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> October/2009 <
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| 27/10/2009 |
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| Der Katalog: One of the first samples has arrived. |
source: Dirk Matten
"THE CATALOGUE" Official release...
Kling Klang shopping:
THE CATALOGUE BOX-SET 8 CDs + T-SHIRT (English)
THE CATALOGUE BOX-SET 8 CDs + T-SHIRT + 8 MOUSEPADS (English)
DER KATALOG BOX-SET 8 CDs + T-SHIRT (German)
DER KATALOG BOX-SET 8 CDs + T-SHIRT + 8 MOUSEPADS (German) |
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| 08/10/2009 |
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| Kraftwerk New Album For 2010... |
With a boxed set of its primary catalog on the
way, Kraftwerk is eyeballing 2010 for the release
of its first new album since 2003's "Tour De France
Soundtracks."
Co-founder Ralf Hutter tells Billboard.com that with
the group's 2009 live shows -- including some featuring
3-D background graphics and several with Radiohead -- the
pioneering German electronic outfit has returned to its
Kling Klang multi-media facility in Dusseldorf. "There'
s still time to go," Hutter reports, "but in the winter
it's pretty gray here, so it's a good situation to go
into the studio." As to what the album -- Kraftwerk's
first without co-founder Florian Schneider, who left
the group last November -- will sound like, Hutter
says "it's still very early. It's still in its
embryonic stage."
Hutter says he expects Kraftwerk to tour again once
the album is completed and released.
Until that time, fans will be able to tuck into "The
Catalogue," an eight-disc boxed set due out Nov. 17
that commemorates the 35th anniversary of Kraftwerk's
breakthrough hit "Autobahn" and contains all the
albums it released between 1974-2003. Each of the titles
has been remastered and come in "mini-vinyl" wallet
card packaging, with large-format booklets that replicate
the artwork of the original releases. Additionally,
1986's "Electric Cafe" has been returned to its
originally intended title, "Techno Pop."
Five of the titles, meanwhile -- "Autobahn," "Radio-Activity,"
"Trans Europe Express," "The Man Machine" and "Tour De
France Soundtracks" -- have just been released as individual
CDs. The other three albums are not currently licensed for
separate release in the U.S.
"It's a piece of work that just had to be done," Hutter says
of the catalog overhaul. "The quality (of previous CDs) wasn't
always as it should have been...especially the artwork was
just cut down from the LP format or scanned down, especially
in America. Now we found the time to finish it, and we're
very happy. You have everything from Kraftwerk in high
(quality) formats."
Hutter says he also plans to upgrade the three Kraftwerk
albums that preceded "Autobahn," though he won't predict
a timetable for those. "When I find the time and go
through the archives again, we'll do those also in a
new format," he promises. "But my perspective now is
forward for the next album."
Original article by Gary Graff, Detroit @ Billboard.com
"THE CATALOGUE" Official release... |
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> August/2009 <
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| 20/08/2009 |
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| ''THE CATALOGUE'' Official release... |
FOUR DECADES OF MASTERWORKS 12345678 THE CATALOGUE
CD, CD BOX SET, VINYL & DOWNLOAD
Mute: 5th OCTOBER 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 eight astounding
albums on 5th October 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 computerised 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.
12345678 The Catalogue will be released across the
following formats:
. 8 x individual CDs presented in special slipcases
featuring newly expanded artwork, including many previously
unseen images all of which have been reproduced to the
highest technical standards.
. CD Box Set containing 8 x CDs in ‘mini-vinyl’ card
wallet packaging, plus individual large format booklets.
. 8 x individual heavyweight vinyl LPs with large format
booklets.
. Digital downloads.
After their recent jaw dropping 3-D show at the Manchester
Velodrome, KraftwerkÂ’s next UK live appearance will be as
headliners for Bestival on 12th September.
12345678 THE CATALOGUE
AUTOBAHN (1974)
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)
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)
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
EndlessÂ’ 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)
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.
COMPUTER WORLD (1981)
Kraftwerk beam themselves into the future by
writing about home computers, online dating and
globalised electronic surveillance years before
these phenomena truly come into being. A journey
into the bright hopes and dark fears of the
booming microchip revolution, ‘Computer World’
is a serenely beautiful and almost seamless
collage of sensual melodies and liquid
beatscapes. Tracks like ‘Numbers’ and ‘Pocket
CalculatorÂ’, with their weightless bleeps and
elastic beats, predict the silky rhythms of
Chicago house and inspire a generation of
Detroit techno artists. Kraftwerk's fanfare
for the silicon age still sounds ageless,
timeless and throbbing with invention.
TECHNO POP (1986)
Kraftwerk return from five years of silence
to reclaim their throne as leaders of a
machine-pop revolution that they themselves
began over a decade before. Their ‘Techno Pop’
album, first released under the name ‘Electric
Café’ but now restored to its originally
intended title, provides a 360-degree
overview of a multi-lingual, multi-channel,
musically diverse global village.
From the block-rocking beats of ‘Boing Boom
TschackÂ’ to the electronic funk and computer
animation of ‘Musique Non Stop’, Kraftwerk
soar into the digital age. Their first
excursion into digital recording finds
both beauty and unease in a polyglot world
of permanent media overload. Once again,
DusseldorfÂ’s test pilots of the musical
future effortlessly break new ground.
THE MIX (1991)
Kraftwerk's first fully digital album
confirmed their clubland credentials and
reworked 11 of their best-loved tunes for
a new generation. Painstakingly reconstructed
and sequenced in the band's Kling Klang studio,
new versions of tracks like ‘The Robots’, ‘Trans
Europe Express’ and ‘Home Computer’ now feature
more funky rhythms and cleaned-up, liquid-crystal
sounds. A stark warning about pollution at
Sellafield is added to the glistening overhaul
of ‘Radioactivity’, sparking a war of words
with British Nuclear Fuels. But most of all,
‘The Mix’ is a career-spanning collection of
legendary electro anthems and a classy
acknowledgment of the two-way traffic between
Kraftwerk and club culture.
TOUR DE FRANCE (2003)
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 FranceÂ’, 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.
Der Katalog: One of the first samples has arrived.
www.astralwerks.com/kraftwerk
www.kraftwerk.com
Kling Klang shopping:
THE CATALOGUE BOX-SET 8 CDs + T-SHIRT (English)
THE CATALOGUE BOX-SET 8 CDs + T-SHIRT + 8 MOUSEPADS (English)
DER KATALOG BOX-SET 8 CDs + T-SHIRT (German)
DER KATALOG BOX-SET 8 CDs + T-SHIRT + 8 MOUSEPADS (German) |
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