Kraftwerk 2

Untitled

Kraftwerk 2 is a 1972 album by Kraftwerk.

The album was entirely written and performed by Hütter and Schneider in late 1971, released in January 1972, with the sessions produced by the influential Konrad "Conny" Plank.

‘Nobody wanted to play with us because we did all kinds of strange things… feedbacks and overtones and sounds and rhythms. No drummer wanted to work with us because we had these electronic gadgets.’

— Ralf Hütter

Perhaps the least characteristic album of their output, it features little obvious use of synthesizers, the instrumentation being largely electric guitar, bass guitar, flute and violin. The electronics on display is generally in the realm of 1960s tape-based music more usually produced in academia, with much use of tape echo (for example the massed looping flute layers of "Strom"), reverse & altered speed tape effects. Overall the sound has a rather muted, twilit, dusky feel, similar in feel to "Megaherz" on Kraftwerk's debut album.

The lengthy, almost side-long "Kling-Klang" which opens the album (and also became the name of the band's own self-built studio, Kling Klang, in Düsseldorf) is notable for its use of a preset organ beatbox to provide the percussion track, and also opens with a clangourous Stockhausen-like metallic percussion montage.

"Atem" is a recording of breathing, while "Harmonika" features a tape-manipulated mouth organ (harmonica).

The cover design, credited to Ralf and Florian, further hints at a deliberate association with conceptualist art, being a virtual repeat of the first album's Pop Art design – except printed this time in fluorescent green and with slight modification by the number '2'.

It was eventually released in the UK, combined with the first Kraftwerk album as a double LP package, by the Vertigo label in March 1973.

No material from this album has been performed in the band's live set since the Autobahn tour of 1975, and to date, the album has not been officially reissued on compact disc, with the band seemingly reluctant to consider it a part of their canon (Schneider described the early albums as "archæology"). However, pirated CDs of the album have been widely available since the mid-1990s on the ‘Germanofon’ and ‘Crown’ labels.

Track listing

1. "Kling-Klang" ("Ring Sound", although something like "Tinkle-Tone" might capture the punning feel of the German better) – 17:36
2. "Atem" ("Breath") – 2:57
3. "Strom" ("Stream" or "[Electric] Current" - the same wordplay as is possible in English) – 3:52
4. "Spule 4" ("Reel 4") – 5:20
5. "Wellenlänge" ("Wavelength") – 9:40
6. "Harmonika" ("Harmonica") – 3:17

Credits

• Ralf Hütter – organ, electric piano, bass, rhythm machine, zylophone, harmonica.
  
• Florian Schneider-Esleben – flutes, violin, guitar, effects, zylophone.
  
• Conrad Plank – sound engineer.

File:K2-D-gatefold.jpg Inside design of the gatefold cover, with images of Ralf and his instruments on the left and Florian on the right – plus one of Conrad Plank (far right, above the credits).

File:K2-F-front.jpg The French version of the album confusingly omitted the digit from the cover design.

Release details

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
Germany	January 1972	Philips	Vinyl	6305 117	Gatefold sleeve
France	1973	Philips	Vinyl	9118 003	Single sleeve; omits "2" on front cover
United Kingdom	March 1973	Vertigo	Vinyl	6441 077	A combination of Kraftwerk's first two German albums