Kraftwerk "Radio-Aktivität (1986 Reissue, W. Germany, EMI-Electrola, CDP564-7 46132 2)"

Radio-Activity (German title: Radio-Aktivität) is the fifth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in November 1975. The band's first entirely electronic album is also a concept album organized around the themes of radioactive decay and radio communication. All releases of the album were bilingual, with lyrics in both English and German. The album was accompanied by single release of the title track, which was successful in France and Belgium.

Following the success of its 1974 predecessor Autobahn, an album based on Germany's eponymous motorway network, Kraftwerk embarked on a tour of the United States with the "classic" lineup of the band formed by Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos—who joined in February 1975—and Wolfgang Flür in April and May 1975.

Radio-Activity's album title displays Kraftwerk's typical deadpan humour, being a pun on the twin themes of the songs, half being about radioactivity and the other half about activity on the radio. Bartos revealed that the title was inspired by a chart column in the American magazine, Billboard, which featured the most played singles under the title "Radio Activity". According to Wolfgang Flur, the concept arose as a result of the many radio interviews that Ralf and Florian had given on their American tour.

The album's cover depicts a Volksempfänger radio which was produced in Germany during the Third Reich regime.

The album was recorded in Kling Klang Studio, Düsseldorf, and it was self-produced by Hütter and Schneider. It was their first purely electronic album, and the first one to be performed by the "classic" band line-up. Karl and Wolfgang worked on electronic percussion. LP liner notes state music and production was by Hütter and Schneider, with Emil Schult collaborating on lyrics. For this album, the band had decided to record some vocals in English and Schult's command of the language after studying for a while in the United States was better than Hutter's or Schneider's. Tim Barr pointed out the impact his experiences had in the United States on his ability to speak the language and in more subtle ways as well. Schult also designed the artwork, which was based on a late-1930s 'Deutscher Kleinempfänger' radio.

The overture instrumental piece "Geiger Counter" used Geiger counter beats based on musique concrète. The album featured use of the distinctive Vako Orchestron keyboard to provide vocal choir on title track. "Antenna" used an echo chamber effect, and Hütter's Farfisa electronic piano was used on "Transistor". For the recording, extensive use was made of the vocoder.

In September 1975, the band toured the UK, playing 17 shows. By 1975, Hütter and Schneider's previous publishing deals with Capriccio Music and Star Musik Studio of Hamburg had expired. The compositions on Radio-Activity were published by their own newly set up Kling Klang Verlag music publishing company, giving them greater financial control over the use of songwriting output. Also, the album was the first to bear the fruit of Kling Klang as an established vanity label under the group's new licensing deal with EMI.

Radio-Activity was released in November 1975. For their promotion, their record company sent them to a "real Atomkraftwerk" to take promotional photos. In these photos, the group was dressed in white protective suits and anti-radiation boots on their shoes. The album reached No. 59 on the Canadian charts in February 1976. The title track "Radioactivity" was released as a single in May 1976 and became a hit in France, selling 500,000 copies, and Belgium in the charts.

Track listing

1. "Geiger Counter" ("Geigerzähler") Ralf Hütter/Florian Schneider  1:07
2. "Radioactivity" ("Radioaktivität")   Hütter/Schneider/Emil Schult   6:42
3. "Radioland" Hütter/Schneider/Schult   5:50
4. "Airwaves" ("Ätherwellen") Hütter/Schneider/Schult  4:40
5. "Intermission" ("Sendepause") Hütter/Schneider   0:39
6. "News" ("Nachrichten")    Hütter/Schneider   1:17
7. "The Voice of Energy" ("Die Stimme der Energie")  Hütter/Schneider/Schult  0:55
8. "Antenna" ("Antenne") Hütter/Schneider/Schult  3:43
9. "Radio Stars" ("Radio Sterne") Hütter/Schneider/Schult   3:35
10. "Uranium" ("Uran") Hütter/Schneider/Schult   1:26
11. "Transistor" Hütter/Schneider   2:15
12. "Ohm Sweet Ohm"    Hütter/Schneider   5:39

Total length: 37:38

Recording information:

Peter Bollig – technical engineer (Kling Klang Studio, Düsseldorf)

Walter Quintus – sound mix engineer (Rüssl Studio, Hamburg)

Robert Franke – photography

Emil Schult – artwork

Johann Zambryski – artwork reconstruction (2009 Remaster)

Kraftwerk "Kraftwerk (1994 Reissue, Germany, Germanofon, 941001)"

Kraftwerk is the debut studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was released in Germany in 1970, and produced by Konrad "Conny" Plank.

After the commercial failure of Tone Float (1970), Organisation were dropped by RCA Records while Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider signed a new deal with Philips and named their new project Kraftwerk. To begin work, the duo rented an empty workshop in an industrial era near a railway station in Düsseldorf, which would eventually become Kling Klang Studio.

The album was recorded from July to September 1970 and was produced by colleague Conny Plank, who shared the credit with Hütter and Schneider. They were also joined by two drummers during the recording of the album: Andreas Hohmann and Klaus Dinger. Hohmann played on "Ruckzuck" and "Stratovarius", while Dinger played on "Vom Himmel Hoch". The other instrumentation features Hütter on bass, as well as both Hammond and Tubon electric organs, the latter made by Swedish factory Joh Mustad AB in 1966, while Schneider plays the flute.

Ned Raggett, writing for AllMusic, called Kraftwerk "an exploratory art rock album with psych roots" and "sudden jump cuts of musique concrète noise and circular jamming as prone to sprawl as it is to tight focus". Adam Blyweiss described it as "credible jazz, rock noise and funk jiggle".

The song "Ruckzuck" is driven by a motorik groove and powerful multi-dubbed flute riff. Hütter plays a piano line on a modified Hammond organ, and many instruments on the album were manipulated by a pitch-to-voltage converter, which converts sound into voltage that powers a synthesizer. NME characterized "Ruckzuck" as "skirting around the edges of free jazz".

Jason Anderson of Uncut noted that "Stratovarius" features no synthesizers and begins as an "ominous cloud of electronic noise" that evolves into an "acid rock jam", similarly powered by the motorik groove. "Megaherz" is a more subdued track, bringing "traces of ambient music", and the only one on the album to feature no drums. Anderson describes "Vom Himmel Hoch" as a "doomy soundscape" that serves as an "aural simulation of a bombing raid", ending in an apocalyptic explosion. The track has slight pitch curves that emulate the Doppler effect.

Kraftwerk was released in November 1970. The album cover features a drawing of a fluorescent-coloured traffic cone, inspired by the works of Andy Warhol and the pop art movement.

In early 1971, Hütter left the group to study architecture in Aachen, leaving Schneider, drummer Dinger and newcomer guitarist Michael Rother. The three-member Kraftwerk lineup of Schneider, Dinger and Rother made an appearance on Radio Bremen, and also on the TV shows Beat-Club and Okidoki. After this, Dinger and Rother left to form the band Neu!, with Hütter rejoining Schneider to continue Kraftwerk and both parties recording under the mentoring of Conny Plank.

No material from this album has been performed in the band's live set since the Autobahn tour of 1975. In later interviews, Schneider referred to the first three Kraftwerk albums as "archaeology", and while they have never been reissued, unauthorized releases have been widely available. In 2007, Kraftwerk hinted that the album might finally see a remastered CD release after the Der Katalog boxed set. Vinyl releases of the first two albums were scheduled for Record Store Day 2020 but were ultimately cancelled.

"Ruckzuck" was used as the theme song for the PBS show Newton's Apple in the United States. However, its use was unauthorized and the program later substituted a cover version of the song.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben.

1. "Ruckzuck" 7:47
2. "Stratovarius" 12:10
3. "Megaherz" 9:30
4. "Vom Himmel Hoch" 10:12

Total length: 39:39

Recording information:

Conrad Plank – producer, engineer

Klaus Löhmer – assistant

Ralf Hütter – cover

Bernhard Becher – photo

Hilla Becher – photo

Dead Can Dance "Anastasis"

Anastasis is a 2012 studio album by the British-Australian band Dead Can Dance. It is the eighth studio album by the band and the first after Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard disbanded in 1998. It was officially released on 13 August 2012 by PIAS Recordings, 16 years after the group's last album, Spiritchaser. It is also the band's first album since it left 4AD. "Anastasis" is the Greek word for "resurrection".

To date, Anastasis sold over 150,000 copies worldwide.

In 2014, it was awarded a double gold certification from the Independent Music Companies Association, which indicated sales of at least 150,000 copies throughout Europe.

Anastasis received generally favorable reviews based on 16 critics at Metacritic.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Dead Can Dance (Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard)

1. "Children of the Sun" 7:33
2. "Anabasis" 6:50
3. "Agape" 6:54
4. "Amnesia" 6:36
5. "Kiko" 8:01
6. "Opium" 5:44
7. "Return of the She-King" 7:51
8. "All in Good Time" 6:37

Total length: 56:06

Dead Can Dance "Wake"

Wake is a compilation album by Dead Can Dance, released in 2003. It contains 26 tracks over two discs. It includes the song "The Lotus Eaters" (previously released only on the Dead Can Dance (1981–1998) box set), recorded in 1998 as the last work by the band before their initial breakup.

Track listing:

Disc 1

1. "Frontier" (Demo) – 3:00 – (1981) from the 4AD compilation Lonely Is an Eyesore (1987); completed version was included on Dead Can Dance (1984)
2. "Anywhere Out of the World" – 5:07 – from Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987)
3. "Enigma of the Absolute" – 4:14 – from Spleen and Ideal (1985)
4. "Carnival of Light" – 3:30 – from Garden of the Arcane Delights (1984)
5. "In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated" – 4:10 – from Garden of the Arcane Delights (1984)
6. "Summoning of the Muse" – 4:57 – from Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987)
7. "Windfall" – 3:31 – from Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987)
8. "In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings" – 4:10 – from The Serpent's Egg (1988)
9. "The Host of Seraphim" – 6:17 – from The Serpent's Egg (1988)
10. "Bird" – 5:00 – from A Passage in Time (1991)
11. "Cantara" – 5:58 – from Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987)
12. "Severance" – 3:21 – from The Serpent's Egg (1988)
13. "Saltarello" – 2:36 – from Aion (1990)
14. "Black Sun" – 4:56 – from Aion (1990)

Disc 2

1. "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)" – 6:57 – from Into the Labyrinth (1993)
2. "The Carnival Is Over" – 5:42 – from Into the Labyrinth (1993)
3. "The Lotus Eaters" – 6:42 – (1998) from Dead Can Dance (1981–1998) (2001)
4. "Rakim" – 5:38 – from Toward the Within (1994)
5. "The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove" – 6:14 – from Into the Labyrinth (1993)
6. "Sanvean" – 3:46 – from Toward the Within (1994)
7. "Song of the Nile" – 8:00 – from Spiritchaser (1996)
8. "The Spider's Stratagem" – 6:41 – from Into the Labyrinth (1993)
9. "I Can See Now" – 2:56 – from Toward the Within (1994)
10. "American Dreaming" – 4:30 – from Toward the Within (1994)
11. "Nierika" – 5:45 – from Spiritchaser (1996)
12. "How Fortunate the Man with None" – 9:09 – from Into the Labyrinth (1993)

The tracks from Toward the Within are live tracks, but with crowd noise removed to make them sound like studio versions. They previously appeared in this form on the Dead Can Dance (1981–1998) box set.

Bauhaus "Burning From The Inside (1988 CD Reissue)"

Bauhaus are an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. Known for their dark image and gloomy sound, Bauhaus are one of the pioneers of gothic rock, although they mixed many genres, including dub, glam rock, psychedelia, and funk. The group consists of Daniel Ash (guitar, saxophone), Peter Murphy (vocals, occasional instruments), Kevin Haskins (drums) and David J (bass).

Burning from the Inside is the fourth studio album by English gothic rock band Bauhaus, released in 1983 by record label Beggars Banquet.

During the recording of the album, singer Peter Murphy was ill, leaving the rest of the band to undertake much of the writing and recording process without him. As evidence of how much input the rest of the band had on the album, bassist David J and guitarist Daniel Ash sang lead vocals on four of the songs. This, combined with the fact that the band started recording without Murphy, led to internal difficulties, and by the time the album was released, they had already broken up. In 2015, David J announced in a solo performance that the album's title came from an incident in which he and Ash were smoking hash in a car and the car caught fire, burning from the inside.

Ned Raggett, writing for The Quietus in 2013, called the album "a compelling sprawl at its best, a case for fragmentation as beauty".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Bauhaus (Daniel Ash, David J, Kevin Haskins and Peter Murphy).

1. "She's in Parties" 5:49
2. "Antonin Artaud" 4:09
3. "Wasp" (instrumental) 0:20
4. "King Volcano" 3:29
5. "Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?" 4:55
6. "Slice of Life" 3:43
7. "Honeymoon Croon" 2:52
8. "Kingdom's Coming" 2:25
9. "Burning from the Inside" 9:21
10. "Hope" 3:17

CD reissue bonus tracks

1. "Lagartija Nick" 3:30
2. "Here's the Dub (Special Effects By 'Loonatik & Drinks')" 3:18
3. "Departure" 4:49
4. "Sanity Assassin" 4:05