Kraftwerk 2 [Import]

Kraftwerk | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 30, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Phantom Sound & Vision
• ASIN: B00002NDNN
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,394 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Klingklang

2. Atem

3. Strom

4. Spule 4

5. Wellenlange

6. Harmonika

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very important, September 14, 2000

By 

Sean M. Kelly (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kraftwerk 2 (Audio CD)

I love this record!!!

As I have written in reviews of the 1st Kraftwerk lp and the "Tone Float" lp, if you are expecting "the Robots," or whatever your favorite Kraftwerk song is, this lp will not offer such tunes.

What the lp DOES offer, however, is a band evolving from the long, psychedelic jams of "Tone Float," into a more cohesive duo, and with it, more solid evidence of the future Kraftwerk sound becoming evident. The real show of this is "Klingklang," the lp's 20 minute opener. After a Stockhausen-like opening 2 minutes of disonent bell like sounds, mixing a drum machine with Hutter's ambient keyboards and Schneider's ever present flute, the track settles into a trancy, ambient groove within which there are tempo shifts that could fit well in modern dance clubs (and in fact I mix this song in sets I do, and it goes over quite well).

The rest of the lp shows the duo still rooted in their Stockhausen/ experimental mode, with varying levels of success, mixing in a track of guitar tunings, another with vocoders and harmonizers.

This lp is the 1st major step taken towards what would be known as the Kraftwerk sound. The sound becomes even more pronounced on their 3rs lp, "Ralf and Florian," but "Kraftwerk 2" offers evidence that, however slowly, the shift was being made.

It's a great lp, and well worth owning- indeed, many ambient and leftfield groups, such as Tortoise, Zoviet France, and Labradford, can be heard in parts of this lp. A very important lp, to be sure. Check it out!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Embryonic genesis of genius, September 23, 2002

By 

M. Detko "detkoralph" (Scarborough, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kraftwerk 2 (Audio CD)

For KW fans, this is worth a listen. It is a very atmospheric (thanks somewhat to analog recording technology) collection and not as boring as others have said here. The first track does not "speed up and slow down at random". It actually sounds like they deliberately manipulated the tape speed 3 or 4 times, as the pitch also changes. The tune also has at least 4 distinct sections, each of which could have been represented as a separate track. The other tunes are shorter and simpler, but no less atmospheric. This album is very improvisational, so keep that in mind.
However you should BEWARE that this album is not available on CD, so if you buy this you will be getting a bootleg made from vinyl. Mine has scratches you can hear very clearly. It also has a bonus track of KometenMelodie from Concert Classics 1975. Still for me it is worth it. But you will be getting a vinyl bootleg, though decent.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not So Boring, February 3, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Kraftwerk 2 (Audio CD)

Others have said this album is a boring, noodling piece of crap but I couldn't disagree more. Yes "ATEM" is just breathing noises and "SPULE 4" has no discernible melody and at first glance "HARMONIKA" sounds like someone just randomly blowing into holes, but if you dig down beneath the surface you'll discover that the stronger tracks make up for this tenfold. (What a dumb word, eh?) KLINGKLANG starts off with a bunch of what sounds like windchimes and bells and moves into ambient-rock territory with Schnider's airy flute work and Hutter's quiet moving piano providing a very interesting melody. Then it moves into an organ/flute/electric cowbell trio that's more washes of sound than rhythm. This too is cool. The last section of the song is sort of propulsive, with semi-screechy, three chord guitar providing the foreground. ATEM is breathing noises with effects, like I mentioned earlier. STROM starts off with an unbelievably distorted guitar intro that moves into a quiet guitar/bass duet. SPULE 4 means queasy and that's all the info you need to know what it sounds like. WELLENLANGE is like SPULE 4 with harmony and a melody, just guitar and bass with some odd sounds and echoes every now and then, and HARMONIKA is just...uh...this is the end of my review. Hope this helps.