Kraftwerk: I Was A Robot

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…

Wolfgang Flür began his solo career in the mid-'90s, a decade after leaving Kraftwerk, with a Mouse on Mars-produced album under the name Yamo. He's since put out music under his own name, and has become more active since the 2000s, even if he hasn't been prolific on an album level. 2015's Eloquence (Complete Works) included collaborations with Meat Beat Manifesto's Jack Dangers, Anni Hogan, and (as a bonus track) Pizzicato Five's Maki Nomiya, as well as a previously issued single sharing the name of his controversial memoir, "I Was a Robot." (The other members of Kraftwerk took Flür to court over some of the book's contents, following its initial German publication.)

Kraftwerk (German: [ˈkʁaftvɛɐ̯k], lit. "power station") are a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1969 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre. The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. Wolfgang Flür joined the band in 1974 and Karl Bartos in 1975, expanding the band to a quartet…

When the Bureau B label contacted Karl Bartos and showed interest in releasing any archival material he might have laying around the lab, the former Kraftwerk member (that is, "classic lineup" member, joining for the Autobahn tour and leaving somewhere between Electric Cafe and The Mix) wasn't interested. After all, he's a never-look-back futurist, but as the liner notes to Off the Record explain, he's an open-minded futurist as well and allowed this initially rejected idea to morph into something new. Kicking off with "Atomium" - a grand bit of robot techno and possible sequel to Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" - Off the Record uses Bartos' archival tapes, zip drives, or computer files from 1975 to 1993 as its foundation, then mashes these off-hours audio sketches (recorded "off the record" from his usual band) with new ideas, overdubs, and vocoder vocals…

Coming almost three years after their excellent, unexpected, and infectious LP Electric, 2016's Super is the second album where the Pet Shop Boys call themselves "electronic purists," holing up in the studio with returning producer Stuart Price and a mess of PCs, drum machines, and synths. The musical landscape is the same and still, it's not a sequel or a very proper follow-up. It feels confident, loose, and free like a swaggering epilogue, like the smaller Quantum of Solace following the epic Casino Royale. At first, everything is in its place, as nostalgic single "The Pop Kids" acts as this album's "Being Boring" with alluring house music and quintessential PSB lyrics ("I studied History while you did biology/To you the human body didn't hold any mystery")…