Ralf & Florian

This is the japanese version of Kraftwerk - Concert Classics. Various versions seem to exist. With transparent and with black jewelcases. On the back and front of the case a blue sticker is attached. Therefore transparent jewelcase have another cover with the Autobahn logo in blue on black. When the CD was released in 1998 a Japanese press release is said to state that the concert was recorded in Dallas Broncos Bowl on 1/5/1975. However latest investigations to a series of recordings from Denver clearly indicate this recording coming from a 20/05/1975 gig in Denver.

When the Bureau B label contacted Karl Bartos and showed interest in releasing any archival material he might have laying around the lab, the former Kraftwerk member (that is, "classic lineup" member, joining for the Autobahn tour and leaving somewhere between Electric Cafe and The Mix) wasn't interested. After all, he's a never-look-back futurist, but as the liner notes to Off the Record explain, he's an open-minded futurist as well and allowed this initially rejected idea to morph into something new. Kicking off with "Atomium" - a grand bit of robot techno and possible sequel to Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" - Off the Record uses Bartos' archival tapes, zip drives, or computer files from 1975 to 1993 as its foundation, then mashes these off-hours audio sketches (recorded "off the record" from his usual band) with new ideas, overdubs, and vocoder vocals…

The byproduct of a much anticipated, long-delayed, and ultimately scrapped album to have been called Technopop (and to have contained Kraftwerk's great dance single "Tour de France"), 1986's Electric Cafe suffers only slightly from lacking the thematic focus of previous Kraftwerk albums. Ironically, the '80s techno-pop wave had passed by band founders Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter at this point, but their sly wit ("Boing Boom Tschak," "Telephone," "Sex Object") and melodic inventiveness still stand the test of time. Its segues virtually seamless, Electric Cafe plays like one mega-dance-mix, but with the tasteful restraint that has long been a Kraftwerk hallmark. This is club music for thinking men and women.