Before getting into today’s listening experience, I want to review why I’m doing this. First of all, to reset my attention span to what it was before, we as a collective society were directed towards songs and not albums, thanks to playlists (whether they be curated or not). Secondly, I don’t want the album as an art form to be lost and that is despite that I don’t buy albums anymore, from record stores. I’ve purchased albums from iTunes and I am as guilty as anyone for cherry picking songs off of albums, but only because I didn’t know the artist well enough and didn’t have enough money in my iTunes account at the time, to purchase the whole thing. I’m trying to rectify that and it is taking a long time, as I have new albums which I want to buy and some on pre-order.
This brings me to another topic all together, of investing in what you buy and not just pre-ordering in the hope that you will have enough money by the time the album comes out. You may not be investing the same way you were when you were saving up for an album physically, but you still have to be financially prudent in a different way. You have to be sure you have enough money in your iTunes account which you have put in there, from your personal bank account in order to be sure that you have enough money to receive a charge from iTunes, when a new album or albums come out on a Friday.
Also, it has been 11 years today since I upgraded to the iPhone. Each post is a result of that and I am thankful for being able to use this device, in the shape of the various models I have owned over the years. Without which, I wouldn’t even be on here or Twitter…. or even zoom. Hell, I wouldn’t even have bought music online from iTunes or even considered streaming, which has its place as a test ground and I talked about that in a previous post.
I had another phone which talks using a Standard keypad but there was no way to check my spelling or copy and paste. Thank you Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, for both starting and continuing this journey. I honestly didn’t think I would be using this device, 11 years ago today as I was frustrated with having to go from one keyboard to another, much less a touch screen. Thankfully, I had and still have the same Bluetooth keyboard to help me with composing, along side dictation which is a great Saviour because I am a bad speller. Hopefully many more years of using the iPhone, to do everything I have done so far and maybe even more.
Today, let’s take a trip down the Autobahn with German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk, who had a fan in David Bowie and have since influenced many other musicians,whose main part of their sound has been the use of drum machines, synthesizers and in some cases, vocoders. Kraftwork have certainly made use of all 3 and thanks to Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter, we have the pleasure of hearing music which can be made electronically and with which sounds are nearly infinite. Consider what Trent Reznor has done with Nine Inch Nails and even the electronica which has come after he had become popular and combine that with Garry Newman, Depeche Mode, The Normal, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Kraftwork and many other electronic based bands and you have a large pallet of sounds to choose from, in order to make your albums sound interesting using keyboards and buttons.
Today, let’s travel down the Autobahn, whose 23 minute long title track certainly takes you on a trip throughout the piece. It should be studied in schools and should also be given time on radio, even if it is the single edit.
The rest of the album is made up of 4 shorter tracks and the final one, picks up one of the melodies from Autobahn, during one of its many changes, probably played on a recorder, flute and piano, thus making Morgenspaziergang the only song on this album to feature non electronic instrumentation on it. However, this track is not entirely devoid of electronic elements with the sounds being made up of what sounds like water from a brook or stream and a bird, made up of electronic sounds much like the title track. Speaking of which, the title track car sounds are real except for the horn.
I had first bought this album in July 2000 (as a German import) and again on iTunes, in July 2018 and as you can imagine, I was very happy to get it onto my phone, so I can listen to it anytime I want. I could’ve chosen other albums from their catalog, but I chose this one because it is the first of the landmark albums and its part electronic revolution. Think of the countless bands who had sprung up thanks to this album alone and if you consider Depeche Mode, along with many other electronic Centric bands you can thank Kraftwork for giving us these sounds, both musically and vocally. Even Alan parsons may have been influenced by this album on some of his records. let us not forget about Neil Young and his 1982 album Trans and his daring experimentation with Electronics, which probably pissed off his record company, but he didn’t care. I didn’t mind it either, as I found it interesting to say the least. It wasn’t his greatest work, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to see what he could do and how far he could take it regardless of what anybody felt, even fans.
Anyway, if you get a chance to listen to this album, do so and then listen to newer electronic albums by any band you know of, who had jettisoned reel instruments for keyboards, drum machines and in some cases, the Volkoder. Of course, why not take this album on your phone, on a drive with you? if you do drive a car and see how you react, when the title track goes through all of its changes in key and tempo. Of course, make sure that you are not streaming it and it is downloaded to yur device, so you can put your phone on Airplane Mode, so nobody can call you and disturb you, while you are going on both a musical and physical trip. If you do not wish to cut yourself off with Airplane Mode, then put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” and be sure that nobody is allowed to call, leave a message, or anything while you are listening to the album. That is the whole point of listening to an album in the first place. Right? To escape from reality for how ever long the music plays and when it is done, you can get back to dealing with life. So, as I finish this post, I will be putting the album on, but I will not go for a drive. I don’t and can not drive so all I can do is listen with the music up loud and block out everything at home for that while. I hope that others who are reading this will eventually delete playlists and start putting full albums on their phone, like I have done for years. I may not buy music on CD anymore, but I still believe that music is still more valuable than just a stream. I have practised what I have preached here and I long for the days, when I can go on a trip and listen to an album, without distractions and without having to put something in or on something else, in order to hear the music. Why? I’ve done that and now I would like to enjoy the full album listening experience, without the guilt of musicians complaining about people streaming more, than buying albums. Well, I keep repeating it, but I will continue to purchase music from iTunes as long as it is active and for as long as I am able to pay for it. I hope I never have to resort to only streaming, as musicians don’t make a lot of money from that. So, purchase albums and listen to them when you can. I am and I’m glad that I have plenty of songs and albums on my phone to choose from, depending on my mood and other variables. Anyway, I will be taking a break from documenting my album listening experiences for a while, but I won’t stop this daly practise, of listening to an album a day. I hope others will do the same, whether it is on your phone, or on CD or vinyl. We need to keep the album as an art form alive, even if it is just the music or else musicians may give up on making albums and release singles. Slipknot has been considering it and I wouldn’t put it past them to go down this path. I hope they don’t and we need to convince them and other bands who are thinking about it, to continue recording a bunch of songs, for an album and not just a pile of singles. Every song is in an order for a reason, which can not be explained, but when it works it certainly fits together.
Anyway, I’m gone and I won’t be back until my trip is over.
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