release date: Jan. 1972
format: digital (1994 uofficial reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,02]
producer: Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider-Esleben, Konrad 'Conny' Plank
label: Germanofon - nationality: Germany
2nd studio album by German band Kraftwerk, here only credited the two co-founders of the band, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, after the recently included drummer Klaus Dinger left the band and instead co-founded the band Neu! According to Hütter, it was hard to find drummers for Kraftwerk because no one would work with them when they chose to use non-typical (electric) instruments, so Hütter and Schneider themselves are credited percussion on the album here, just as they are on sucessorRalf und Florian (1973). The opening track "Klingklang" is almost 18 minutes long and in addition to being the album's longest composition, it has also given name to Kraftwerk's studio and record company Kling Klang, founded around '73.
Musically, a lot has actually happened since the debut Kraftwerk from 1970. The absence of actual drummers distances the album from other contemporary 'krautrock' releases and points to a purer electronic-founded style, where Hütter and Schneider - aided by the later legendary Konrad 'Conny' Plank sound - only stage their instrumental compositions using rhythms from percussion instruments such as xylophone, marimba and primitive programmable instruments, and on top of this basic substance they have added sounds from organ, electric piano, flute, violin, accordion, but also from more traditional instruments such as bass and guitar.
Still, it's a long way to the band's more iconic compositions with more traditional musical structures, but there is much pointing in the direction of ambient and progressive pop, and then the music has also taken a direction away from the initial improvisational and more abrupt compositions from the debut, which still had contained elements from psychedelic rock.
The album (just as its predecessor and the follow-up) has never officially been reissued, but only exists as a result of pirated copies - as here from the supposed Czech company Germanofon.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
