Early Kraftwerk advice

[Buick6]

Which one should I get KRFTWERK 1 (red COne) or KRAFTWERK2 (Green cone)

BLoody sounda like a choice outta the Matrix!

 

[mms]

Which one should I get KRFTWERK 1 (red COne) or KRAFTWERK2 (Green cone)

BLoody sounda like a choice outta the Matrix!

both but i prefer the second.

 

[notoriousJ.I.M]

Get this, it's a doublepack of both albums.

 

[mms]

on the kraftwerk tip

http://www.klingklang.de/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1



check this it's insane


don't get the ralph and florian album btw.

 

[Martin Dust]

The first 3 all have some great moments, but I'd agree with mms, get the 2nd one if you can only afford one.

 

[Buick6]

Thanks mentschen!

 

[hamarplazt]

don't get the ralph and florian album btw.

I've seen people claim this before, don't understand it at all. Ralph and Florian is by far the superior one... better than Autobahn and Radio Aktivity even... but very different from the others. A bit 'Zuckerzeit'-era Cluster-ish.

 

[In Moll]

Kraftwerk 1 is worth it for track 1 alone. Ruckzuck -- that manic flute -- oh. my. The rest is a bit forgettable imo.

...gotta disagree with the comment to stay away from Ralf & Florian.

Between 1 & 2 I'd pick up 2.

 

[Woebot]

I've seen people claim this before, don't understand it at all. Ralph and Florian is by far the superior one... better than Autobahn and Radio Aktivity even... but very different from the others. A bit 'Zuckerzeit'-era Cluster-ish.

ditto. ralf and florian is much better than the first two. only 'ruckzack' off the first two is any good.

'ananas symphonie' off ralf and florian is the best.

 

[Buick6]

I like Zuckerzeit - great, ambient, bleepy, groovy rec.

 

[owen]

well, the quick answer is get all of them
more specifically- the first one is quite rocking. 'ruckzuck' is v motorik but rest is a (quite gloriously i'd say) messy pile up of feedback, noise and flutes. second is one endless motorik thing and a second side of beatless twiddlings, including 'harmonika' which is a harmonica droning for 4 minutes

but as (almost) everyone points out, 'ralf and florian' is the one- gorgeous apollonian cocktail electronics. also note how much more advanced florian is here on the aesthetic front

 

[Landfill Elektronikz]

Get this, it's a doublepack of both albums.

Yeah that's a wicked edition on Vertigo. I found that for £14 about 10-12 years ago. It's all great. Kraftwerk 1 is all live drums and quite 'proggy' but still unmissable. And yeah, don't believe anyone who tells you to avoid Ralf & Florian. It's gorgeous, unmissable.
The only one to be slightly suspicious of is the first record they made as Organisation, called 'Tone Float'. It has it's moments, but def for completists only!

 

[mms]

Yeah that's a wicked edition on Vertigo. I found that for £14 about 10-12 years ago. It's all great. Kraftwerk 1 is all live drums and quite 'proggy' but still unmissable. And yeah, don't believe anyone who tells you to avoid Ralf & Florian. It's gorgeous, unmissable.
The only one to be slightly suspicious of is the first record they made as Organisation, called 'Tone Float'. It has it's moments, but def for completists only!

sorry that's the one i mean't tone float ralph and florian as the organisation
pure wastemen

 

[Landfill Elektronikz]

sorry that's the one i mean't tone float ralph and florian as the organisation
pure wastemen

**Phew** I just assumed you'd lost your mind, marcus

 

[petergunn]

Get this, it's a doublepack of both albums.

yeah, i have this... rules... honesty, the first 2 LP's sound so similar, they sound great as a double LP and i almost never think of them as seperate albums... that said, whatever that crazy flute song is, that's my fav. track...

 

[michael]

Shit, sounds like a number of dissensus people are on to all this good stuff. Although the late 70s early 80s Kraftwerk stuff certainly deserves kudos for its super duper rarefied aesthetic and its place in the canon and all that, I really enjoy the openness and looseness of some of the earlier efforts.

If I can chuck in an additional recommendation since 'Zuckerzeit' got mentioned.. I reckon the first Harmonia album ('Musik von ...') is great. The Cluster guys with Michael Roether from (early Kraftwerk and) Neu! I picked up a CD copy in the A-Musik shop in Koln and then travelled by train across Germany listening to it... seemed kinda special and exciting. That one and Dettinger's first album, bought from the Kompakt shop.. nice associations in my head.

 

[michael]

'Ananas Symphonie' off Ralf & Florian strikes me as like the good stuff Mouse on Mars did before they went deep into the digital domain. Yet written about 25 years earlier. Crikey.

While I'm here, Cybotron's 'Clear' always gets massive props etc. but isn't it a bit tooooo much of a transparent rip of Kraftwerk?? Is it one of those things where it's not really about how the music sounds, but more about when / where / by whom it was made?

 

[Landfill Elektronikz]

While I'm here, Cybotron's 'Clear' always gets massive props etc. but isn't it a bit tooooo much of a transparent rip of Kraftwerk?? Is it one of those things where it's not really about how the music sounds, but more about when / where / by whom it was made?

What you mean cos he was a black guy in Detroit inspired by this really white electronic sound? An unusual reversal of the usual stream of influence? Probably true. I love the track, but it's very much in thrall of of Kraftwerk without doubt. Still a thousand times more relevant than LCD SoundSystem quoting 'Home Computer' or Coldplay 'borrowing' the chords for 'Computer Love'.

If I can chuck in an additional recommendation since 'Zuckerzeit' got mentioned.. I reckon the first Harmonia album ('Musik von ...') is great.

Seconded on that...one of the greats of the era without doubt. I'm quite partial to Cluster's 'Sowiesoso' album as well. Actually, get me in a certain mood and I'll start bigging-up their first two ambient-drone albums too!

Speaking of germans influencing the Detroit crew, who's into ex-Ash Ra Temple dude Manual Gottching's 'E2-E4' album? It's a stupidely long piece of music, but the proto-Detroit vibe is very pronounced. Carl Craig was mad for this shit...

 

[michael]

What you mean cos he was a black guy in Detroit inspired by this really white electronic sound? An unusual reversal of the usual stream of influence?

Yeah, that and the thing of taking it into an explicitly dancey context when I'm not sure how much Kraftwerk were looking to get booties shaking with 'Computer World'. And when I say not sure, I mean I sincerely have no idea, rather than I have doubts...

Still a thousand times more relevant than LCD SoundSystem quoting 'Home Computer' or Coldplay 'borrowing' the chords for 'Computer Love'.

I guess so, just not sure I like listening to it.

A track I like more is 'HD Endless' by The Stereonerds (one of Uwe Schmidt's million pseudonyms) that really deliberately references a bunch of Kraftwerk tracks from around 'TEE' / 'Robots' / 'Computer World', but with self-referential stuff about hard disk editing.. Sorta like 'Pocket Calculator' describing functions, but with words like "cutting" / "pasting" / "repeating" / "deleting" and whatever is being described happening to the track. I kinda like it because beyond the sonic references there's a healthy nod to their thematic interests too.

 

[Omaar]

while we're on cluster, what do people think of the album(s?) they did with Eno? Can't remember what the album's like as a whole, but there's at least one fantastic song in there I reckon.

Bits of Zuckerzeit never cease to absoultely astound me by their goodness.

I was amazed by Ruckzuck when I first heard it because it wasn't what I was expecting at all. Now I find it a bit tiresome, and unfunky.