During the mid-’70s, Germany’s Kraftwerk established the sonic blueprint followed by an extraordinary number of artists in the decades to come.

From the British new romantic movement to hip-hop to techno, the group’s self-described “robot pop” — hypnotically minimal, obliquely rhythmic music performed solely via electronic means — resonates in virtually every new development to impact the contemporary pop scene of the late- 20th century, and as pioneers of the electronic music form, their enduring influence cannot be overstated.

Kraftwerk emerged from the same German experimental music community of the late ’60s which also spawned Can and Tangerine Dream; primary members Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter first met as classical music students at the Dusseldorf Conservatory, originally teaming in the group Organisation and issuing a 1970 album, Tone Float. Schneider and Hütter soon disbanded Organisation, re-christening themselves Kraftwerk (German for “power station”), beginning work on their own studio (later dubbed Kling Klang), and immersing their music in the fledgling world of minimalist electronics; their 1971 debut, titled simply Kraftwerk 1, offered a hint of their unique aesthetic in its earliest form, already implementing innovations including Schneider’s attempts at designing homemade rhythm machines. Read the rest of this entry »

May The Funk Be With You, Always !

The first of many acts to cement the college town of Athens, GA, as a hotbed of alternative music, the B-52’s took their name from the Southern slang for the mile-high bouffant wigs sported by singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, a look emblematic of the band’s campy, thrift-store aesthetic. The five-piece group, which also included founding members Fred Schneider, guitarist Ricky Wilson (Cindy’s older brother), and drummer Keith Strickland, formed in the mid-’70s after a drunken evening at a Chinese restaurant; the band members had little or no previous musical experience, and performed most of their earliest shows with taped guitar and percussion accompaniment.

After pressing up a few thousand copies of the single “Rock Lobster,” the B-52’s traveled to the famed Max’s Kansas City club for their first paying gig. Subsequent appearances at CBGB brought the group to the attention of the New York press, and in 1979, they issued their self-titled debut album, a collection of manic, bizarre, and eminently danceable songs which scored an underground club hit with a reworked version of “Rock Lobster.” The following year, they issued Wild Planet, which reached the Top 20 on the U.S. album charts; Party Mix!, an EP’s worth of reworked material from the band’s first two proper outings, appeared in 1981. Read the rest of this entry »