HELLO
welcome
to Electronic Sound
OCTOBER 2015
“New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about pop muzik” is how the song
goes, right? It’s all about location, location, location. The blues from the Mississippi
Delta, jazz from New Orleans, Motown from Detroit, The Beatles from Liverpool...
Electronic music has its geographical hotspots, too. Sheffield gave the world The
Human League, Heaven 17, Cabaret Voltaire and Warp Records. New Order, 808 State
from Manchester, OMD from Liverpool, Mute Records from London, Detroit for techno.
The list goes on…
But the one place they all have in common is a wealthy industrial city in the west of
Germany: Düsseldorf, the home of Kraftwerk, arguably the wellspring of electronic
pop music, and certainly the primary influence for most of the synthesiser toting
artists who followed them.
How did this place produce a band like Kraftwerk? And while we’re at it, how did the
city birth acts as diverse as Propaganda and DAF? In this month’s issue we try to get
some answers by taking a trip to the heart of Düsseldorf, arriving via the old TransEurope Express route, how else? It’s a trip that finds our writer Jools Stone stood
at the former site of Kraftwerk’s legendary Kling Klang studio, describing it as “my
Cavern Club, Brill Building and Salford Lad’s Club all rolled into one”.
We continue our exploration of the city by celebrating the 40th anniversary of ‘RadioActivity’, the darkest of Kraftwerk’s five masterpieces, and talking to Düsseldorf
resident Wolfgang Flür as he releases his first solo album, a mere 30 years or so after
leaving Kraftwerk. We tell the remarkable tale of Propaganda’s ‘A Secret Wish’ album
and catch up with DAF’s Gabi Delgado on the release of his extraordinary new solo
album. We also take a peek inside the old Kling Klang studio itself, courtesy of Die
Krupps’ Rudi Esch.
It’s like being in Düsseldorf, without leaving the comfort of your own home. Sit back
and take in the views…
Electronically yours,
Push & Mark