Radio-Activity

For other uses of "Radio activity" and "radioactivity", see Radioactive (disambiguation).

Radio-Activity
Studio album by Kraftwerk
Released	October 1975
Recorded	Kling Klang Studio - Düsseldorf, Germany
Genre	Industrial music Synthpop
Length	37:38
Label	Kling Klang EMI Capitol
Producer	Ralf Hütter Florian Schneider
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Drowned In Sound (8/10) link Mojo [1] Q March 1995 Rolling Stone (mixed) link Uncut [2]
Kraftwerk chronology
Autobahn (1974) Radio-Activity (1975) Trans-Europe Express (1977)
Singles from Radio-Activity
"Radioactivity" b/w "Antenna" Released: 1976, Capitol CL15853, UK "Radioaktivität" b/w "Antenne" Released: 1976, Kling Klang 1C00682119, Germany
Alternative cover
Cover design for the 2009 remaster

Radio-Activity is a 1975 concept album and fifth studio album by Kraftwerk. It was also released under the German name of Radio-Aktivität. Unlike Kraftwerk's later albums, which featured language-specific lyrics, only the titles differ between the English and German editions. The album is bilingual, featuring lyrics in both languages.

Background

The hyphenated album title displays Kraftwerk's typical deadpan humour, being a pun on the twin themes of the songs, half being about radioactivity and the other half about activity on the radio. More word plays are evident in the track listing: the cleverly titled "Ohm Sweet Ohm", and "Radio Stars", which as a title could refer to pop stars, but upon listening is revealed to be about quasars and pulsars.

This was the first Kraftwerk album to be entirely self-produced by Hütter & Schneider in their Kling Klang studio, and the first one to be performed by the "classic" Hütter/Schneider/Bartos/Flür line-up. All the music was written by Hütter/Schneider, with Emil Schult collaborating on lyrics. Schult also designed the artwork – a modified illustration of a late-1930s 'Deutscher Kleinempfänger' radio.

It was the first Kraftwerk album to feature use of the distinctive Vako Orchestron keyboard (choir, string and organ sounds), which the group had purchased on their recent US Autobahn tour and the Moog Micromoog which was used extensively on this album. Notably, it provided the harsh sounds on the track, "Antenna". The band's custom-built electronic percussion also featured heavily in the sound, and extensive use was made of the vocoder. The usual synthesizers were present (including Minimoog and ARP Odyssey), and Ralf's Farfisa electronic piano made a return on "Transistor". For the first time the group did not use flute, violin or guitars.

By 1975, Hütter and Schneider's previous publishing deals with Capriccio Music and Star Musik Studio of Hamburg had expired. The compositions on Radio-Activity were published by their own newly set up Kling Klang Verlag music publishing company, giving them greater financial control over the use of songwriting output. Also, the album was the first to bear the fruit of Kling Klang as an established vanity label under the group's new licensing deal with EMI. The album reached #59 in Canada, in February 1976.

The title track "Radioactivity" was released as a single, and became a hit in France after it was used as the theme to a popular music show. The song was later re-recorded by Kraftwerk for their 1991 album The Mix. It was further remixed, for subsequent single release, by William Orbit and François Kevorkian.

A newly remastered edition of the album was released by Mute Records and Astralwerks Records (in the US) on CD and digital download in October 2009, with a heavyweight vinyl edition set for release in November 2009.

Track listing

(English release titles / German release titles)

Side one

1. "Geiger Counter" / "Geigerzähler" – 1:07
2. "Radioactivity" / "Radioaktivität" – 6:42
3. "Radioland" / "Radioland" – 5:50
4. "Airwaves" / "Ätherwellen" – 4:40
5. "Intermission" / "Sendepause" – 0:39
6. "News" / "Nachrichten" – 1:17

2 - 4 written by Hütter/Schneider/Schult
1, 5 & 6 written by Hütter/Schneider

Side two

1. "The Voice of Energy" / "Die Stimme der Energie" – 0:55
2. "Antenna" / "Antenne" – 3:43
3. "Radio Stars" / "Radio Sterne" – 3:35
4. "Uranium" / "Uran" – 1:26
5. "Transistor" – 2:15
6. "Ohm sweet Ohm" – 5:39

1 - 4 written by Hütter/Schneider/Schult
5 & 6 written by Hütter/Schneider

Equipment

• Roland RE-201 Space Echo
• ARP Odyssey
• Moog Minimoog
• Moog Micromoog
• Farfisa Rhythm Unit 10
• EMS Synthi A
• Oscilloscope
• Vako Orchestron
• Votrax VS6 speech synthesizer
• Self-built electronic percussion

Personnel

• Ralf Hütter – voice, synthesizer, orchestron, drum machine, electronics.
• Florian Schneider – voice, vocoder, votrax, synthesizer and electronics.
• Karl Bartos – electronic percussion
• Wolfgang Flür – electronic percussion.
• Peter Bollig – technical engineer (Kling Klang Studio, Düsseldorf).
• Walter Quintus – sound mix engineer (Rüssl Studio, Hamburg).
• Robert Franke – photography.
• Emil Schult – artwork.
• Johann Zambryski – artwork reconstruction (2009 Remaster).

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Release details

The original releases of each format are shown below. These may differ from currently available versions.

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References