Kraftwerk / Tour De France (2003) (The Catalog Box Set)
Artist Kraftwerk
Box Set Title: The Catalog (Klangbox 002) (50999 9 67506 2 9)
Album Title: Tour De France (2003) (The Catalog Box Set)
Album Cover:
Primary Genre Rock: General Rock
Format CD
Released 11/23/2009
Reissue Date 11/23/2009
Label Kling Klang
Catalog No KLANGBOX 002
Bar Code No 50999 9 67514 2 8
Packaging Box Set (8 Disk)
Tracks
1. Prologue (0:31)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider & Fritz Hipert)
2. Tour De France Étape 1 (4:27)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider & Fritz Hipert)
3. Tour De France Étape 2 (6:41)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider & Fritz Hipert)
4. Tour De France Étape 3 (3:56)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider & Fritz Hipert)
5. Chrono (3:20)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider & Fritz Hipert)
6. Vitamin (8:09)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Fritz Hilpert)
7. Aéro Dynamik (5:04)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider & Fritz Hipert)
8. Titanium (3:21)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider & Fritz Hipert)
9. Elektro Kardiogramm (5:16)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Fritz Hilpert)
10. La Forme (8:41)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt)
11. Régéneration (1:17)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt)
12. Tour De France (5:12)
(Henning Schmitz, Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter & Maxime Schmitt/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider & Karl Bartos)
Date Acquired 12/01/2009
Personal Rating
Acquired from Amazon

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Reviews
All Music Guide Review:

Review by Andy Kellman

One of electronic music’s most crucial and lavish box sets, The Catalogue contains eight Kraftwerk albums remastered by founding member Ralf Hütter: Autobahn (1974), Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Electric Cafe (aka Techno Pop, 1986), The Mix (1991), and Tour de France Soundtracks (2003). Some purists were upset with liberties taken by Hütter -- specific elements of certain songs sound sharpened, evidence of some noise reduction, and so forth -- but they are few in number and minor in effect. (The gripes were quite possibly made with the intent to prove that they know the ins and outs of these albums more than you do.) The box itself is 12 inches by 12 inches, rather hefty. The eight discs, nested in four dense foam compartments, are individually packaged in sleeves that replicate the original artwork, whether through the disc’s pouch or the slipcase in which the pouch is (tightly) housed. Each album gets its own 12-by-12 booklet with full-page images.



Review by John Bush

Among electronic artists (as well as virtually the entire record industry), only Kraftwerk could construct a viable album by making only minimal adjustments to a sound they made definitive more than 30 years earlier. Tour de France Soundtracks, the group's first record in more than 15 years, is quintessentially Kraftwerk but still fits in well with contemporary dance trends like the experimental microhouse scene (highly influenced by the group's ultra-minimalism). The story of Tour de France Soundtracks actually begins 20 years earlier, in 1983, when Kraftwerk released the "Tour de France" single. Recorded in tribute to one of the sporting world's most grueling events, the track was a hi-res piece of dance-pop that made lyrical reference to various biking landmarks (like the infamous mountaintop finish at Tourmalet) and an assortment of sonic references as well (including a bike chain in free spin and the belabored breathing of a bicyclist -- in rhythm, of course). Techno-Pop, the album Kraftwerk scheduled to accompany "Tour de France," was postponed and later canceled (ironically, after a serious biking accident by Ralf Hütter, one of the group's resident biking maniacs). The track resurfaced two decades later, just in time for the centenary anniversary of the race, though Kraftwerk still missed the deadline -- only the rejuvenated single was available during the race. It has little in common with the original, but the new "Tour de France" is impressive nonetheless, boasting the kinetic power of a 100-strong peloton, a guttural Teutonic vocoder of the type beloved by fans, and a recurring tag so sublime Jan Ullrich could hum it through each of the Tour's 20 stages without fear of annoyance. Except for a closing reprise of the original "Tour de France," the rest of the album isn't as focused on biking; Hütter and Schneider construct sublime beatpieces with conceptual lines close to biking topics ("Aéro Dynamik," "Titanium," "Chrono," "Vitamin"), but never confront the listener with yet another track dropping bike terms like peloton or a l'enfer du nord. "Chrono" is the track closest to the Kraftwerk ideal, with its future-shock synth and percussion precision, while "Vitamin" is the farthest away (a downbeat track that still could only have escaped from the Kling Klang studio). Tour de France Soundtracks is a successful record on anyone's terms; it's one that fans won't need to cringe from, and one that newcomers will be able to enjoy for what it is.
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