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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They're back!, August 29, 2003
Wow! After well over a decade of silence I had presumed that Kraftwerk had finally hung up their flashing ties and called it quits. But here's a completely new album! Suddenly the Hutter/Schneider partnership has become one of the longest in pop history, having lasted over 34 years!
So what about the album? Well the opening 5 tracks form a very extended suite of an ORIGINAL track called Tour De France (not to be confused with their breakdance hit of 1983, an updated version of which appears at the album's close almost as an afterthought). This new track is a fine start to the album, though in many ways it sounds the least 'traditional Kraftwerk' of all the tracks. It's very techno, if you know what I mean... Things start to sound more familiar with "Vitamin", a dryly humourous list of a cyclist's dietry supplements!
The next two titles form a single track ("Aero Dynamik" and "Titanium"). This piece is superb! It really put me in mind of the equally dark and punchy "Home Computer" from 1981's Computer World album. Next comes the fiendishly catchy "Elektro Kardiogramm". This piece is cleverly built around the sounds of a beating heart and heavy breathing (no you potty-minds, it's supposed to be CYCLISTS!!!!) After a few listens I found myself subconsciously chanting "Elektro-Elektro-Kardiogramm" under my breath while doing household chores. I warn you, it could happen to you!
La Forme and Regeneration are solo pieces by Hutter, and are really quite lovely; tuneful in that slightly nostalgic way that much of 1977's Trans Europe Express was.
The final song is 1983's Tour De France, lovingly given the up-date treatment like the tracks on "The Mix". Although completely re-recorded, it sounds like the group really took pains to adhere to the sounds and style of the original. It's great to finally get this track on CD!
I would recommend this CD to any fan of Kraftwerk. Some may think they've changed too much, some may think they haven't changed enough! Personally when I listen to this CD I feel as if an old friend who I haven't seen in 15 years has just got back in touch. Welcome back Krafty!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Call It A Komeback, November 11, 2003
I had no idea KW were going to release a new album; just two weeks after buying the French import TDF single I came across this while looking for "Ralf & Florian". I've only been listening to KW a short time, but they've become perhaps my favorite group. To make a long story short, the day I saw this I did not hesitate at all to purchase a copy.
And I had no idea what to expect. After such long silences, most groups disappoint their fans with new material. And for a group as legendary and mythical as Kraftwerk, I was very empathetic to the pressure they must have felt, particularly from critics.
Upon first listen I was disappointed, heart-broken really; two of my biggest musical heroes showing signs that their time had come and gone. I hadn't been this letdown since John Lydon's "Psycho's Path".
Then I listened to it again. And again. Although I still had a nagging feeling of letdown, for some reason I could not put this LP down. The first 5 tracks always seemed as if they would go on forever. But then I began to notice the subtle variations, the ever-changing mix, the hooks, melodies, cresendos and how they interwove. Suddenly I felt as though I were listening to some kind of modern synthetic classical peice. Like heroin, you puke the first time; but then you realize you're hooked after it's too late. That's what this album is: musical heroin without the ugly side-effects (ha ha). I've listened to this album nearly everyday since it came out and it never gets old.
After the initial piece, you're totally prepared for "Vitamin". This is definitely single material. It's the most immediatly infectious track of the album. It has everything Kraftwerk is known for: Stockhausen-type random sounds, tightly syncopated funk grooves, a totally futuristic sound. Not to mention the tongue-in-cheek lyric, which reads like a GNC shopping list.I won't pontificate on every track, but I have to mention that "La Forme" (one of the most abused tracks) has become my favorite. Strap on some high end headphones and close your eyes, because this song has the ability to transcend any environment you're in. It has the same "synth symphony" feel as the first 5 tracks.
Overall, this has become one of my favorite KW albums. IMHO, it's in their top 3, alongside Computer World & Man Machine. And I have a strong feeling that many critics who wrote this album off upon release are scratching their heads now, thinking the same thing. But I prefer the 80's mixes of the TDF single. The new percussion is to soft, I think. My only complaint & a small one, really. Cheers...
Oh, and I have never done heroin... :)
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Sprint final à l'arrivée, Tour De France..................', September 21, 2003
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There is [and undoubtedly will continue to be] a fair degree of criticism of this album.
It has been deemed to be too 'repetitive', 'dull' and 'boring'. Such broad, sweeping charges should cause us to cast a more discerning and critical
eye on both this and other Kraftwerk projects. Take for example, 'Trans Europa Express'
[the German version]. On that album there are 3 sequential variations of the title track;
and the last track offers a brief variation or 'reprise' of the first. Again, two tracks on one
of the most influential concept albums of all time are variants on a singular general theme -
'Computer World' and 'Computerworld 2'. Are you aware that the word 'Computer'
appears in 4 of the 7 track titles; and another includes the word 'Compute'. But this fact
does nothing to demote the undisputed important landmark classic status of the whole. If you look and listen hard enough then you will also discover that these conceptual
developmental themes are not uncommon in the classical music world either. So it
should come as no great surprise to find two classically trained musicians namely -
Ralph Hutter and Florian Schneider - composing alternate and similar formations of
musical scores. Therefore, TDF soundtracks contains character traits in common with
the aforementioned titles, because although thematically and musically some of the tracks
appear the same, there are in them some notable differences in both sound and musical
arrangements. To cast off TDF Soundtracks as dull, repetitive and boring after one or two hearings is a
very valid but equally unfair critical misunderstanding of what I consider to be great originality.
The album attempts to convey to us the overall grandeur and excitement associated with
participating in the Tour De France. There is also a sense in which the length, variation
and merging of the tracks [especially 2-5] actually serves to convey both the overall fluidity
of the race, and the huge distances and challenges that each participating cyclist must endure
throughout. From the outset, the TDF Soundtracks 2003 takes us to the starting line of this famous
cycling competition. The 'prologue' is if you like, an opening push into the start of the race.
And if you have ever ridden a bicycle, then maybe you will appreciate the gradual transition
from a stationary position to a smooth progression of pace as you work through the lower
gears. Imagine as you listen through the TDF variations, the enthusiastic exhilaration of
peddling along roads, around mountains, through villages and countryside; speeding up;
slowing down; controlled breathing. Consider the physical exertion associated with a hill
climb - and as a result both feeling and hearing the heartbeat pounding in your mouth;
sweating, dehydrating and drinking juice from a bottle. Consider the joy, the pain -
the competitive strain - the freedom! It actually works very well, even more so for the
initiated. There are a few hidden, distant musical shades of 'Computer World' and other works
throughout the whole adventure, and although sometimes very subtle they are well
worth listening out for. There is a clever, genial simplicity in many of the lyrical scores -
which certainly only Kraftwerk could produce - alongside some truly refreshing musical
brilliance. 'Vitamin' and 'Aero Dynamik' are beautifully crafted, and their meaning
and connection to the main theme should be plain, even to a glancing non-participant.
The heart beating introduction and overall rhythm in 'Elektro kardiogramm' is quite
simply and truly breathtaking. 'La Forme' opens with a quiet solo rhythmic beat which
bursts into a bright electronic crescendo of sound, almost as if you can see beyond the
pain barriers and gruelling exercises of the event, towards the finishing line ahead in
the distance. "Nearly there; I've almost made it; the yellow shirt is mine for the taking!" And what more fitting end, what better and more logically brisk way to complete the
'Tour De France' than with the words "Sprint final à l'arrivée" from an invigorating new,
soft and subtle variant of the original title song? This is a very special 12th track for fans
who in a sense have waited, not '13' nor even '17' years for the new album [as some say],
but about 20 years. For in my humble opinion, with this crowning glory, 'Techno Pop'
has finally arrived. For just as 'Tour De France' is a track that would have been on the
album that never was; so also like a great consolation, Tour De France Soundtracks is
the finest follow-up concept album that Kraftwerk SHOULD have released next after
Computer World. Put aside for a moment if you will, the negative criticism and enjoy the race -
From 'Start' to 'Finish' TDF Soundtracks is a 'breath of fresh air' for cyclists
and non-cyclists alike! And jolly well worth the long wait!
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