First thing first, if you’re reading this post and the name Kraftwerk doesn’t compute within your personal programming of musical knowledge then we suggest a little outside reading. Long story short if you thought Daft Punk were the God Fathers of electronic dance music, then Kraftwerk are the Great God Fathers. Like all true pioneers the German group pushed the boundaries of conventional thinking and explored, in their case, the uncharted territory of electronic music. Forming in 1970 to little fanfare and much derision “Spineless, emotionless sound with no variety, less taste… [and] damn little attempt to pull off anything experimental, artistically satisfying or new.” “For God’s sake, keep the robots out of music.” [Keith Ging Melody Maker 1975]. Despite this initial skepticism and like all the great explorers before them, they continued unperturbed toward their vision of the future, and by 1975 their track ‘Autobahn’ had crashed into the UK charts at No.11. Although critics were still generally unconvinced, much like when Dylan plugged in his guitar, Kraftwerk continued to confound conventional wisdom and by the early to mid 80’s the world had finally started to catch on to their vision, with three of their tracks being heavily sampled by artists we know also consider to be pioneers in their own right.
Afrika Bambaataa pilfered Trans-Europe Express melody to create the seminal hip-hop track ‘Planet Rock’, Juan Atkins then in his Cybotron guise looped up ‘Hall of Mirrors’ before he went on to create Techno, and our very own New Order sampled Uranium for their global smash ‘Blue Monday’, the blue print, non pun intended for electronic pop as we know it today. These samples and Kraftwerk’s growing discography cemented their position in music folklore and identified them as one of the most influential bands in modern music culture, with the Observer’s Jude Rogers recently stating “…no other band since the Beatles has given so much to pop culture. Kraftwerk’s beats laid the foundations for club music: hip-hop, synth-pop, techno and house“. So where does this leave the relatively unknown LOR with his recent ‘It’s More Fun To Compute’ rework, he’s certainly among very illustrious company?
The danger with announcing yourself as an artist via a remix or rework of a highly regarded and recognised artist, particularly one that has been sampled heavily over the years, is that you can either come across as disingenuous, “remixing this artist will get me noticed”, or as musically weak when compared with your more illustrious forbears. Having said that the flip-side is that your source material should be highly inspirational and like Bicep’s recent remix of ‘Isaac Tichauer’s – Higher Level‘ you have a great opportunity to augment the original composition. LOR falls into this latter category and like Bicep’s above mentioned remix the Belfast based producer has skillfully taken the original record to a higher level, creating a significantly credible and worthy addition to the ever expanding discography of Kraftwerk inspired records.
Thanks to FeelMyBicep for alerting us to this one, check their website for more rarities and under the radar discoveries.
Kraftwerk – It’s More Fun To Compute (LOR Resynthesis)