We're rounding the bend right about now, so I thought I'd throw in some Kraftwerk. I didn't have time to upload any Cluster. That'll have to wait.
From Nick Butler at Sputnik Music:
Although Autobahn was indubitably their most important work to the outside world, Trans-Europa Express was a massive album for Kraftwerk themselves. The follow-up to Autobahn, Radio-Aktivität, had been met with slight bemusement and vastly reduced success. Thus, Trans-Europa Express was a make or break record. The pressure was on, and so, Kraftwerk had to respond. They did so in a number of ways.
Like all post-Autobahn Kraftwerk records, Trans Europa Express has a unifying theme across all its tracks. Actually, that's not strictly true - Trans Europa Express has two. The first, and most obvious, is a celebration of Europe. Putting the album in context, it's easy to see why they did that - they were, after all, the most famous musicians from a country still stereotyped and stigmatized by large portions of the rest of Europe. Symbolically, they were making the first move to reconcile the differences. They tempered this with an undercurrent of train travel ("Metall Auf Metall", for instance, literally refers to the sound of metal on metal made by a train on its tracks), which is a clear homage to Autobahn. The other concept is one of identity, noted on "Spiegelsaal (Halls Of Mirrors)" and "Schaufensterpuppen (Showroom Dummies)" - the latter the album's biggest hit, and something of a thematic precursor to their smash "The Model".
The fact that Kraftwerk use identity as a concept may seem slightly strange, but to me, it makes sense. Radio-Aktivität had been a departure for Kraftwerk, being as it was the first of their releases to be composed entirely of short, easily digestable songs. It was also their first totally non-Krautrock album - almost all the signs of that movement had disappeared. It was a very conscious, very deliberate move - note how the band now refuse to acknowledge that they released anything before Autobahn, when it was in fact their 4th album. Seemingly, Kraftwerk were having a few problems with their own identity. Trans-Europa Express found them settling comfortably into their newly constructed identity. Die Mensch-Maschine would, of course, see them inverting, mocking, deconstructing, and reinventing that identity, but that's another story.
The music here is delivered with a great confidence, suggesting that either Kraftwerk were not intimidated by the pressure, or that they were revelling in their new way of working. Possibly, both. They sound more comfortable in their own skins than on Radio-Aktivität, that's for sure, and even moreso than Autobahn.
Technical Information:
Artist: Kraftwerk
Album: Trans Europa Express (2009 Remaster)
Year: 1977
Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 772 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 236 MB
Length: 0:42:46
Tracklisting:
01. Europa Endlos (9:41)
02. Spiegelsaal (7:57)
03. Schaufensterpuppen (6:15)
04. Trans Europa Express (6:36)
05. Metall Auf Metall (2:11)
06. Abzug (4:53)
07. Franz Schubert (4:26)
08. Endlos Endlos (0:47)
Trans Europa Express Megaupload Link