Kraftwerk were formed in 1970 by Florian Schneider and Ralph Hütter, two students at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf. Both were interested in the experimental music scene that was developing in Germany through the late ’60’s and early ’70’s (jokingly referred to by the Melody Maker as Krautrock, and the name stuck). Although Kraftwerk are best known for their purely electronic music Schneider played flute and violin and Hütter piano. A careful look through the credits for this album reveals Organ, Piano, Guitar and Flute appearing, so not fully electronic yet.

“Autobahn” has Kraftwerk honing their sound and moving closer to the fully electronic quartet we came to know but in 1970 they weren’t quite the ice cool robotic cats they are now known to be. Take a look at the picture of the band on the back of the sleeve, there’s long, lank hair and…beards, it could be a bunch of hippies on their way to a Grateful Dead gig! Bizarrely I’ve just looked at that picture on my copy (a 2019 Blue vinyl re-issue) and then compared it to the original German issue (don’t ask why it’s just the sort of thing I like to do) and, whichever band member is sitting far right (***) has had his head replaced…weird.

The music however is a lot more familiar. Synthesizers throb and pulse and blip and blop throughout, interspersed with flute’s and other occasional acoustic instruments. The few lyrics there are, are not exactly passing on earth changing truths “Wir fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn” translates as “We drive, drive, drive on the highway”. It is the reach for a purely electronic music that is important about “Autobahn”. The full length version of the title song (almost 23 minutes and covering all of side one) is hypnotically masterful. That was somehow edited down to 3 and a half minutes for a single release which started to pick up airplay in the US which led to a worldwide hit (#11 in the UK in 1974) and a US tour bringing them to an audience they could only dream about a year or so prior.

The rest of the album is instrumental ranging from the almost ambient to the more uptempo, electronic classical music, not yet having the pulsing, robotic style they would develop once Schneider and Hütter were joined in their best known line up by Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos, whence they fully embraced electronic instrumentation. Just to prove that music journalists are often stupefyingly wrong, “respected” US critic Robert Christgau felt the music of “Autobahn” was inferior to other electronic music of the time by Wendy Carlos (“Switched-On Bach” anyone ?) and Mike Oldfield !!! Kraftwerk were picked up on by the likes of David Bowie and Brian Eno giving them the reflected cool of such artists and becoming one of the most influential groups in modern music.

Autobahn - https://youtu.be/vkOZNJYAZ7c?si=Br0MDeZk52cj_yyf

(***)The picture of the band on the re-issue is the original picture, as it should be, and the chap on the far right is Emil Schult who appeared in the picture but did not actually play on the album. On the original German sleeve the head of newest member of the band, Wolfgang Flür, was superimposed on Shult’s body…mystery solved.

Ray Davies is inarguably (inarguably ? unarguably ? You know what I mean right ?) one of the UK’s greatest ever songwriters and “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society" goes a long way to explaining why this is so. It’s an album concerned with the cultural and social changes ripping through Britian, and the rest of the world, in the 1960’s. Davies was concerned about the influence of American culture on Britain (some of us still are !). Released in 1968 it was The Kinks first album that failed to chart in either the UK or US, critics loved it, the record buying public (yes, them again) didn’t !

At its core, the album is a nostalgic ode to a quickly disappearing way of life, the Enid Blyton/Famous Five idyll of some sketchy period in the 1940’s and ’50’s which Brexiters hanker after but may never have actually existed except in children’s books. Ray Davies paints vivid pictures of small-town England, its traditions, and the people who inhabit it. The songs are beautifully crafted, filled with delightful melodies and whimsical but insightful lyrics.

The album opens with its title track which sets the scene, a celebration of the simple pleasures in life, a heartfelt anthem for preserving what was, in the face of what is to come. It’s been done to death by too may people at Open Mic nights but it doesn’t make it any less of a great song

“Preserving the old ways from being abused

Protecting the new ways, for me and for you

What more can we do ?”

That’s followed by "Do You Remember Walter?" a song that always makes me think of our friend Matthew (his nickname was Walter). Listening to it here for the first time since his tragic passing earlier this year makes me wanna smile and cry in equal measure and music that can do that should be treasured

“Do you remember, Walter, smoking cigarettes behind your garden gate?

Yes, Walter was my mate, But Walter, my old friend, where are you now?”

"Picture Book," continues exploring the idea of memories, identities, and the passage of time, I shall try and forget how it was used in an advert for HP printers (or somesuch nonsense). “Last Of The Steam-Powered Trains”, shall we say, “borrows” the riff from Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” to tell the story of the end of steam trains, and how the passage of time affects us all and what we can continue to do

“Like the last of the good ol' puffer trains

I'm the last of the soot and scum brigade

And all this peaceful living is drivin' me insane”

Musically this is very much not The Kinks of “You Really Got Me” and “Til The End Of the Day”. Those records had a big influence drawn from American R&B whereas this (apart from the aforementioned Howlin’ Wolf steal) is decidedly English in nature, very folky. The Kinks had been blacklisted in America in 1965 after some “bad behaviour” on a US tour and didn’t go back for 5 years. Ray Davies has cited this effective ban as being responsible for his concentration on English focused music and lyrics. The lyrics here reflect that very English pastoral poetry of Blake and Wordsworth and a yearning for an idealised rural past.

“The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society" is a classic whose exploration of change still makes sense today. Its stories of nostalgia, identity, and the preservation of the past are universal, we all at times hanker for a past that will never come back.

"Do You Remember Walter?" - https://youtu.be/Erhio9iZpSU?si=kPND2sL5jrwktrqT

King maker's single “When Lucy’s Down” was produced and recorded by Pat Collier at his Greenhouse studio near Old Street in London in 1991, the very same Producer and studio responsible for The Wonder Stuff’s first two album so of course we were interested in having a listen. And what a single it was. We all trooped off to see them at the ULU and before you knew it Kingmaker were announced as the main support on the Wonder Stuff’s December 1991 “Sleigh The UK Winter Tour”. As a result I got to know them well and, when schedules allowed, worked on their crew on a number of UK tours.

They were a 3 piece which drew me to them immediately, an incredibly powerful live band, drummer John Andrew is one of the best I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. They wrote brutally honest and in some ways confrontational songs. I thought they were gonna be massive which probably cursed them from the off as my track record in that department ain’t great, sorry chaps (see Eat, Jellyfish etc. for proof). “Eat Yourself Whole” was their debut album released in 1991. Sadly my vinyl copy is largely unplayable due to the labels being stamped into the actual vinyl rather than where they should be in the middle, who knows what was happening at the pressing plant that day, so we’ll talk about it here, just briefly.

Drummer John Andrew was a big part of Kingmakers sound along with Liz Hardy’s guitar playing. Their songs were big and loud, see “Really Scrape The Sky” and “High As A Kite”. My favourites on here are two of the more sedate songs, “Freewheeling” and “Hard Times”…and after typing that I’ve just crashed into the realisation after 32 years that “Freewheling” isn’t on the vinyl version of this album, only on the CD…what were they thinking ?

I worked with Kingmaker on and off up until 1995 when we all went off and did other things. I had occasional contact with John and bass player Myles Howell but Loz seemed to disappear off the edge off the earth. I’d hear 4th hand tales of him living in a certain BritPop lady singers basement or he was in Europe somewhere teaching English. So it was fantastic back in August when a picture appeared on Facebook showing all three of them sitting around somebody’s dining room table drinking red wine and smiling. I liked Kingmaker a lot…

Hard Times - https://youtu.be/dnLki4x94sQ?si=Ed-MgLOK7Ux0hwiT