Dub dot dash

We are the robots.
Its only taken them 17 years, but electronic pioneers Kraftwerk have finally put out a new album. Tour De France Soundtracks is built around a song they released as a single way back in 1983, and includes a re-recorded version of that tune, alongside 6 new tunes, and a 3 part reworking of Tour De France which shows they have been paying attention to Detroit techno. When I bought the album, I got talking to the guy in the shop, and he suggested they should've released something sooner to cash in, so to speak. He's got a point; Kraftwerk have been so hugely influential across dance genres in the 17 years since Electric Cafe that there must be a missed opportunity there. Kraftwerk were always about the art, not commerce. But then there was Expo 2000...

The last time Kraftwerk released anything new was the Expo 2000 single, which was based around a commercial they recorded for the Expo 2000 festival in Hannover, that same year. According to The Guardian, "Hütter and Schneider were paid DM400,000 (around £145,000) to come up with a four-second jingle. Snappy financial thinking like that eventually caused Expo 2000 to lose a staggering DM2.4bn (£700m) - £10 for every man woman and child in Germany - and the {German} media deemed Kraftwerk guilty by association."

The Guardian's Alexis Petridis headed off to Dusseldorf to try and find Kraftwerk, and all he comes up with one stunning fact...
"Rosso Sport certainly looks like a very Kraftwerk kind of shop. A converted industrial warehouse next to a disused railway line, it is staffed by rather stern-looking men with lycra shorts and shaved heads. One drags himself away from the giant television screen showing the Tour de France long enough to answer my queries. Yes, he says, Florian Schneider sometimes comes in here. He has two bikes. A racing model and a small collapsible bike. And with that, he curtly turns away, like a man who has suddenly remembered some kind of Kraftwerk confidentiality agreement."
Its a very groovy album, definitely 'Kraftwerk like". Have a listen at Kraftwerks site, or check out this great fan site from Brazil.