Seminal moments in the history of dance music number 1.
The germinating moment for British dance music occurred, strangely, in a 1975 edition of Tomorrow's World, which featured four young Germans dressed like geography teachers, apparently playing camping stoves with wired-up knitting needles. This was Kraftwerk performing Autobahn.
"The sounds are created in their studio in Dusseldorf," presenter Raymond Baxter explained, "then reprogrammed and then recreated onstage with the minimum of fuss." Here was the entire electronic ethic in one TV clip: the rejection of rock's fake spontaneity, the fastidious attention to detail, the Europhile slickness, the devotion to rhythm. It was sublime.
When Kraftwerk toured Britain later in 1975, David Bowie's patronage ensured a long line of followers from OMD to Underworld. Not that everything they planned came to fruition. "Next year, Kraftwerk hope to eliminate the keyboard altogether," Baxter told us, "and create jackets with electronic lapels that can be played by touch". It could still happen.
From -
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/15/kraftwerk-tomorrows-worldAutobahn is, 35 years later, a classic, a monument to the road, 22 minutes that fly by with rare beauty.
