. The vocals are in
English and German. Great stuff from the innovators of electronic music. The CD comes with a booklet filled with lyrics and original art work. Got to love the simple cover.
Highly recommended.
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