James Brown is to hip-hop as Kraftwerk is to electronic music: both pioneered the use of a repetition-based rhythm as the basis for a musical form that has been sampled and imitated for years afterwards. Released in 1978, Man-Machine remains Kraftwerk's most accessible album, catching the group at its finest: the drum machine, the hypnotic melodies, the tranced out feeling the listener gets- this is the blueprint for much of modern music. "The Robots" was my first exposure to Kraftwerk, and I was thinking are these guys serious or are they joking? The answer is, they're being very serious about joking. I still can't take "The Model" 100% seriously, but drop it at the right moment and the dance floor gets all look at us, we're models. Listening to tracks like "Neon Lights" or "Spacelab", you might not be impressed, but it's the simplicity, the build-up, and the very fact that music did not sound like this before. Buy this album and have crackers for lunch tomorrow, it's worth it. Also includes "Metropolis" and "Man-Machine." Deluxe 180 gram 2009 import pressing with printed inner sleeve featuring the original cover and full color booklet featuring awesome photos of Kraftwerk from this album.

• 180 gram import reissue
• printed inner sleeve features original album art
• full color photo booklet
• part of the 2009 Kraftwerk Digital Master reissue series 
• music label: Kling Klang 1978 / 2009

reviewed by the mgmnt 11/2005