Elektric Music "Esperanto" Atlantic Records 82604-2 1993 (43:41)
TV (5:45)
Show Business (3:23)
Kissing the Machine (5:10)
Lifestyle (4:49)
Crosstalk (5:51)
Information (8:34)
Esperanto (4:45)
Overdrive (5:24)
Elektric Music is Karl Bartos with Lothar Manteuffel, Andy McCluskey and Emil Schult.
Overall impression: good. Elektric Music is the pet project of Karl Bartos, a member of the legendary band Kraftwerk. "Esperanto" continues in the same vein as Kraftwerk's '91 album "The Mix", utilizing the signature Kraftwerk sound. Every song has either vocals (Andy McCluskey of OMD does vocals on a few songs) or chopped up vocal samples backed by superbly sequenced, driving "techno" beats and bass. The lyrics/vocals are about what you'd expect, lines such as: "I press the key ... and watch TV", "this is the age of show business ... get an image fix", "information wants to be free" and "you've got the perfect pitch ... for the universal language". "Lifestyle", "Crosstalk" and "Information" have some really cool cut-up vocal samples and/or the classic vocoded robotic vocals too. Good stuff, but not necessarily groundbreaking or revolutionary ... sort of a poppier, more mainstream version of Kraftwerk. If you like "The Mix", you should probably give this one a try. There were also singles available for "Crosstalk", "TV" and "Lifestyle". Beware of the 2nd album, 1998's "Electric Music" ... apparently this album is 99% guitar pop (yep, you read that right!)