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The Mix (Kraftwerk album)

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The Mix
Studio album by
Kraftwerk
Released10 June 1991 (1991-06-10)[1]
RecordedApril 1991
StudioKling Klang (Düsseldorf)
Genre
Length65:15
Label
Producer
Kraftwerk chronology
Electric Café
(1986) 		The Mix
(1991) 		Klang Box
(1997)
2009 Edition
2009 remastered edition cover

The Mix is the tenth studio album by the German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on 10 June 1991 by Kling Klang and EMI in Europe and by Elektra Records in North America. It features entirely re-arranged and re-recorded versions of a selection of songs which had originally appeared on Kraftwerk's albums Autobahn (1974) through Electric Café (1986). Some of the songs, such as "The Robots" and "Radioactivity", feature new additional melodies and/or lyrics.

Background

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In 1990, Kraftwerk had made a return to the stage, following a nine-year hiatus from touring.[citation needed] Ralf Hütter stated in interviews that he regarded The Mix as a type of "live" album, as it captured the results of the band's continual digital improvisations in their Kling Klang studio.[citation needed] The versions of songs on The Mix subsequently became staples of the band's live set.[2]

Karl Bartos stated in a 1998 interview with Sound on Sound that the original idea for The Mix was to release a "best of" compilation, a suggestion from Bob Krasnow at the band's U.S. record label, Elektra Records. Bartos elaborated that the idea "didn't really appeal to [Ralf], so he came up with the idea of making a remix record. He was really thinking ahead, but I think if you made the original record, you shouldn't do the remix yourself. Somebody else should have done it."[3] In a 1991 interview with Melody Maker, Hütter said that "Kraftwerk is always a work-in-progress. We have no five-year plan. It's all about what's happening in the music, the zeitfenster at the time. So our Mix album is about these times, the remixing, cutting up and regeneration of old tracks."[4] During this period, the band was converting their Kling Klang studio to digital, transferring its sound library from 24-track analogue tape to disc, which factored into the album's creation.[5] This conversion project proved to be an ongoing task, as new upgrades and equipment were continually made available in the years following the album project.[citation needed]

Bartos stated that he was responsible for "all of the programming" on the record but went uncredited.[3] The prolonged production period for the album led band members Wolfgang Flür and, later, Bartos to leave the group before its release.[3] They were replaced by Fritz Hilpert and Fernando Abrantes.[4]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Almost Cool9/10[7]
Robert Christgau(3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention)[8]
Drowned in Sound5/10[5]
The Guardian[9]
Mojo[10]
Music & Media(favorable)[11]
Q[12]
Select[13]
Uncut[14]

The Village Voice's Robert Christgau praised the album at the time, calling it a "best-of with the bass boosted".[8]

In retrospective reviews, All Music's Alex Henderson observed that "Dance clubs had long been a key part of Kraftwerk's following, and the dance club was the obvious target of The Mix – a collection of highly enjoyable, often clever remixes", adding that it was a "welcome addition to the Kraftwerk catalog".[6] Tom Ewing of Pitchfork cited the new versions of "Autobahn" and "Radioactivity" as highlights, adding that, "unlike most mix albums of the period this one had a purpose: these more physical and propulsive versions have fed into Kraftwerk's live set ever since".[2] David Kavanagh of Uncut called it "a surprisingly addictive re-imagining of 11 classic tracks in a dancefloor context".[14] While Andrew Harrison of Select awarded the album five stars out of five, his opinion was that "Hütter and Schneider threw themselves into techno as if they'd invented it (which they had), but updating Kraftwerk was always rather pointless, as their music has never dated at all".[13] Chris Power of Drowned in Sound called it the band's "most idiosyncratic release", observing, "At its lowest ebb, crushingly, The Mix deals in an excruciating neutering of its source material ... its other sins being ones of redundancy rather than active damage." However, he singled out elements of "Autobahn" as what the album "could have been if Kraftwerk had elected to really work these tracks over in a radical way, rather than essentially updating them to dance music's early-Nineties industry standard".[5]

The Mix was placed first in The Wire's year-end poll for 1991, the first time that the magazine — previously known for its focus on jazz — had an all-genre category.[15]

Re-release

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A newly remastered edition of the album was released by EMI Records, Mute Records and Astralwerks Records on CD, digital download and heavyweight vinyl in October–November 2009. Because of licensing restrictions imposed by Warner Music Group, this version has only been made available in the US and Canada as a part of The Catalogue box set.[16]

Track listing

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No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Robots" ("Die Roboter")
8:56
2."Computer Love" ("Computerliebe")
6:35
3."Pocket Calculator" ("Taschenrechner")
  • Hütter
  • Bartos
  • Schult
4:32
4."Dentaku" (Japanese: "Calculator")
  • Hütter
  • Bartos
  • Schult
3:27
5."Autobahn"
  • Hütter
  • Schneider
  • Schult
9:27
6."Radioactivity" ("Radioaktivität")
  • Hütter
  • Schneider
  • Schult
6:53
7."Trans-Europe Express" ("Trans Europa Express")
  • Hütter
  • Schult
3:20
8."Abzug"
  • Hütter
2:18
9."Metal on Metal" ("Metall auf Metall")
  • Hütter
4:58
10."Home Computer" ("Heimcomputer")
  • Hütter
  • Schneider
  • Bartos
8:02
11."Music Non Stop" ("Musik Non-Stop")
  • Hütter
  • Schneider
  • Bartos
6:38
Total length:65:15

Personnel

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The original 1991 liner notes credit Hütter, Schneider and Hilpert simply with "Music Data Mix", while the 2009 remaster release gives more detailed credits for Hütter and Schneider. Abrantes, while uncredited in the liner notes, appeared in the artwork and other promotional material. Several other individuals are credited with "hardware" and "software", by last name only.

The 2009 remaster credits provide the following information:

Kraftwerk

Additional musician

Technical

  • Ralf Hütter – album concept, production, original artwork reconstruction
  • Florian Schneider – album concept, production
  • Günter Frohling – black and white photography
  • Peter Boettcher – color photography
  • Johann Zambryski – original artwork reconstruction

Charts

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Weekly charts

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Chart (1991) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA Charts)[22] 132
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[23] 12
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[24] 83
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[25] 7
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[26] 33
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[27] 20
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[28] 27
UK Albums (OCC)[29] 15

Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[30] Silver 60,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ "BPI".
  2. ^ a b Ewing, Tom (1 December 2009). "Kraftwerk: The Catalogue Album Review". Pitchfork. Condé Nast.
  3. ^ a b c d Miller, Jonathan (March 1998). "KARL BARTOS: Elektric Music and Kraftwerk". Sound on Sound.
  4. ^ a b Stubbs, David (20 July 1991). "Kraftwerk - Robopop". Melody Maker. pp. 40–41.
  5. ^ a b c Power, Chris (15 October 2009). "Kraftwerk – The Mix: Remastered". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  6. ^ a b Henderson, Alex (2011). "The Mix – Kraftwerk". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  7. ^ "Kraftwerk – The Mix". Almost Cool. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  8. ^ a b Christgau, Robert (2011). "CG: Kraftwerk". Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  9. ^ Sweeting, Adam (14 April 1995). "CDs of the week: Kraftwerk reissues". The Guardian. London. ISSN 0261-3077.
  10. ^ Snow, Mat (November 2009). "Gut Vibrations". Mojo (192). London: Bauer Media Group: 110. ISSN 1351-0193.
  11. ^ "New Releases: Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. 27 July 1991. p. 11. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  12. ^ "Review". Q. May 1995. p. 123. 4 Stars (Excellent): "... a revised history of the band, throbbingly danceable and one of the best party records of the past decade ..."
  13. ^ a b "New Old Albums". Select. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  14. ^ a b Cavanagh, David. "Uncut Reviews: Kraftwerk – Reissues". Uncut. Archived from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  15. ^ "The Critics' Choice 1991". The Wire. No. 94/95. London. January 1992. pp. 56–57 – via Exact Editions. (subscription required)
  16. ^ "Der Katalog (The Catalogue) remasters release info". Astralwerks Records. Archived from the original on 7 May 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  17. ^ "Computer Love (2009 Remaster)". YouTube. 25 January 2017.
  18. ^ "Pocket Calculator (2009 Remaster)". YouTube. 25 January 2017.
  19. ^ "Metal on Metal (2009 Remaster)". YouTube. 25 January 2017.
  20. ^ "Music non Stop (2009 Remaster)". YouTube. 25 January 2017.
  21. ^ "Metal on Metal (2009 Remaster)". YouTube. 25 January 2017.
  22. ^ "Bubbling Down Under Week Commencing 5 August 1991". Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  23. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Kraftwerk – Tour de France Soundtracks" (in German). Hung Medien.
  24. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Kraftwerk – Tour de France Soundtracks" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  25. ^ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH.
  26. ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2020. 42. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ.
  27. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Kraftwerk – Tour de France Soundtracks". Hung Medien.
  28. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Kraftwerk – Tour de France Soundtracks". Hung Medien.
  29. ^ June 1991/7502/ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  30. ^ "British album certifications – Kraftwerk – The Mix". British Phonographic Industry.
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