What does it sound like?:
These days, Kraftwerk are billed as “Ralf Hütter and Kraftwerk”, despite having been a Fab Four for most of their hugely successful career. Florian Schneider, the other original Kraftwerk mastermind, left after touring the world for Minimum-Maximum in 2005. Karl Bartos co-wrote much of the music from The Man Machine through to Electric Café. Emil Schult’s contributions were almost as substantial. Fritz Hilpert, a replacement for Bartos, was heavily involved in writing Tour de France Soundtracks in 2003 and is still a member of the group. There have been no new compositions since. Kraftwerk, sorry Ralf Hütter and Kraftwerk, are now a live act and this 3LP or 2CD collection of previously released tracks, with a few updated remixes, acts as a calling card for a new tour. As our friend Moose announced at the time, most of it has already been released on streaming services in December. This is where streaming gets physical.
Remixes demonstrates how Kraftwerk have kept the music alive even after they ran out of tunes. Music Non Stop was originally on 1986’s Electric Café, an album later rebadged as Techno Pop. The version here is derived from a jingle for MTV, a soft, almost seductive, thirty second snippet now extended to a dreamy eight minutes. Its title is also remixed into simply Non Stop. In 1991, Kraftwerk rearranged and re-recorded their ‘hits’ for the misleadingly labelled, The Mix. A number of singles, including twelve inch and CD singles, were released as part of the project, giving room for further experimentation. Both Robotnik and Robotronik are Kling Klang’s own but, for the first time, they allowed outside artists access to their material. William Orbit, fresh from working with Madonna, and François Kervokian, who’d helped produce Electric Café, stamp their personalities on Radioactivity. In 1999, Kraftwerk were paid 400,000 DM to conjure up a musical ‘signature’ for Hannover’s Expo 2000 Exhibition. It’s extraordinarily simple, using six languages and designed (rather than composed) for computers, phones and other electronic devices. It was released as a single plus a maxi version featuring a number of remixes, four by Kraftwerk themselves and three by Underground Resistance. Orbit and Kervokian, with Rob Rives, and DJ Rolando add more. By Minimum-Maximum, the tune had become Planet Of Visions. Tour de France Soundtracks also yielded twelve inch singles. The Aerodynamik single included a Kling Klang, a Kervokian and a Alex Gopher/Etienne de Crecy remix. A couple of years later, it was followed by a Hot Chip remix plus their take on La Forme. All this is brought together for this physical package with the addition of a Computer World remix, the CD version edited down to fit on the vinyl, just as La Forme is. The cover art is in their noughties style. For Kraftwerk, the visual presentation is usually of equal importance. They have even remixed the cover art of their classic LPs recently but, this time, it feels as though the image simplification process has gone too far.
Individually, the tracks are interesting and engrossing. Overall, the sound is smooth, flowing, pleasant. The bass is warm and cosy. However, the thrill has been extracted by seductive Artificial Intelligence. The defiant Kraftwerk saltiness is sweetened. There are no thunderous crunches of a train crashing into the buffers, no windows smashed in acts of liberation and no relentless pounding of an infinity of numbers. Amazingly, none of the remixers manage to create a genuine club banger, perhaps Kervokian’s Aerodynamik coming closest. The guests are far too polite to risk damaging their host’s best china. As a result, the whole thing is draining to listen to from beginning to end, especially the run of Expo 2000s, whose bare bones melody produces thin pickings. Indeed, it would be a struggle while lounging by a pool, overlooking the Mediterranean, sipping cocktails.
Remixes is for Kraftwerk completists and DJs and you will need the CD, the vinyl and the download if you are real completist. Sample before you buy.
What does it all *mean*?
The great news is that Kraftwerk are touring again. Catch them if you can.
Goes well with…
A very long electric car ride.
Release Date:
25/03/2022
Might suit people who like…
Kraftwerk. Or, sampling Kraftwerk for your own ‘creations’.
Moose the Mooche says
Well, let’s see how much traffic this gets compared to, I dunno….
Tiggerlion says
I did give you a shout.
Moose the Mooche says
Sorry, I didn’t see that. Great review btw, very accurate.
PS. Zeits have changed. Ralf Hutter was profoundly offended when ‘Ralf Hutter Organisation’ appeared was advertised on the bill of a festival in April 1970. He said he didn’t want a personality cult – actually he didn’t want his old man knowing that he was dicking about with hairy types.
Tiggerlion says
I’ll let you off. Normally you actually read my posts before commenting on them 😉
Moose the Mooche says
Yes, you’re almost unique in that respect…
GCU Grey Area says
Someone – very probably on here – said that Schneider leaving was the first time a member of a band left because of musical similarities. I listened to Tour De France soundtracks only yesterday, and it remains my favourite of theirs. Aerodynamik is a banger in my book and is most excellent played loud.
Moose the Mooche says
He left because he hated touring. He always had done.
Black Celebration says
I think TDF Soundtracks has become my favourite Kraftwerk produkt. I also revisit Minimum:Maximum quite a bit.
Tiggerlion says
I like Minimum Maximum a lot, too. The sound is magnificent. One of the greatest live albums of all time, IMV, even though all four musicians are credited only with “software synthesizers and sequencing” and no other instruments are used.
Moose the Mooche says
Planet of Visions is their greatest post-Computer World moment. And very much the “club banger” that Remixes lacks.
dai says
Did you review a stream of a physical release that is no longer just released as a stream but will now be physical, but not yet?
No interest in this but have a ticket for upcoming tour in June. For me seeing them live is like seeing the other Fab Four, I get almost hysterical
dai says
Oh and where are they billed as “Ralf Hütter and Kraftwerk”? I haven’t seen that
Martin Hairnet says
Nice review. Neon Lights on vinyl still gives me a wonderful sense of weightlessness and the Tour de France Soundtracks CD gets an airing in July, but that’s about all the Kraftwerk I listen to these days. Seems like the ‘brand’ has been in decline for decades. Why so little new material? I dabbled with some of the solo stuff from Karl Bartos, but nothing really stuck.
Leem says
Was it the Brazilian or Portuguese Ronaldo involved in the Expo 2000 remixes?
ip33 says
The new Wolfgang Flur is nicely bonkers.
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/wolfgang-flur-magazine-1-cd-edition/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0PWRBhDKARIsAPKHFGjnRNk7das6VJDhaEChR3ZeI-SwEIUyikY3QlzDt-8JuV4lYGyLoG4aAiybEALw_wcB
Moose the Mooche says
He’s bonkers. That book of his is terrible – albeit entertaining – but some of his music is pretty damn good.
In a perfect world he and Karl would rejoin Kraftwerk. But nah.
Paul Wad says
I’d like his new album more if it had none of the vocals
Moose the Mooche says
Imagine being the worst singer in Kraftwerk.
fatima Xberg says
“Ralf Hütter & Kraftwerk” ?? Where did you see that? Are you sure you don’t confuse him with Jeff Lynne? And btw, Kraftwerk did let other people remix their tracks for (mostly German and French) 12″ singles since 1981. 😉
Tiggerlion says
Ach. Perhaps someone else singled out Hütter for attention. I may have been hallucinating during the sixth version of Expo 2000.
Being Anglocentric, I was unaware of those other remixes. To be fair, Kraftwerk have hardly drawn attention to them since. I
Thanks, Fatima
Moose the Mooche says
The farming out of what became Electric Cafe to various New York bods was arguably symptomatic of their loss of confidence.
Paul Wad says
Just finished listening to the CDs. Despite the multiple versions of the same song it’s an enjoyable listen. The only issue I have is that I used Expo 2000 as my alarm sound for a while, back when I was working, and I grew to dislike everything I ever used an as alarm tune (see also Distant Lights by Burial and Leaving by Pet Shop Boys). So these songs have had to be rehabilitated so I can enjoy them again, without associating them with having to get up at 5am to get to Doncaster for the train to a meeting in Watford. To be honest, just hearing them indicating I had to get up and go and sit at the desk in the next room for 8 hours became enough for me to grow to dislike the songs.
Tiggerlion says
For that very reason, I use a traditional alarm clock sound for my alarm. My ringtone has been Black Satin by Miles Davis for some time.
Moose the Mooche says
The only meeting you should have at the end of that train journey is with Iggy Pop and David Bowie.
Hawkfall says
Oh for God’s sake, am I the only person who is going to applaud this comment? Tough rooms, these Kraftwerk threads.
Moose the Mooche says
Danke schoen mein hairy.
From station to station back to Doncaster city
Meet Bob from accounts and the regional sales manager
fentonsteve says
The 2CD set, by comparison to the album stream, replaces two mixes of Expo 2000 with the single edits of Home Computer and Tour de France (Etape 2).
If only they’d sequenced it differently to put the remaining seven mixes of Expo 2000 on CD2, I could have thrown it away without having to ever hear it again. I can’t imagine the torture of listening to all nine.
Moose the Mooche says
This version is indeed edited from the stream. You get the new TDF and Home Computer but you don’t get two mixes of Expo (Kling Klang 2000 and UR Infiltrated). They’ve also shaved off about ten seconds each from Robotnik and Robotronik. The 22 tracks across both versions would still comfortably on the 2CDs so I don’t know what they’re up to here.
What I really would have liked here is the original 12″ version of Computer World but that features the long-unpersonned Flur and Bartos and therefore can’t be considered. The original versions of TDF have also not been officially available for a long time. Ditto.
relax ladies etc
PS. ^ Ahhh! Fents has out-pedanted me! I’ll retire to the CD rack of Sainsburys with the other civilians.
Ooo look, Ed Sheeran!
Tiggerlion says
They are feeding into the obsessive-compulsive nature of some of their fans. They will have to buy everything, download, CD, LP.
I’d like some new tunes, please. The Kraftwerk world is now oddly archaic in the 21st Century. There must be at least some lyrical inspiration for them from the internet, social media and so on.
Moose the Mooche says
“the obsessive-compulsive nature of some of their fans”…. I don’t know what they’re talking about …. he said while listening to 50 minutes of Expo remixes.
(Actually the TDF material is where it’s at here. I don’t think much to Hot Chip as a band but those two mixes are fairly spunky. )
PS. The only “new” thing we’re going to get from K is yet another way to recycle their old stuff. They’re as shameless as the Stones in their own way. Of course they’re hamstrung by the need to write Karl and Wolfgang out of the picture, which was part of the motivation for changing the artwork on the old albums. More tours, the odd remix every five years, more coloured vinyl, that’s it. To think 19 years ago when TDF came out we were like, “Blimey, the first new stuff from them for 16 years!” as if that was a long time…
Of course what they’ll do now is bring out Kohoutek on the next RSD.
fentonsteve says
Seconded re: Hot Chip. I’m no particular fan, but their production on the new Ibibio Sound Machine LP is spot-on.
fatima Xberg says
In a recent MOJO article Florian Schneider is quoted with a remark about the Karl & Wolfgang era, »These were the best years in Kraftwerk…«.
Oh, and a good reason to remind you of The Wandering Stars, a German covers band feat. the singer from Alphaville, Florian on bass, and Klaus Schulze on keyboards:
Moose the Mooche says
Funny to see them together, KS hates Kraftwerk. Maybe Florian did by then too!
dai says
Saw them live twice about a decade apart, show was pretty much identical. Still very excited about next concert in a couple of months even if it remains the same
fentonsteve says
PS Moosey, if you need I can ‘help’ with TDF and CW 12″s. The only trouble is my vinlys are in storage while the builders are wrecking my garage, so you might have to wait a while.
Moose the Mooche says
Oh thanks but I ….. “have” them, it would just be nice to get some proper KK-endorsed remasters. Not gonna happen – the Flur and Bartos-free TDF is the only one that’s allowed to exist.
My 1983 12″ that I bought in Woolies in Cleethorpes in 1983 is all present and correct. As far as I remember this is the one that was officially released as a CD single apropos of nothing in 1999, I’ve never owned the 1984 12″ but have the remixes digitally somewhere.
rexbrough says
Moose the Mooche says
Now that I’ve caught up with the two “extras”:
This Home Computer is a clever Danny Krivit-style edit of the 1981 original, with a few bars of It’s More Fun… appearing about half-way through. Interestingly* enough this is the only time that Bartos and Flur appear on the whole collection. (Though allegedly Flur isn’t on CW… one for the really hardcore historians there). It doesn’t add anything to the original and all but hardcore completists will find it pointless.
The Tour de France is quite delicious, well worth hearing again. With the addition of a subtle, plooky little bassline this actually comes close to being the banger that Tiggs reasonably suggests is lacking on Remixes. It’s bloody great.
It’s worth saying* that there is an absolutely stunning 60-70minute CD buried in Remixes – probably by taking out all but one of the Expos.
*…or not
Tiggerlion says
I can’t find fault with any of that.
Moose the Mooche says
Eid Mubarak!