What would have happened if Kraftwerk, instead of having to build up Kling Klang from valves and wires, were presented with a bunch of synthesisers and sequencers and allowed to get on with it? Well, perhaps The Hacker would have been born. This is a trawl through the years – not extending as far back as the early 70s, but extending to the early 80s with remixes in tandem with Front 242, The Emperor Machine and Ellen Alien among the 16 tracks. A Notstandskomitee rework is a pulsating opener with requisite whooshes and blips and curious key and timeshifts, which you could almost dance to, had you imbibed enough class A drugs. Indeed, there’s more of a band formed 10 years later in this – Cabaret Voltaire that is, with funky bass and rolling synth lines as well as muttered, darkly threatening vocals. When the vocals come in- thanks to Liaisons Dangereux – you can, not unexpectedly hear shades of DAF in the Germanic tones. While nothing new, that’s no crime, as only Messrs Hütter and Schneider could truly object to plagiarism on the electronic realm. However, the Hacker is brimming with ideas has managed to issue an album which is a non-stop dance party which betters anything you’ll hear in the 21st century, and is – almost – a match for his predecessors from 30+ years previously.
