Customer Reviews

Kraftwerk 2

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Before Kraftwerk became a robot pop group, they were a totally experimental band, and this, their second effort is by far their least accessible effort I have ever heard from these guys. Don't expect to hear "Trans-Europe Express", "The Model", "The Robots", "Pocket Calculator", etc. here. This is by far their most ambient album, and a lot of the cuts really defy categorization. At this point the band still hadn't used synthesizers on this album, but they used flutes, Farfisa electric piano, various guitars, violin, and a primitive drum machine were used. The opening cut, "Klingklang" is the closest thing to resemble a song as it sounds exactly like a precursor to "Autobahn". The next cut, "Atem" (German for "Breathe"), as you might guess, contains little else than just breathing sounds. The rest of this album contains rather odd noodling on guitars and effects, and is truly not to everyone's taste. The closing cut, "Harmonika" is not actually played on a harmonica, but rather a melodica, a little plastic keyboard keyboard instrument you blow in to in which sounds are created by reeds. I definately not recommend Kraftwerk 2 to everyone, and if you're expecting another Trans-Europe Express, this album will bore you, but if you like the more adventurous end of Krautrock, this album might be for you.

This record is not one of Kraftwerk's techno classics, but in a silent way has very probably been heard by most postrock musicians or fans; it has a rough, definitely not charming mood enhanced by the really primitive electronic devices -among them the home made drumcomputer-, not as noisy or nearly industrial as the first album, but lacking the bubble-gummy sound of "Ralf & Florian" and the futuristic obsessions of "Autobahn" and so on. The first track, "Kling Klang" is a real classic for the group, with the opening bells leading to a tape-manipulated dialogue between flute (early Kraftwerk has a lot of it) and electric piano, setting with the drumcomputer and a simple bass line the standard rhythm structure of later works. The really icy flute-clanky synthesizer excerpt is twenty year older Tortoise sound, and the end shows lively interplay between guitar and violin with an almost bossa-nova rhythm on the computer. "Atem" is simply artificial breath. The second side is even more obscure, with the majestatic pace full of flute dissonances of "Strom", the musique concrète-influenced "Spule 4" -here the record turns really experimental, with no rhythm, no harmony and no melody-, the somber and monotone bass guitar drones of "Wellenlänge" and the arpeggios of "Harmonika". Sometimes very heady, but really rewarding if one gets the mood for it.

This CD, Kraftwerk's second album, is one of the oddest things I've heard in a while. As other reviewers have remarked, do not expect the Robots, Pocket Calculators, Autobahn Rides, and Electric Cafes for which they are justifiably famous. Here they are in the very, very early stages of developing that signature sound, and about the only thing really electric is the electric guitar. Much of the music has a strong psychedelic streak, in fact, and bears a strong family resemblance to some of Pink Floyd's earlier work or, more closely, Tangerine Dream's "Electronic Meditation" and "Alpha Centauri" --atmospheric, meandering instrumentals with guitar and a bit of flute, flavored with cosmic sci-fi moods and half-baked but well-intentioned evocations of Indian sitar music. In retrospect it seems clear that we have here the basic ingredients of their musical sense; without this, their later albums would have had all the charm and artistry of speak-and-spell. And then this spaced-out psychedelica is interlaced with some daring (and not always completely successful) experimentation with recorded noise arranged and distorted for effect--the primitive foundation of the Kraftwerk we know and love.

I would very much hesitate to recommend this album as one's introduction to Kraftwerk--its historical importance in understanding their musical development is too big a part of the overall enjoyment for that, and it's hardly typical of their work. Still, it's more than just a history lesson, and stands on its own pretty well as good, inventive music with an oddball touch, "Klingklang" especially.

If you have listened to Kraftwerk 1, Kraftwerk 2 may be boring but I think it's great music if you want to relax. While Kraftwerk 1 was a fast and loud techno-rock album,Kraftwerk 2 is slower and more trance-like. The cheap GrooveBox beats on KLINKLANG are very funny but the rest is not very spectacular. My favourite track is STROM because I like the subtile use of Schneider's flute. My advise is to buy Kraftwerk 1, too. Or if you can find VOR UNS METROPOLIS you should buy that because that is a collection of RALF+FLORIAN KRAFTWERK1+2 and a few live-tracks of Golden Classics and a German TV-show. If you only know the newer albums like AUTOBAHN, Mensch Maschine [MAn Machine] or Electric Cafe you will be a bit disappointed but as a real KRAFTWERK fan you have to buy it, because you will love it.

Kraftwerk 2 was the first of the "old" Kraftwerk albums I got. It is an unusual album (like Kraftwerk 1)in that it uses no synthethisers...but the unusual sounds they got from "normal" instruments make this one of the best liked records in my collection. The track "Klingklang" is just over 17 minutes long, and some of my friends have called it "space cadet" music.

It has a suprise about 2/3 of the way through Klingklang, but don't be alarmed. I'm not saying what it is - if I told you it wouldn't be a suprise.

I love this record, although the track "Atem" (Breath) annoys me...it is appropriately named.

Kraftwerk are known for their icy, man-machine pop/electronica and there's none of that here. This is a very experimental album that utilizes more conventional instrumentation, such as flute, guitar, violin, than synthesizers. Which on the face of it sounds like an interesting idea, unfortunately the songs are more often than not, halfbaked improvisations/experiments. For example the track "Atem" consists solely of a recording of someone breathing that's been run through filters and/or slowed down. Sorry guys it's not all that interesting. Neither is the song "Spule 4" which reminds me of a stoned teenager with guitar, bass and his first echoplex. Its atmospheric, but compositionally weak and more of a home tape experiment than a fully realized song. Ditto with "Wellenlange", although the tune does pick up towards the end. "Harmonika" is a solo piece for cheap plastic organ and while gently melodic, it goes nowhere. Kraftwerk seem to be grasping for something that they themselves weren't quite sure of. The germs of songs appear, but nothing is fleshed out properly. Much of this sounds like offhand live improvisations rather than compositions.

There are a few exceptions. the seventeen minute long "Kling Klang" is a very nice if overlong piece with flute over an electronic background. The speed of the recording is manipulated which serves to give the composition discreet sections. "Strom" starts with distorted electric guitar and gradually becomes more atmospheric/electronic and reminiscent of Brian Eno's Another Green World mixed with Burzum's more ambient work.

But I'm afraid this album is a fairly slight affair that gives little to no indication of the direction Kraftwerk would take on their later works. So I would recommend this to Kraftwerk completists only.

For all intents and purposes this is,in fact and with the similar cover art this is in fact a continuation of Kraftwerk's first album: one coherant cut and a number of experiments. At this point this could not only have pointed to a forumula approch but could've started to where thin after this point. But fact is even with that the band were musically involving. The sidelong opener "Klingklang" has them beginning their concentrating on beats as opposed to anything overly rhythmic. The droning beat and electronic punctuation is hugely important to their future sound but,even so the music soon involves into something more ambient and finally into this krautrock type jam for a very multi faceted number. Most of the other tunes here showcase Kraftwerk trying to create rhythms and harmonies with tuning guitars,setting oschillators and such and it works to a minor extent. Again none of the songs here aside from the opener do much more than create more of a chilly atmosphere. It would seem by listening to these early Kraftwerk albums that their albums in the future became a lot more consistant when they developed a more potent style and stuck to variating on that as opposed to just tinkering with different devices to see how musical they could sound. True there was a level of art and strong development in these earlier experiments but the full flower of their sound took time to develope and these are certainly steps along the way.