3. KraftwerkTrans-Europe Express
I had both Radioactivity and Autobahn, but this, it seemed like the new Europe. The cover of it had an almost sci-fi, future-past retro look: are they in the 1940s or 2040s? I’m a big, big pro-European anyway. I adore Europe and I adore European music. When I entered the Virgin Prunes in the 1980s, I embraced French culture, and German culture even more so. I think of all their work, this feels like their most complete symphony – the starkness of it, the eeriness of it and the relentlessness of it. And I always went, “Why is there a track called ‘Franz Schubert’? Jesus, do they think they’re classical musicians?” And then, when you look back, yes, they are classical musicians.
I remember I did a gig in Dublin called Tomorrow Belongs To Me in 2006 where it was a tribute to all things German, and I did a version of ‘The Hall Of Mirrors’ with an operatic singer, but I also did a version of ‘Showroom Dummies’. I remember reading that Kraftwerk were big fans of Iggy Pop. When I actually broke ‘Showroom Dummies’ down to that sort of Iggy stance of [adopts Iggy Pop’s voice and delivery on The Idiot], “We look around, we strike the pose, we’re showroom dummies,” I said, “Jesus! Maybe Iggy was really a big influence on that minimal lyric thing?” And then they talk on this album where they bump into Iggy Pop on the way to Dusseldorf.
A lot of the albums that I’ve picked are albums that I still play, but if I go put on Kraftwerk, I won’t put on Computer World or The Man-Machine, it’ll be Trans–Europe Express. It clicked into that dream of a new Europe that never fucking happened. It just transcends their other albums for me.
