Parlophone
Catalogue No: 190295272340
Kraftwerk celebrate Europe's romantic past and shimmering future with a glistening panorama of elegance and decadence, travel and technology. The infinite vistas of Europe Endlessand Endless Endless' bookend the album, which includes the unsettling kafka-esque fable 'The Hall of Mirrors' and Showroom Dummies' - Kraftwerk's elegantly ironic reply to critiques of their deadpan manner.
But it is the streamlined rhythmic locomotive of Trans Europe Express'which dominates with its doppler-effect melodic swerves and hypnotic, pneumatic, piston-pumping rhythm. along with its sister track, 'Metal on Metal' which New York DJ Afrika Bambaataa would re-construct five years later for his own seminal 'Planet Rock,' a milestone in avant-pop modernism which later becomes a crucial influence on the early pioneers of hip-hop and sampling, electro and industrial music. Poetry in motion.