So what’s everyone’s fav from these german folks? I’m not too versed in it. But kraftwerks the mix is a fav of mine
Well Einstuerzende Neubauten is my favorite (although that’s a bit later (starting in 1980)). Radioactivity would be me favorite Kraftwerk album. You also might want to check out Neu! and Can (great stuff).
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Harmonia is my favorite but CAN is a close second.
“Aguirre III” by Popol Vuh is, however, my favorite song, Kraut or otherwise. Brilliant bliss, it’s the sound of heaven and hell in lustful/blissful union!
if you can get any kratfwerk “auf deutsch” it’s even better than the english. “mensch machine” comes to mind.
oh yeah, and can can can. that one’s a given.
Are we talking about Germans in general, or krautrock in particular? The answer probably is Kraftwerk either way. Other krautrock favorites of my own: Faust & Can. Also, I think Reynols (despite being South American) has a sound that would appeal to krautrock fans.
Yeah Faust and Can are my faves as well. Can’s “Tago Mago” is an amazing album and “Oh Yeah” is probably one of the best songs out there.
Interestingly enough, my least favorite KW material is 1991’s The Mix, 2000’s Expo 2000, & the fairly recent Tour De France Soundtracks from '03. They all sound like they are (especially TDF) trying far too hard to stay hip, current, and contemporary. Minimum Maximum, their live CD/DVD is good but almost too sterile, even by KW standards. I much prefer the live “playing” as they did in their 80s shows and even up the early 90s gigs.
My favorite KW album is TEE, followed closely by ComputerWelt (the German-language version) and the Man Machine. Electric Cafe has gotten a bad rep in the past but it’s still a pretty groovy effort, it just sounds even more dated than its '86 release date suggests. Had it originally come out in '83 as planned and had a few additional tracks on it, it would have been far better received IMO.
Of the older Kraftwerk material, I find RadioActivity and Autobahn solid but kind of meandering and still rather experimental. Ralf and Florian is by far the best of their pre-Autobahn albums. It also has what might very well be the first use of a synthesized/processed voice on a pop record. The preceding albums, Kraftwerk 1 & Kraftwerk 2 are good but very much like toned-down Kraut-rock.
My personal pick is actually Ralf and Florian’s first effort as Organisation, “Tonefloat”. It’s a collection of REALLY trippy instrumentals and much more organic sounding than any of their later works. It’s fairly widely available as a bootleg and well worth the trouble tracking it down. Absolutely essential listening for any fan of pre-1975 Kraftwerk material!
P.S. If you are a fan of The Mix, then I highly, highly recommend Karl Bartos’ Elektric Musik side project, as it sounds very much like a KW album that might have been produced had Barton kept up the influence he started to wield in Electric Cafe. Wolfgang Fluer’s solo work as Yamo are also quite good, if a bit strange in parts (at least on Time Pie).
the vocoder ,dude!
i have never been able to find the original tour de france single that sounds so much better than what you can find now. the bike chain noises at the start, the heavy breathing, etc. anybody have it?listened to that a billion times and never had my own copy and now it’s like a dream.
as a once visitor to germany, when i was 19 (?) i actually went looking for kling klang studios.
I’m pretty so-so on “Electric Cafe” but I liked it a lot back in the late 80s so I get the appeal.
“Autobahn” is easily my favorite Kraftwerk album, when I was on tour with Avenpitch back in the day we listened to the title track over and over and over on the road, it brings back good memories for me.
I like “Man Machine” but have honestly heard it too many times so I’m going to have to give “Radio-Activity” as a second favorite.
As much as I like Kraftwerk, it bums me out a little to see them heralded as the best of the kraut scene by so many (and not just here). They’re great at being techno innovators but the glory days of Krautrock were so much more than the origin of techno…
green death, you’re right. but so many contemporary bands over the years have learned from kraftwerk’s manuevering rather than can or faust and the rest, even if they don’t admit it. easier on the ear perhaps.
Oh yeah, the original 12" version of Tour de France, the one with the heavy breathing & the chain sounds was by far the best. That was the one that really made the rounds in the hiphop community and was huge in the breakdancing scene back in '83-'84.
Electric Cafe has a great cover but most of the songs on there that had their earlier demo versions (from the aborted “TechnoPop” album) actually sounds better IMO. I know in particular the Sex Object works much better as the slowed-down “TechnoPop” version.
It’s a shame KW never released even a Tour de France EP with a handful of those songs on there. They are punchier and more like the early 80s electro ComputerWorld KW-esque sound than respun as early house-influenced mid-80s tracks. But you can see the “me too” aspect of KW’s material starting with Electric Cafe and continuing to all of their more recent stuff.
I really break KW into 4 phases:
Tonefloat–>KW2: Experimental, meandering organic Krautrock. Definitely an acquired taste (at best).
Ralf & Florian–>Radioactivity: Experimental electronic songs with some “real” instrumentation and the occasional pop bit.
TEE–>Electric Cafe: Their commercial & influential peak
Mix–>Minimum Maximum: The “Me too” phase designed to make some $ off their legacy and attract new/younger fans while utterly failing to innovate or even recapture the charm of their earlier efforts. This period for KW can be seen as analogous to all of Al’s work Dark Side of the Spoon material, just without the poor mastering and all that treble.
I did the mix probably since it was my first kraftwerk cd… we all tend to love the first cd we get by a band the best… i was maybe 14 when i got it, and listened to it every day while playing tomb raider 1 or 2… if that’s dating things a bit
Did anyone else ever watch Newton’s Apple on PBS? I was surprised to learn that the theme song came from one of the first Kraftwerk albums. Odd trivia…
did watch the show, but don’t remember the music–ages ago.that would make sense tho.
Also, for those Mike Meyers fans, that silly “Sprockets” SNL skit uses a faster version of Kraftwerk’s Electric Cafe (the actual EC song on the EC album).
The uses (intentional or otherwise) of KW samples are really far too extensive to document anywhere.
On a related note, here’s a nice YouTube version of the original “demo” version of TechnoPop. Super stuff & far superior to the reworked version that eventually ended up on Electric Cafe some 3 years later:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogP_9ftTqa0
Saw Kraftwerk last week in a big tent.
The guy who was always on the right was replaced by a new guy (who wassnt as good, he was a bit nervous). Other than that it was a great gig. ‘Numbers’ was a bit dissapointing but the other tracks were great. ‘Radioactivity’, ‘Autobahn’, ‘Trans Europe Express’ were highlights but the best was ‘The Model’. Pure class.
Mention of Popol Vuh on another thread got me rather kraut-sessed lately and I went on a bit of an emusic download spree. Very happy to hear Eno Moebius Roedelius album again after many years and am currently enjoying Cluster’s rather farty and sparse “Curiosum” which I’d never heard before. The last track sounds like a softened up version of Throbbing Gristle. It’s from '81 and really good.
What other Krautrock stuff are all y’all listening to right now?
Big fan of Cluster, as well as Tangerine Dream (halfway-counts), Faust and OH YEAH! Can, of course!
Anyone fans of Neu?
Some of my fave krautrock:
Agitation Free
Amon Duul II
Eno & Cluster
Brainticket
Annexus Quam
Faust
Can
Cluster
Guru Guru
Klaus Schultz
Ash Ra Temple
Popol Vuh
Neu!
Harmonia
Tangerine Dream
Love me some krautrock.