Kraftwerk [IMPORT]

Kraftwerk

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 30, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1972
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Phantom Sound & Vision
• ASIN: B00002NDNN
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #216,500 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Klingklang

2. Atem

3. Strom

4. Spule 4

5. Wellenlange

6. Harmonika

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Reissue of the second album originally released in 1972. Rare limited edition. Six tracks. Crown label.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very important, September 15, 2000

By	Sean M. Kelly (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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!

6 of 6 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)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Their most unusual effort, November 19, 2001

By	BENJAMIN MILER (Eugene, OR United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.