Best Kraftwerk Album

Derrick May was beautiful, most of the rest of it was the usual supertrite cobblers, just stick up all the concert footage you've got and stfu imo

http://youtu.be/JHhBfx0ILkY?t=38m17s

this performance is fantastic too, hadn't seen it before and was worth ignoring the blathering heads for

lol yeah - blew the whole they are robots and don't interact.

I mean its mostly true but that was great. thx for posting it.

fucking Coldplay barely even deserve a mention in an hour long Kraftwerk documentary, let alone 2 minutes

Argh, now it's jumped back to them again! What the fuck

ah dammit, had been looking forward to watching the entire German documentary NV posted when I had an hour to spare, but it has been mercilessly yanked from youtube already

:(

it was just a dub of the one shown on BBC4 i think, don't know if there were different talking heads

ohh ok

I would hope there would be less Coldplay in the German version but probably no such luck

i only looked for that "rocking out" bit, don't know if there was a German Paul Morley or what

Klaus Mehrlig or something

That documentary would be quite a good intro for people who know nothing about Kraftwerk tbf

Also I just got Electric Cafe and it sucks :(

OK it's not a complete disaster but compared to their other albums it isn't very good at all

stick with it

I've been sticking with it since 1986 and it still sucks.

Too bad for you. IMO it's the album that benefited the most from the remastering job. "Boing" and "Musique" are pretty massive on the new edition.

a few weeks ago i succumbed to the urge and tracked down a copy of each remastered edition.
and yeah, EC/TP does sound really good now.
that said, i have the original vinyl, and have always had a soft spot for this album.
goes nicely alongside the other digital/sample/vocal cut up album of the era - zoolook by jean-michel jarre

those remasters are excellent. glad someone brought up Zoolook - IMO it's a better album but between that and Electric Cafe, I really wish there was more of this stuff. that kind of surreal digital sampling was pretty cool!

excellent balcony-cam footage for gear trainspotters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16s210t0pk#t=698

It changes all the time, but right now my favourite is Trans Europa Express.

I could make a case for any of them except Kraftwerk 2 and *shudders* Electric Cafe. (I'm ignoring the general existence of The Mix.)

My favourite Kraftwerk album is typically "whichever Kraftwerk album I am listening to right now".

I mean, in terms of "most typical" if I'm trying to turn a new person onto Kraftwerk (I've got our Punk Receptionist at work into Can, but she's balking at Kraftwerk so far) I'll tell them to start with Man Machine. But favourite? I don't know!

At the moment I'm really into the transitional period, Ralf und Florian -> Autobahn -> Radioactivity specifically because it's so unformalised and the gel hasn't quite set yet. I could watch the video for antenna all day long. (I sometimes wonder if I love them or just their iconography, but I'm a sucker for oscilloscopes.)

I have loved that double album debut, I got it in 1975 (long story), and Autobahn too (that was earlier), I know R&F and Radioa quite well..

I got the big box a few years ago for a daft price thanks to a mistake by Amazon but I've not unshrinkwrapped it yet as the albums are all on Spotify, ..

I think the best way of approaching it is to bite the bullet and play them in reverse chron order. What I have heard of Electric Cafe is that its not so bad, the I guess its because I remember the girls singing along to boom-chakk back in the day.

Did anyone else want the KraftNeu or the Kohoutek single?

I first heard the majority of Kraftwerk through 'The Mix', so sometimes those original versions can sound a bit flat and lo-fi to me, even if the Mix's versions are pretty terrible. My problem with Kraftwerk, iconic and important that they were, is that sometimes their tracks go on just a tad too long. Like, for me listening to Autobahn can feel a bit like something I have to subject myself to out of self-improvement; like reading Moby Dick or something. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but it can feel like a bit of a slog after just a few minutes.

The only one I can't say that about is Radioactivity which is such a great understated record. Computer World works well too, as a pop album.

That Minimum-Maximum live disc is pretty much my go-to; for some reason the pumped-up, bass-boosted sound works for me there in a way that it doesn't on The Mix, even though the arrangements are basically the same

The live MinMax performance lives on my pad.

I went to Edinburgh a few years ago, and there was a street performer with his face painted silver dancing to 'Techno Pop', does anyone know if he was a regular feature?

My problem with Kraftwerk, iconic and important that they were, is that sometimes their tracks go on just a tad too long. Like, for me listening to Autobahn can feel a bit like something I have to subject myself to out of self-improvement; like reading Moby Dick or something. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but it can feel like a bit of a slog after just a few minutes.

Autobahn for me is best listened to horizontal with the headphones on... I love the way that the replicate the traffic on the synths during the middle section, it's almost like you can hear the cars creeping up behind you and zooming past.

If you think 22 minutes of your life is too long to sacrifice for a masterpiece like Autobahn, then seriously. You do not not deserve Kraftwerk.

the best time I ever had listening to autobahn was on the motorway, in fact. it works really really well with cars overtaking and changing lines in time with the synthy whooshes and whirrs

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when they were recording these albums, just to see how they worked up a track from beginning to end and went through the process of finding the relevant sounds and what the general vibe and interaction between the band members was like. I could imagine them hitting upon that throbbing, pulsing bassline to 'Spacelab' and getting quite excited about it.

Did I ever tell you that my music teacher played "Autobahn" in its entirety in a music lesson one day? On a record player, that is! I don't have any real memory about it, other than it got played, no-one paid any attention in music lessons in the school I went to and none of the teachers expected you to tbh.

Just read another old thread where everyone’s talking about how much the Tour de France stuff sucks and I just want to say the Tour de France stuff might be my favorite Kraftwerk material, on the studio recordings and on the live collections. God I love it.

Aero dynamik!

tour de france sdtrk is in my top 4 or 5 kraftwerk albums, its so beautiful

The original 'Tour de France' is fantastic, but Tour de France Soundtracks is a bit of a slog for me. I very rarely listen to it, and when I do I wanna put on Trans-Europe Express or The Man Machine instead.

yeah Turrican otm, TdfS is tired in the extreme – not a patch on their 70s stuff.

It’s remarkable how they managed to do virtually the same live tour for 20+ years and with songs from 40+ years and still make it look cool.

Yeah - they really managed to make the most of what they have.

On Tour de France Soundtracks - I was kinda disappointed when it came out but it rapidly grew on me . The melodies are maybe not as memorable as on their classic stuff but the sound-design is amazing. Hearing that stuff live on the Minimum/Maximum tour was revelatory.
It's all good

My problem with Kraftwerk, iconic and important that they were, is that sometimes their tracks go on just a tad too long. Like, for me listening to Autobahn can feel a bit like something I have to subject myself to out of self-improvement; like reading Moby Dick or something. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but it can feel like a bit of a slog after just a few minutes.

https://www.discogs.com/Kraftwerk-Kraftwerk-2/release/215702?ev=rr

https://www.discogs.com/Kraftwerk-Kraftwerk-1/release/215693?ev=rr

You might like these then - Vertigo in Italy issued these two albums, basically each side has redux versions of one of the first four Kraftwerk albums. I can imagine Ralf/Florian having a fit ...

While I'm here:

Have you ever seen a less-likely appearance by Kraftwerk on any various artists album, ever?

https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/346250424

"Various Artists - "Be My Boogie Woogie Baby" - Featuring Winchester Cathedral by the New Vaudeville band, "I was Kaiser Bill's Batman", "Mouldy Old Dough", and "Autobahn"

mmmmm

Vitamin is a jam though, sounds beautiful played live too.

I can imagine Ralf/Florian having a fit

Perhaps but now their latest release is pretty much shortened versions of their 8 'pop' albums (or a sampler thereof.)

Don't get me wrong, I think the sound design and production on Tour de France Soundtracks is great - I've no doubt they spent a lot of time on it. For me, it's a case of the end result leaving me feel a bit cold. For all of their "we are ze robots"/"we're musik workers" schtick, their work from Autobahn to Computer World has a lot of warmth, humanity and emotion in it. Even Electric Cafe has 'The Telephone Call' ...

... which Ralf disliked because he thought the vocal was too emotional.

Wow, never seen a poll on here I disagreed with more.

For me Autobahn > Kraftwerk 1 > Trans Europe Express (> Concert Classics) > Man-Machine > Kraftwerk 2 > Radioactivity > Ralf & Florian (> Tone Float) > Computer World > Tour De France > Electric Cafe

Haven't heard The Mix or TDF Soundtracks but guess both are not for me. I know Concert Classics is a bit obscure but it's probably their LP I have listened to the most.

Cannot fathom people saying the tracks on Autobahn are "too long", I would be happy if they went on for hours.

My main issue with TdfS is that the tunes just aren't there. There's none of the heart-tugging melodies that made the run from Autobahn to Computer World so perfect. I put this down largely to the absence of Bartos, who was responsible for most of the music on those albums. xp

What albums?

the "truncated" version on the 3-D Katalog semi-live set they put out is better than the studio version, I think

agreed that the album didn't really come alive for me until Minimum-Maximum came out. the "Etape" thing really did not need 20 minutes. "Elektro Kardiogramm" still bores the piss outta me though

I meant Autobahn through Computer World but looking again I see he only has songwriting credits on The Man Machine and CW, my bad. Those two are definitely the most tuneful/melodic Kraftwerk albums though. xp