Klang Box was a special-edition boxed set compilation of music by Kraftwerk, issued in the UK in May 1997 as a promotional item ahead of Kraftwerk's 24 May appearance at the Tribal Gathering Festival, held at Luton Hoo, England.
Klang Box contained four 12-inch singles of original recordings compiled from the Trans-Europe Express, Computer World and Electric Café albums, including a rare instrumental edit of "Trans-Europe Express".
The box was assigned the catalogue number Klang Box 101 and, according to an accompanying EMI press release, "1000 copies of ‘Trans Europe Express’ (b/w an instrumental version of the track previously unreleased), 'Numbers,' 'Musique Non Stop,' and 'Home Computer' (b/w "It's More Fun to Compute") are being manufactured, and 250 boxes with a Kraftwerk T-shirt will be made to hold the 4 12-inch records."
One of the four 12-inch singles
Contents
"Trans-Europe Express" / "Trans-Europe Express·Instr·" (Klang DJ 101)
"Numbers" / "Numbers" (Klang DJ 102)
"Musique Non-Stop" / "Musique Non-Stop" (Klang DJ 103)
"Home Computer" / "It's More Fun to Compute" (Klang DJ 104)
Black XL-size T-shirt with a robot motif and the name Kraftwerk (identical to the design on the front lid of the box)
Kraftwerk is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre. The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. Wolfgang Flür joined the band in 1974 and Karl Bartos in 1975, expanding the band to a quartet.
Kling Klang is the private music studio of the band Kraftwerk. The name is taken from the first song on the Kraftwerk 2 album. The studio was originally located at Mintropstraße 16 in Düsseldorf, Germany, adjacent to Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, but in mid-2009 moved to Meerbusch-Osterath, around 10 kilometers west of Düsseldorf. The band also operate a record label named Kling Klang, which they use to release their music.
Trans-Europe Express is the sixth studio album by German band Kraftwerk. Recorded in 1976 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the album was released in March 1977 on Kling Klang Records. It saw the group refine their melodic electronic style, with a focus on sequenced rhythms, minimalism, and occasionally manipulated vocals. The themes include celebrations of the titular European railway service and Europe as a whole, and meditations on the disparities between reality and appearance.
Electro is a genre of electronic music and early hip hop directly influenced by the use of the Roland TR-808 drum machines, and funk. Records in the genre typically feature drum machines and heavy electronic sounds, usually without vocals, although if vocals are present they are delivered in a deadpan manner, often through electronic distortion such as vocoding and talkboxing. This is the main distinction between electro and previously prominent genres such as disco, in which the electronic sound was only part of the instrumentation. It also palpably deviates from its predecessor boogie for being less vocal-oriented and more focused on electronic beats produced by drum machines.
Radio-Activity is the fifth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. The band's first entirely electronic album is also a concept album organized around the themes of radioactive decay and radio communication. All releases of the album were bilingual, with lyrics in both English and German. The album was accompanied by single release of the title track, which was successful in France and Belgium.
The Man-Machine is the seventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on May 1978 by Kling Klang in Germany and by Capitol Records elsewhere. A further refinement of their mechanical style, the album saw the group incorporate more danceable rhythms. It includes the singles "The Model" and "The Robots".
Computer World is the eighth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released on 10 May 1981.
Electric Café is the ninth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, originally released in 1986. In October 2009 it was re-released under its original working title, Techno Pop. The initial 1986 Electric Café came in versions sung in English and German, as well as a limited Edición Española release, featuring versions of "Techno Pop" and "Sex Object" with only Spanish lyrics. It was the first Kraftwerk LP to be created using predominantly digital musical instruments, although the finished product was still recorded onto analog master tapes.
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.
Florian Schneider-Esleben was a German musician. He is best known as one of the founding members and leaders of the electronic band Kraftwerk, performing his role with the band until his departure in 2008.
The Catalogue is a box set consisting of the eight albums by German electronic music band Kraftwerk that were released from 1974 to 2003. All albums are digitally remastered, with most of the cover art redesigned, including rare photographs in the liner notes that were not part of each album's original release.
Minimum-Maximum is the first official live album release by Kraftwerk, released in June 2005, almost 35 years after the group gave its first live performance. The album features two CDs of tracks recorded on the group's world tour during 2004, including concerts in Warsaw, Moscow, Berlin, London, Budapest, Tallinn, Riga, Tokyo, and San Francisco.
Karl Bartos is a German musician and composer known for his contributions to the electronic band Kraftwerk.
Minimum-Maximum is a double DVD by German band Kraftwerk, consisting of live shows performed during their 2004 world tour. The set was released in Germany on 2 December 2005, in the UK on 5 December 2005 and 6 December 2005 in the US, Japan and Australia.
"Tour de France" is a song by German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was first issued in early August 1983, peaking at number 22 in the United Kingdom singles chart since 6 August. It is notable for the use of sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling that were used to supplement a simple electro-percussion pattern – an approach Kraftwerk had used on earlier tracks such as "Metal on Metal" and "Numbers". The music is credited to Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider and Karl Bartos; the lyrics are credited to Hütter and Maxime Schmitt, a French label associate of the band. The melody appears to quote a fragment of the opening section of Paul Hindemith's "Sonata for Flute and Piano".
Musique is the fourth studio album by the Norwegian metal band Theatre of Tragedy, released in 2000. The title on the album's cover,, is the pronunciation of the English word "music" transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
"Planet Rock" is a song by the American hip hop artists Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force. The song was produced by Arthur Baker and released by Tommy Boy Records in 1982. The recording came together after DJ and producer Baker met with Bambaataa and the two bonded over the idea of creating a song about their mutual appreciation for the band Kraftwerk. Baker and Bambaataa had worked together previously on the song "Jazzy Sensation" and decided to compose a more electronic based version of the hip hop song, as opposed to the more disco-oriented work popular at the time. Along with musician John Robie, the group recorded the single at Intergalactic Studios in New York. Robie duplicated the sound on the record and had Bambaataa's rappers in the Soul Sonic Force rap over it. To create the raps, the lyricist of the group, Emcee G.L.O.B.E., had to develop a style he called "mc popping", which involved rapping off time, an unusual style at the time.
Lance Taylor, also known as Afrika Bambaataa, is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing.
"Musique Non Stop" is a 1986 single by German techno group Kraftwerk, which was featured on the album Electric Café. It was re-released as a remix on their 1991 album The Mix. The single was their first number one on Billboard Hot Dance Club Play and was one of two songs to make it to number one there.
Following the release of the Computer World album, Kraftwerk went on a subsequent tour, that started on 24 May 1981 in Florence, Italy; and ended on 14 December 1981 in Oyten, Bremen, Germany. The tour took place across, Western, Central and Eastern Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
