advertisement


Kraftwerk 'minimum-maximum'

NeilR

pfm Member
So, all you Kraftwerk experts out there (you know who you are!)

Is it going to be worthwhile getting?
 
Well, the gig at the Academy was stunning, they were definitely on form for the tour these recordings are taken from.

Plus, it's by Kraftwerk, so by definition you have to buy it. There's no choice.

-- Ian
 
Side 5 is spinning on the Spacedeck as I type - I dived into Picadilly Records earlier to grab a copy. I emptied Vinyl Exchange's bargin bins too (40 LPs), so a very heavy walk from the station. Minimum Maximum is bloody good, the versions are just different enough to be interesting, not different enough to be broken (perhaps with the exception of Autobahn which is closer to The Mix version, so pretty broken to start off with). It's a nice item, 4 x 180g LPs in individual card sleeves in a box, the packaging is nice but it has to be said my copy is anything but flat - nothing has hit the back of my rather low flying Spacearm yet, but it's getting damn close.

Tony.
 
Side 4 spinning as I type. Wunderbar!
Apparently there are two versions: English and German... My vinyl, at least, is in German & English :)
A really marvellous album in any language.
 
I've listened to most of it and I'm amazed that they can still groove after all these years. The rythyms are what got me interested in Kraftwerk in the first place. Ralph and Florian are strange geniouses.
 
Originally posted by Tony L
the packaging is nice but it has to be said my copy is anything but flat
Agrees. THis is a disappointment. Disc 1 in my set is particularly worrying from this point of view.
 
Disc 1 in my set is particularly worrying from this point of view.

Mine kind of gets worse through the set - I was amazed that record 4 didn't hit the arm, it's seriously warped / dished. Most are both dished and warped so are worse one way up than the other. I've noticed this a lot with 180g vinyl, warps seem to be far more common - I've yet to see a flat copy of any of the Electric Prunes / West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band reissues. Bring back thin vinyl!

Tony.
 
Originally posted by Tony L
Bring back thin vinyl!
I agree. The only flat, thick vinyl I have seen is that pressed by JVC-Victor for Blue Note (shame about RVG's attempted "remastering" though)..
Classic Japanese vinyl is not that heavy (about 160gm I think), but sounds a hell of a lot better than all 180 or 200gm pressings I've heard.
Tallking of trad J vinyl. I just picked up a particularly balmy album for you.
 
the packaging is nice but it has to be said my copy is anything but flat

My LPs are all flat.

Tredemendous record. Great music and sound.

Noticed that it is half-speed mastered on Metropolis' rig. Another very nice piece of work on a record that must of been very difficult to cut (just look at the grroves on Man Machine). Just goes to show that the stereotypes used for half-speed mastered records aren't true.
 
Looking forward to getting mine. Clicked last night after a bit too much red wine. Was an expensive do, this, the first three neu! albums and a couple of blue note remasters. I reckon my computer could do with a breathalyser
 
Mine are pretty flat too, although I agree lots of recent heavy pressings could do with better QC. Virtually all of my best sounding records and old and thin, never been convinced by all this 180gm malarkey.

-- Ian
 
Originally posted by Martin M
My LPs are all flat.
Maybe Tony and myself are unlucky. Disc one is the only "problem" LP in my set. The rest seem reasonably fine.
It does sound very good that aside, the problems are ones of QC at the pressing plant, unfortunately.
I have a couple of great albums of Japanese taiko drumming and tsugaru shamisen (stereotypical, moi;) ) that were made with half speed mastering back in the late 70s by Sony. They sound pretty awesome.
 
What's the going rate for this on vinyl?

Amazon & HMV are charging £34.99 but the cheapskate in me thinks I should try and get it cheaper!
 
I must admit I was disappointed by Computer World, which as far as I can remember was just like the live 1991 version, but I was impressed by just about everything else, even where I might have hoped they would do them differently. Too tired to write anything else right now...

Since I don't have a functioning turntable (and won't for a long time) I wasn't going to buy it on vinyl but I've just ordered it from HMV for £27.99 (inc. postage).
 
Been listening to it this weekend on CD. Fantastic music / performance and, as a bonus, fantastic sound quality as well.

ss
 
Yes. The CD sound quality is marvelous. Or maybe it's just normal and many other live recordings are crap - it's alarming what you can get used to. Scale, depth, dynamics - this is a beauty. Highly recommended.
 
The sound at the gig I went to was phenomenal. The Academy's a very high-ceiled Victorian theatre, most gigs there are pretty loud and mushy, but Kraftwerk managed to achieve a razor sharp, glacial edge to the sound, as well as being very loud :) The record captures that very well.

-- Ian
 


advertisement


Back
Top