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  1. Artist:   Kraftwerk
  2. Title:    Tour De France
  3. Label:    Mute
  4. Genre:    Electronic
  5. Bitrate:  192kbit av.
  6. Time:     00:55:55
  7. Size:     82.10 mb
  8. Rip Date: 2009-11-13
  9. Str Date: 2009-00-00
  10.  
  11. 01. Prologue                                                      0:31
  12. 02. Tour De France (╔tape 1)                                      4:27
  13. 03. Tour De France (╔tape 2)                                      6:41
  14. 04. Tour De France (╔tape 3)                                      3:56
  15. 05. Chrono                                                        3:20
  16. 06. Vitamin                                                       8:09
  17. 07. AΘro Dynamik                                                  5:04
  18. 08. Titanium                                                      3:21
  19. 09. Elektro Kardiogramm                                           5:16
  20. 10. La Forme                                                      8:41
  21. 11. RΘgΘneration                                                  1:17
  22. 12. Tour De France                                                5:12
  23.  
  24. Release Notes:
  25.  
  26. Following the Computer World tour, the largest and longest that
  27. Kraftwerk had ever embarked on, the band discussed the matter of
  28. exercise. Having noticed how close associate Emil Schult seemed to have
  29. the most energy out of all of them, they adopted two habits he had
  30. recently taken up: vegetarianism and cycling.
  31.  
  32. Along with music, cycling can be seen as the second great love of Ralf
  33. HⁿtterÆs life. The bandÆs leader and now, following Florian SchneiderÆs
  34. departure in 2008, sole remaining original member, itÆs said by some
  35. that the intensity of his love for and addiction to cycling is at least
  36. in part the reason for the massive slowdown in KraftwerkÆs output
  37. post-1981. Hⁿtter took to cycling every day, encouraged the rest of the
  38. group to start doing the same and enrolled them with a Dⁿsseldorf cycle
  39. club where they adopted the nickname æRadsportgruppe SchneiderÆ (æThe
  40. Schneider Cyclist ClubÆ) and wore a uniform of black pro-cycling wear.
  41. Allegedly they chose the colour of their outfits to match the night,
  42. when is when they worked in the studio, and the coffee they drank vast
  43. quantities of while talking about music.
  44.  
  45. Hⁿtter had always been the sports-lover of the group, attending
  46. football matches and playing golf. Given the stress he places in
  47. interviews on Kraftwerk being interested primarily in daily life, it
  48. seemed natural that sport would at some point prove an attractive theme
  49. to write about, although other members of the band were less convinced
  50. of its conceptual suitability. Tempting as it may be to daydream about
  51. a golf-themed Kraftwerk album, though, cycling at once seems a natural
  52. fit; as Hⁿtter remarked to Pascal Bussy in 1991: ôIt is the man
  53. machine.ö
  54.  
  55. Originally intended to be a track on KraftwerkÆs ill-starred Techno Pop
  56. LP, 'Tour de France' was released as a single in June 1983. As things
  57. turned out it would be another 20 years before it featured on an album,
  58. Tour de France Soundtracks, the title of which has now been shrunk to
  59. Tour de France. A sleek, oiled rush of sound, Tour de France is the
  60. first Kraftwerk album since 1981Æs Computer World in which music and
  61. lyrics work in tandem as part of a defined, unified construct.
  62.  
  63. Reaping the benefits of this focus, the opening quartet of æTour de
  64. France ╔tape 1Æ, æ...╔tape 2Æ, æ...╔tape 3Æ and æChronoÆ, rank as a
  65. junior partner to the epic journeys of æAutobahnÆ and æTrans-Europe
  66. ExpressÆ. A liquid techno pulse that surges forth and recedes like a
  67. peloton, this suite's central spine is a cyclical derailleur hiss that
  68. flows on through 18 minutes of atmospheric metamorphoses, and marks yet
  69. another of those moments of immersive trance for which many would have
  70. been justified in thinking, by the time 2003 rolled around, Kraftwerk
  71. had lost the knack.
  72.  
  73. Typically Kraftwerkian in its focus on an element of daily life that
  74. would be considered beneath the attentions of most songwriters, the
  75. descending filtered clangs and shimmering synth detailing of æVitaminÆ
  76. house a slow-motion paean to, well, vitamins. The acid-flecked drive
  77. and starlit pads of æAΘro DynamikÆ, meanwhile, see the band dip a wing
  78. simultaneously in the direction of both the Berlin and Detroit techno
  79. variants which they played such a large part in creating. Seemingly
  80. referencing the serious cycling accident Hⁿtter suffered in the Alps in
  81. 1983, æElektro KardiogrammÆ begins with a heartbeat and a similar
  82. respiratory sample to that which opens the original æTour de FranceÆ.
  83. Fascinatingly, it contains some discordant organ-style playing embedded
  84. deep in the mix that seems to hark back to the improvisatory passages
  85. of 'Autobahn'. Utilising a delicate, tightly-sprung breakbeat and
  86. minimalist melody line to develop its powerfully claustrophobic feel,
  87. 'Elektro Kardiogramm' also underlines the priority Tour de France
  88. awards the 'track' in favour of the 'song', and perhaps suggests the
  89. reason for the 'soundtracks' suffix in the original title.
  90.  
  91. Slipstreaming one behind the other, the tracks Tour de France comprises
  92. are wonderfully self-assured pieces of work. Even as the album slows
  93. into the somewhat meandering bleep-laden territory of Ralf Hⁿtter solo
  94. composition æLa FormeÆ its litany of cyclistsÆ buzzwords û _
  95. æPreparation/Musculation/Concentration/ Et, conditionÆ_ û exerts a
  96. Zen-like aura that proves absorbing.
  97.  
  98. The album closes with the original æTour de FranceÆ, its arrival
  99. foreshadowed by a minor-key interpolation of its bright, skeletal
  100. melody into æLa FormeÆs brief coda, æRegenerationÆ. Without this it
  101. might have felt thoughtlessly tacked on, and it could still be argued
  102. that it makes a less suitable concluding track than might have been
  103. hoped for. Nevertheless, it remains a winning piece of musique concrΦte
  104. pop, a spinning bike chain and ragged breaths underpinning HⁿtterÆs
  105. pre-robot vocals listing the raceÆs famous stages and infamous climbs.
  106.  
  107. A valuable addition to KraftwerkÆs oeuvre, Tour de France allows the
  108. hope that there might still be one more great album to emanate from the
  109. recently relocated Kling Klang studio. Ralf Hⁿtter has suggested that
  110. new material might be forthcoming in 2010, but long-time observers will
  111. know that holding oneÆs breath isnÆt advisable. Desirable as such a
  112. thought is, were we never to hear another note from Kraftwerk weÆd
  113. still have had as much from them as from any musicians in the modern
  114. era. In particular the trilogy of Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine
  115. and Computer World hold their place in the musical landscape that they
  116. did so much to shape, their sublime fusion of human emotion and machine
  117. functionality as endlessly evocative and influential as asserted by
  118. Hⁿtter in an interview he gave Keyboards magazine in 1992:
  119.  
  120. ôKraftwerk is permanent. Durability is a central concept in art. Our
  121. sounds and programmes are immortal. Thanks to the computer someone else
  122. will be able to continue what we are doing...ö
  123.  
  124. sire@hush.ai
  125.