- Audio CD (6 Nov 2009)
- Number of Discs: 8
- Format: Box set
- Label: Klingklang (EMI)
- ASIN: B002LYC29A
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 123,527 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Beautiful tonal ranges of the albums collated, reshaped and redefined. They sound burnished and polished even to my cloth stopped ears. The analogue tones swoon, simmer and undulate in sonic swoops and throbs. Now they jump out, then they quickly recede, into the dust and air, a form of 3D soundscape forms, bouncing around the room, chasing itself around the cupboards, hiding amongst the books and under the sofa before vanishing.
This format works with the perenial zeitgeist of Kraftwerk who sound forever contemporary. It would never work with the Elvis back catalogue, a product of its time and era.
With Kraftwerk the redefinition of the music sends them into a different form of transcendence. They always shaped the future whilst feeling contemporary. Coated with the same startling impact of the 1960's Dr. Who theme blasting out in 62 on a time loop of shapeshifting, delineating contemporary and future worlds. Some of these songs were composed four decades ago and still enthrall. They are a time capsule.
These are the sounds of now, the future formed back in the 70's, a world created by Phillip K Dick of semi dystopian fragments of splendour. Porcelain purring engines of sleek sounds harnessed to trains, cars, nuclear energy, computers, telephones, models and robots. An ice bound emotionless world forever twinkling with cold fervour. Kraftwerk always celebrated the future although the live performance had a strong critique of nuclear power, prescient given the problems the world faces with energy.
The anithesis of the Kraftwerk vision are the rustic worlds of yore, yet the melodies hark back to Central European themes, the paradox of the band is their embracing modernism and their stark alienation from it.
These albums like Little Richard, Sex Pistols and James Brown changed the course of culture. These started off every modern genre that appeared afterwards usually as pale pastiche hand me down diluted copies.
This is the real experience, painstakingly constructed by artists who turned to music bringing their visions within.
I bought the Deutsche version, already owning the CD's and albums in English. Armed with some rustic german I can sing along, I already know the English lyrics. The Deutsche provides the surreal Eurovolk 21stC experience.
This is the backbone and spine of any real record collection receding into the price stratosphere so try to ensnare it whilst it still is within some form of reach.
This format works with the perenial zeitgeist of Kraftwerk who sound forever contemporary. It would never work with the Elvis back catalogue, a product of its time and era.
With Kraftwerk the redefinition of the music sends them into a different form of transcendence. They always shaped the future whilst feeling contemporary. Coated with the same startling impact of the 1960's Dr. Who theme blasting out in 62 on a time loop of shapeshifting, delineating contemporary and future worlds. Some of these songs were composed four decades ago and still enthrall. They are a time capsule.
These are the sounds of now, the future formed back in the 70's, a world created by Phillip K Dick of semi dystopian fragments of splendour. Porcelain purring engines of sleek sounds harnessed to trains, cars, nuclear energy, computers, telephones, models and robots. An ice bound emotionless world forever twinkling with cold fervour. Kraftwerk always celebrated the future although the live performance had a strong critique of nuclear power, prescient given the problems the world faces with energy.
The anithesis of the Kraftwerk vision are the rustic worlds of yore, yet the melodies hark back to Central European themes, the paradox of the band is their embracing modernism and their stark alienation from it.
These albums like Little Richard, Sex Pistols and James Brown changed the course of culture. These started off every modern genre that appeared afterwards usually as pale pastiche hand me down diluted copies.
This is the real experience, painstakingly constructed by artists who turned to music bringing their visions within.
I bought the Deutsche version, already owning the CD's and albums in English. Armed with some rustic german I can sing along, I already know the English lyrics. The Deutsche provides the surreal Eurovolk 21stC experience.
This is the backbone and spine of any real record collection receding into the price stratosphere so try to ensnare it whilst it still is within some form of reach.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Great collection of the German records.
6 Dec 2009
Format:Audio CD
First of all, if you're really looking for a "bargain" price, please don't shop here. Go to the official kraftwerk site; they have both versions AT THE SAME PRICE (some 100 euros, I think) and they come with a nifty t-shirt.
Now, for the boxset itself; as you probably know, the sound quality of these records is excellent, being Trans-Europa Express, Die Mensch-Maschine and Techno Pop the most benefited of the remastering process. All the other records, however sound equally great, but their sound was already very good to begin with (I'm talking about Computerwelt, The Mix and Tour De France; Computerliebe still has that speed-tune glitch at the fade out, but it's less noticeable now). Radio-Aktivität got some new stereo treatment which may take a while to get into, but it does sound really impressive, specially in a home system. Most sound artifacts remain for some of the songs, like the little skip in Europa Endlos.
And Autobahn? You may ask; It's defeinitely the best digital version you can get IMHO, but it's not without its share of flaws, the most important of all is the evident saturation in the right channel (the 1985 master had the exact same issue, so I'm guessing there was no way it could be repaired). Anyway, that original 1985 CD issue came from an abysmal master, so the 2009 version sounds definitely better; not at the standard of the other 7 CDs, but very good nonetheless. Der Katalog has by far the best versions you can get of these classic works. And I doubt they could be done better.
You might have seen some negative reviews of this, so you might want to try one of the individual CDs first; know this: all the discs are noise-reduction heavy, with evident stereo and equalization corrections, so if that's not your ideal of a remaster, you might be disappointed. But for a Kling Klang record, they are truly impressive. Some of the tracks have a different equalization that the rest of their album companions. EDIT: While that was originally my first impression, the equalization discrepancies are only apparent but not real and you can notice that when you get to contrast low and high frequencies on the same song. Do it and you'll understand the purpose of Neonlicht being "different". If you treble boost the song, the synth line around the half will sound too trebley (and it will hurt your ears), despite the bassline and percusion sounding "OK". So, I have to take back my initial assertion about the EQ and have to say: these records do sound crisp and clear, with pounding bass frequencies and crystal clear mid and treble frequencies. They are by far the BEST versions you'll ever get of these seminal albums.
My only real complaint is that Tour De France Étape 1 now has a little skipping glitch at around the 3:24 mark, a sound artifact that was not present in the original Tour De France Soundtracks album, but it's barely noticeable. What I don't understand is how such a thing appeared in a digital re-master of a digital record (!) - by the way, the Tour De France re-master does sound different from the original 2003 issue; which one sounds better is just a matter of personal preference - this one sounds a little fuzzier but the equalization is way better.
These are all my observations regarding sound quality; they are not that noticeable or important, but knowing how much audiophiles might be interested in this package, I felt I needed to point this out.
The presentation is great; I'm asuming it's the same package type The catalogue has (only in German, of course), so the reviews for the English Version might also apply for this one. It all comes in a very classy, sturdy and stylish cardboard box and etc. Check the English reviews for a more detailed description of this.
And now for the "bad" news:
You might already know this but the following is NOT included in the boxset:
-The Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf Und Florian Albums (I could care less about these albums, but I thought you should know).
-The Tour De France and Expo2000 singles (altough a remake of the Tour De France song does appear in the 2003 album included in the box).
-The original version of Der Telefon Anruf from the Electric Cafe album (that's right; the original 8-minute cut is actually repleced with the single version and House Phone is just a remix/b-side making for the missing 4 or so minutes of the original Telefon song).
-For all their beauty and magnificence, not all the LP-sized booklets include the album's lyrics; Die Mensch-Maschine, Techno Pop and The Mix (the lyrics for Radio-Aktivität are different from the 1975 version and you might want to read what Dentaku is saying, also), for instance.
Anyway; I loved the package, but I'm really biased towards Kraftwerk and I would rate it with a 5. Enjoy.
Now, for the boxset itself; as you probably know, the sound quality of these records is excellent, being Trans-Europa Express, Die Mensch-Maschine and Techno Pop the most benefited of the remastering process. All the other records, however sound equally great, but their sound was already very good to begin with (I'm talking about Computerwelt, The Mix and Tour De France; Computerliebe still has that speed-tune glitch at the fade out, but it's less noticeable now). Radio-Aktivität got some new stereo treatment which may take a while to get into, but it does sound really impressive, specially in a home system. Most sound artifacts remain for some of the songs, like the little skip in Europa Endlos.
And Autobahn? You may ask; It's defeinitely the best digital version you can get IMHO, but it's not without its share of flaws, the most important of all is the evident saturation in the right channel (the 1985 master had the exact same issue, so I'm guessing there was no way it could be repaired). Anyway, that original 1985 CD issue came from an abysmal master, so the 2009 version sounds definitely better; not at the standard of the other 7 CDs, but very good nonetheless. Der Katalog has by far the best versions you can get of these classic works. And I doubt they could be done better.
You might have seen some negative reviews of this, so you might want to try one of the individual CDs first; know this: all the discs are noise-reduction heavy, with evident stereo and equalization corrections, so if that's not your ideal of a remaster, you might be disappointed. But for a Kling Klang record, they are truly impressive. Some of the tracks have a different equalization that the rest of their album companions. EDIT: While that was originally my first impression, the equalization discrepancies are only apparent but not real and you can notice that when you get to contrast low and high frequencies on the same song. Do it and you'll understand the purpose of Neonlicht being "different". If you treble boost the song, the synth line around the half will sound too trebley (and it will hurt your ears), despite the bassline and percusion sounding "OK". So, I have to take back my initial assertion about the EQ and have to say: these records do sound crisp and clear, with pounding bass frequencies and crystal clear mid and treble frequencies. They are by far the BEST versions you'll ever get of these seminal albums.
My only real complaint is that Tour De France Étape 1 now has a little skipping glitch at around the 3:24 mark, a sound artifact that was not present in the original Tour De France Soundtracks album, but it's barely noticeable. What I don't understand is how such a thing appeared in a digital re-master of a digital record (!) - by the way, the Tour De France re-master does sound different from the original 2003 issue; which one sounds better is just a matter of personal preference - this one sounds a little fuzzier but the equalization is way better.
These are all my observations regarding sound quality; they are not that noticeable or important, but knowing how much audiophiles might be interested in this package, I felt I needed to point this out.
The presentation is great; I'm asuming it's the same package type The catalogue has (only in German, of course), so the reviews for the English Version might also apply for this one. It all comes in a very classy, sturdy and stylish cardboard box and etc. Check the English reviews for a more detailed description of this.
And now for the "bad" news:
You might already know this but the following is NOT included in the boxset:
-The Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf Und Florian Albums (I could care less about these albums, but I thought you should know).
-The Tour De France and Expo2000 singles (altough a remake of the Tour De France song does appear in the 2003 album included in the box).
-The original version of Der Telefon Anruf from the Electric Cafe album (that's right; the original 8-minute cut is actually repleced with the single version and House Phone is just a remix/b-side making for the missing 4 or so minutes of the original Telefon song).
-For all their beauty and magnificence, not all the LP-sized booklets include the album's lyrics; Die Mensch-Maschine, Techno Pop and The Mix (the lyrics for Radio-Aktivität are different from the 1975 version and you might want to read what Dentaku is saying, also), for instance.
Anyway; I loved the package, but I'm really biased towards Kraftwerk and I would rate it with a 5. Enjoy.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Wow awesome wow
29 July 2010
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have all of Kraftwerk on cd in english & now own even the Kraftwerk 1,2, & Ralf & Florian cd & even the Kraftwerk/Organisation cd.I saw that they have remastered all of the cds in 2009 & also added the German version of all the classics & said yes.I am so in love with this collection,I even love it more than the english cause their flow is so much better I their native tongue.You must get this even for the high price,I managed to purchase this box set at a great deal but either way it is a great but & killer addition to the other english versions.5 stars is not enough for this awesome sound.Put it this way.Kraftwerk rules
Great Set!
7 Dec 2011
Format:Audio CD
I followed the recommendation of a reviewer on the page for the English box set, which is reasonably priced here on Amazon ($120 at the time of this review), to find and buy the German box set. Here on the U.S. Amazon site, the German box set is fairly expensive but it is available for a much more reasonable price on the German Amazon site, and it is similarly priced at Kraftwerk's own website, and there, they include a t-shirt. I did not even know these box sets existed until I finally got to Kraftwerk on my list of lossy mp3 files that indeed to upgrade. I sure am glad I discovered the box set.
Whichever, and wherever, you buy, this is a beautiful set, well done, and the remastering job is quite good. So far, I have only listened to Autobahn, but it is quite a substantial improvement over my old LP, which I still have and bought when I was in college, and it is significantly better than the first CD release. It's amazing how good this music still sounds, and looking back from over 30 years, their influence is quite impressive.
Whichever, and wherever, you buy, this is a beautiful set, well done, and the remastering job is quite good. So far, I have only listened to Autobahn, but it is quite a substantial improvement over my old LP, which I still have and bought when I was in college, and it is significantly better than the first CD release. It's amazing how good this music still sounds, and looking back from over 30 years, their influence is quite impressive.
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