Kraftwerk Remastered LPs
If you read this blog regularly at all, you probably will not find it hard to believe that at least one of us is a pretty huge fan of Kraftwerk. “Electronic music pioneers” hardly begins to explain the influence and reach that these Germans had on modern music. It so happens that 2009 marks the 35th anniversary of their landmark (and my favorite) album Autobahn. To celebrate, their back catalogue has been lovingly remastered and reissued with expanded artwork. Due to some licensing issues (don’t you love those?) only 5 of the 8 albums are getting the deluxe vinyl treatment, but what a treatment it is – with full-size artwork and booklets accompanying each heavy-weight vinyl release. We aren’t usually ones to celebrate the glut of classic vinyl “reissues” (i.e. big labels cashing in on the vinyl craze) but it really looks like a lot of thought and care went into these and I can speak from personal experience that the originals of these albums are not always easy to track down on vinyl. For less than $20 each, these do indeed look like a great value. Long live the robots. Pre-order from insound.com.
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Awesome! For me it’s all about Radioaktivität. Are the Trans Europe & Man Machine the German or English versions?
I’ll have to double-check when I get home, but I am pretty sure that the CD reissues are all in German. I would assume that the vinyl reissues are the same.
EDIT: Yes, CD reissues are definitely the German versions.
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That’s weird, ’cause all the CDs I’ve seen have been the English versions. Autobahn & Radioaktivität were only ever sung in German even though they provided English titles on English versions, but on Trans and Man Machine the music is different. If they sing “Trans Europe Express” and “we are the robots” they’re the English versions. If they sing “Trans Europa Express” and “wir sind die robots” they’re the original German versions. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQrb85O3HQA
FYI, looks like Amazon Germany has the German versions of all these, plus remasters of other Kraftwerk including Computerwelt: http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_ss_3_10?__mk_de_DE=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kraftwerk+vinyl&x=0&y=0&sprefix=kraftwerk+
I think you may be right Peter. The CD version I have is the Kling-Klang German Remasters. Original German versions would be ideal for the vinyl.
So Forced Exposure has these in now and the label is listed as “KLING KLANG/EMI (GERMANY)”. I’m wondering if these might be the German pressings? Hearing Kraftwerk in English just isn’t gonna cut it for me. Let’s get to the bottom of this.
Those still look like the English versions. Keep in mind that Autobahn and Radio Activity just have English titles, the music is all German. It’s only after Radioaktivität starting with Trans Europa Express that they started doing an English version of each album… The German versions of the later albums are Trans Europa Express and Die Mensch-Maschine, so I doubt they’re selling German versions retitled into English, especially since the German versions of them were only ever available as imports in the US. If you look at that Amazon.de link, in Germany they’ve remastered and reissued all the albums, must have been some record label conflict outside of Germany. I’m gonna try and order from Amazon Germany and see if they’ll ship to the US.
Well, I may have made a big mistake since they’re fairly pricey, but I just ordered Trans and Mensch Maschine from Amazon.de for $35 each after shipping. But I know I’m not getting the English versions. I’ll buy Autobahn and Radio stateside since the music’s the same…
Label listed on amazon.de is the same label as listed on Forced Exposure i.e. Klingklang (EMI). Label listed on amazon.com is Astralwerks. I’m getting a copy of the Trans-Europe Express CD on Astralwerks to see which version it is (English or German language). I’ll also try to get ahold of someone at FE to see if they can verify that they are carrying the German versions on Klingklang. This is the greatest conversation about Kraftwerk vinyl to ever take place in the history of the internet.
EDIT: Astralwerks Remasters are English language version.
Finally got my German LPs over the holidays. They sound fantastic. Die Roboter on Mensch Maschine benefits the most of any song from the remastering. The added low end is really really nice.
finally bought three out of five vinlys for collectors keep, not opening them, preserving them like art work!! any idea are these vinly the “Original Deutche languanger” versions? Loved reading everybody topic!!!