KOMETENMELODIE 2 (1976, France) 

Philips 7299 415


A fascinating detail when you collect Kraftwerk items from around the world, is how the collector community will deal with all the different languages. I remember seeing an LP advertised as "Autopista"; it was in fact the Argentinian pressing of "Autobahn", with the title translated on the front cover. An early live bootleg LP took it's title from the robot voice in The Robots, which says (in Russian) "Я Твой Слуга Я Твой Работник"; Western dealers quickly transcribed this to the latin alphabet as "...R TBON PAGOTHNK", which sounds more like something you'd need Alan Turing to decipher. And a French compilation LP was known for years to English-speaking fans as "A Tout Collection", although its name was stated on the cover and spine as "Kometenmelodie 2" - in the compilation series which is actually called "Collection A Tout".


The compilation came out on LP and cassette in 1976, I think, and is another of those weird collections of early material that kept popping up in the wake of Kraftwerk's later successes - Autobahn was of course a big hit in 1975, but the following year, Radio-Activity was a large hit in France, I suppose this compilation is as much a result of their new hit as the last one. 

 

Kometenmelodie 2 opens the ball, then we are treated to two songs from Ralf & Florian; Heimatklänge and Tanzmusik, before the full version of Klingklang ends the whole party after 35 minutes or so. If it had been up to me, I suppose I would have added, say, Ruckzuck off the debut album and - why not an edit of Autobahn as well? Still, it's hard to argue against Klingklang, the highlight of their sophomore album, and Tanzmusik was a key track off Ralf & Florian, which they still played live in 1976, so I'd say that's also a "key track". So if you're a busy person, but have just over half an hour to be impressed by the early works of Kraftwerk, look no further!


Standard Philips dark green labels. 2-panel J-card with the beautiful picture of Ralf and Florian from the back cover of the third LP, reproduced in glorious technicolor with the title and info against a green background in the top left corner. Yellow spine and backflap, and on the inside, tracklist and some credits - surprisingly, the photo is credited to "X", whereas on the LP Ralf & Florian, Barbara Niemöller is given her due credit. Maybe the whole thing was rush released? It can't take as much as three minutes of research to find out who took that picture... -Anyway, all in all I must admit I like this item, pointless cash-in, perhaps, but a few good tracks and a nice picture of the band. I hope it wasn't a full price item when it first came out!







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