Kraftwerk ‎– The Mix

One of the greatest album from the greatest band of all time. Notes: Pity, some work has been done in a bloody way. Some original tracks, material were sampled and played back during the entire lenght instead of recreated as the most of the sounds were. Typical example the great Robot's bassline. Much worse in soundquality than the original and the samples were treated not quite satisfactory well. This is the same with the most of the old-sampled material. Then: The soundquality of the CD is very good but far not as good as the Electric Café. The most clear, transparent, dinamics pressing is the US pressing here. The Musique Non-Stop is bloody bad in soundquality, worse than a cassette recording. I don't know how the hell could such happen?? Interesting collector's hint: On some KW releases there are some slight differences in music between the English and the German versions. Here I can't quite recall but I think the Computer Love has a bit more audible synth-line.

Rusty German robots are cashing in on screwing up their classics with acid house crap.

SO pleased that this was released on vinyl. For me, this is THE definitive Kraftwerk album--and I am well aware that there is no shortage of people who would disagree with me on that. Also, this was my first exposure to Kraftwerk in high school; I played this CD to hell and back. So take that with a grain of salt.

Regardless, this vinyl was such a long time coming. The emphasis is on DJ friendliness, with a dab of Detroit influence on the engineering style. The tracks include 909/808-ified mixes of The Robots, Radio-Activity, and other late 70's/early-mid 80's Kraftwerk tracks that were crowning achievements electronic music--but didn't necessarily go out of their way to be urban dance scene oriented.

Not that that's a good or a bad thing, it is what it is.

Be that as it may, this is a fantastic release and I'm thrilled that it has come out on wax.

The Mix is not a compilation or a remix album, it's a batch of old tunes reworked from scratch. While some tracks like Heimcomputer and Trans-Europa Express merely update the old analogue sound without really changing the music, others use the old bits and pieces to make something completely new. Radioactivität adds a stomping beat and a political message to the old classic and in Die Roboter (The Robots) timing of the famous melody is altered to give the song a whole new twist.

Altogether, a great set of music, but naturally not a replacement for the original versions.

Kraftwerk are legends no doubt about that and they have created numerous fantastic albums. But if I had to go for one album, then it would be this compilation, probably due to that fact that I'm a House head by nature and this round up of all Kraftwerk's finest tunes all beefed up to make them even more hypnotic, just rocks my spot pefectly. A great introduction to these electronic pioneers.

Kraftwerk's popular material rests here, compiled, remixed, refreshed, adjusted, and put forth into a set of tracks that can be enjoyed from the start of The Robots to the finish of Music Non Stop. During college, I used to have this one on repeat play all night during term papers.

Kudos to such gifted work on this album. Music . . . Non Stop!!!