From what I read, this was going to be entirety of side a on the original version of what became electric cafe, with tour de France, the telephone call and sex object as side b. I would've loved to hear the full 10 to 15 min version of this!
I bought Electric Cafe back in 1986 and loved it even if the first side was a bit repetitive and hard to get through. The sound of this demo is a bit raw I think but I think the version of Sex Object could have been quite something... has those beautiful synth sounds from Computer World. Weirdly at times the Techno Pop demo sounds more like Europe Endless from quite a few years earlier.. 30-40 years on its really interesting how no one else really sounds like Kraftwerk despite the perceived influence.
In 1983 still ahead with this. Mistake not to finish it as an album. By 1986 the album was surpassed by time…1983 was their last year being ahead. It took 13 years for the world to catch up!
While it is definitely interesting to hear where the roots of "Electric Cafe" were (in my humble opinion, Kraftwerk's truly last original album that spent eons in the making even then), both these demos were and still are nowhere near the perfection of the final tunes. These days people tend to prefer "original demos" so much - yes, a demo can be a curiosity in order to connect even more to the final product, but would you really consider these doodlings pass for a proper Kraftwerk successor to "Computer World"? The idea was definitely there, but by 1983 a whole list of Kraftwerk's contemporaries (both young and old) took over and delivered a number of cutting edge records which left Kraftwerk in limbo - on the surface, Kraftwerk were never competing with others, preferring to record in isolation but at the same time they aimed to be ahead of everyone. Thus by the time the idea of "Techno Pop" was conceived, they found themselves stuck and short of ideas which these demos clearly show. Even "Tour de France" itself sounds a bit of a drag, despite the group's respectfully strict conceptual approach to that single. Time suddenly became an enemy, and Kraftwerk were no fools, understanding they needed an outside guiding hand in order to help them delivering something more proper - and above all, challenging. Were it not for François Kevorkian, I doubt they'd manage on their own and these demos again clearly demonstrate the dated level of what they were trying to do. "Electric Cafe" as the final product - despite its commercial flop and all the circumstances around it - managed in bringing Kraftwerk back their futuristic, shining aura.
These aren't just that much "demos", Techno Pop was actively slated for release, given a catalog number. I don't think there would be much difference to the structures we hear here. These releases were leaked, the leading theory, is from a DJ in Cologne where Kraftwerk would sometimes send early pressings to be played at the club to gauge reactions. "Tour de France" was already a hit, it was big in the urban US markets, and this album would have ridden off of that. Analog synths still were a thing in 83-84. Kraftwerk albums were very much structured in a way that Techno Pop was made to be sampled, which was gaining popularity at the time and Kraftwerk was seeing this happening, not one to be not on the bleeding edge. Despite what modern Ralf will say in a court of law, in the early 80s, Kraftwerk's sound gained traction hard in the early 80s hip hop scene and Kraftwerk wanted those artists to copy (not directly sample as he said in court). Despite Ralf's revisionism, Kraftwerk was sampled and early 80s Kraftwerk also saw it as a way back into the markets after The Model hit #1 in the UK in 1982 (a song that came out in 1978) and on the forefront of the hip hop scene that was growing and they were known by those hip hop musicians sampling. Hip Hop and early electronic are close and paid attention to each other, this was the music of the future. There was a reason a band like Yellow Magic Orchestra was on Soul Train at that time. Interest in Kraftwerk in 1982-84 would have been really high riding off critical successes in the 70s, I think they ultimately did want some kind of breakthrough and fame they tasted during Autobahn. New Wave was coming in strong and the album is Techno POP. Ultimately, it's Ralf's cycling accident and coma took this off the table, you can't tour an album in a coma even if the label wants you to. Kraftwerk had to restructure by the time Ralf recovered, rebuild and spend a ton of cash on all new digital technology and try to get ahead on that curve by working with companies and modifying exisiting tech (they had a Nintendo powerglove changed into a midi controller when it came out, but never used it for example). The thing is Electric Cafe actually got positive and good reviews when it came out. It even topped some big UK's magazine for that album of the year (I forget, you'll have to believe me -- not NME but a big one). Karl leaving was the real death of Kraftwerk. The classic trio of albums, if memory serves, have him coming in as composer with Hutter, Schneider, and Emil Schmidt. His addition to the writing team really changed Kraftwerk if you look at it from that angle. Karl's immediate post project was strong and showed compositions very similar to the traditional Kraftwerk melodic style, I think it's a fair succesor in a lot of senses to Electric Cafe as some of those songs were being written for Kraftwerk until Karl finally left after a few shows of The Mix tour in 1991. Easily could have had a 1992-1993 album of Kraftwerk music if Karl didn't leave and Ralf and Florian didn't concede to a hiatus after their distaste into making a greatest hits album (thus The Mix was the compromise between the label and Kraftwerk) and fulfilling their contract by doing that. The music that finally did come around in 1998 showed mostly a Henning/Fritz influenced Kraftwerk when played live. Then they went for the cash grab for Expo 2000 (now Planet of Visions in a full version and largely taken from remixes) making a few jingles initially to the point it made German mainstream news on how it was ridiculous they got paid so much money for such a small thing. It feels since 1998, Ralf has just kind of wanted to put Tour de France to bed and is content with that being the end of Kraftwerk's discography and his legacy. He's a keyboardist and compositionist, not much into modern music. Henning and Fritz are your general electronic heads that are the glue keeping the live show going. I like Falk but he's just there to round it out, a video tech would usually be stage-side.
@Ellis Combes No it wasnt. With the beginning of the 80s they struggled. Read Karls Book, he says that the session feeling of plaing and while playing creating ideas and sounds was gone. And the other problem was, that Ralf and Florian wanted to use the Synclavier as the main instrument. So it took very long to digitise all music stuff and programm the very complicated synclavier. Maybe they better choosed the fairlight.
I agree with you. Kraftwerk never really repeated themselves, and had they gone this direction, Techno Pop would have been more like a Computer World 2.0. When it was finally released it really sounded apart from the other albums.
Thank you for this upload. I think this version of Sex object is much more interesting than the Electric Cafe studio album version, even if we do miss out on that glorious "cello" outro. Still, one has to ask what they were thinking of using those slap bass sounds?!
They were supposed to be on the same album but Ralf was in cycling accident postponing recording. Then new technology was being introduced and years later we get "Electric Cafe".
Reportedly, these two demos are the only two bits of "Techno Pop" that passed under the surgeon's knife, surviving in their demo form... In/around 1983, "The Telephone Call" might not have even been in the picture...
@@antunivanovic "Telephone Call" was an idea they first conceived during the "Computer World" sessions (around 79/80), but was left over because, basically, it was just an idea and did not fitted the "Computer" theme.
I'm very certain that Ralf erased those demos, and never wanted to hear them again, we got lucky with these two escaping the Kraftwerk castle/drawbridge. Fans are still waiting for the first three to still be officially re-released by Ralf and it got awfully quiet
@@johnhenningfield4360 I believe Karl has them as well as well, but he said in interview in England I believe when he promoted his book that he will not release any song prototypes anytime soon. Sadly.
It was scheduled for release, with a date and catalogue number from EMI then Ralf's bicycle accident happened and clipped the whole project, he woke up out of his coma and no longer felt this version was suitable for release so they brought Francois K. in to do a total rework and that became Electric Cafe'
It got as far as promotional test pressings for radio stations, similar to the Glyn Johns mix of the Beatles Get Back album in January 1970. DJs were playing Get Back for a week before they were told to stop.
![Kraftwerk - Expo 2000 (CD Maxi-Single) [1999]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/i2gi5xKWHO0/mqdefault.jpg)
![Kraftwerk - Expo 2000 (CD Maxi-Single) [1999]](/img/tr.png)
![Kraftwerk - Electric Café [Deutsch] - Boing Boom Tschak + Techno Pop HD](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uTQmwMsAmsc/mqdefault.jpg)
That version of Techno Pop is really awesome and should have been released at least as a B-side back in 1983. Really infectious beat!
From what I read, this was going to be entirety of side a on the original version of what became electric cafe, with tour de France, the telephone call and sex object as side b. I would've loved to hear the full 10 to 15 min version of this!
I love all of KRAFTWERK'S tracks..They NEVER disappoint..Love these 2 tracks.
I bought Electric Cafe back in 1986 and loved it even if the first side was a bit repetitive and hard to get through. The sound of this demo is a bit raw I think but I think the version of Sex Object could have been quite something... has those beautiful synth sounds from Computer World. Weirdly at times the Techno Pop demo sounds more like Europe Endless from quite a few years earlier..
30-40 years on its really interesting how no one else really sounds like Kraftwerk despite the perceived influence.
I think that they should have stayed with this song for the original Technopop album.
It was unreleased
I love the way this sounds. In this form, to me, it sounds like it would have been a fit in between The Man Machine and Computer World albums.
In 1983 still ahead with this. Mistake not to finish it as an album. By 1986 the album was surpassed by time…1983 was their last year being ahead. It took 13 years for the world to catch up!
Other Techno Pop is a nice track . This one is religion.
Gefällt mir sehr 👍
Release the technopop record 83'years version I will buy it :))
i love KRAFTWERK technopop
Так вот он какой, ТЕХНОПОП!
While it is definitely interesting to hear where the roots of "Electric Cafe" were (in my humble opinion, Kraftwerk's truly last original album that spent eons in the making even then), both these demos were and still are nowhere near the perfection of the final tunes.
These days people tend to prefer "original demos" so much - yes, a demo can be a curiosity in order to connect even more to the final product, but would you really consider these doodlings pass for a proper Kraftwerk successor to "Computer World"?
The idea was definitely there, but by 1983 a whole list of Kraftwerk's contemporaries (both young and old) took over and delivered a number of cutting edge records which left Kraftwerk in limbo - on the surface, Kraftwerk were never competing with others, preferring to record in isolation but at the same time they aimed to be ahead of everyone. Thus by the time the idea of "Techno Pop" was conceived, they found themselves stuck and short of ideas which these demos clearly show. Even "Tour de France" itself sounds a bit of a drag, despite the group's respectfully strict conceptual approach to that single.
Time suddenly became an enemy, and Kraftwerk were no fools, understanding they needed an outside guiding hand in order to help them delivering something more proper - and above all, challenging.
Were it not for François Kevorkian, I doubt they'd manage on their own and these demos again clearly demonstrate the dated level of what they were trying to do. "Electric Cafe" as the final product - despite its commercial flop and all the circumstances around it - managed in bringing Kraftwerk back their futuristic, shining aura.
Amen to that !
These aren't just that much "demos", Techno Pop was actively slated for release, given a catalog number. I don't think there would be much difference to the structures we hear here. These releases were leaked, the leading theory, is from a DJ in Cologne where Kraftwerk would sometimes send early pressings to be played at the club to gauge reactions. "Tour de France" was already a hit, it was big in the urban US markets, and this album would have ridden off of that. Analog synths still were a thing in 83-84. Kraftwerk albums were very much structured in a way that Techno Pop was made to be sampled, which was gaining popularity at the time and Kraftwerk was seeing this happening, not one to be not on the bleeding edge. Despite what modern Ralf will say in a court of law, in the early 80s, Kraftwerk's sound gained traction hard in the early 80s hip hop scene and Kraftwerk wanted those artists to copy (not directly sample as he said in court). Despite Ralf's revisionism, Kraftwerk was sampled and early 80s Kraftwerk also saw it as a way back into the markets after The Model hit #1 in the UK in 1982 (a song that came out in 1978) and on the forefront of the hip hop scene that was growing and they were known by those hip hop musicians sampling. Hip Hop and early electronic are close and paid attention to each other, this was the music of the future. There was a reason a band like Yellow Magic Orchestra was on Soul Train at that time. Interest in Kraftwerk in 1982-84 would have been really high riding off critical successes in the 70s, I think they ultimately did want some kind of breakthrough and fame they tasted during Autobahn. New Wave was coming in strong and the album is Techno POP.
Ultimately, it's Ralf's cycling accident and coma took this off the table, you can't tour an album in a coma even if the label wants you to. Kraftwerk had to restructure by the time Ralf recovered, rebuild and spend a ton of cash on all new digital technology and try to get ahead on that curve by working with companies and modifying exisiting tech (they had a Nintendo powerglove changed into a midi controller when it came out, but never used it for example). The thing is Electric Cafe actually got positive and good reviews when it came out. It even topped some big UK's magazine for that album of the year (I forget, you'll have to believe me -- not NME but a big one).
Karl leaving was the real death of Kraftwerk. The classic trio of albums, if memory serves, have him coming in as composer with Hutter, Schneider, and Emil Schmidt. His addition to the writing team really changed Kraftwerk if you look at it from that angle. Karl's immediate post project was strong and showed compositions very similar to the traditional Kraftwerk melodic style, I think it's a fair succesor in a lot of senses to Electric Cafe as some of those songs were being written for Kraftwerk until Karl finally left after a few shows of The Mix tour in 1991. Easily could have had a 1992-1993 album of Kraftwerk music if Karl didn't leave and Ralf and Florian didn't concede to a hiatus after their distaste into making a greatest hits album (thus The Mix was the compromise between the label and Kraftwerk) and fulfilling their contract by doing that. The music that finally did come around in 1998 showed mostly a Henning/Fritz influenced Kraftwerk when played live. Then they went for the cash grab for Expo 2000 (now Planet of Visions in a full version and largely taken from remixes) making a few jingles initially to the point it made German mainstream news on how it was ridiculous they got paid so much money for such a small thing. It feels since 1998, Ralf has just kind of wanted to put Tour de France to bed and is content with that being the end of Kraftwerk's discography and his legacy. He's a keyboardist and compositionist, not much into modern music. Henning and Fritz are your general electronic heads that are the glue keeping the live show going. I like Falk but he's just there to round it out, a video tech would usually be stage-side.
Fora que Ralf sofreu um ataque cardíaco nesta época causada por excesso de cafeína!
@Ellis Combes No it wasnt. With the beginning of the 80s they struggled. Read Karls Book, he says that the session feeling of plaing and while playing creating ideas and sounds was gone. And the other problem was, that Ralf and Florian wanted to use the Synclavier as the main instrument. So it took very long to digitise all music stuff and programm the very complicated synclavier. Maybe they better choosed the fairlight.
I agree with you. Kraftwerk never really repeated themselves, and had they gone this direction, Techno Pop would have been more like a Computer World 2.0. When it was finally released it really sounded apart from the other albums.
Thank you for this upload. I think this version of Sex object is much more interesting than the Electric Cafe studio album version, even if we do miss out on that glorious "cello" outro. Still, one has to ask what they were thinking of using those slap bass sounds?!
Well they were pretty good in Tour de France
That was Karl Bartos bringing the bass element to the forefront of their music and it seemed to get a little funkier for that reason
They were thinking: "We should use slap bass sounds on this track."
Os Reis da música eletrônica POP DANCE MUNDIAL 🌐🇧🇷🌐🇧🇷👽🎹
thanks for the upload, this is really interesting
Beautiful sound
Gefällt mir besser als die Version von 1986.
This is awesome
The beats sound like Front 242's "Headhunter".
The poster slogan says: "Music will always be a carrier of ideas"
This is wonderbar!
Wow...
How on earth did you get your hands on this track?!
The percussion track in Techno Pop sounds similar to Tour de Fance Étape 1-2
They were supposed to be on the same album but Ralf was in cycling accident postponing recording. Then new technology was being introduced and years later we get "Electric Cafe".
Is there anyway to get these on vinyl
Only on (great, but unofficial) compilation called “Energie”
Anyone heard "the telephone call" in 1983 years version or know where to find it?
Reportedly, these two demos are the only two bits of "Techno Pop" that passed under the surgeon's knife, surviving in their demo form... In/around 1983, "The Telephone Call" might not have even been in the picture...
@@antunivanovic "Telephone Call" was an idea they first conceived during the "Computer World" sessions (around 79/80), but was left over because, basically, it was just an idea and did not fitted the "Computer" theme.
ua-cam.com/video/OYhQVrXBgxU/v-deo.htmlsi=SYqSq6RIRibDBsT6
I'm very certain that Ralf erased those demos, and never wanted to hear them again, we got lucky with these two escaping the Kraftwerk castle/drawbridge. Fans are still waiting for the first three to still be officially re-released by Ralf and it got awfully quiet
@@johnhenningfield4360 I believe Karl has them as well as well, but he said in interview in England I believe when he promoted his book that he will not release any song prototypes anytime soon. Sadly.
I the original, this is a nice alteration though
Die ersten der Techno pop musik
Troppo bello !
yes rial technopop kraftwerk
Does anyone know if this was ever an LP/vinyl
Probally lekaed from cassete no way there was vinyl they never relased this
It was scheduled for release, with a date and catalogue number from EMI then Ralf's bicycle accident happened and clipped the whole project, he woke up out of his coma and no longer felt this version was suitable for release so they brought Francois K. in to do a total rework and that became Electric Cafe'
It got as far as promotional test pressings for radio stations, similar to the Glyn Johns mix of the Beatles Get Back album in January 1970. DJs were playing Get Back for a week before they were told to stop.
@@jeffstone2136 I wonder if any are still around or like found
Kinda reminds me of aingo boingos" wierd science "
*like