Tour de France Soundtracks

by

Kraftwerk

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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!

Another basically worthy but less than stellar Kraftwerk album. I must admit that I didn't expect to hear this album. It's appearance shocked me and like on The Mix, they [unwisely] re-do a classic number [weaker]. In what has come to be a familiar Kraftwerk gaffe, their obsession with long suites of music that dominate an album [good: Autobahn, Trans Europe Express, bad: Electric Cafe, Tour De France Soundtracks] also rears its ugly head here. Here, TDF is overblown into a rather forgettable suite but there are some gems in the remaining album. "Vitamin," "Aero Dymanik," and the playful "Elektro Kardiogramm" manage to make it worth some of your time. But 40% of this album is a straight loss. Since they put out the classic TDF tracks as a single some years ago, the reason to have these inferior, padded compostions is nil. Please, Kraftwerk, on the next album [in 2018*] please just cobble some good songs together without some overriding theme [Man-Machine]. The thematic obsessions have worked against you as much as for you and I for one, would like to see that modus operandi shown the door.

* don't laugh