Tour de France Soundtracks

Tour de France Soundtracks
Studio album by Kraftwerk
Released 4 August 2003
Recorded 1987–2003
Studio Kling Klang Studio
(Düsseldorf, Germany)
Genre Electronic
Length 55:57
Label
Producer
Kraftwerk chronology
Electric Café
(1986)		 Tour de France Soundtracks
(2003)		 Minimum-Maximum
(2005)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic73/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
Stylus MagazineB+ [3]
Pitchfork Media7.0/10 [4]
Rolling Stone [5]
Mojo [6]
Uncut [7]
The Guardian [8]
BBCfavourable [9]
Drowned in Sound[10]

Tour de France Soundtracks is the tenth studio album by the German electronic group Kraftwerk, released in August 2003. It was re-released in October 2009 under the title Tour de France. The album was recorded for the 100th anniversary of the first Tour de France bicycle race, although it missed its intended release date for the actual tour. It includes a new recording of their 1983 single of the same name, the cover artwork of both releases being nearly identical. The announcement of the release caused much anticipation, as it had been 17 years since the group had put out a full album of new studio material (1986's Electric Café, also known as Techno Pop). It's the final Kraftwerk album to feature founding member Florian Schneider.

Unusually for a Kraftwerk album it did not have separate German and international vocal mixes, but was released only in one version, with a mix of French, German and English. The lyrics were co-written by Ralf Hütter and Maxime Schmitt, who had previously been manager of the Capitol label at Pathé-Marconi (part of the EMI group, the company that distributed Kraftwerk's music in France) and had been involved with the band since the mid-1970s.

It was recorded by the band in their Kling Klang studio, located in Düsseldorf, Germany; Hütter and Schneider working with Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz. This four-piece line-up then took the album on an extensive world tour in 2004. On the tour, they performed the music from four laptop computers running sequencing, sampling and synthesizer software, also controlling and synchronised with large video displays. In 2005, Kraftwerk released Minimum-Maximum, with separate audio and video releases featuring songs performed at various venues during the 2004 tour.

A short jingle was supplied to the television broadcaster Eurosport for use in their coverage of the 2003 Tour de France.

A newly remastered edition of the album was released by EMI Records, Mute Records and Astralwerks Records on CD and digital download in October/November 2009, with heavyweight vinyl editions released in November/December 2009.

Track listing

No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Prologue"  Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert 0:31
2. "Tour de France Étape 1"  Hütter, Schneider, Hilpert, Maxime Schmitt 4:27
3. "Tour de France Étape 2"  Hütter, Schneider, Hilpert, Schmitt 6:41
4. "Tour de France Étape 3"  Hütter, Schneider, Hilpert, Schmitt 3:56
5. "Chrono"  Hütter, Schneider, Hilpert, Schmitt 3:19
6. "Vitamin"  Hütter, Schneider, Hilpert 8:09
7. "Aéro Dynamik"  Hütter, Hilpert, Schmitt 5:04
8. "Titanium"  Hütter, Hilpert, Schmitt 3:21
9. "Elektro Kardiogramm"  Hütter, Hilpert 5:16
10. "La Forme"  Hütter, Schmitt 8:41
11. "Régéneration"  Hütter, Schmitt 1:16
12. "Tour de France"  Hütter, Schneider, Schmitt, Bartos 5:12

Note: The 2003 Japanese CD release of this album also contains the video of the single "Tour de France 2003" as enhanced content.

Promotional version

The promotional version of Tour de France Soundtracks contained a few differences from the album as it was finally released. "Régéneration" is extended to a length of 2:05, and there are slight changes in timbre and modulation during both "Tour de France Étape 3" and "Chrono".

Singles

Four singles were released from the album, *Tour de France '03, *Elektro Kardiogramm (Promo only), *Aerodynamik, *Aerodynamik + La Forme. Note: all track versions on these singles are different from the album versions of the songs

  1. "Tour de France '03 (Version 1)"
  2. "Tour de France '03 (Version 2)"
  3. "Tour de France '03 (Version 3)"
  4. "Tour de France '03 (Long Distance Version 2)"
  1. "Elektro Kardiogramm (Radio Mix)" — 3:25
  1. "Aerodynamik (Kling Klang Radio Mix)" — 3:45
  2. "Aerodynamik (Kling Klang Dynamix)" — 7:01
  3. "Aerodynamik (Alex Gopher / Etienne de Crecy Dynamik Mix)" — 7:42
  4. "Aerodynamik (François K. Aero Mix)" — 7:52
  1. "Aerodynamik (Hot Chip Intelligent Design Mix)"
  2. "La Forme (Hot Chip King of the Mountains Mix)"

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/music/tour-de-france-soundtracks/kraftwerk
  2. ↑ John Bush. "Review". allmusic.com. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  3. ↑ http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=1333
  4. ↑ Leone, Dominique (11 August 2003). "Kraftwerk: Tour de France Soundtracks". pitchforkmedia.com. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  5. ↑ Miles, Milo (12 August 2003). "Tour De France Soundtracks – Album Reviews". rollingstone.com. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  6. ↑ No huge amounts of new ground broken... but even a mediocre Kraftwerk album is still a work of near-genius. [Sep 2003, p.101]
  7. ↑ Cavanagh, David. "Uncut Reviews: Kraftwerk - Reissues". Uncut. Archived from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  8. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2003/aug/01/popandrock.shopping4
  9. ↑ Jones, Chris (30 July 2003). "Kraftwerk Tour De France Soundtracks Review". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  10. ↑ Chris Power (16 October 2009). "Kraftwerk Tour de France: Remastered". drownedinsound.com. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  11. ↑ Tour De France (Digital Remaster) (CD). Kraftwerk. Great Britain: Mute Records. 2009. CDSTUMM310.

External links

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