Cosmic Rockers - More Fun To Compute

This is my very first song ... it's basic cut'n'paste, no own material ... done late 2006 if I remember correctly.

The idea was to rework my favorite Kraftwerk song and add what's missing in this teutonic piece of engineering - the FUNK. I took the beat from Planet Rock which is - to this day - one of the heaviest beats I know. Of course, in 1982 when Arthur Baker and Afrika Bambaataa produced this masterpiece, the boom hadn't been invented yet ... that's why I added a shot of that extra low end. I wanted the first half to have more of a verse/chorus structure and make the second half an extended outro which retains the symphonic, repetitive quality of the Kraftwerk original.

You know that little conversation in the middle of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message"? I have always wanted to appropriate this bit. And since I had already used the famous "Don't push me" part, I thought I could throw that in as an intro.

Influences:
- Kraftwerk - It's more fun to compute
- Afrikaa Bambaataa - Planet Rock
- Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
- Kraftwerk - Home Computer

Funny thing is, just a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a brilliant remix of "The Message" by a British outfit called Datashat. They are using the exact same sample, and also right at the start of the song ... I guess Hegel would have called that "ruse of reason".
Check it out:





A note on Kraftwerk remixes

I do realize that probably the last thing the world needs is another Kraftwerk remix ... most of them range from unbearable to plain awful. A noteworthy exception is what Anthony Rother did to "Trans Europa Express". He took the sluggish juggernaut steam engine and remodeled it to a REAL express train by increasing the bpm. The driving beat features prominently in the mix, while the rest of the instrumentation is reduced to a sparse frame. While the original version was still rooted in a long musical tradition - a symphony that went through several movements -, Rother's tightly composed Trans Europe Express has finally arrived in the Modern Age, thus realizing what was only hinted at but not unfolded by Kraftwerk.





Just as beautiful as his version of "Trans Europa Express" is Rother's remix of "Nummern / Computerwelt 2": see here.