It has been 20 years since Kraftwerk's single-only release "Tour deFrance," and it has been 17 years since they wrote a good tune. Fansseeking anthems for the new millennium from techno's most importantpioneers might feel a little bit let down as this disc is simply acollection of nice sounds and beats with very thin melodies. The groupproves that their usage of technology hasn't waned, nor has theiraffinity for the rigid 4/4 beats of techno, but not one song heresticks out to be anything half as remarkable or memorable as theirclassics of yesteryear. In many ways it seems like the group is takingmore rhythmic influence from the other popular sounds of contemporaryGerman techno like the output on Kompakt. The repetitious beats arerespectable and unobtrusive, never overindulgent or busy, and the fatstynth sounds are quite meaty. The disc opens much like a DJ mix astrack numbers fly by through a "Prologue" and three parts of "Tour DeFrance Etape," when the songs don't really end. Echoed keyboardmelodies flutter in time with the beats, and spaciously occupy nearlyevery corner of the room. Occasionally, the group ends a song to startsomething different. Like the cyclists changing gears, heading up thehills, downtempo songs like "Vitamin" and "Elektro Kardiogramm" eachbegin new movements with new feels and speeds. The disc concludes witha new version of "Tour De France" which isn't much of a departure fromthe two decade old classic. It's neither dislikable nor remarkable.After the end, however, there's no melodies running around my head orbegging me to replay the music. Much like Expo 2000, Tour de Franceis functional music. It would be nice if this was the end of functionalmusic for them for now as I'm unfortunately cursed by expectations ofthe group to release something good that can stand on its own.Read More
