Wolfgang Flür - Eloquence: Complete Works

A solo statement decades in the making from one of the founding architects of modern electronic music. Wolfgang Flür joined Kraftwerk in 1973, bringing with him the electronic drum pads board he and Florian Schneider had developed together, the world's first of its kind, and went on to appear on every Kraftwerk record through The Man-Machine, helping to define a sound that would shape popular music for the next half century and beyond. Eloquence: Complete Works is the definitive retrospective of everything Flür has created since stepping out from that legendary shadow, gathering his solo electronic pop output from 2002 to the present day into one authoritative collection.

To his considerable credit, Flür has not attempted to simply replicate the stripped-down minimalism of his former band. Where Kraftwerk pursued reduction and precision almost as a philosophical discipline, Eloquence moves in a warmer and more overtly physical direction, lush melodies fusing elements of house, techno, Krautrock, and spoken word into something that feels genuinely of the present while carrying the unmistakable weight of its creator's history. The opening track "I Was A Robot," sharing its title with Flür's 2000 autobiography that drew legal action from Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider for its revelations about life inside Kraftwerk, announces the collection with wry self-awareness. Key tracks "Beat Perfecto" and "Pleasure Lane" anchor a record that draws on an impressive range of collaborators including Annie Hogan of Marc and the Mambas, Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb, and vocalist Maki Nomiya, among others.

Lush, danceable, and steeped in the history of one of electronic music's most important careers, Eloquence: Complete Works is essential listening for anyone serious about the lineage of modern electronic music.