Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Kraftwerk

There's also a Spanish version of "Sex Objekt" and Japanese "Dentaku".

I've ordered the German box as well.

I grew up in Germany in the '70s. For me, it was the original language versions that were played on the radio (good WDR 2) and the LP's I bought were likewise.

Returning to the UK at the latter end of '79, it was a surprise to hear them singing the songs I knew so well in English and to discover they were hip with the emerging post-punk electronic scene!

In retrospect, some of their songs work better for me in either one language or the other. I've become accustomed to "The Model" rather than "Das Modell" but to me Neonlicht and Die Roboter sound more "right" somehow.

Perhaps they should have stuck to the Radioaktivitat formula of singing in BOTH languages and saved me a bit of money

I think the inclusion of Les Mannequins and Mini-Calculateur would have been nice but on which box set? If there were to be a French, (or even Spanish) box planned, I'm afraid I wouldn't be tempted for just a couple of songs.

Personally, I think it would have been less wasteful to include each album twice on each disc in German AND English, (better for the environment Ralf!!!). The old albums are vinyl length and two versions would easily fit the 80 minute maximum of a CD.

Bern, are you sure there was an English version of the original Tour De France? I have my 1983 UK pressing here and the lyrics are French only.


Hey ho...

Just pre-ordered a set, having been torn all week between buying the English version, or the German one. What with all these ‘other’ artists bringing out yet more re-issues and more new CD’s in the pipeline financially I can only afford one version, and even that’s going under the stairs till Xmas day!

The idea of listening to the German version was appealing, and hearing the songs sung in the mother tongue would really have added a certain kind of ambience to the timelessly familiar music. But a few months ago during a family get-together a couple of Electric Café tracks were playing in the background of a mix I made, and a very much younger relative asked me what I was playing, adding that he thought it was Gary Numan!

So possibly I’ve been partly influenced in my decision to buy the English version box-set in order to more easily share the experience of Kraftwerk with any future generations that might pay me a visit.

How many years were you living in germany Shaun?
Ah actually I think you might be right about Tour De France, the main world release being in french.
There is definately a german language version of it though.
I agree they could have fitted the additional language variants on the same disc.

Guess they never did a studio version of this polish version of Pocket calculator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMdYWsQvxUo

oh and here's Mini-calculateur
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1k-Z-cg5ro&feature=related

Ich blieb in Deutschland fur neun jahre Bern (1970-1979)

Core Memory:

Good post. The first two albums are the same in either box. Autobahn being solely in German and Radioaktivitat being German/English.

It's personal preference but I think "wir sind die roboter" sounds better, especially the way Florian rolls the final R in roboterrrrrr. Just makes it more "mechanisch" and a little creepy... love it!

There are tracks where the difference is only slight, especially where the lyrics are so minimal. Europa Endloss / Europe Endless sound much the same.

Das Modell is interesting in that they got a waiter from their favourite restaurant to overdub the word "korrekt" but it always jumped out at me and sounded a bit out of context.

Schaufensterpuppen is good too. I prefer that to Showroom Dummies but my favourite is Les Mannequins. There's something ever so slightly tongue in cheek about the French version and Karl's backing vocal is mixed a bit higher on that giving it even more comedic value.

When it comes to Calculator, Taschenrechner is the one that scans best but I have to say that Dentaku for me is the definitive. I don't really speak Japanese but I just love the way it sounds... "bokuwa ongakuka dentaku katate ni". It's a great hook

That "korrekt" always did sound a bit extra loud.Never knew is was a waiter they knew!

Other than "Baby Come Back" (as Electrik Music) have Kraftwerk ever done any covers?

Would they? could they? would it be too predictable or ?

Presumably these re-masters are going to be as good as they can be?

Dentaku is spot on and sounds natural.
so does:
kono botan oseba ongaku kanaderu.

Is there any word of them doing another album before the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012?

I guess we're just going to have to wait and see Bern. Computer World for instance is pretty ropey, there are audible tape drop-outs and bad edits all over the place, (particularly on Computer Love).

If it's a straightforward remaster, then the faults will still be there as will any bad mixing. It will just be a bit louder and with a bit more top and bottom end.

What I hope they've done, (and being Kraftwerk, it could be likely) is instead of going back to the two track masters, they've gone right back to the multi-tracks themselves and restored each instrument track individually and mixed it again using modern digital equipment.

Technically this would be "remixing" but there should be no reason to alter the arrangements and make the tracks different, (which is what most people think of when they see "remix"). Instead, it would be relatively straightforward to dump the lot into pro tools and "re-create" the original sound balance again but with higher quality gear.

Personally, I rather hope this is exactly what they have done because if I wanted to hear the old master tapes a bit louder, I'd just turn up my amp.

[QUOTE Computer World for instance is pretty ropey, there are audible tape drop-outs and bad edits all over the place, (particularly on Computer Love)[/QUOTE]

Not sure I've heard those or if I have I might have thought them intentional glitches Any chance of some time cues so I can hunt em out

Listening to both versions again carefully and at risk of sounding picky...

On "Computer Love" the vocal is all over the shop, (drifting from left to right). This doesn't happen on the German version so I can't see why it would be intentional. What sounds like an audio drop out appears between 0:55 and 0:59 where all the top end disappears on the left channel for four seconds. There's a bit of a baggy edit at 3:54

On "Computerliebe" the vocal drift doesn't happen, it's nicely centred and stable. There's an odd bit at 7:18 (during the fade so you may need to listen closely) where the tape speed suddenly slides down a few percent (very odd). The English version fades before this happens.

Nothing to really take away your enjoyment of a great song but from an engineers POV, these are things it would be difficult to ignore.

They also did an Italian version of Pocket Calculator - Mini-Calcolatore for Italian TV in 81 youtube link , also performed live at concerts - but there's no official recording.