The Mix is the tenth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on 11 June 1991 through Kling Klang and EMI in Europe and through Elektra Records in North America. It features entirely re-arranged and re-recorded versions of a selection of songs which had originally appeared on their albums Autobahn (1974) through Electric Café (1986). Some of the songs, such as "The Robots" and "Radioactivity", featured new additional melodies and/or lyrics.
Kraftwerk The Mix Full Album German Version Of Snow
In 1990, Kraftwerk had made a return to the stage, following a nine-year hiatus from touring.[citation needed] Ralf Hütter stated in interviews that he regarded The Mix as a type of "live" album, as it captured the results of the band's continual digital improvisations in their Kling Klang studio.[citation needed] The versions of songs on The Mix subsequently became staples of the band's live set.[1]
Karl Bartos stated in a 1998 interview with Sound on Sound that the original idea for The Mix was to release a "best of" compilation, a suggestion from Bob Kratzner at their U.S. record label, Elektra Records. Bartos elaborated that the idea "didn't really appeal to [Ralf], so he came up with the idea of making a remix record. He was really thinking ahead, but I think if you made the original record, you shouldn't do the remix yourself. Somebody else should have done it."[2] In a 1991 interview with Melody Maker, Hütter said that "Kraftwerk is always a work-in-progress. We have no five-year plan. It's all about what's happening in the music, the zeitfenster at the time. So our Mix album is about these times, the remixing, cutting up and regeneration of old tracks."[3] During this period, the band were converting their Kling Klang studio to digital, transferring their sound library from 24-track analogue tape to disc, which factored into the album's creation.[4] This conversion project proved to be an ongoing task, as new upgrades and equipment were continually made available in the years following the album project.[citation needed]
Prior to the release of Autobahn, Kraftwerk consisted of Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter, who had released an album titled Ralf und Florian in October 1973.[3] Prior to Autobahn, electronic music did not develop a popular following in the United States with a few exceptions such as Michael Oldfield's Tubular Bells and the works of fellow German band Tangerine Dream.[4][5] According to critic Lynn Van Matre of the Chicago Tribune in 1975, "far too often much of what has been profferred has been either boring, painfully self-indulgent, or just plain painful".[4] In comparison, Van Matre found "Autobahn" to be "what you might call middle-of-the-road electronics".[4] Comparing the albums sounds to the group's earlier work, Michael Hooker of the Los Angeles Times noted the music of Ralf und Florian is more traditional compared to that of Autobahn, noting its resemblance to the works of composers Morton Subotnik and Edgar Froese rather than the "monotonous pulse" of Autobahn.[6] Kraftwerk became more conscious of their visual image and, under the guidance of their associate Emil Schult, they began redesigning their look.[3] Schult, who had studied under Joseph Beuys, consulted the band on their themes and image. This led to Kraftwerk having small, carefully staged promotional images for the rest of their career.[3] In a 1975 interview published in Melody Maker, Karl Dallas noted Kraftwerk's music and look were "as far as you get from the Gothic romanticism of Tangerine Dream" and that "visually they also present a completely different image", comparing Tangerine Dream's Froese's "untidy red locks", and bandmates Peter Baumann's and Christopher Franke's "long, lank tresses".[7]
In early 1974, like their German contemporaries, Kraftwerk purchased a Minimoog synthesizer,[8] which they used alongside customized version of the Farfisa Rhythm Unit 10 and Vox Percussion King drum machines on the album.[9] Autobahn was recorded at the group's home studio Kling Klang and at Conny Plank's new studio in a farmhouse outside Cologne. The majority of Autobahn was made on Plank's equipment.[10] Accompanying Schneider and Hütter on the album are Klaus Roeder on violin and guitar, and Wolfgang Flür on percussion.[11] Roeder, who was a member of Düsseldorf's music scene, had built an electronic violin that intrigued Schneider. Flür was an interior design student who had drummed for a Düsseldorf band called The Beathovens.[11] Flür stated he found initial jam sessions with the group somewhat strange but soon developed a rapport with his bandmates.[12] Conny Plank is credited as the engineer on the album but he had a key contribution to its sound.[13] Roeder later stated; "Plank played a decisive role. He mixed everything and assembled individual sounds into a whole. That was, I believe the last time that Conny did that. He then told me he did know what Kraftwerk would sound like when he was no longer there."[14][15]
A Chicago radio station was the first to play the single release of "Autobahn", which it had received as an import.[31] Jem Records in New Jersey imported a large quantity of the studio album, leading Capitol Records to release both the single and the album in the US.[31] The single cut of "Autobahn" became an international hit song in early 1975;[32] only a small portion of the song was played on top-40 radio.[4] The single version of "Autobahn" is three-and-a-half minutes long; Hütter stated cutting down the track was simple because it was "loosely constructed, so making a short version was easy because you don't have to worry so much about boundaries and continuity".[33] Following the popularity of Autobahn in the US, Vertigo Records released Kraftwerk's earlier album Ralf and Florian (1973).[34] Philips released "Kometenmelodie 2" as the album's second single.[27]
In 1985, Simon Witter wrote in the NME Autobahn is not as strong as Kraftwerk's four subsequent albums but that it has "enormous historical significance".[2] Witter said; "In the glam era of glitter and guitars, Kraftwerk were four besuited squares playing keyboards", and that the group was "Mentally and sonically decades ahead of their contemporaries", noting their unique rhythms, textures and melodies.[2] Simon Reynolds wrote in the Spin Alternative Record Guide (1995); "Esoterics will claim they prefer the first three albums: they're excellent, but truthfully Autobahn is when Kraftwerk's muzak-of-the-sphere starts to matter".[56] Reynolds said the title track "sounds like a pastoral symphony, even as it hymns the exhilaration of cruising down the freeway".[56]
There's not much in the way of ding-ding-a-ling on Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush. But there is, perhaps, a jazz aesthetic: It grooves, and makes room for interactive improvisation from a talented band. Have a listen to the first track, "Running Up That Hill" (the full album is on Spotify too):
88. Deadmau5: For Lack of a Better Name [Ultra/Mau5trap] 2009The fourth studio LP from the computer geek-turned-DJ powerhouse, this might be Deadmau5's most intense album yet. Chock full of progressive, trancey anthems like "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" and the serotonin opus "Strobe," it displays his knack for sound design, creating tracks that put the sometimes cantankerous producer in the category of those who truly push limits in the new millennia.
81. Akufen: My Way [Force Inc] 2002Montreal producer Marc LeClair recorded over two thousand tiny samples on his short wave radio, meticulously cut and pasted them onto upbeat house loops and mindfucked everybody by producing a finished album that's simultaneously intellectual and funky as hell. It's a glorious chaotic mess of sound snippets, reined in masterfully, proving that danceability doesn't have to be sacrificed for experimentation.
75. Femi Kuti: Shoki Shoki [Barclay] 1998The raw sensuality of "Beng Beng Beng" rightly steals the spotlight here, but so embraced by the club scene was Femi Kuti's sophomore solo release, Shoki Shoki, it eventually got its own remix album. Still, the original version is pure fire, with the young Kuti keeping his father's legacy of Afrobeat dancefloor politics alive amid swirls of horns and beats.
41. Deep Dish: George Is On [Thrive] 2005At a time when other DJs of their generation had their asses handed to them when they tried to make an artist album, Deep Dish proved it possible with an LP of melodic, tightly-produced, club-ready, and infectious house music. Plus, they got Stevie Nicks to re-record her vocals for their electronica-fied version of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and somehow it works.
40. Armin van Buuren: Imagine [Armada] 2008With minimal lyrical inventiveness and maximal extended mixes, albums have always been a slightly volatile format in trance. The unparalleled leader of the genre, Armin van Buuren, offered his most emotionally potent full-length with Imagine, harnessing songwriting and powerful melodies for a unflinchingly trance LP. He even scored a trance classic with the pulsating ballad. "In and Out of Love."
29. The Chemical Brothers: Come With Us [Virgin/Astralwerks] 2002"It's no Dig Your Own Hole" is the subtext of every tepid review of the Chemical Bros' last few albums but Come With Us is also worthy of comparison. Their fourth full-length effort is solid with a handful of keepers, including the title track, the Planet Rock-inspired "It Began In Afrika," "Galaxy Bounce," "Star Guitar," and frenetic electro jam "Hoops." 2ff7e9595c
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