Darryl “DLT” Thomson, DJ and producer
I was lucky to have a mum with eclectic musical taste – as you can tell by my DJing, I guess. She brought Trans-Europe Express home in about 1978 and that’s why, when I heard Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock, I knew what it was – and that tripped me out. That’s why I decided hip-hop was my thing, really – because of the samples in Planet Rock.
I seriously think that if we didn’t have Kraftwerk, if they’d stayed with rock music, we wouldn’t have got the metronomic sound that was required for the type of dance that developed from the sound. The robotic moves of B-boys and B-girls owe a lot to the syncopated beat.
Kraftwerk still matters. If you are fortunate enough to be a pathfinder or a scout within culture, then you’re relevant forever. Every record producer I know owes their life to those guys.
Martyn Pepperell, DJ and journalist
I was exposed to Kraftwerk as a kid through club and hip-hop records in the 80s, started looking into them more in the 90s, and really during the 2000s. I remember breakdancers dancing to their records on the streets in Wellington and there were always DJs around who specialised in that kind of sound. Funky robots and machines, what’s not to love?
I think that these days, we have more of a sense of their global influence and impact, but speaking personally, I think people overplay the impact they had on the first generation of Detroit electro and techno artists. Really, it was about a collision of influences from across the US, Europe and Japan being given the proper treatment in the Motor City. Computer World is probably the one for me. A large part of that comes down to the taut machine funk of Numbers and how cohesively the whole thing hangs together in terms of themes and sound. In a sense, it’s sonic speculative fiction about where they saw us headed with the rise of computers and technology. Funnily enough, Computer World was a mostly analogue production. I’m sure that would have been different a few years later.
Alongside groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra from Japan and Art of Noise, Kraftwerk really exemplify the moment when a generation of studio rats with big creative visions created a sleek technopop/machine pop sound that encapsulated the late-20th century’s wildest dreams for what the future might look like. At this point, it’s essentially wide-eyed retrofuturism, but in the synergy they found between sound, look and ideas, they gifted us a series of shining moments that have inspired generation after generation of hip-hop and electronica artists since.
Bill E, DJ and party promoter
I would have first heard them on 20 Solid Gold Hits volume 11, with the truncated, compressed version of Autobahn, but really engaged with The Model and was in from then on.
My favourite record is probably The Man Machine, although Computer World can swap places on a different day. Man Machine has the pop tunes for me, and it’s all killer, no filler. It’s the amazing humanity they can wreak out of machinery, which is their Midas touch for me. I still play Kraftwerk out– always goes down a storm. Why do Kraftwerk matter so much? You’ve heard Planet Rock, right? And anything from late 80s Detroit and Chicago? Seminal.
Samuel Flynn Scott, the Phoenix Foundation
The first time I heard their sound it would have almost certainly been Planet Rock. But then Luke [Buda] brought Trans-Europe Express on an early Phoenix Foundation tour and I think that was when the deep connection started. Their music can feel like goofy pop, or a deeply spiritual experience, depending on the setting. That’s their secret power.
Kraftwerk matter because they owed so little to the past. A complete rejection of old European values. They distilled the essence of the computerised future that most of the world still couldn’t imagine. It wasn’t a million miles away from punk philosophically but it used an entirely different musical language. Has there ever been a band that sounded less like anything else that has come before it?
Dave Ti, aka DiCE, DJ and producer
In some ways, I go back forever with Kraftwerk – I remember being shit-scared by the Robots video as a kid. Really, though, I know them more through samples and influence in the early 90s rave scene. I understand the influence and importance of Kraftwerk as a futuristic force with a vision that has everlasting reach.
