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Kraftwerk fans must be a patient bunch. The techno legends have spawned numerous musical offspring due to their pioneering (and prophetic) digital explorations, but the scores of electronic groups influenced by Kraftwerk are almost all fans of the German group have to digest, as the band hasn't released a full album of new material since Electric CafT in 1986.
Thus, the Kraftwerk faithful must have gagged on their Spaetzle
when they heard that Sonic Books was releasing A Short
Introduction to Kraftwerk: an eighty-four-page mini-book with
a forty-five-minute album featuring seven unearthed Kraftwerk
rarities. Had fans finally gotten something of a Kraftwerk Holy
Grail? Unfortunately, es ist Quatsch.
According to Phil Walton, president of England's Music Non Stop,
Ltd., one of the outlets selling the album, after receiving the
albums on Monday, he realized that the "new" tracks might be
material that had been available on a bootleg years ago. Walton
even says some Kraftwerk enthusiasts believe the band on the disc
isn't even Kraftwerk. The CD features audible scratches most likely
pinpointing its parent source as a vinyl bootleg that has been in
circulation for several years.
"You can imagine how annoyed we were about it," Walton says. "We
didn't want to mislead anyone. All the information we originally
received on this release was taken from a reputable source."
That source is Sonic Books, an imprint of the Italian publishing
group Stampa Alternativa. Walton has yet to hear from Sonic Books,
and isn't sure whether the Italian company was also duped (our
efforts to reach Sonic Books were unsuccessful). A Short
Introduction to Kraftwerk is listed as #23 in the Sonic Book
series. The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Nick Drake, Sonic Youth and
XTC are among previous Sonic Book subjects. Walton claims the stock
is still a legitimate sale, due to the book, but he refuses to
position it as a new Kraftwerk album. He has also been working with
EMI, the group's U.K. label in trying to find the source of the
music on the album.
"We don't want to tread on anyone's toes, particularly Kraftwerk,"
he says. "Because we do so much of their stuff on the collectible
side, they're the last band in the world we want to piss off."
As for Kraftwerk fans, it looks like they'll have to continue to
spin last year's uneven dual EPs Tour de France and
Expo 2000 until the elusive band decides to offer up
something more substantial.
ANDREW DANSBY
(May 20, 2000)