Underground: Kraftwerk 2 at 50

Yo Ho, WeRCatz here!

Kraftwerk, the German electronic band, released their second album Kraftwerk 2 on January 1972. 50 years have passed and this album is just as fresh as it was when it first came out.

After the release of their debut album in 1970, Kraftwerk began recording the second album in late 1971. However, according to founding member Ralf Hütter, nobody wanted to work with them because of their sounds and strangeness ( not even drummers wanted to work with them). The band worked with “Conny” Plank (the producer mastermind of new wave acts and techniques) to produce the album with NO synthesizers at all. The instruments used were a rhythm machine, flutes, violin, electric guitar, harmonica among others.

There are only six tracks to the album: “Klingklang,” “Atem,” “Strom,” “Spule 4,” “Wellenlänge,” and “Harmonica.” While “Klingklang” is a relaxing Bossa Nova type of piece, the rest of the album is a mix of tranquility and exploration. Kraftwerk likened this album to what they considered archaeology.

To this day, Kraftwerk 2 is a collector’s item as it has never been reissued on vinyl but only seen bootleg sales. However, Kraftwerk did state that there would be a possible CD reissue after the release of 2009’s box set Der Katalog. However, Der Katalog only has their eight albums since 1976’s classic Autobahn. Sadly, if you want to find a copy for yourself, you another buy an expensive vinyl original or find a bootleg reissue.