Advance vinyl 7” single, announcing the re-release of Karl Bartos’ “Communication” album. A classically trained percussionist and keyboard player, Karl Bartos was a key member of Kraftwerk's classic line-up between 1975 and 1990 – "the second from the left".
As you would expect from the man responsible for co-writing Kraftwerk masterpieces such as ‘The Model’, ‘The Robots’, ‘Numbers’ or ‘Pocket Calculator’ - which have gone on to shape the Current musical world as we know it, electronic or otherwise – the album “Communication” – often referred to as the artist’s “Lost Album” - contains plenty of melody-driven numbers that operate in a dual universe of pop and electronica. Or, perhaps more accurately, one in which both are one and the same. A record that embodies change in both a personal and wider context. Thirteen years down the line, Bartos is re-releasing his first real solo album now complete with a pristine re-mastering.
The lead single ‘Life’ perhaps being the most perfect representation of this: “Finally, I have to get on with my life” he sings. Lyrically it speaks volumes but sonically it almost seems to pay a return thank you to New Order in its breezy, harmonious yet infectious structure. New Order being a group clearly in admiration of Bartos’ work in and out of Kraftwerk and also in which the pair (Bartos and Bernard Sumner) would work together under the guise of Electronic, along with Johnny Marr in 1996.
