The Catalogue: Remastered [Box set, Original recording remastered]

As no-one else has yet written a review having actually received 'The Catalogue' I thought I would put fingers to keyboard and supply one (sorry if it's a bit long-winded)...

Firstly the contents:
The packaging is excellent. Each CD comes in a little cardboard wallet with the outside sleeve showing the new updated artwork and the inner sleeve showing the original vinyl front covers (the back covers are often different to the vinyl). Some people have expressed concern over the updated artwork but I think it makes the albums more unified (which I guess was the intention).
The full-sized booklets are very nice and very high quality. The booklets contain contemporary extra artwork for each album which in most cases is really lovely (if somewhat sparse). The booklets also give information on what is played by the various Kraftwerkians - something that was definitely not on the original CDs (and I don't seem to remember there being quite as much detail on the vinyl LPs of the earlier albums either). For example I didn't know that Ralf played guitar on the Autobahn album. The booklets are held in a slip case.

The whole catalogue is collected in a thick sturdy box.

Secondly the albums themselves:
I won't go into the merits of Kraftwerk themselves - I'm a huge fan so I'll leave it at that. However, having listened to bits of my original CDs and then the same bits on the remasters I have to say that remasters don't really blow me away. Yes the bass is more present, hiss has been removed (the Man-Machine album was particularly noisy originally) but other things seem to have suffered in the process. For example the synth melody in Pocket Calculator has some very audible reverb on it when it first appears giving it a nice sense of space. However on the remaster this reverb has been buried by the more pronounced bass making the into sound more 'closed in'. Subtle I guess but listening on headphones it's quite noticeable and is possibly indicative of how the overall sound balance has been chosen to favour the bassier end of the spectrum.
Overall my first impression is that the older albums have the greater audible change particularly as the older albums were much quieter (as older CDs tend to be) and noisier. I'm not sure that there really is a great difference in the overall sound quality (unlike the recent Beatles remasters where you can really hear the differences without having to 'look' for them).

Finally, what's missing?
Personally I think that as nice as the boxed set is it could have been better. A couple of things spring to mind:
1 - Why oh why did they remove the original mix of Telephone call from the album Electric Cafe/Techno Pop? The track Telephone call/House phone sounds like the 12" single that came out at the time of Electric Cafe (I will have to dig mine out to check) and was thus a single mix created to have more impact on the radio/dance floor. To my ears it now does not fit well with the rest of the album.

2 - I know Ralf is often quoted as saying there are no unreleased tracks in the vaults but I can't help thinking that this collection would have been enhanced with the addition of an extra CD containing the few things that do exist and are hard to get hold of. For example
- Dentaku the Japanese version of Pocket Calculator (originally the b-side of the Pocket Calculator single now only available as a live version or as the Mix album version)
- The original version of Telephone call could have been left on the album Techno Pop and Telephone Call/House Call could have been placed on a Bonus CD
- There are some alternative Kraftwerk versions of certain original tracks, such as the different version of the original Man-Machine track (i.e. not the Mix album version) which Ralf created at one point (I think it was originally intended for this boxed set but then they scrapped the idea of adding any bonus material)
- The original version of Tour de France (sparser but in many ways nicer sounding)
I know that this bonus disc would have ended up as a bit of a hodge-podge of tracks from different eras but it would have been a great bonus.

So in summary - a lovely collection but given it's price it's probably only something that would appeal to those that are really into kraftwerk. Those that aren't would probably be better off sticking to the big three (Trans Europe Express, Man Machine & Computer World).

I have purchased and listened to all eight re-masters. The transfer of the audio sound archives is all very good. The transfer of Electric Cafe re-issued as Techno Pop contains a reconstruction of the track the Telephone Call and is now split into two tracks 4.The Telephone Call and 5.House Phone. Whereas on the original this was something of a dead flat-song, this has been re-constructed into a new vibrant reconstruction KW mix.
I notice that a number of albums state reconstruction as opposed to re-mastering! Another observation is that Tour De France Soundtracks is more balanced and a substantially more refined mix than the 2003 issue. In other words if you have the original 2003 issue do re-consider to purchase this 2009 remaster which is sonically better. Nice expanded inlay photos on all the CD inserts. Information is expanded more so than on previous releases such as lyrics, performers and there music role on the each CD release. My only disappointment is that not all release state tracks numbers against the tile and the timings of each song, and additional PC content on each CD? Despite this small quibble strongly recommended and all the releases are worth purchasing. I certainly will be listening to all eight CD's for years. If you a KW fan then you will require no real prompt from me to purchase these CD's. If you're a newcomer to KW, start with the Mix after that try Trans Europe Express and Computer World.

Well, this is perhaps the first 'real' review, because everything else said here were folk talking about 'vapour ware'.

It's now here, and the presentation of the set of albums is great. I think it's perhaps one of the nicest collections and ways to collect these albums together.

Sound quality is in general - a big improvement. The albums sound smooth, full bodied and less harsh than the original CD's, which I'm sure were just taken from masters created for Vinyl etc.

There are however a few problems with the audio that I would like to note:

1. Radioactivity : every time the burst of white noise comes in, the entire audio track dulls.

2. There is an echo clicking sound right the way through 'Showroom dummies'

3. Evidence of the same noise reduction which tends to dull the sound at times is apparent through TEE and also Pocket Calculator

But they are an improvement on the originals. No more left sided bass on Computer world, or shifting stereo imaging on the album of the same name.

I'd say that the albums to have been transferred the best are 'Man Machine' and 'Computer World'.