Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity

Following the breakthrough success of 'Autobahn' in 1974, reviewed here, the next Kraftwerk album, 'Radio-Activity' was released in October 1975. Despite being released so soon after the band's first major record, this album shows a significant progression in style and is to be commended thus. This progression between albums is particularly significant in the case of Kraftwerk, which noticeably progress stylistically with every release.

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity

The album begins with a short introductory track, 'Geiger Counter' before the title track 'Radio-Activity' marks the first musical material of the album. This title track was the only track from the album to be subsequently released from the album and has since been incorporated in the band's contemporary live performances, also appearing in their 'Minimum-Maximum' live album, reviewed here. This is followed up with the highly bleak 'Radioland.'

Kraftwerk are noted as a major influence by many of the big names of the 80's synthpop movement, including Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD). When listening to a later track from the album, 'Antenna,' the clear parallels to synthpop music which was soon to become mainstream are clear. To a lesser extent, the band's use of the vocoder within their musical setting in tracks such as 'The Voice Of Energy' and 'Radio Stars' could be seen as popularising the musical effect into mainstream music, again this was used extensively later by a number of acts.

While the allusions to synthpop are clear throughout the album, the penultimate track 'Transistor' illustrates a musical style akin to the musical style of Vangelis. While this album lacks the same degree of an impact which the band's previous album 'Autobahn' did, the album remains a critical historic release which was highly influential on the subsequent development of western popular music. The album was of critical importance to the development of Kraftwerk's own music, bridging the gap between the experimental days of Krautrock and their later sequence based offerings such as the later 'Computer World' album which greatly influenced the development of techno music.

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