Kraftwerk

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The story of the phenomenon that is Kraftwerk, and how they revolutionised our cultural landscape

'We are not artists nor musicians. We are workers.' Ignoring nearly all rock traditions, experimenting in near-total secrecy in their Düsseldorf studio, Kraftwerk fused sound and technology, graphic design and performance, modernist Bauhaus aesthetics and Rhineland industrialisation - even human and machine - to change the course of modern music. This is the story of Kraftwerk as a cultural phenomenon, who turned electronic music into avant-garde concept art and created the soundtrack to our digital age.

© Uwe Schütte 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

  • A highly stimulating critical biography. Written from a European perspective, Kraftwerk is a pleasure to read.

    New Statesman
  • An engaging critical introduction to the band … you can see them everywhere: most fascinatingly in hip-hop, most obviously in techno music, but also in the chrome-helmeted anonymity of Daft Punk, in the industrial philosophy of Factory Records and the Haçienda nightclub, and, ultimately, in the general trajectory of pop music ever since Kraftwerk’s run of great albums between 1974 and 1981.

    The Guardian
  • As the music of the 20th century fades from our ears, Kraftwerk’s sound is still moving.

    The Spectator
  • I read Uwe Schütte’s fascinating new book, and became convinced again of Kraftwerk’s peculiar genius … They remain revolutionary because they have given modern music its primitive pulse.

    Prospect
  • Schütte proposes that Kraftwerk was, in effect, a redemptive project, a reclamation of pre-war modernism and its aims … This book is the German take on the German pop phenomenon.

    The Quietus
  • Read Schütte’s entertaining and meticulously-researched history of the band and it’s hard not to conclude that Kraftwerk demand equivalence at least with the Fab Four.

    The Herald

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