Kraftwerk – Tour De Soundtracks

This is a good pressing. I bought this lp for the etape 1 / 2 / 3 . It has the tech house remix version which i can use for my mixing . The original tour de is on the d side. Sound quality is great. Its a early 2000's pressing so i presume most of the production is digital . Still a great album concept for kraftwerk .

Ok, as a diehard Kraftwerk fan from the late 1970's I don't know how you could not enjoy this album. I found it fun and takes the listener on the "Tour De " with the race itself and the riders preparation for race day. I don't know the quality of others sound system but having built my own speakers (four, four way speakers with 30 inch woofer's) and Thorens 1975 TD 160 tt and tube hybrid amp I crank this up as loud as possible and get no distortion, clear high tones and wonderful mids with chest banging bass tones and will listen to this time and time again. I had originally purchased the later 2009 RM and later realized that this copy is a CD to vinyl remix. I purchased this original version and could not believe the 3D realism and up front projection of sound. The title track at the end of the album came across so clear I could feel the ball bearings in rear tire hub spinning as the rider coast along. That's my opinion hope you enjoy this album as much as I do.

One of the Best Kraftwerk Albums With good concept .

Are you really sure the release date was 18th August 2003? I bought my copy on 29th July 2003, as evidenced by the price tag and the record shop receipt...

Good album. This is a concept album and a compilation of Songs made about the theme and topic of TOUR DE . actually it s not a regular new studio album but a compilation

they sound good... 3/5

The 2003 album's main problem isn't the sheer plasticity of it - it is Kraftwerk's inconsistent presence in music in the last 20+ years. 1991's "The Mix" was a curious little gem of a compilation revisiting the originals, cleverly using the remix formula while at the same time leaving a nice impression a new album's been made - and although showing some of the cracks (mostly in the absence of the classic line-up), "The Mix" marked a new era for Kraftwerk.

However, it practically took a whole decade for them to deliver anything remotely challenging. Starting with "Expo 2000" - initially a lazy, mere 5-second jingle they were reportedly payed a fortune to do, only to suffer a backlash from the public, feeling obliged to deliver a more proper yet lukewarm 4-track EP exploiting the Expo theme in a (tiresome) multitude of remixes that followed.

Needless to say that musically, the whole of "Expo 2000" (the original version of the EP that is) sounded like one big leftover from 1986's "Electric Café". The latter itself was criticised at the time of its original release for lacking a stronger idea or concept, but it remains a damn good timeless record, as exciting and innovative now as it sounded the first time you put it on - and "Electric Café" is basically the last true "new" Kraftwerk record.

While "Tour de Soundtracks" by comparison may seem conceptually stronger on the surface, it arrived too late - also taking under consideration that the album's common theme mainly means something to a certain Ralf Hütter, many will surely start to yawn pretty quickly into it, because there is no connection with the listener in that same way Kraftwerk's classic masterpieces clicked, offering a wider emotional sound palette on "Autobahn", "Trans-Europe Express", "The Man-Machine" or "Computer-World" to name a few... Instead, the new version of Kraftwerk (literally) still relies on the group's glorious past, the elegance and decadence of it, trying to give it the new shine but the end result is turning their "less is more" philosophy into "more is less".

Even the very original 1983 version re-appearing on the 2003 album is dried out of its own sweat. Musically it doesn't hurt, but let's face it, "Tour de Soundtracks" is more of an excuse of an album, exploiting the theme of cycling (well, recycling more like) over a tedious 55 minute road trip imagined by someone stuck cycling at the gym instead.

Soundquality is almost like a dictaphone. The worst mixing I've ever heard, Terribly plastic sounding everything. Amatheur solutions, noises, audible software-manipulation faliures, bad mastering, bad everything apart from some songs. I don't understand how can a full DDD sound be so extremely low in quality, especially when In live, they are good? Remastering the bad master is even a joke... I'm very sorry.

The people talking bad about this record are missing the point, perhaps. I think it's facinating, or maybe very fitting that the very artists that were influenced by Kraftwerk and went on to pioneer what became Detroit Techno, would in turn create a sound and style of music that would then cycle back to Kraftwerk again. This album is proof of that. I have listened to heavy doses of Detroit Techno over the years, and while I also grew up on old school Kraftwerk, this album was not one of the ones I listened to much at all. Today, the influence is obvious to me. It was Kraftwerk upgrading their sound. There is a well known (to techno fans) interview of Mad Mike Banks on Detroit Radio. In this interview he talks about meeting Kraftwerk when UR toured Europe and was playing in in the early 90s. He says one of the conversations that was had, was asking them why they hadn't put out any new music. Basically he was trying to convince them that they should continue to make music, because what they did was so ahead of its time, they had plenty of time to wait for the rest of the world to catch up, and their sound was just as relevant as ever. And well, eventually we did get a new Kraftwerk album in 2003. It would only make sense that the electronic music that they influenced would in turn come back to influence them in those 17 years. This is a great album. I enjoy it just as much as their old ones, and in fact more than a few.

For those who complained that this is dull album or doesnt show anything revolutionary in sound - come on people, give it up. Music is fun generally. Revolutionary in sound ed almost 15 years ago, as theres nothing new nowadays, just a wide variation on what we all know. Subgenres mix all the way and then some journalists or artists claim the discovered something new - theres nothing more wrong than thinking that way. In fact, this album by Kraftwerk is nothing new, but just their approach in new forms that are now popular (or were when they made their TDF album). In 2017 you might ask, still sound ok ? I answer yes, even though its only deep techno/electro/electronia sound mixed with Kraftwerk. For me they noted carefully whats good in modern electronica music and used it in proper way to redefine themselves and here we have their proposition on music electronia. I kind of like it. First part of album (TDF etape 1, 2 and 3) seems like just a look on what can they do with classic tech house'y thing and retweak to their style. Although in some parts it may sound as someone else put their hands on arrange...but the rest of album is a classic KW, quite distinctive at times, but as others said not revolutionary. Again, for me its good album, it just fits my taste. But its not their best work. Easy.

Really not sure of this version I have, only clue is french version. and titles of tracks are in french.