About this item

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 the hilarious "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 & sampling, electro and industrial music. Poetry in motion.