Numbers

Recorded during the 1979–1981 Computer World sessions at Kling Klang in Düsseldorf, with the classic quartet line-up of Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, and Wolfgang Flür. The track is credited to Hütter, Schneider, and Bartos on the album. A centerpiece of Computer World, it captured Kraftwerk’s fully computer-age aesthetic at the start of the 1980s and helped push their rhythm language deeper into electro and early hip-hop. The track’s beat became a direct reference point for Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force’s “Planet Rock.” “Numbers” remains one of Kraftwerk’s most influential grooves because its rhythm was interpolated into “Planet Rock,” one of the foundational electro and hip-hop records. It is still cited as a template for later electronic and breakbeat production.