Kraftwerk

This is the kind of show that almost never comes to our fair city, or any other midsize burg between the coasts. Kraftwerk, a German ensemble co-founded in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, is a legitimate popular-music pioneer, introducing electronic music to the masses with "Autobahn," which hit...

By Michael Roberts

April 17, 2008

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This is the kind of show that almost never comes to our fair city, or any other midsize burg between the coasts. Kraftwerk, a German ensemble co-founded in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, is a legitimate popular-music pioneer, introducing electronic music to the masses with "Autobahn," which hit the Top 40 in 1975. In the years that followed, the group established the template for virtually every popular electro act that's followed, and while its music might seem Teutonic, many tracks are oddly funky, which explains why rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa used "Trans-Europe Express" as the primary sample for his own groundbreaker, 1982's "Planet Rock." There's no telling why the group decided to stop here — or in Milwaukee and Minneapolis, two other unlikely locales — on the way to a Coachella festival performance that caps a four-city U.S. tour. Perhaps Hütter and Schneider have trouble reading English maps. But New York and Los Angeles's loss is Denver's gain.

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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