List | K | Kraftwerk | 'The Mix' CD 1991


Track: Name: Time:
1. The Robots 8:56
2. Computerlove 6:35
3. Pocket Calculator 4:32
4. Dentaku 3:27
5. Autobahn 9:27
6. Radioactivity 6:53
7. Trans Europe Express 3:20
8. Abzug 2:18
9. Metal On Metal 4:58
10. Homecomputer 8:02
11. Music Non Stop 6:38
  Total 65:13


Comments:
Remixes of old tracks, modernised and updated. They seem to have lost a bit of their character though; all those lovely lush vocoded vocals have been replaced by sterile computer generated speech (which might well be completely along the lines of the main Kraftwerk idea, but is frankly a bit more boring), and some of the tracks have been re-made for the worse. 'Dentaku' is an extension of 'Pocket Calculator' in Japanese (Hai! Nihon-go desu :-), and 'Abzug' is the middle part of the rather lengthy 'Trans-Europe Express', so there are no new tracks even if you might think just that by reading the track list. It annnoys me quite a bit that the ultimate Kraftwerk tune 'Pocket Calculator' has been somewhat destroyed, with some new-ish techno chords. 'Autobahn' was shortened to less than half the original length, but I suppose that was rather necessary to keep the other tracks on the disc. The added "computer harmony singing" is very amusing, though. 'Radioactivity' is almost completely unrecognisable; all the spookiness is completely gone, and replaced with a hectic techno backing, making it probably the most aggressive track on the album. It's very different, but quite good actually. 'The Robots' has gotten that lovely blippy melody funked up a bit, which is a bit sad since it destroys the mechanical feel I enjoyed so much. It's More Fun To Compute has been fused in with 'Homecomputer', and the same goes for Boing Boom Tschak into 'Music Non Stop' (much like on the old single mixes, but here in more modern versions).
Ok, so they're new versions. I like the old ones. I like some of the new ones. Most of them are good, but not quite in the same way as the old classic versions. And no new material.



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