| Techno Pop |
Website Links For Electric |
Information AboutTechno Pop |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ELECTRIC CAFé | |
| kraftwerk albums | |
| 1986 albums | |
''Electric Café'' is a suffering a near-fatal cycling accident, and then due to concerns within the band that the production quality of the album was not sufficiently cutting-edge, necessitating much re-work. The album finally saw release in 1986. The album was initially released in English , German and Spanish language versions. It was the first Kraftwerk LP to be created using predominantly digital equipment. The song "Der Telefon-Anruf" ("The Telephone Call") was the first and only Kraftwerk song to feature Karl Bartos on lead vocals. Audiences generally appeared to find the music somewhat more sterile and less engaging than that of its hugely popular predecessor, '' Computer World ''. Compared to the band's four predeceding albums, some critics have pointed to the lack of a strong and sufficiently intruiging concept to tie the ''Electric Café'' material together. Furthermore the near half-decade hiatus in the band's record releases and performance activity lost them crucial momentum in their career. Whatever the possible influence of these factors, ''Electric Café'' did not meet with any great commercial success. Two singles were released from the album, "Musique Non Stop" and "The Telephone Call". These both accompanied by promotional videos, with the "Musique Non Stop" video in particular showcasing some cutting-edge wireframe computer animations of the band, created by Rebecca Allen . Neither of the singles performed well in the charts. In the early 1990s, a slightly different version of "Musique Non Stop" came to be known as a ubiquitous jingle on the MTV channel. The album's title track gained some notoriety in the U.S. when it was used (slightly Remix ed and sped up) as the theme song for " Sprockets ," the German television spoof by Mike Myers on '' Saturday Night Live ''. In the proposed remastered album collection '' The Catalogue '', the ''Electric Café'' album has been renamed ''Techno Pop''. THE 'LOST' ''TECHNO POP'' ALBUM Much speculation has taken place over the years as to whether a "lost" Kraftwerk album (i.e. unreleased songs/recordings) exists from the five year period 1982—1986. Kraftwerk are notoriously secretive about their activities, however a fairly reliable and consistent picture can be gleaned from interviews given by the various band members. In s claiming to be demos from these early sessions have been circulated over the years, with a noticebly different production sound to the final album, however their authenticity is unverifiable. Recordings were progressing, and one song from these sessions, " Tour De France " was released as a single in summer 1983, achieving moderate commercial success. However, shortly after this, Ralf Hütter suffered a serious cycling accident, leaving him in a Coma , and unable to work with the band for at least six months. Capitol Records had announced a summer release date for the ''Techno Pop'' album and the UK company EMI even gave it a catalogue number, EMC 3407 and released photographs of the proposed cover artwork; however the band were now unable to complete it in time and so instead their album '' Autobahn '' was re-issued (Hütter & Schneider had by then reacquired the rights to these recordings, after the original contract with Philips had expired.) When work did recommence on the sessions, the band were reportedly now concerned that the album's production was not of a sufficiently ground-breaking quality to match their reputation as sonic innovators. A lot of studio rework was undertaken, and the final mix down of the album was completely redone from scratch at least once, Hütter eventually travelling to New York with the master tapes to work on them with producer François Kevorkian. The recordings did not see release until 1986, by which time the title had changed again, to ''Electric Café'', and the band had decided not to include the song "Tour de France", but to leave it as a stand-alone single: it had already been issued for a second time, in 1984, when Kevorkian had auditioned his production skills with a largely instrumental remix of the song. At various times, Hütter, Bartos and Flür have each stated in interviews that there were no unreleased songs from this period, and that all of the original ''Technicolour''/''Techno Pop'' material was eventually reworked into what can be heard on the finished ''Electric Café'' album. TRACK LISTING English release # (02:57) "Boing Boom Tschak" # (07:42) "Techno Pop" # (05:45) "Musique Non Stop" # (08:03) "The Telephone Call" # (06:51) "Sex Object" # (04:20) "Electric Café" German release # (02:57) "Boing Boom Tschak" # (07:42) "Techno Pop" # (05:45) "Musique Non Stop" # (08:03) "Der Telefon-Anruf" # (06:51) "Sex Objekt" # (04:20) "Electric Café" Spanish release # (02:57) "Boing Boom Tschak" # (07:42) "Techno Pop" # (05:45) "Musique Non Stop" # (08:03) "The Telephone Call" # (06:51) "Sex Object" # (04:20) "Electric Café" Note 1: In the Spanish release both "Techno Pop" and "Sex Object" (often mis-titled "Objeto Sexual" by discographers) have the lead vocals sung in Spanish only. The original vinyl album was withdrawn soon after release due to a manufacturing error and has never been reissued on CD. |
|
|