Exceller 8

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Exceller 8
Exceller 8 cover
Compilation album by Kraftwerk
Released October 1975
Recorded 1970—1974
Genre Electronic music, Krautrock
Length 37:28
Label Vertigo (PolyGram)
Professional reviews
Kraftwerk chronology
Autobahn
(1974)
Exceller 8
(1975)
Radio-Activity
(1975)


Exceller 8 is the title of a 1975 compilation album of music by Kraftwerk. It was released in the UK on the Vertigo label in order to captialize on both the summer chart success of the single "Autobahn" and the imminent release of the next Kraftwerk album Radio-Activity — by this time Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider had set up their own publishing company, Kling Klang Verlag.

The album is a sampler of material from the first four Kraftwerk albums – Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2, Ralf & Florian, Autobahn – and includes some versions of tracks that had been edited down for release on singles, such as "Autobahn", as well as simple excerpts from longer album tracks, such as "Kling-Klang". Only the pair of tracks from the Ralf und Florian album, "Tongebirge"' and "Kristallo", are entirely free of cuts.

Track selection was by Alan Cowderoy (later an A&R manager at Stiff Records) and sound engineering is credited to Steve Brown, though it is unclear if they created the edited versions of the two tracks released as singles. The brutally edited-down three minute version of "Autobahn" (from an original length of 22:30) had been a top twenty hit in the UK and had received considerable airplay in the US since it's release. "Comet melody 2" failed to chart.

The album was issued on vinyl and cassette and deleted in 1980.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Ruckzuck" (minus the opening flute-echo intro) – 7:30
  2. "Autobahn" (heavily-edited version previously released as a UK single in May 1975) – 3:06
  3. "Tongebirge" – 2:50
  4. "Kristallo" – 6:18
  5. "Comet Melody 2" (version released as a single in August 1975 with middle section edited out) – 2:49
  6. "Kling-Klang" (excerpt beginning at 1:38 into the original track) – 9:20
  7. "Vom Himmel Hoch" (the opening and closing sections with a cross-fade link) – 4:00
  8. "Stratovarius" (excerpt of the final section)– 1:35
Kraftwerk
Ralf Hütter | Florian Schneider
Karl Bartos | Wolfgang Flür | Fritz Hilpert | Henning Schmitz | Emil Schult
Discography
Albums: Tone Float (as Organisation) | Kraftwerk | Kraftwerk 2 | Ralf und Florian | Autobahn | Radio-Activity | Trans-Europe Express | The Man-Machine | Computer World | Electric Café | Tour de France Soundtracks
Live and Compilations albums Exceller 8 | The Mix | Klang Box | Minimum – Maximum | The Catalogue
Non-album singles: Kohoutek-Kometenmelodie | Tour de France | Expo 2000
Videography
Minimum – Maximum (DVD)