Komputerwelt
Kraftwerk's Komputerwelt is one of my favorite albums. In high school I'd listen to the cassette tape while driving around in the Jemez mountains in the falling snow, or sometimes in the moonlight during the summer, past the vast mountain valley known as the Valle Grande. What an amazing record; it's hilarious and serious, computer-made yet soulful, appalling and sublime. The last song on the album encapsulates the way I feel about it; the lyrics simply state "It's More Fun To Compute" in a dry computer voice over and over with gorgeous melodies and rhythmic beeps and waves of computer-driven noise. It's amazing from start to finish.
I played the album for my Dad back in 1981 when I first got the record and he really liked it. He was a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos and one of the first people to ever get an email address (back in the 60s on the bitnet). He worked with computers from early on, and was mildly interested in computer music (although not quite fond of it). He did like the Home Computer song... after he heard it he said "In 10 years everyone will have a computer in their house." My brother and I laughed; we didn't believe him at the time, in fact it sounded kind of ridiculous to us. In 1981 there really weren't "home computers," the only computers we ever came into contact with were at Dad's lab in Los Alamos; large main-frame computers like VAX, and Cray comptuers that took up entire rooms. A few years ago I reminded him of that story and he thought it was pretty funny. His prediction was off by only about two years. And now here I am starting my first blog, sitting in front of my Macintosh and thinking about Kraftwerk. "I program my home computer. Beam myself into the future."
The next time there's a full moon, get in your car late at night and listen to this album while driving around, it'll put things in perspective.
www.kraftwerk.com
Kraftwerk / Computer World
Label: Elektra
Year: 1981
1. Computer World
2. Pocket Calculator
3. Numbers
4. Computer World..2
5. Computer Love
6. Home Computer
7. It's More Fun To Compute
I played the album for my Dad back in 1981 when I first got the record and he really liked it. He was a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos and one of the first people to ever get an email address (back in the 60s on the bitnet). He worked with computers from early on, and was mildly interested in computer music (although not quite fond of it). He did like the Home Computer song... after he heard it he said "In 10 years everyone will have a computer in their house." My brother and I laughed; we didn't believe him at the time, in fact it sounded kind of ridiculous to us. In 1981 there really weren't "home computers," the only computers we ever came into contact with were at Dad's lab in Los Alamos; large main-frame computers like VAX, and Cray comptuers that took up entire rooms. A few years ago I reminded him of that story and he thought it was pretty funny. His prediction was off by only about two years. And now here I am starting my first blog, sitting in front of my Macintosh and thinking about Kraftwerk. "I program my home computer. Beam myself into the future."
The next time there's a full moon, get in your car late at night and listen to this album while driving around, it'll put things in perspective.
www.kraftwerk.com
Kraftwerk / Computer World
Label: Elektra
Year: 1981
1. Computer World
2. Pocket Calculator
3. Numbers
4. Computer World..2
5. Computer Love
6. Home Computer
7. It's More Fun To Compute
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