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A groundbreaking record from Kraftwerk – a set that unified the 70s worlds of analogue electronics and prog rock – yet somehow managed to set the scene for a whole new sound to come! The album's a treasure all the way through – slow-building, and with beautiful bubbling moments that have these surprisingly simple hooks – heard to best effect in the album's classic title cut "Autobahn" – but echoed nicely through the album's other longer tracks too – "Kometenmelodie 1 &2", "Mitternacht", and "Morgenspaziergang". CD

The classic music of Kraftwerk – re-presented beautifully in this excellent box set! The package features material from famous recent live performances by the quartet – as they go back and present new takes on classic albums – from Autobahn through Radioactivity, Trans Europe Express, Man Machine, Computer World, and Techno Pop – all played live, with incredible sound that shows the way the group link their earlier analogue brilliance with the newly expanded sonic possibilities of the 21st Century! The set also features a full disc that expands on Tour De France, with other singles – and a CD titled The Mix – which also includes a special "headphone surround 3D" mix! Performances were recorded at the Museum Of Modern Art, Sydney Opera House, Tate Modern, Paradiso Amsterdam, and other global venues – and the package features eight full albums worth of material – all in a cool box with great graphics. CD

A groundbreaking record from Kraftwerk – a set that unified the 70s worlds of analogue electronics and prog rock – yet somehow managed to set the scene for a whole new sound to come! The album's a treasure all the way through – slow-building, and with beautiful bubbling moments that have these surprisingly simple hooks – heard to best effect in the album's classic title cut "Autobahn" – but echoed nicely through the album's other longer tracks too – "Kometenmelodie 1 &2", "Mitternacht", and "Morgenspaziergang". CD

A fantastic CD collection – one that brings together all five volumes of Stereolab's Switched On albums in one set – a huge collection of unusual material and rare singles! On the original Switched On record, moog, fuzz, and farfisa have never sounded so great together – and although these guys drank deep of the well of 60s pop magic before making this modern-day classic – they also come off sounding pretty darn original on their own! When this gem of a record first hit the world, it was as if all of us were hearing music from the cosmos for years, but could never find a way to make it part of our everyday lives. Then along come Tim Gane, Laetitia Sadier, and crew – and completely change the world for the better! An album that no home should be without – with titles that include "Contact", "Super-Electric", "Doubt", "Brittle", "Au Grand Jour", "The Way Will Be Opening", and "Changer". Refried Ectoplasm is the second in the holy trinity of "switched on" albums from Stereolab – a set that collects together all the unusual recordings and other side bits the group were doing in the early years of their career – standing strong as a testament to their non-stop efforts to forever push the boundaries of electric fuzzy pop! The vocals Laetitia Sadier are completely sublime – almost a bridge between the darker modes of the previous pop generation and all the new ideas of the world to come – when the rest of rock music would finally catch up to these guys, and realize that the best path to the future is through the past! Titles include "Farfisa", "John Cage Bubblegum", "Tempter", "Exploding Head Movie", "French Disko", "Harmonium", "Revox", "Mountain", and "Sadistic". By the time of Aluminum Tunes (Switched On Vol 3) – it had only been a few years since the previous Switched On set, but Stereolab had already created so much musical magic, they needed a double-length record to keep the whole thing intact! The sound here is somehow getting even more dreamy and wonderful – definitely showing their work with the mighty Sean O'Hagan, and also really opening up into all the many musical ideas that Tim Gane was picking up from his never-ending search for unusual records! The 60s swirl through time and space, and make the future sound even better than we could have imagined it – while the Channel is drained, and England and France become one in a genius marriage of pure pop modes. Titles include "The Extension Trip", "How To Play Your Internal Organs Overnight", "Space Moment", "Iron Man", "The Long Hair Of Death", "One Note Samba/Surfboard", "Percolations", "1000 Miles An Hour", "Klang Tone", and a great take on the theme to "Get Carter". Switched On 4 is full of fantastic sounds from Stereolab – an assortment of rare singles and other unusual recordings that were mostly issued on their own Duophonic label, and which are far more obscure than their bigger label albums during the same period! Even though Stereolab gave the world some undeniable classics in the late 90s and early 00s, they were also working endlessly, and seemed to record more than they could ever fit on a full length set – which resulted in all the cool singles, limited releases, and other material included here – not dusty tapes pulled from the archives, but beautiful work that often returns the group to all the space age charms of their first few records! The package is huge – 25 tracks in all, of varying length – and titles include "Barok Plastik", "Calimero", "Fried Monkey Eggs (voc)", "Solar Throw Away", "Variation One", "Monkey Jelly", "Explosante Fixe", "Jump Drive Shut Out", "The Super-It", "L'Exotisme Interieur", "Pandora's Box Of Worms", "Retrograde Mirror Form", "Nomus E Phusis", "I Feel The Air Of Another Planet", "Outer Bongolia", and "Intervals". Includes tracks from Duophonic 45s, Underground Is Coming EP, Moog, First Of The Microbe Hunters, and work from compilations, unreleased tracks, and even a collaboration with Brigitte Fontaine! Switched On 5 is maybe the coolest entry so far in this really wonderful series – a set that's overflowing with rare and unusual work from Stereolab – most of it done at a time when the group were riding high on a major label, but still managed to issued a huge amount of music on their own, and work in a variety of collaborative settings too! One of our favorite is their work with Nurse With Wound, and tracks from that partnership begin this set – which then moves into rare singles, work with artists, compilation contributions, and plenty more – all with the usual Stereolab charm, but often with a nicely different vibe too! Titles include "Simple Headphone Mind", "Symbolic Logic Of Now", "Magne Music", "Forensic Itch", "Spool Of Collusion", "Robot Riot", "Trippin With The Birds", "Cybele's Reverie (live)", "Nth Degrees, "Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (Autechre Feebate mix)", and "Plastic Mile (original version)". CD

A great combination of remixes old and new – a set that features some of the 12" single remixes of Kraftwerk tracks from the early 80s onward, plus some new mixes by the group themselves – more than enough to make the album a great testament to their electronic genius, and the impact they've had on other artists and producers over the decades! Despite the range of work, there's a nicely unified vibe – maybe in part because Kraftwerk were always years ahead of their time – so that the current cuts resonate nicely with the forward-thinking ones from years back. Titles include "Home Computer (2021 single edit)", "Expo Remix (Francois K & Rob Rives mix)", "Radioactivity (William Orbit hardcore rmx Kling Klang edit)", "Robotronik (Kling Klang mix)", "Expo Remix (DJ Rolando mix)", "Aero Dynamik (Kling Klang dynamix)", "La Forme (king of the mountains mix by Hot Chip)", "Tour De France (etape 2)", "Expo Remix (Orbital mix)", "Radioactivity (Francois Kevorkian 12" remix)", "Non Stop", "Robotnik (Kling Klang mix)", and "Aero Dynamik (Alex Gopher/Etienne De Crecy dynamik mix)". LP, Vinyl record album

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Features Nena, Trio, Spliff, Nina Hagen, Fehlfarben, Za Za, Willem, Jawoll, Niko, UKW, and more! LP, Vinyl record album

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Tasty modern groovers – all given the remix treatment! The Jazzland label is part of Universal Norway, and it's been home to some of that country's hipper recent acts, like Wibutte or Bugge Wessltoft, both of whom share a style of jazzed-up electronica that's pretty darn great. Titles include "Eve Nin" by Bugge Wessltoft remixed by Les Gammas, "Newborn Thing" by Wibutee remixed by Sternklang, "Superstrings" by Eivnd Aarset remixed by Chiluminati, and "Fast Forward" by Bugge Wesseltoft remixed by Wesseltoft. CD

A pretty powerful record – as you might imagine from a set dedicated to both John Coltrane and James Baldwin – both inspirations that Joe McPhee seems to channel, but in a very personal way! The 2020s seem to be a time when McPhee's got this whole new level of power and presence – and that's definitely the case here, as his horn has this sense of urgency that almost blows away work from just a few years before – and which is matched at times by a spoken presence that has an equal sense of righteous authority. Bassist John Edwards is a key part of the sound – especially as the pair are just performing as a duo – but it's the intensity of McPhee that really sends the whole thing over the top! Titles include "Whispers Of Naima", "Tell Me How Long Has Trane Been Gone", "A Sojourner's Truth", and "The Oneliest Monk". CD