Autobahn animation

An 13' animation from 1979, inspired by the famous Kraftwerk track.

Where I picked it up (?...) , it mentioned that it was a back-projection for the group's live shows, which I considered to be a misunderstanding - the track hails from 1974 and by 1979 they had already fallen apart. It turned out it's actually a very early work of Roger Mainwood (better known for more commercial children animations, also check here) intended for printing on those huge video laser-disks, as mentioned here. Remember those, anyone? Anyway, it's a real '70s treat, all hand-drawn psychedelic art and stuff. Not much to do with the group's futuristic aesthetics actually, but in the end it works as a whole.

Kraftwerk - 1979 Autobahn animation
by Roger Mainwood

Check their cute Flash site here.

Most of us non-German-speaking people have probably missed the original versions of their songs, especially from the later era, which is a shame as they sound even more authentic than the international ones. Voices are more expressive and fluid, even sounding sarcastic at times (in the 'Model', for example) - far from the clinical, robotic profile they projected especially in the US. A (rather pumped up) german guy I met after the one Kraftwerk concert I've attended seemed seriously bumped due to their english singing, a reaction I then interpreted as exaggerations due to habit, or even downright chauvinism. It seemed appropriate to comment now on this, since it's my first post on them, I'm not german and since then I've realized how right the guy was.

A lot of documentaries on this seminal group can be streamed from YouTube, give it a try.