Electric Cafe

Where the album fails is that it lacks a real stand-out track to lend it focus: imagine The Man Machine without The Model smack in the middle, or Computer World without Computer Love and you get the idea – it all tends to drift. It doesn’t help that side one (the first three tracks) is virtually instrumental, so the songs don’t kick in until side two. Ironically, they did have a killer track that could have unified the album: Tour De France, released as a single three years earlier and supposedly the lynch-pin of their subsequently abandoned 1983 album, Techno-Pop (in fact the 1984 remix by Francois Kervorkian – available along with the original on the 1999 Tour De France CD single – would have slotted in on Electric Cafe a treat).

I won’t bore you with a critique of the music. Buy Trans-Europe Express, The Man Machine, Computer World, Tour De France (single) and Electric Cafe and you have their classic period (77-86) complete. The early albums are good but hardly techno-pop. When you hear the phrase “godfathers of techno” or “they invented dance music/trance/house/garage (delete where applicable),” it's down to these works.


A praise-worthy final throw from the quartet   October 8, 2003
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

"Electric Cafe" is a good album that came slightly too late to achieve greatness. It marks a time when everybody was moving towards samples and the digital audio domain, having had enough of touchy analogue synthesisers. Had it come out at the time it was intended, it would have pipped Jean-Michel Jarre's first major delve into samples on the fantastic "Zoolook" album by one year. However, rumour would have it that Ralf and Florian were unsatisfied with the state of the album at that time. That and Ralf's cycling accident delayed the album for another three years.

It was 1986 when "Electric Cafe" finally emerged, but even at that time when most other artists had to some extent caught up, the album still packs a few punches. The best thing about this album is the fact that you're left guessing what some of the songs are about; the themes are so ambiguous. If Kraftwerk haven't been as clever with the music on this album as usual, they certainly have with the lyrics and the ideas.

The best track bar one is the title track itself. With its multitude of vocal instruments, it provides a lush background, a strange melody and funny stuttering sample effects and multi-language vocal snippets that you'll find on almost all of the tracks on this album. Basic in theme, it simply intones a catalogue of everything that's good and groovy (or bad and cheesy, if you like) about modern times. Art, food, politics, music, and the atomic age all get a mention.

Second best bar one are the first three tracks: "Boing Boom Tschak", "Technopop" and "Musique Non Stop". It contains mostly rhythm and vocal samples with as little melody as possible. It has a theme that encompasses the whole of Kraftwerk's career, in that every sound you hear is music and every sound inspires you. Wherever you go you will hear music, even if it's simply the clanging of metal girders, or the repetitive sound of an industrial machine ("industrial rhythms all around", and in the Spanish lyrics, "music will bring new ideas and will continue forever"). It really is music non-stop.

"Sex Object" conforms to the rigidly sequenced style of the first three tracks. It has an extremely bland vocal track from Ralf, but you can't help thinking that it's meant to be that way as it tells the story of a sexual relationship that is totally devoid of any emotion. The lyrics are not specific, so you can take this as a homosexual relationship as easily as a heterosexual one. This track comes last of all of the tracks in terms of quality, but it's not bad. It's just not quite as good as the others.

And the one I keep barring? "The Telephone Call". The only Kraftwerk track where Karl gets to strut his vocal stuff is the highlight of the album. His voice could not be more different to Ralf's. Human-sounding and warm; it makes a welcome contrast. It tells the story of a man who is obsessed with somebody's voice, and constantly tries to hear it on the phone. But is it a real person he tries to call, or is he simply infatuated with a recorded message?

Budding recording engineers should listen to this track and be humble, because it doesn't get any better than this. Every voice, every sound, every instrument has its own place and space in the stereo field. It fairly boggles the mind, and considering it was 1986 when this album finally came out, it's a rare achievement that still stands up to this day.

How anyone can say that Kraftwerk had run out of ideas with this album is a mystery to me. There are so many ways to twist the lyrics that it's really a fun album.

Sadly, it does mark the last good work from the "four". It's all downhill from here.


stunning   June 28, 2003
D. Whiting
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

An amazing album. Recorded, some could say, years after their peak when other bands had caught up with them, yet, the minimalist approach works so well. The final, title track has got to be, to me, the most beautiful track they ever recorded. If you're even remotely interested in electronica and the founders of it then buy this album.


No other band could have made an album like this   May 22, 2002
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Electric Cafe is first and foremost a good album. The only reason it's not as well received as some of Kraftwerks previous albums is that it is not an improvement on its predecessor, Computer World, which is not surprising given the quality of said album.
It does lack some of the originality of Computer World but it is still an interesting and entertaining listen. Despite some flaws it is still an influential album. My favourite track on Electric Cafe is 'The telephone call' which was clearly an influence on Hexstatics track 'Communication Break-Down'.
If you own Computer World or The Man Machine then don't expect an album of that high standard but Electric Cafe is still a very worthwhile, albeit a bit short, addition to any collection.


Missunderstood classic ?   October 11, 2001
Bruce Percy
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This album is probably the most Kraftwerk sounding album: Industrial rythms, electronic synthetic sounds, computer generated voices, minimalist too. And the title has turned out to be prophetic - the Electric Cafe - could be a hint towards the global internet revolution. Quite a statement really.

When It came out, I was disappointed with it. Even so, I find that it is the Kraftwerk album that I have kept returning to over the years.

Listening to it again in 2008, I'm compelled to say that it still sounds very modern. That's quite an achievement for an album that is over 20 years old and my feeling is that Electric Cafe deserves to be considered as great as their other classic albums.

In 1986 it didn't sound as advanced as some of the other things that were coming out then - or so I thought - but in 2008, while most of the music from that era sounds like it came from the mid 80's, this doesn't. It sounds pretty fresh.