And another one ... Translated from Belgian magazine 'Humo' 19 August 2003 Kraftwerk: 'Tour de France - Soundtracks' To kick off : you have to be in the mood for Tour de France Soundtracks, the first new studio album of Kraftwerk in seventeen years. Play the record the first time during a stressy day and you will throw it probably together with the cd player through the nearest window. 'Tour de France -Soundtracks' made for the centenary of the Tour is a really a record for cycling amateurs, and not for cyclist which have to arrive within a certain time limit. In the world of Kraftwerk time limits simply do not exist anymore, how will you explain otherwise that they work ten years on a record to not being able to finish it before the start of the centenary of the Tour. So, take at least two hours off, take a cup of tea, put the phone of the hook, and sit down. 'Tour de France' is more ambient and trance than Kraftwerk has ever been, and when the record stops after fifty seven minutes, you have the feeling that you heard only one very long song, in different stages. The record starts with, can it be otherwise, a small intro of half a minute, after which we get three flat stages: 'Tour de France Etape 1', 'Tour de France Etape 2' en 'Tour de France Etape 3', all three remakes of their original 'Tour de France' from 1983. The soundtrack for the time trial is called 'Chrono', doping becomes 'Vitamin', bicycle technology 'Aero Dynamik' and 'Titanium', and the medical tests 'Elektro Kardiogramm'. The last song however starts like something from Front 242, and other fragments would fit in the oeuvre from for example Orbital or more recently Royksopp. But you will understand that it is a little foolish to compare Kraftwerk with bands which probably wouldnt have existed without them. And there are a lot. Sometimes there is humour on Tour de France, or what do you expect when Germans start speaking French. There are not a lot of lyrics, but we think 'Carbo-Hydrat Protein / ABCD Vitamin' (from 'Vitamin') is top of the bill. Who dares to participate in Humo's Rock Rally with lyrics like these? 'Tour de France - Soundtracks' is the perfect follow-up of 'Electric Cafe' from 1986, only we had expected more than seven new songs and three new versions of an old classic from a record, at which ten years has been worked. But one look at their gigantic back catalogue and we are already ashamed for this sentence. Auf wiedersehen, in 2020? (jub) Ivo