I received my Soundtracks CD from Amazon.co.uk last Saturday (not copy protected) and I got the CD single in Italy a few days before (copy protected). Now I have had the chance to listen to it a few times this is what I think .. My PERSONAL opinion. I am certainly not disappointed with the album. Whatever the KW sound is, I would say that this album most definitely sounds like KW. Obviously technology has moved on and now KW move with it rather than create it. To me the fact that KW were once the innovative geniuses of creating new sound was fascinating but not the main attraction. The music itself and how it was presented was the main attraction. It has been suggested that KW are now following rather than leading. Having heard TDF Soundtracks I would say that is not the case. They may not be leading, but they are certainly not following. They are quite simply KW being KW. When KW were part of the Kraut Rock scene (in there own way) many fans would have been disappointed when Autobahn appeared. Many loyal KW fans would have thought commercial success (especially in the singles charts) would have meant that they lacked credibility, and the melodies would have been seen to be a watering down of the formerly abstract music. At this point there would have been many KW fans that would have lost interest, but also a whole new breed of enthusiasts. The image presented with the Man Machine would have been a turn off to many former KW fans, but it certainly attracted the attention and recognition of many more potential followers. To those who loved the “New Romantic Era” of eighties pop and saw KW as icons of that time, they may have found Computer World rather too minimalist and felt KW had past their best. To many dance enthusiasts and hip hop fans Computer World and Electric Café were the ultimate sound, but to others, not pop enough. The Mix, (in my mind) an exciting conceptual album, but to many others with a more puritanical or nostalgic viewpoint, the album disappointed because it had no new compositions. Many saw it as simply old songs in a new cover. Well now we have new songs in an old cover! It has been discussed many times on this list over the past 12 years that no mater what KW did, it will always be seen to be less than before. When someone is held in high esteem and has created ground-breaking material in the past, they will inevitably release new material that will be disappointing to other peoples expectations. This no doubt has been a major factor in KW’s long silence. I think it is also likely to be the reason that they continue to understate their recent work. “The Mix” was a very modest title for an album that was a complete rerecording and reinterpretation of many of their previous works. TDF 2003 the single could have been presented as a completely new song by simply not using the cover art of their previous single and changing the title to something else (Vuelta Espania perhaps). The new album has almost been presented as though it contained nothing new. We were all guessing till the last minute if this was simply one long remix of the single. The new songs that were heard at recent shows did not feature, nor did the single Expo 2000. KW have released a brand new KW album without compromise. Karl Bartos’ Esperanto ( I haven’t heard his other albums) is music written to appeal to KW fans, and Wolgang’s Time Pie is fine, but neither are a substitute for the true KW sound (and that is not something that remains constant). I am delighted that KW chose not to release albums for the sake of it, but rather waited until they had something as good and original as their previous albums (not groundbreaking, but that as I said before is not the most important thing). So like Autobahn and TEE, the album has a concept of machine in motion, the peleton crossing through landscapes; like Radioactivity it has ambiguity and ambiance; like Man Machine it depersonalises the human and celebrates the machine; Like Computer World it has harsh minimalism and humour (Pocket Calculator and Elektro Kardiogramm) ; like Electric Café and The Mix it has contemporary sounding beats. My favourite is Aero Dynamik, the bass reminds me of some of the live recordings of Musik non Stop. I always hoped KW would release an album about cycling. I’m now a very happy man and I’m enjoying this quality Kling Klang Produkt. To those who have doubts about it I say, stop living in the past, KW are here and now – and no, they are not groundbreaking! That was in the past. They are still innovative and uncompromising in their music, and that is a very rare quality. When KW released Autobahn, TEE and Man Machine it truly was a new sound that identified an era. If TDF Soundtracks disappoints ask yourself this; have you been longing for a new KW album or longing for the way things were in the past? I wonder if releasing this album has finally broken the silence created by unrealistic expectations. Bartos and Flur were not required (and there is no problem with crediting Bartos on the original TDF track) to produce yet another brilliant KW album. Maybe it won’t be so long for the next album. Wonder what the track listing for the next tour will be like? Surely it has to feature much of the new album; will it feature any songs not yet recorded? What about reworking of old songs that were not on The Mix (Man Machine, Airwaves…)? The set list for the live gigs has barely changed in 20 years, what now? ian t _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail messages direct to your mobile phone http://www.msn.co.uk/msnmobile