Since officially parting ways from Kraftwerk in 1986-ish, Wolfgang Flür has kept himself busy in the music business as a club DJ and also by collaborating with various dance and synthpop bands. A debut solo album wasn’t forthcoming until 2015, with a second, Magazine 1, to follow in 2022. As the title suggests, this was to be the first of a series of three albums, of which Times is the second, with the songs conceptualised around the pages of a glossy lifecycle magazine. Peter Duggal continues to be his main collaborator, with various other guest musicians, including another regular in the form of Peter Hook.
Of course, Wolfgang Flür didn’t have songwriting credits on any of the Kraftwerk albums but as well as his iconic contribution to the band’s sound he accumulated a wealth of experience in songcraft, and over the years has developed his own style. The result is that Times is immediately recognisable as a solo album from a former member of Kraftwerk, but with very different musical intentions. The concept of the album is writ large in the song titles, in the lyrics, and also in the music, which is brash and upbeat, and not surprisingly, coming as it does from a percussionist, very heavily reliant on beats and rhythms.
This is a long album, 13 songs and a running time of 70 minutes. If the name Wolfgang Flür has sparked an interest in this release but club music and synthpop isn’t really your ‘thing’ then you may not last the course. And that is where your friendly neighbourhood reviewer comes in, to do the hard yards and navigate you towards the more interesting elements, because we do get to see two sides of Wolfgang here. To put it in its simplest terms, spin the coin and it lands on either ‘electro’ or ‘electronic’, with the more interesting and progressive elements coming from the songs in the ‘electronic’ category.
Kicking off the album with the most brash and upbeat ‘electro’ track is a bold statement. Posh has the kitchen sink thrown at it, eliminating at a stroke any doubt about the nature of the album. A very late-period Kraftwerky melody opens the song and remains at the heart of it whilst Wolfgang weaves a series of catchy dance rhythms, and distorted vocals are mixed with spoken word passages that satirise the nature of Posh-ness.
I’m sure Planet in Fever could have been a much more interesting electronic song if it was presented as an instrumental piece but the music here is primarily an accompaniment to the rather clichéd lyrics and a not particularly inspiring chorus. The song is a collaboration with U96, a German techno group, and maybe there is also a point to be made in Wolfgang’s defence that this is an album made in Germany, incorporating European pop sensibilities that, here in the UK, we may not be as used to.
Cinema is a dense, multi-layered, club-style workout that infectiously combines the heavy weight of electronic percussion with some lighter shades of synth melodies. This one hits the sweet spot for me. Without trying too hard, or doing too much, it bounces along effortlessly and is unmistakeably how you might expect a Kraftwerk-inspired club groove to sound. Undoubtedly the pick of the ‘electro’ songs in the playlist.
After this brisk opening sequence of techno, we get three ‘electronic’ tracks where the emphasis is put more squarely on the creation of soundscapes. Far Away borders on ambient territory, consisting of a brisk but understated percussive rhythm that is intermittently broken into discordant phrases. Spoken-word vocals add to the darker feel of the track. Future One is an industrial-style electronic piece bringing the earlier Kraftwerk style up to the modern day. The vocoder-effect vocals are not particularly original but it suits the atmosphere of the track. Then, Uber_All, one of the two tracks to feature Peter Hook, offers up an epic trip to the stars, full of intense synth action, funky bass lines and non-stop imagination. These three tracks are what I was hoping to get from this album, a contemporary twist on electronic music with a hint of Kraftwerk running through it. Marvellous.
Magazine also opens up with a Kraftwerk vibe but it fails to ignite and fortunately it flickers only briefly. Like-wise, Property has the feel of a Kraftwerk B-side, or outtake. This synth-pop section also takes in the title track Times, a slower tempo song that, I hesitate to say, loses any potential for subtlety or progression due to the imposing and relentless percussion beat at the front of the mix.
The same criticism can be applied to Global Youth. A very promising opening section with some exquisite synth melodies is subverted by the same monotonal, monotonous backbeat. There are some more interesting instrumental breaks in the second half of the track, but the backbeat keeps re-appearing to distract attention. There seem to be very fine margins for error when it comes to engineering this kind of pure electronic music. Without a natural spark of creativity or originality songs can quickly lose their identity and the kling-klang of the synthetic sounds becomes clinical and soulless.
The next track Sexerciser certainly has an identity all of its own. It has that spark, and also a dose of of Germanic humour, and it displays all the hallmarks of the best that electronica has to offer. There are light synth motifs running all through the piece and engagingly complementary percussive elements, in this case, in perfect harmony with the vocals and lyrics. A hugely enjoyable serving of synthpop that will leave you amply satisfied; ooh err missus.
Hildebrandlied is the closest Wolfgang gets to replicating the classic sound of his previous band. Inspired by a Germanic heroic legend, the story is told over a musical arrangement that has echoes of themes and tones used across Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express album. With that pedigree, this is an easy track to fall in love with. The first half of the track is pure electronica, the lyrics in the main vocal section in the second half may well have been read straight of a Wikipedia page, but that slight niggle doesn’t overly detract from the overall sound, and a sense of relief that at last Wolfgang has provided this echo from the past.
This excellent run in to the end of the album is completed by Monday to the Moon, another song set in space, once more featuring Peter Hook, and also once more sounding just like we might have imagined Kraftwerk to sound like in 2025. There are moments, like this, where Wolfgang absolutely nails it with his mastery of all aspects, from the song-writing to the musicality and the sound engineering, so whilst the low points on the album are, for me, pretty low, these highs are absolutely up there. Wolfgang obviously has a much broader and sophisticated ‘electro’ palate than I could ever sustain, so fair-play to him for providing such an inspired smorgasbord, but tonight, Matthew, I will be playing tracks: 3,4,5,6,11,12 & 13.
TRACK LISTING
01. Posh (4:23)
02. Planet In Fever (5:36)
03. Cinema (5:17)
04. Far Away (7:22)
05. Future One (5:58)
06. Uber All (5:12)
07. Magazine (Imppu Rework) (2:42)
08. Property (4:58)
09. Times (5:27)
10. Global Youth (7:04)
11. Sexersizer (3:51)
12. Hildebrandlied (6:02)
13. Monday To The Moon (6:58)
Total Time – 70:00
MUSICIANS
Wolfgang Flür – Keyboards, Percusiion
Peter Duggal – Producer, Composer
~ With:
U96 – (2,11 & 12)
Boris Blank (10)
Thomas Vangarde (6 & 11)
Juan Atkins (1)
Antony Rother (8)
Emil Schult (2)
Peter Hook (6 & 12)
– Also:
Miriam Suarez, Fabrice Lig, NEWMEN, Rob Keane, Victoria Port, Jon Russel, Jeannine Flür
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Cherry Red Records
Country of Origin: Germany
Date of Release: 28th March 2025
LINKS
Wolfgang Flür – Facebook | Album Info at Cherry Red Records | Instagram
