Kraftwerk’s Ralf and Florian: Tanzmusik on 8-Track

Kraftwerk launched its machine music revolution in 1974.

Autobahn, the band’s fourth album, offered the means of penetrating and transforming the rigid English and US markets. However, it should be noted that Kraftwerk’s initial success was made possible by truncating Autobahn’s title track – a 23-minute opus – to make it fit on a 7”. The single charted in many countries and served to establish Kraftwerk as the precursor to a new wave of popular electronic dance music.

It has since become commonplace to associate the birth of tanzmusik (dance music) with Kraftwerk’s fourth studio effort – that is despite the fact that the band’s first “Tanzmusik” appeared a year earlier on an album which has yet to be officially re-issued.

Kraftwerk’s third effort, Ralf und Florian, was recorded during the summer of 1973. The album has often been overlooked due to its position between the more experimental Kraftwerk 2 and the more commercially successful Autobahn. It also did not help that Kraftwerk’s founding members, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, generally avoided promoting and discussing the band’s early recordings. A certain silence has, therefore, been maintained concerning the 1970-1973 period.

There was, however, no room for silence on the Stereo 8 version of Ralf und Florian. Vertigo Records divided and reorganized the six songs to make them fit into four programs of 9 minutes and 51 seconds each. As was usually the case with 8-tracks, a number of songs had to be cut into two parts. It would have been possible to change the song order to limit discontinuation to “Ananas Symphonie” but not without leaving moments of silence at the end of two of the four programs (this was usually avoided since most early 8-track players did not have fast forward buttons).

Considering that song discontinuation was inevitable, it is surprising that Vertigo chose to reorganize the material instead of leaving the song sequence as is. On the vinyl version, the sequence alternates between synth/beatbox-driven songs and more abstract pieces. The 8-track cartridge, on the other hand, pairs some of those songs (see track listing below) creating a somewhat more fluid and coherent feel.

The Stereo 8 version of Ralf und Florian opens with “Elektrisches Roulette” (a disorienting song characterized by a circling succession of motifs that multiply and never really seem to resolve). This opening piece enwraps the listener and sets the mood for the album’s four programs. Ralf und Florian is definitely a transitional album in the way it artfully combines drum machines, various synthesizers, guitars, percussion instruments, flutes and a prototype vocoder to create anachronistic sonic collages. Vertigo’s cartridge concludes with an ethereal piece of machine music (“Tanzmusik”) and an ambient-like postscript (“Tongebirge”) which prefigure the sound of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.

This is the first true tanzmusik and you can find it on vinyl or tape (or compact disc if you don’t mind unauthorized reissues).

Listen to program D: “Tanzmusik” & “Tongebirge”
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Stereo 8 (Vertigo VC8 – 2006) – Track Listing:
Program A: “Elektrisches Roulette” / “Kristallo” (beg.)
Program B: “Kristallo” (conclu.) / “Heimatklange” / “Ananas Symphonie” (beg.)
Program C: “Ananas Symphonie” (conclu.)
Program D: “Tanzmusik” / “Tongebirge”

LP – Track Listing:
Side 1: ““Elektrisches Roulette” / “Tongebirge” / “Kristallo” / “Heimatklange”
Side 2: “Tanzmusik” / “Ananas Symphonie”

English titles: “Electric Roulette” / “Mountain of Sound” / “Crystals” / The Bells of Home” / “Dance Music” / “Pineapple Symphony”