Kraftwerk THE CATALOGUE FOUR DECADES OF MASTERWORKS CD, CD BOX SET, VINYL & DOWNLOAD
Mute: OCTOBER 6, 2009
KRAFTWERK: Electro Pioneers, living legends and globally revered masters of electronic sound, celebrate the 35th anniversary of their landmark 1974 hit ‘Autobahn’ by releasing digitally remastered versions of their eight classic albums in a deluxe boxed set on October 6, 2009.
Rolling back musical barriers with every forward-thinking phase of their career, Dusseldorf’s Zen masters of electronic minimalism laid the foundations for four decades of computerized pop and dance music. By chain reaction and mutation, they have influenced generations of artists in all genres, mapping musical futures yet to come. From Bowie to Daft Punk, Aphex Twin to Portishead, Dr Dre to LCD Soundsystem, and almost everyone in between, the mark of Kraftwerk is endless, endless.
In 2009, Kraftwerk have upgraded their Kling Klang masters with the latest studio technology and these eight magnificent recordings still sound like nothing else in the history of music. Kraftwerk are unique, pristine, profound and beautiful. Decades may pass, but their streamlined synthetic symphonies stand outside time, as fresh as tomorrow, transcendent and sublime.
THE CATALOGUE BOXED SET (8CDs)
This 12” x 12” box set features all 8 Kraftwerk albums, including the 3 Warner Brothers releases. Each release is exclusively created just for this box set in mini-LP album style packaging complete with inner sleeves.
Restored and newly expanded artwork is presented in the form of 8 large format 12 to 20 page booklets, housed inside a rigid board slipcase portfolio
THE CATALOGUE
The following classic catalogue reissues are also available. Each CD is packaged in a deluxe slipcase housing 12 to 20 page booklets of restored, newly expanded artwork, including many previously unseen images all of which have been reproduced to the highest technical standards. Also available in limited edition, heavyweight vinyl LP pressings featuring large format booklets.
AUTOBAHN (1974) (CD/LP)
With its iconic Emil Schult sleeve, Kraftwerk release their international breakthrough album. The symphonic title track, an epic ode to the joys of motorway travel, wraps a mesmerising motorik rhythm around a sampled collage of car horns, engine noise, whirring tyres and radio crackle. In edited form, it becomes a revolutionary hit single around the world. Elsewhere, in wordless industrial folk music, the band reveal both their light and dark sides – ‘Mitternacht’ is all creeping midnight shadows, while ‘Morgenspaziergang’ is fresh with morning dew and birdsong. Two versions of ‘Kometenmelodie’, one a starkly gothic prowl, the other a sunny electro boogie, provide further instrumental sound paintings. Pure and strong and bold, Kraftwerk compose cinema for the ears. The pop world falls in love with them.
RADIO-ACTIVITY (1975) (CD/LP)
Kraftwerk embrace the atomic age with mixed emotions. Surfing on sine waves, scanning the stratosphere for stray radio signals, they plug themselves into a buzzing grid of energy and communication. From the stately eco-angst anthem ‘Radioactivity’ to the synthetic Gregorian chants of ‘Radio Stars’ and the melancholy machine processional of ‘Ohm Sweet Ohm’, a sombre but engrossing monumentalism dominates. With heavily processed vocals in both German and English, Kraftwerk go global with depth and majesty. If factories and power stations are the new cathedrals, they write liturgies for a new industrial epoch.
TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS (1977) (CD/LP)
Kraftwerk celebrate Europe’s romantic past and shimmering future with a glistening panorama of elegance and decadence, travel and technology. The infinite vistas of ‘Europe Endless’ and ‘Endless Endless’ bookend the album, which includes the unsettling Kafka-esque fable ‘The Hall Of Mirrors’ and the hilarious ‘Showroom Dummies’ – Kraftwerk’s elegantly ironic reply to critiques of their deadpan manner. But it is the streamlined rhythmic locomotive of ‘Trans Europe Express’ which dominates with its doppler-effect melodic swerves and hypnotic, pneumatic, piston-pumping rhythm. Along with its sister track, ‘Metal On Metal’ which New York DJ Afrika Bambaataa would re-construct five years later for his own seminal ‘Planet Rock’, this milestone in avant-pop modernism later becomes a crucial influence on the early pioneers of hip-hop & sampling, electro and industrial music. Poetry in motion.
THE MAN MACHINE (1978) (CD/LP)
A bold new look, sound and concept for Kraftwerk. Over supple processed rhythms which predate the rise of European techno and trance, they address automation and alienation, space travel and engineering, the seductive allure of urban landscapes and the vacant glamour of celebrity. Clipped and funky, ‘The Robots’ adds another dimension to Kraftwerk’s ultra-dry sense of humour. Behind its intoxicating melodic pulse, ‘The Model’ is a highly prophetic satire on the beauty industry, so ahead of its time that it only becomes a UK chart-topper by accident three years later. And ‘Neon Lights’ is Kraftwerk’s most achingly romantic song to date, a sci-fi lullaby for cities at twilight. Pure magic.
TOUR DE FRANCE (2003) (CD/LP)
The year 2003 marked the centenary of the Tour de France, the conceptual starting line for Kraftwerk’s first album for over a decade. Although it features an immaculate new version of a 20-year-old former single, the exquisitely graceful ‘Tour de France’, pop nostalgia is not on the menu. From the chunky cyber-funk of ‘Vitamin’ to the restless metallic shimmers of ‘Aéro Dynamik’, this is emphatically the sound of 21st century techno visionaries.
