REVIEW: Komputer, The World Of Tomorrow (Mute)
- Krisjanis Gale
Sometimes you have to look back in order to look far ahead...this perspective makes listening to Komputer's new release "The World of Tomorrow" much more profound.
Komputer is simple and repetitive, clinically structured, and also deeply captivating... but only to fans of Kraftwerk and their countless descendents. Komputer is NOT about throwing a dozen effects on a guitar and supplementing it with a badly reconstructed sampled breakbeat to issue some ill-conceived vision of the future; they are NOT here to give some dark political view warning of the effects of mass technological evolution; and they are certainly NOT here to emulate natural soundscapes through synthesis - quite the opposite.
Komputer has embraced the power of machines, have learned to adapt cold binary digits to human expression, and are offering a beautifully refreshing, totally artificial insight into the next stage of human evolution, as we grow beyond the flesh and deeper into the mind.
"Underwater cities / giant upper craft / automated factories / trips to the stars. Hydroponic farms /moving walkways / picture telephones / colonies on Mars"
This is precisely the vision once portrayed by Kraftwerk. I can think of no more qualified group than Komputer to carry their tradition of fearless technological worship, begun many a year ago.
