Lately, I seem to be stuck in synthesizer mode; Delia & Gavin’s Days of Mars LP has finally clicked for me, the Knife’s most recent record—at long last—has been issued in America and taken up residence in my car stereo, and a slew of releases from Ghostly International and Morr Music have provided the soundtrack to my everyday life since the end of April. But as much as I’m loving all this new music, electronic-oriented labels and artists are cropping up in ever-increasing numbers, much like rabbits, and it’s becoming harder and harder to keep up with the new hotness. Times like this make you want to take a step back, rewind the clock, and revisit some of the records that marked music’s first adventures into the world of sequencers and analogue circuitry. The influence these artists have had on their successors can be seen in nearly every genre, from techno producers to composers, from pop stars to indie rockers—it’s pervasive. So here you are, two massive slabs of synthesized goodness.

Kraftwerk, “Autobahn” from Autobahn
The robot road trip anthem of all time, “Autobahn” sees everyone’s favorite cyborgs delivering their defining statement. A 23-minute tour de force of arpeggiated synthesizers, rolling organs, vocodered choruses, and driving beats; this is the quintessential krautrock jam. With a more accessible sound than anything fellow Germans Can or Neu! ever released, this is the track that broke Kraftwerk to the international scene and cemented their status as electronic music superstars. Starting with the sound of an automobile pulling out of its driveway, complete with a couple of congenial synthesized honks, and quickly moving into a field of sweeping synthesizers and sing-song melodies, the track exudes a sunny Saturday afternoon kind of epic-ness. “Autobahn” is some of the most evocative music ever made: you can almost feel the sensation of the German countryside melting outside the window of your speeding car—even though they haven’t even left home. Even though I may have mocked its borderline kitsch-ness and—by today’s standards—dated sound when I discovered a copy in my Dad’s old vinyl collection many moons ago, I quickly came to understand the importance of this track. Oh, and the other half of the album is pretty phenomenal too, showcasing a more electronic sound that predicts Kraftwerk’s later, increasingly robotic, work.

Tangerine Dream, “Phaedra” from Phaedra
Where Kraftwerk created music for the real world, albeit one populated by robots and man machines, Tangerine dream were more concerned with the inner-space, using cutting edge technology to create immersive head music. One of the first records to focus on moog synthesizers and sequencers, Phaedra, released in 1973, predates Kraftwerk’s experiments with analogue technology by a full year. The title track is a mass of droning ambience and tangled polyrhythmic patterns capable of melting ears and blowing minds. At times approaching manic tempos while at others plunging deep into drifting atmospherics, “Phaedra” forces the listener to ride its synthesized waves of sound up and down like a rollercoaster, until it finally coasts to a lazy stop and gives way to the sound of playground chatter. It’s a dark, nearly claustrophobic track, surrounded by shadows and never really quite letting the sun poke through, but it’s also one of the most brilliant entries in Tangerine Dream’s catalogue—a catalogue that is chock full of brilliant albums. Along with 1975’s Rubycon, this is definitive Tangerine Dream, and absolutely indispensable listening for fans of electronic music.

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