Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express (Limited Edition on 180g Clear Vinyl)

Released in March 1977, Trans-Europe Express is the sixth studio album by Kraftwerk. Across the album Kraftwerk celebrate Europe's romantic past and shimmering future with a glistening panorama of elegance and decadence, travel and technology. The infinite vistas of Europe Endless and Endless Endless bookend the album, which includes the unsettling kafka-esque fable The Hall of Mirrors and Showroom Dummies - Kraftwerk's elegantly ironic reply to critiques of their deadpan manner. But it is the streamlined rhythmic locomotive of Trans-Europe Express which dominates with its doppler-effect melodic swerves and hypnotic, pneumatic, piston-pumping rhythm. Along with its sister track Metal on Metal, which New York DJ Afrika Bambaataa would re-construct five years later for his own seminal Planet Rock, this milestone in avant-pop modernism later becomes a crucial influence on the early pioneers of hip-hop and sampling, electro and industrial music.

Trans-Europe Express continues to receive universal acclaim. Steve Huey of AllMusic wrote that the album ‘is often cited as perhaps the archetypal (and most accessible) Kraftwerk album… Overall, Trans-Europe Express offers the best blend of minimalism, mechanized rhythms, and crafted, catchy melodies in the group’s catalog’.

Track Listing

Side One

1. Europe Endless
2. The Hall of Mirrors
3. Showroom Dummies

Side Two

1. Trans-Europe Express
2. Metal On Metal
3. Abzug
4. Franz Schubert
5. Endless Endless