Gesamtkunstwerk

The deadpan science-fiction pose would be enough to carry a lesser record. On Gesamtkunstwerk, the machine funk is too exact for the concept to become costume: clipped drums, cold surfaces, no wink in the delivery. The satire works because Dopplereffekt never break character. The concept can overshadow the tracks, and nobody else made electro this dryly funny.

Cold War science fetishism delivered so deadpan that people argued for years about whether it was satire. Perfect machine funk underneath, and the record the European revival has been quietly copying since. Gathered from sides that were never issued as an album.