Electric Cafe
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| Electric Cafe | ||
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| LP by Kraftwerk | ||
| Released | 1986 | |
| Recorded | ??? | |
| Genre | Electronic | |
| Length | 35 min 38 s | |
| Record label | EMI | |
| Producer | Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür | |
| Professional reviews | ||
| Allmusic.com | 3 stars out of 5 | link (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040403251443301584&sql=Agekzikp6bb69) |
| Q | 2 stars out of 5 | August 1995 (http://www.q4music.com/nav?page=q4music.artist.review&fixture_review=126693&fixture_artist=145614) |
| Kraftwerk Chronology | ||
| Computer World (1981) | Electric Cafe (1986) | The Mix (1991) |
Electric Cafe is a 1986 album by Kraftwerk. It was released in English and German with the same title. It was the first Kraftwerk LP to be created using predominantly digital equipment. Der Telefon Anruf was the first and only Kraftwerk song to feature Karl Bartos on lead vocals. Audiences generally appeared to find the music somewhat more sterile and less engaging that its hugely popular predecessor, Computerwelt, and it did not meet with great commercial success. However, Music Non Stop came to be known as a ubiquitous jingle on the MTV channel.
| Contents |
History
In 1982, following the success of Computer World, Kraftwerk set about planning their next album. It was to be called "Techno Pop", containing a number of electronic numbers in a more mainstream style. They recorded a number of the tracks for it, including the trilogy of "Boing Boom Tschak", "Techno Pop" and "Musique Non-Stop". Rather ironically, after the release in 1983 of what would have been the first single from the album "Techno Pop", Tour de France (single), Ralf Hütter was injured in a cycling accident, and was unable to work on the project for some 6 months. By the time of his recovery, the completion of the album was seen as unfeasible given that one single had already been released. So, it was decided that "Tour de France" would be allowed to stand alone as a single, and the other three tracks would be used on a new release. The band were worried that their music was no longer sufficiently unique compared to their contempories, and the remaining Techno Pop material was reworked and remixed over a long period of time, finally emerging in 1986 as Electric Cafe.
Commercially, the album was unsuccessful. Had "Techno Pop" been seen to release, that would likely have been more successful, however the gap of almost 5 full years between the release of "Electric Cafe" and that of their previous album "Computerworld" certainly contributed to the poor sales.
Track listing
English release
- "Boing Boom Tschak" - 2:57
- "Techno Pop" - 7:42
- "Musique Non-Stop" - 5:45
- "The Telephone Call" - 8:03
- "Sex Object" - 6:51
- "Electric Cafe" - 4:20
German release
- "Boing Boom Tschak" - 2:57
- "Techno Pop" - 7:42
- "Musique Non-Stop" - 5:45
- "Der Telefon Anruf" - 8:03
- "Sex Objekt" - 6:51
- "Electric Cafe" - 4:20