awrc@lfcs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Al Crawford) (06/14/91)
Kraftwerk The Mix EMI CDEM 1408 (UK) Total Running Length 65 min 15 sec 1. The Robots 2. Computerlove 3. Pocket Calculator 4. Dentaku 5. Autobahn 6. Radioactivity 7. Trans Europe Express 8. Abzug 9. Metal On Metal 10. Homecomputer 11. Music Non Stop "Music data mix" by Ralf Hutter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert. Well here it is, the first "new" official Kraftwerk album to see the light of day since 1986's _Electric Cafe_. As the title suggests, it's an album of remixes covering all of Kraftwerk's albums from _Autobahn_ to date. I'll go over the tracks one at a time and then sum up afterwards. The Robots. After the familiar intro, this remix veers sharply into techno territory - very up to date, almost house-like. Little of the original instrumentation remains - it's been replaced with more modern sounds and even the vocals have been rerecorded. This version is also slightly different from the mixes that appear on the current CD single. Computerlove. A completely new intro and once again this remix is a major refit of the original track. The original melody remains but most of the other instrumentation has been beefed up with a stronger dance beat. Vocals the same? The spoken vocals may be (I haven't compared them directly) but the modulated "Computer Love" refrain has been changed. Pocket Calculator. With the exception of the added thumpy drums this retains the flavour of the original quite well. This is perhaps due to the prominence of the vocals in this, one of Kraftwerk's sillier tracks. The original rather Germanic vocals have been replaced with something that sounds like a German trying to speak with an upper class English accent. The end result is wonderfully absurd. Dentaku. I'm not familiar with the original. Sounds very much like Pocket Calculator, in fact there's no join between the two. Autobahn. The highpoint of the album for me. Starts out very much like the original (car door slam, engine starts - but the horn at the end has changed!). It then moves into a very relaxed beat which flows into a version of Autobahn sounding very like the 1974 version. Most of the original analogue synths seem to be there but there are changes - the beat is noticeable in places and seems to change the entire pace of the track which seems to amble down the autobahn instead of driving. The synthesized traffic which was one of the highpoints of the original have been partially replaced with samples of traffic. A shame. Still, to make up for it there's some very nice heavily processed vocals later on that show, I feel, that Kraftwerk can still sound leading edge even playing a tune that's 17 years old. Radioactivity. Hmmm, this starts out sounding very much like it could be a Front 242 track. Driving synths and percussion. When the melody starts up though, it's quite definitely a Kraftwerk track. Some nice squelchy synth sweeps, choral effects and other effects give this track a very solid feel. Good. Trans Europe Express. To be perfectly honest, there's not much difference at all between this and the original. It doesn't sound out of place next to the 90s remixes which for a 1978 track (or was it 77?) is pretty good going. Abzug. Pretty much the same as the previous track - this seems to act as a bridge between TEE and the next track which is... Metal On Metal. Again, not drastically different from the original. The metal on metal of the title has been replaced with something that sounds rather less solid than before (tinplate on tinplate?) but otherwise there isn't much of a change to report. Homecomputer. Slightly less subtly remixed than the last three tracks, this still doesn't move too far from the original. There's a more prominent beat than the original but that's about it. Although it's labelled as "Homecomputer" there's a sizeable chunk of "It's More Fun To Compute" in here too. The track hasn't really advanced as much as it's subject matter has in the past ten years :) Music Non Stop. Not much of a difference between this and the original at all. Sure, there are differences but they seem to fit in with the track as though they were part of it from the word go. Now for my overall opinions. I was rather worried before this album that they might overdo the remixes and ruin what were otherwise perfectly good songs. Now that I've heard the album I feel it's a bit of a shame that only the first seven tracks feature any serious remixing given the imagination that has been put into the remixes of, say, "Autobahn" and "Radioactivity". Why have the later tracks been remixed less? Possibly because they were that much closer to a contemporary sound to start with, possibly because they wanted to get the album out reasonably quickly (!), possibly because they wanted to leave something familiar in case the more drastic remixes didn't go down well. I feel that "The Robots" was a bad choice for a first single - it's too mainstream and is one of the less imaginative remixes. I'd hope they'll either release "Radioactivity" or "Autobahn" next although the distributors notes I've seen indicate that only the one single is planned. The track choices are OK but seem rather biased towards the _Computer World_ period (4 tracks) and _Trans Europe Express_ (3 tracks). _Man Machine_ was one of their best and has been all but ignored. If they'd even put "The Model" or "Neon Lights" on instead of "The Robots". Ah well... On the whole I'd say this album bodes fairly well for the future - as long as their composition muscles haven't atrophied. Erland Rating +3 -- Al Crawford - Al_Crawford@edinburgh.ac.uk "Click Click Drone"