Techno Pop, Kraftwerk

Mint Sealed Brand New 2020 - Clear Vinyl - Limited Edition - Remastered

Techno Pop (originally released as Electric Café in 1986) is the ninth studio album by the German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. Its history is one of the most storied in electronic music, marked by a near-fatal accident, a crisis of confidence, and a title that changed twice before eventually being restored.

The Story Behind the Name

The album was originally conceived in 1982 under the working title Technicolor, but legal trademark issues forced a change to Techno Pop. However, after a four-year delay, the band renamed it Electric Café for its 1986 release. In 2009, when the band remastered their "Catalogue," Ralf Hütter finally reverted the title to Techno Pop, as he felt it better represented the original concept.

Why It Took So Long (1982–1986)

The five-year gap—eternity in the 1980s—was caused by two major factors:

• The Cycling Accident: Ralf Hütter suffered a serious head injury in a cycling crash in 1982, halting all progress for many months.

• The "New York" Crisis: When the band finally brought their tapes to New York to mix with producer François Kevorkian, they were intimidated by the aggressive, cutting-edge sounds of the emerging club scene. Feeling their work was "not enough," they went back to the studio to obsessively polish the digital production.

• Key Tracks

  • The "Techno Pop" Suite: The first half of the album consists of three tracks—"Boing Boom Tschak," "Techno Pop," and "Musique Non-Stop"—that flow into each other as one continuous 16-minute piece. This suite is a minimalist masterclass in percussive speech synthesis and machine rhythm.

  • "The Telephone Call": Notable for being the only Kraftwerk song to feature Karl Bartos on lead vocals. In the 2009 Techno Pop remaster, the original 8-minute version was replaced by the shorter single edit, followed by a new track called "House Phone."

  • "Musique Non-Stop": The album’s most enduring hit, accompanied by a pioneering computer-animated video by Rebecca Allen. It remains the band’s traditional closing song for their live "3-D" concerts.

  • "Sex Object": A rare moment of humor (and slightly uncharacteristic "slap bass" synths) where Hütter deadpans lyrics about not wanting to be treated as a purely physical object.

MINT - sealed

NM - likely never played - almost perfect

VG+ - light scuffs, light scratches wont effect play

VG -  signs of wear, light scratches you can feel

GOOD -  surface noise, visible groove wear

POOR / FAIR- some damage, causing issues like skipping & distorted audio

OIS - original inner sleeve