Kraftwerk - Computer World turns 30 this month

It felt like it was just yesterday that I posted a "20 Year Anniversary" thread about this fantastic album. After all these years, this is still one of my top favorite albums of all time. The tracks Numbers/Computer World 2 changed the way I listened to music for the rest of my life. in 1981, I was a 9 year old boy living in the Queensbridge Projects secretly Break Dancing and Pop n' Lockin' behind my parents back. I was introduced to Kraftwerk when I was a part of a Break Dance crew called "Little Bugz!" A name given to us by one of the more older B-Boys on the Block. I was dubbed "Chizzle" back then which was izzle language for "chill" and a short version of "Chill Will". A few people called me "Chizzle Wizzle" but most just called me Chizzle.

Anyway. We were break dancing against another crew and the guy that provided the tunes via Ghetto Blaster was playing the typical b-boy hip hop stuff. but then when the Numbers beat dropped, so did my jaw. That moment was my very first music appreciation. before that i'd listen and be like "that's cool!" or "that sucks!"... but this track I was like "OMG!" It took me somewhere else. I asked the guy with the ghetto blaster what it was and a few days later, he gave me a mix tape which included the track along with Soul Sonic Force, Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five, Marley Marl, and some other local QB favorites. I treasured that mix tape to the point of when the tape deck ate it around 1989, I kept the casing. The casing was lost around the time my parents moved to Florida in 1992.

I went to a record store in manhattan with my uncle to get it when I had enough allowance money. I still have it to this day. So yes. Kraftwerk and Hip Hop molded the way I listen to music when I was 9. Through out the 80s I listened to both synth pop electronic music such as depeche mode, new order, pet shop boys and later industrial like nitzer ebb and skinny puppy and Hip Hop. Back in those days, it was pretty rare for a teenager to like both of those musical styles simultaneously. My hip hop friends would cap on me for liking synth pop and my goth industrial friends always questioned my liking of hip hop.j

But enough about my history with Kraftwerk, Hip Hop, Synth Pop, and Electronic Music. This is about 30 years of one of the most innovative albums of our time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQi78vlKKBs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBybJGZoCU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YPiCeLwh5o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuuR9hL4pgM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtWTUt2RZh0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d8ftd_pE6c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dppczm_TKMA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-XYuuhcXPQ

30 years yo!

anyone who doesn't move their arse when that live version of Numbers/Computer World comes on, there's something wrong with you.

electro as fuck

one of my favourite albums ever, too. Big'Up! it still sounds fresh even today.

also, awesome personal story there. thanks for sharing a bit about your musical past. always fascinating to hear of other people's journeys into sound

Ahhh yes. Computer World. One of the best. The perfect lethal combo of conceptual, influential, and technically and musically incredible. So often "classic" albums have two of those essential qualities, but Computer World if one of the few that has the trifecta.

The first "electronic" music album I ever bought with my own money.

I was 11. I was hooked on Beck's Midnite Vultures. (which was the first album I ever bought) Get Real Paid was my particular favorite. I would play it nonstop on our stereo at home. My mom had a good time watching me jump about, and when my dance session was ending one night, she casually suggested I look into some Kraftwerk. That weekend I was off to the store! They only had one Kraftwerk album. What a discovery. From the opening sixteenth notes of Computer World I knew this was something I was going to like. To this day I still give this one a good spin possibly every two months.

So many favorite moments.

Of course the seamless transition from Numbers to Computer World 2.

Around 4:48 in Computer Love where the bass changes chords too quickly to signal the first "bubbles rising" sound. So perfect.

from 4:20-4:50 in Home Computer. Those magical 30 seconds blew me away on the first listen. Totally proto-IDM IMO.

Thanks for making this thread. It's sad to me how the mainstream music critics seem to only remember Autobahn and TEE (?) as Kraftwerk's defining moments. TEE is great of course, but Computer World is head and shoulders above it melodically and rhythmically. It's funnier too.

Still sounds so fresh.

there is not a story

cool BUT.... electric cafe is cooler!!! :sup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BQsJb7w83w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix07wGATlHk

My dad used to play The Mix for us when we were really young living in the woods. I would run around the house giggling.

I listened to it a shitload at night in my room. The 'radioactivity' guy I think made me hallucinate scary robots around my bed.

Was passed down my dad's vinyl of Computer World when I went away.

  On 5/8/2011 at 5:59 PM, vamos scorcho said:

My dad used to play The Mix for us when we were really young living in the woods. I would run around the house giggling.

 

I listened to it a shitload at night in my room. The 'radioactivity' guy I think made me hallucinate scary robots around my bed.

 

 

 

 

Was passed down my dad's vinyl of Computer World when I went away.

this guy

love this album very much. must confess i only came to it recently (late 2010 maybe) by randomly downloading it. i assumed they were a gimmicky band but damn this record just blew me away with quality. i been listening to it pretty much daily since i first heard it and i bought the giant katalogue to catch up on the others too.

  On 5/9/2011 at 2:24 AM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

love this album very much. must confess i only came to it recently (late 2010 maybe) by randomly downloading it. i assumed they were a gimmicky band but damn this record just blew me away with quality. i been listening to it pretty much daily since i first heard it and i bought the giant katalogue to catch up on the others too.

how dare you.

j/k but seriously I'm gearing up to write my thesis about how hard kraftwerk own conceptually both in regards to their image presented to the west as well as their own post-war german identity. They were so incredibly culturally and politically conscious, only the way germans can be. it's really astounding. Kraftwerk are soooo much more than the music. Which is great too of course.

my fave kraftwerk lp

i remember reading that they remixed computer world and put a lot more bass/bottom end on the mix,pressed up some copies and gave them out as 4-5 lp sets @45rpm to all the detroit techno illuminate [atkins,crag,may etc and bombatta too]

man... I remeber Juan Atkins droppin' it at a Circa Rave back in 95 New Years Night! The night I proposed to my now wife! I probably should've proposed while the track was spinnin'.

I remember another time when I was at a Food 4 Less parking lot, I walked passed a parked car that was bumpin it. I had to stop and give him pound! It turned out the guy was from Queens NY too and he was a dj in the Riverside area. This was around the mid 90s as well. We kept in touch for a while but then he moved back to NY and we lost contact.

Now that Computer World is 30 it's gonna grow a goatee, get non prescription hornrims, an ironic belt buckle and a fixie and start dating slightly overweight 22 year old Asian chicks.

It felt like it was just yesterday that I posted a "20 Year Anniversary" thread about this fantastic album. After all these years, this is still one of my top favorite albums of all time. The tracks Numbers/Computer World 2 changed the way I listened to music for the rest of my life. in 1981, I was a 9 year old boy living in the Queensbridge Projects secretly Break Dancing and Pop n' Lockin' behind my parents back. I was introduced to Kraftwerk when I was a part of a Break Dance crew called "Little Bugz!" A name given to us by one of the more older B-Boys on the Block. I was dubbed "Chizzle" back then which was izzle language for "chill" and a short version of "Chill Will". A few people called me "Chizzle Wizzle" but most just called me Chizzle.

Anyway. We were break dancing against another crew and the guy that provided the tunes via Ghetto Blaster was playing the typical b-boy hip hop stuff. but then when the Numbers beat dropped, so did my jaw. That moment was my very first music appreciation. before that i'd listen and be like "that's cool!" or "that sucks!"... but this track I was like "OMG!" It took me somewhere else. I asked the guy with the ghetto blaster what it was and a few days later, he gave me a mix tape which included the track along with Soul Sonic Force, Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five, Marley Marl, and some other local QB favorites. I treasured that mix tape to the point of when the tape deck ate it around 1989, I kept the casing. The casing was lost around the time my parents moved to Florida in 1992.

damm

queensbridge in the house

i distinctly remember hearing it around the same time but a a roller rink in the boogie down bx

memories!

ny state of mind mang!

I first saw Kraftwerk in the dance tent of the Big Day Out in 2003. I got there super early and so got to lol my way through the massive cheese of most of Luke Slater's set. So the crowd was made up of indie kids, pretty much every hip hop artist that was playing the BDO that year, a large contingent of denim rawk kidz (early 2000s remember) and Luke Slater's crowd who were all pilling off their nutz.

I was right up the front listening to the intro tape thinking "Man, I hope they play lots of Computerworld" - for some reason I thought they'd go for the more obvious Autobahn / Man Machine stuff. Anyway next thing I heard was EINS ZWEI DREI VIER FUNF SECHS SEIBEN ACHT and I was like ooooh shiiit.

They opened the set with ALL of Computerworld as a huge medley (not in order tho). Fucking brilliant. All these people from different scenes were frothing and buzzing. People were literally crying with joy.

  On 5/9/2011 at 4:01 AM, analogue wings said:

I People were literally crying with joy.

proper pure dutch MDMA + kraftwerk=pre/post PLUR raver tears

It wasnt just the people on E that were crying.

  On 5/9/2011 at 3:52 AM, yikes said:

damm

queensbridge in the house

i distinctly remember hearing it around the same time but a a roller rink in the boogie down bx

memories!

ny state of mind mang!

Boogie Down Bronx! Man... there was some heated rivalries between the BDB and QB back in the day!

krs vs shan

bridge is OVER!

then came NAS /mobb deep

so much illness from queensbridge /hollis /bx/bklyn

too bad 98% of all new hip hop sucks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGnRyscgbw0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd1erWUpFlk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6vkk8Orsrc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJXVg2Ud1cI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YinhMSANjc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgr_nDzbTn8

mom and her sons laughing to 'Pocket Calculator' all the way to the post office.

then 'Dentaku' on the way to the dry cleaner

finally a wash of 'Music Non Stop' on the way home