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Trans-Europe Express (album)
Encyclopedia
Trans-Europe Express is the sixth studio album
by German electronic music
band Kraftwerk
. Recorded in mid-1976 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the album was released in March 1977 on Kling Klang Records. The album's themes were influenced by friends who suggested writing songs about the Trans-Europ Express to reflect Kraftwerk's electronic music style. Critics have described the album as having two specific themes: celebration of Europe and the disparities between reality and image. Musically, the songs on this album differ from the group's earlier Krautrock
style with a focus on electronic mechanized rhythms, minimalism, and occasional manipulated vocals.
Trans-Europe Express charted at 119 on the American charts and was placed on the Village Voice's 1977 Pazz & Jop
critics poll. Two singles were released from Trans-Europe Express: "Trans-Europe Express" and "Showroom Dummies". The album has been re-released in several formats and continued to receive acclaim from modern critics who praise the album as one of the greatest and most influential records of the decade.
, Kraftwerk continued to move further away from their earlier Krautrock
style of improvised instrumental music, refining their work more into the format of melodic electronic songs. During the tour for Radio-Activity the band began to make performance rules such as not to be drunk on stage or at parties. Karl Bartos
wrote that about these rules, stating that "it's not easy to turn knobs on a synthesizer if you are drunk or full of drugs. ... We always tried to keep very aware of what we were doing while acting in public." During this tour, early melodies that would later evolve into the song "Showroom Dummies" were being performed. In mid-1976, Kraftwerk began to work on the album which was then called Europe Endless. Paul Alessandrini suggested that Kraftwerk write a song about the Trans-Europe Express to reflect their electronic music style. Hütter and Schneider met with musicians David Bowie
and Iggy Pop
prior to recording which influenced song lyrics. Maxime Schmitt encouraged the group to record a French language
version of the song "Showroom Dummies" which led the group to later record several songs in French. The album was recorded at Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf
. Artistic control over the songs was strictly in the hands of members Ralf Hütter
and Florian Schneider
with Bartos and Wolfgang Flür
contributing sequenced electronic percussion. Kraftwerk went to train bridges to listen to the sounds the train would actually produce. The group found the sound the train made was not danceable and changed it slightly.
An important piece of new equipment used on the album was the Synthanorma Sequenzer, a customized 32-step 16-channel analogue sequencer
made for the band by Matten & Wiechers. This allowed the construction of more elaborate sequenced synthesizer lines, which are featured prominently in the tracks "Europe Endless", "Franz Schubert" and "Endless Endless", and liberated the player from the chore of playing repetitive keyboard patterns.
Whereas Radio-Activity
had featured a mixture of German and English lyrics throughout the album, Trans-Europe Express went further and was mixed as two entirely separate versions, one sung in English, the other in German. At the recommendation of Maxime Schmitt, a French version of the song "Showroom Dummies", titled "Les Mannequins", was also recorded. "Les Mannequins" was the group's first song in French and would influence decisions to record songs in French on later albums. After recording the album in Düsseldorf, Hütter and Schneider visited Los Angeles to mix
the tracks at the Record Plant Studio. Elements of the mixing sessions that were done in Los Angeles were dropped from the album, including the use of more upfront vocals in order to do more mixing in Düsseldorf and Hamburg
later.
The artwork for the album cover of Trans-Europe Express was originally going to be a monochrome picture of the group reflected in a series of mirrors. This idea was dropped for a photo by New York based celebrity photographer Maurice Seymour, with the group dressed in suits to resemble mannequins. J. Stara's image of the group was taken in Paris and is a highly retouched photo-montage of Kraftwerk from their shoulders up again posed as mannequins which is shown on the American album cover. On the inside sleeve, a color collage of the group sitting at a small cafe table on the inside sleeve was designed by Emil Schult
. The photo for this scene was from the session by Maurice Seymour, taken on the group's American tour. Other photos were taken by Schult that show the group laughing and smiling. These were not used for the album's release.
... we had no musical or pop culture of our own ... there was the war, and before the war we had only the German folk music. In the 1920s or 1930s melodies were developed and these became culture that we worked from". Karl Bartos also spoke of post-war influence as the group thought that they "had this development in the 1920s which was very, very strong and was audio visual. We had the Bauhaus
school before the war and then after the war we had tremendous people like Karlheinz Stockhausen
and the development of the classical and the electronic classical. This was very strong and it all happened very close to Düsseldorf in Cologne and all the great composers at that time came there." Paul Alessandrini is credited for helping contribute to the album's concept. Alessandrini told Hütter and Schneider that "with the kind of music you do, which is kind of like an electronic blues, railway stations and trains are very important in your universe, you should do a song about the Trans Europe Express". Kraftwerk believed critics in the United Kingdom and United States associated them with Nazi Germany
, with tracks such as "Autobahn" inextricably linked with the Nazis who built the high-speed roads in the 1930s and 1940s. At the same time the band were keen to move away from their German heritage towards a new sense of European identity and felt that the Trans Europ Express
could be used to symbolize this. Allmusic referred to Trans-Europe Express as a concept album
with two different themes. The first being the disparities between reality and image, represented by the songs "Hall of Mirrors" and "Showroom Dummies", and the others about the glorification of Europe. Slant Magazine
described the album as a "a sonic poem to Europe".
The musical style of Trans Europe Express was described by Allmusic as melodic themes which are "repeated often and occasionally interwoven over deliberate, chugging beats, sometimes with manipulated vocals" and "minimalism, mechanized rhythms, and crafted, catchy melodies". Hütter has commented on the minimalist nature of the album, stating that "If we can convey an idea with one or two notes, it is better than to play a hundred or so notes". The first side of Trans-Europe Express has three songs. The song "Hall of Mirrors" has been described as containing deadpan vocals with lyrics that speculate how stars look at themselves in a looking glass. Hütter and Schneider have described the song as auto-biographical. The third track "Show Room Dummies" was described by Allmusic as "bouncily melodic in a way that most of Trans-Europe Express isn't" and with lyrics which are "slightly paranoid". The idea for the song came from a British concert review, where a critic wrote that Flür and Bartos looked like showroom dummies. Some versions of the song contain a spoken introduction starting with a countdown of "eins zwei drei vier" as a parody of the band Ramones
who started some songs with a quick countdown of "one two three four". The second side of Trans-Europe Express is a suite
with "Trans-Europe Express" continuing through to "Metal on Metal" and "Franz Schubert" before closing with a brief reiteration of the main theme from "Europe Endless". Allmusic described the musical elements of the suite as having a haunting theme with "deadpan chanting of the title phrase" which is "slowly layered over that rhythmic base in much the same way that the earlier "Autobahn
" was constructed". The song's lyrics reference the album Station to Station
and meeting with musicians Iggy Pop
and David Bowie
. Hütter and Schneider had previously met up with Bowie in Germany and were flattered with the attention they received from him. Ralf Hütter was interested in Bowie's work as he had been working with Iggy Pop, who was the former lead singer of The Stooges
; one of Hütter's favorite groups.
for the song "Trans-Europe Express
". The video features the group wearing long coats on a train trip from Düsseldorf to nearby Duisburg
. Photo stills from this video were later used on the single sleeve for "Showroom Dummies". Fröhling would work with Kraftwerk again on their album The Man-Machine
doing the photography for the album cover. To promote the album to the press in France, EMI Records
hired a train with old fashioned carriages from the 1930s to travel from Paris to Rheims while the songs from the album were played for the critics.
Trans-Europe Express charted higher in the United States than Kraftwerk's previous album Radio-Activity
by peaking at number 117 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes
chart.
"Trans-Europe Express" and "Showroom Dummies" were released as singles from the album. "Trans-Europe Express" charted in the Billboard Hot 100
in 1977 where it peaked at number 67. Trans-Europe Express began charting in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. The album entered the charts on February 6, 1982, staying in the charts for seven weeks and peaking at number 49. The single for "Showroom Dummies" entered the charts on February 20, 1982, staying in the charts for five weeks and peaking at number 25. In October 2009, a remastered
edition of the album was released by EMI Records
in Germany, Mute Records
in the European Union
and Astralwerks Records in the United States. This re-release was available on compact disc, digital download and vinyl and features a different album cover from previous versions of the album. This new version features a black background with white Trans Europe Express train in the center. The track listing on the 2009 re-release amends the titles of the songs to match original German release. This change has "Metal on Metal" being credited for two minutes of the music with the remainder being a track titled "Abzug" (English: "Departure").
gave the album an A- rating, stating that the album's "textural effects sound like parodies by some cosmic schoolboy of every lush synthesizer surge that's ever stuck in your gullet—yet also work the way those surges are supposed to work". Trans-Europe Express charted in the Village Voices 1977 Pazz & Jop
critics poll, placing at number 30.
Modern reception has been very favorable. Trans-Europe Express has the highest possible ratings from publications including Allmusic, Mojo
, Rolling Stone
and Slant Magazine
. Steve Huey of Allmusic wrote that the album "is often cited as perhaps the archetypal (and most accessible) Kraftwerk album ... Overall, Trans-Europe Express offers the best blend of minimalism, mechanized rhythms, and crafted, catchy melodies in the group's catalog". Sal Cinquemani of Slant described the album's influence as "unprecedented, reaching as wide as rock (Radiohead
's Kid A
), hip-hop (Afrika Bambaataa
's classic "Planet Rock
", Jay Dee
's recent "Big Booty Express") and pop (Madonna
's Drowned World Tour
, which incorporated samples of "Metal on Metal")". The British press also looked favorably on the album. Q
gave the album four stars out of five, stating that the album "changed the face of American dance music" and that it was one of the most compelling beats of this or any other era". In 2009 Drowned in Sound
gave the album a perfect rating of 10 out of 10, stating that "Trans-Europe Express is all at once antique, timeless, retro and contemporary. Its status as modern electronic music's birth certificate is well-earned, but its hallowed reputation should never be allowed to disguise its true value and power as a work of art. Nor should it obscure a longevity that, 32 years on, we might as well start calling by its real name: immortality".
Trans-Europe Express has also appeared on top album lists from a variety of sources. In 2001, TV network VH1
placed Trans-Europe Express at number 56 on their list of "100 Greatest Albums (of Rock & Roll) of All Time". In 2002, Slant Magazine
placed the album at number one on their list of the greatest electronic albums of the 20th century. In 2003, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 253 on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
. Channel 4
placed the album at number 71 on their list of top 100 Greatest albums. In 2004, the online music website Pitchfork Media
listed the album at number six on their list of top 100 albums of the 1970s, stating that "the day will soon come, if it hasn't already, that Trans-Europe Express joins the ranks of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
and Exile on Main Street as a record that simply cannot be written about".
2009 CD reissue
Technical
Graphical
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by German electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
band Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
. Recorded in mid-1976 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the album was released in March 1977 on Kling Klang Records. The album's themes were influenced by friends who suggested writing songs about the Trans-Europ Express to reflect Kraftwerk's electronic music style. Critics have described the album as having two specific themes: celebration of Europe and the disparities between reality and image. Musically, the songs on this album differ from the group's earlier Krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
style with a focus on electronic mechanized rhythms, minimalism, and occasional manipulated vocals.
Trans-Europe Express charted at 119 on the American charts and was placed on the Village Voice's 1977 Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
critics poll. Two singles were released from Trans-Europe Express: "Trans-Europe Express" and "Showroom Dummies". The album has been re-released in several formats and continued to receive acclaim from modern critics who praise the album as one of the greatest and most influential records of the decade.
Production
After the release and tour for the album Radio-ActivityRadio-Activity
Radio-Activity is the fifth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. Unlike Kraftwerk's later albums, which featured language-specific lyrics, only the titles differ between the English and German editions...
, Kraftwerk continued to move further away from their earlier Krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
style of improvised instrumental music, refining their work more into the format of melodic electronic songs. During the tour for Radio-Activity the band began to make performance rules such as not to be drunk on stage or at parties. Karl Bartos
Karl Bartos
Karl Bartos was, between 1975 and 1990, along with Wolfgang Flür, an electronic percussionist in the electronic-music group Kraftwerk. He was originally recruited to play on its US "Autobahn" tour...
wrote that about these rules, stating that "it's not easy to turn knobs on a synthesizer if you are drunk or full of drugs. ... We always tried to keep very aware of what we were doing while acting in public." During this tour, early melodies that would later evolve into the song "Showroom Dummies" were being performed. In mid-1976, Kraftwerk began to work on the album which was then called Europe Endless. Paul Alessandrini suggested that Kraftwerk write a song about the Trans-Europe Express to reflect their electronic music style. Hütter and Schneider met with musicians David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
prior to recording which influenced song lyrics. Maxime Schmitt encouraged the group to record a French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
version of the song "Showroom Dummies" which led the group to later record several songs in French. The album was recorded at Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. Artistic control over the songs was strictly in the hands of members Ralf Hütter
Ralf Hütter
Ralf Hütter is the lead singer, keyboardist, and reportedly leader of the electronic-music band Kraftwerk. Since the departure of Florian Schneider in 2008, he is also the group's sole remaining founding member....
and Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider-Esleben is one of the founding members of electronic music band Kraftwerk. He left the band in November 2008.-Career:...
with Bartos and Wolfgang Flür
Wolfgang Flür
Wolfgang Flür is a German musician, best known as a member of the electronic group Kraftwerk, from 1973 to 1987, playing electronic percussion...
contributing sequenced electronic percussion. Kraftwerk went to train bridges to listen to the sounds the train would actually produce. The group found the sound the train made was not danceable and changed it slightly.
An important piece of new equipment used on the album was the Synthanorma Sequenzer, a customized 32-step 16-channel analogue sequencer
Sequencer
Sequencer may refer to:Arts and Entertainment* Sequencer , 1976* Sequencer , 1996Technology* DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sample...
made for the band by Matten & Wiechers. This allowed the construction of more elaborate sequenced synthesizer lines, which are featured prominently in the tracks "Europe Endless", "Franz Schubert" and "Endless Endless", and liberated the player from the chore of playing repetitive keyboard patterns.
Whereas Radio-Activity
Radio-Activity
Radio-Activity is the fifth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. Unlike Kraftwerk's later albums, which featured language-specific lyrics, only the titles differ between the English and German editions...
had featured a mixture of German and English lyrics throughout the album, Trans-Europe Express went further and was mixed as two entirely separate versions, one sung in English, the other in German. At the recommendation of Maxime Schmitt, a French version of the song "Showroom Dummies", titled "Les Mannequins", was also recorded. "Les Mannequins" was the group's first song in French and would influence decisions to record songs in French on later albums. After recording the album in Düsseldorf, Hütter and Schneider visited Los Angeles to mix
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
the tracks at the Record Plant Studio. Elements of the mixing sessions that were done in Los Angeles were dropped from the album, including the use of more upfront vocals in order to do more mixing in Düsseldorf and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
later.
The artwork for the album cover of Trans-Europe Express was originally going to be a monochrome picture of the group reflected in a series of mirrors. This idea was dropped for a photo by New York based celebrity photographer Maurice Seymour, with the group dressed in suits to resemble mannequins. J. Stara's image of the group was taken in Paris and is a highly retouched photo-montage of Kraftwerk from their shoulders up again posed as mannequins which is shown on the American album cover. On the inside sleeve, a color collage of the group sitting at a small cafe table on the inside sleeve was designed by Emil Schult
Emil Schult
Emil Schult is a German painter, poet and musician.He is most famous for his collaborations with the electronic music band Kraftwerk. He has created most of their sleeve designs since 1973...
. The photo for this scene was from the session by Maurice Seymour, taken on the group's American tour. Other photos were taken by Schult that show the group laughing and smiling. These were not used for the album's release.
Music
Wolfgang Flür has stated Kraftwerk were influenced by music of the Weimar Germany era: "we were children who were born straight after World War TwoWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
... we had no musical or pop culture of our own ... there was the war, and before the war we had only the German folk music. In the 1920s or 1930s melodies were developed and these became culture that we worked from". Karl Bartos also spoke of post-war influence as the group thought that they "had this development in the 1920s which was very, very strong and was audio visual. We had the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
school before the war and then after the war we had tremendous people like Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
and the development of the classical and the electronic classical. This was very strong and it all happened very close to Düsseldorf in Cologne and all the great composers at that time came there." Paul Alessandrini is credited for helping contribute to the album's concept. Alessandrini told Hütter and Schneider that "with the kind of music you do, which is kind of like an electronic blues, railway stations and trains are very important in your universe, you should do a song about the Trans Europe Express". Kraftwerk believed critics in the United Kingdom and United States associated them with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, with tracks such as "Autobahn" inextricably linked with the Nazis who built the high-speed roads in the 1930s and 1940s. At the same time the band were keen to move away from their German heritage towards a new sense of European identity and felt that the Trans Europ Express
Trans Europ Express
The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express, is a former international railway service in Europe. At its maximum extent, in 1974, the network comprised 45 trains, connecting 130 different cities.-Origin:...
could be used to symbolize this. Allmusic referred to Trans-Europe Express as a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
with two different themes. The first being the disparities between reality and image, represented by the songs "Hall of Mirrors" and "Showroom Dummies", and the others about the glorification of Europe. Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
described the album as a "a sonic poem to Europe".
The musical style of Trans Europe Express was described by Allmusic as melodic themes which are "repeated often and occasionally interwoven over deliberate, chugging beats, sometimes with manipulated vocals" and "minimalism, mechanized rhythms, and crafted, catchy melodies". Hütter has commented on the minimalist nature of the album, stating that "If we can convey an idea with one or two notes, it is better than to play a hundred or so notes". The first side of Trans-Europe Express has three songs. The song "Hall of Mirrors" has been described as containing deadpan vocals with lyrics that speculate how stars look at themselves in a looking glass. Hütter and Schneider have described the song as auto-biographical. The third track "Show Room Dummies" was described by Allmusic as "bouncily melodic in a way that most of Trans-Europe Express isn't" and with lyrics which are "slightly paranoid". The idea for the song came from a British concert review, where a critic wrote that Flür and Bartos looked like showroom dummies. Some versions of the song contain a spoken introduction starting with a countdown of "eins zwei drei vier" as a parody of the band Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
who started some songs with a quick countdown of "one two three four". The second side of Trans-Europe Express is a suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
with "Trans-Europe Express" continuing through to "Metal on Metal" and "Franz Schubert" before closing with a brief reiteration of the main theme from "Europe Endless". Allmusic described the musical elements of the suite as having a haunting theme with "deadpan chanting of the title phrase" which is "slowly layered over that rhythmic base in much the same way that the earlier "Autobahn
Autobahn (song)
"Autobahn" is a song by German electronic band Kraftwerk, composed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider of the band, with Emil Schult collaborating on the lyrics. It is co-produced by Conny Plank, and was the band's first track to use sung lyrics...
" was constructed". The song's lyrics reference the album Station to Station
Station to Station
Station to Station is the tenth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released by RCA Records in 1976. Commonly regarded as one of his most significant works, Station to Station is also notable as the vehicle for Bowie's last great 'character', The Thin White Duke...
and meeting with musicians Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
. Hütter and Schneider had previously met up with Bowie in Germany and were flattered with the attention they received from him. Ralf Hütter was interested in Bowie's work as he had been working with Iggy Pop, who was the former lead singer of The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
; one of Hütter's favorite groups.
Release
Trans-Europe Express was originally released in March 1977. With the help of Günther Fröhling, Kraftwerk made a promotional music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for the song "Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express (song)
"Trans-Europe Express" is the title track of Kraftwerk's 1977 album of the same name, and released as a single at the time, and reissued on CD in 1990. The music was written by Ralf Hütter, and the lyrics by Hütter and Florian Schneider. The track is ostensibly about the Trans Europ Express rail...
". The video features the group wearing long coats on a train trip from Düsseldorf to nearby Duisburg
Duisburg
- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...
. Photo stills from this video were later used on the single sleeve for "Showroom Dummies". Fröhling would work with Kraftwerk again on their album The Man-Machine
The Man-Machine
The Man-Machine is the seventh studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in May 1978. It contains the song "The Model" which was a chart-topping single in the UK in 1982....
doing the photography for the album cover. To promote the album to the press in France, EMI Records
EMI Records
EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide...
hired a train with old fashioned carriages from the 1930s to travel from Paris to Rheims while the songs from the album were played for the critics.
Trans-Europe Express charted higher in the United States than Kraftwerk's previous album Radio-Activity
Radio-Activity
Radio-Activity is the fifth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. Unlike Kraftwerk's later albums, which featured language-specific lyrics, only the titles differ between the English and German editions...
by peaking at number 117 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart.
"Trans-Europe Express" and "Showroom Dummies" were released as singles from the album. "Trans-Europe Express" charted in the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in 1977 where it peaked at number 67. Trans-Europe Express began charting in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. The album entered the charts on February 6, 1982, staying in the charts for seven weeks and peaking at number 49. The single for "Showroom Dummies" entered the charts on February 20, 1982, staying in the charts for five weeks and peaking at number 25. In October 2009, a remastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
edition of the album was released by EMI Records
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
in Germany, Mute Records
Mute Records
Mute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...
in the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and Astralwerks Records in the United States. This re-release was available on compact disc, digital download and vinyl and features a different album cover from previous versions of the album. This new version features a black background with white Trans Europe Express train in the center. The track listing on the 2009 re-release amends the titles of the songs to match original German release. This change has "Metal on Metal" being credited for two minutes of the music with the remainder being a track titled "Abzug" (English: "Departure").
Critical reception
Initial reviews for the Trans-Europe Express were positive. Music critic Robert ChristgauRobert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave the album an A- rating, stating that the album's "textural effects sound like parodies by some cosmic schoolboy of every lush synthesizer surge that's ever stuck in your gullet—yet also work the way those surges are supposed to work". Trans-Europe Express charted in the Village Voices 1977 Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
critics poll, placing at number 30.
Modern reception has been very favorable. Trans-Europe Express has the highest possible ratings from publications including Allmusic, Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
and Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
. Steve Huey of Allmusic wrote that the album "is often cited as perhaps the archetypal (and most accessible) Kraftwerk album ... Overall, Trans-Europe Express offers the best blend of minimalism, mechanized rhythms, and crafted, catchy melodies in the group's catalog". Sal Cinquemani of Slant described the album's influence as "unprecedented, reaching as wide as rock (Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's Kid A
Kid A
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in October 2000 by the Parlophone label. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single or music video as publicity, Kid A...
), hip-hop (Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa is an American DJ from the South Bronx, New York who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1980s. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "Grandfather" and the Amen Ra of Universal...
's classic "Planet Rock
Planet Rock (song)
"Planet Rock" is a 1982 song by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. In the background and hooks featured Marvella Murray, Yvette Murray, Melissa Johnson and Sandra Wheeler. Although it was only a minor hit in the US, Canada, and UK, it helped change the foundations of hip-hop and dance music...
", Jay Dee
J Dilla
James Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...
's recent "Big Booty Express") and pop (Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
's Drowned World Tour
Drowned World Tour
The Drowned World Tour was the fifth concert tour by American singer-songwriter Madonna in support of her seventh and eighth studio albums Ray of Light and Music. It was also her first tour in eight years, following The Girlie Show World Tour in 1993...
, which incorporated samples of "Metal on Metal")". The British press also looked favorably on the album. Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
gave the album four stars out of five, stating that the album "changed the face of American dance music" and that it was one of the most compelling beats of this or any other era". In 2009 Drowned in Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
gave the album a perfect rating of 10 out of 10, stating that "Trans-Europe Express is all at once antique, timeless, retro and contemporary. Its status as modern electronic music's birth certificate is well-earned, but its hallowed reputation should never be allowed to disguise its true value and power as a work of art. Nor should it obscure a longevity that, 32 years on, we might as well start calling by its real name: immortality".
Trans-Europe Express has also appeared on top album lists from a variety of sources. In 2001, TV network VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
placed Trans-Europe Express at number 56 on their list of "100 Greatest Albums (of Rock & Roll) of All Time". In 2002, Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
placed the album at number one on their list of the greatest electronic albums of the 20th century. In 2003, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 253 on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
. Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
placed the album at number 71 on their list of top 100 Greatest albums. In 2004, the online music website Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
listed the album at number six on their list of top 100 albums of the 1970s, stating that "the day will soon come, if it hasn't already, that Trans-Europe Express joins the ranks of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
and Exile on Main Street as a record that simply cannot be written about".
Track listing
Original LP edition2009 CD reissue
Personnel
Musical- Ralf HütterRalf HütterRalf Hütter is the lead singer, keyboardist, and reportedly leader of the electronic-music band Kraftwerk. Since the departure of Florian Schneider in 2008, he is also the group's sole remaining founding member....
– voiceSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, orchestronOrchestronThe Vako Orchestron is a keyboard instrument, which produces its sound through electronic amplification of sound pre-recorded on an optical disc...
, synthanorma-sequenzer, electronics, producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Florian SchneiderFlorian SchneiderFlorian Schneider-Esleben is one of the founding members of electronic music band Kraftwerk. He left the band in November 2008.-Career:...
– voice, vocoderVocoderA vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
, votraxVotraxVotrax International, Inc. , or just Votrax, was a speech synthesis company located in the Detroit, Michigan area from 1971 to about 1996 It began as a division of Federal Screw Works from 1971 to 1973...
, synthesizer, electronics, producer - Karl BartosKarl BartosKarl Bartos was, between 1975 and 1990, along with Wolfgang Flür, an electronic percussionist in the electronic-music group Kraftwerk. He was originally recruited to play on its US "Autobahn" tour...
– electronic percussionElectronic drumAn electronic drum is an electronic synthesizer which mimics an acoustic drum kit.The electronic drum usually consists of a set of pads mounted on a stand in a disposition similar to an acoustic drum kit. The pads are discs with a rubber or cloth-like coating. Each pad has a sensor which generates... - Wolfgang FlürWolfgang FlürWolfgang Flür is a German musician, best known as a member of the electronic group Kraftwerk, from 1973 to 1987, playing electronic percussion...
– electronic percussion
Technical
- Peter Bollig – engineer
- Bill Haverson – engineer (The Record Plant, Hollywood)
- Thomas Kuckuck – engineer (Rüssl Studio, Hamburg)
Graphical
- Maurice Seymour – photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
- J. Stara – photography
- Günther Fröhling – photography (2009 remaster only)
- Ink Studios – typographic design
- Johann Zambryski – artwork reconstruction (2009 remaster)