Trocadero Communication (2016)

180g vinyl plus free CD. "Communication is about the way images determine our view of the world and how electronic media is going to change the content of our society." Said legendary ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos of his debut solo album when it was released back in 2003. It was a pivotal moment in technological times and by extension cultural ones, the world of digital was no longer a on-the-horizon vision only brought to realisation by pioneers and visionaries - such as Bartos - but it was instead almost here, around the corner and facing everyone square in the face. Communication was an attempt to capture these changing, perhaps unknown, times and distil them through the voice of someone who most would feel comfortable being led into the future with. Thirteen years down the line, Bartos is re-releasing the album complete with a pristine re-mastering. Due to record label frugality, and perhaps being somewhat overshadowed by the coincidental return of his ex-band and their Tour de France Soundtrack album at the same time, Communication was unable to take the momentum and energy of the material on the album and process it into a spirited public campaign, leaving it to often be referred to as Bartos' 'Lost Album'. The re-release, which will be the first time the album is available digitally, also comes with the previously un-included track 'Camera Obscura', which sounds like it could have been a lost track from Kraftwerk's Computer World era. As you would expect from the man responsible for co-writing such Kraftwerk masterpieces and musical compositions - that have gone on to shape the current musical world as we know it, electronic or otherwise - as 'The Model', 'The Robots', 'Numbers' or 'Pocket Calculator' Communication contains plenty of melody-driven numbers that operate in a dual universe of pop and electronica or, perhaps most accurately, one in which both are one and the same. Narrated by the familiar sound of a vocoder, it's a record that feels propped up by the previous work of Bartos, his unmistakable tone and vision ever-present, but also one that intends to break free of that, a re-assessment of sorts. A record that embodies change in both a personal and wider context - 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. Bartos originally produced Communication between August 2002 and January 2003, together with engineer Mathias Black in his Hamburg studio. The concept however, he had already. Bartos noticed, around the turn of the century, the all-encompassing influence of digital media on society and his response was laying the groundwork in his mind for what would become Communication. Inspired by Andy Warhol's statement "In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 Minutes" Bartos comments on the track '15 Minutes of Fame' on the growing celebrity culture of the time, triggered by casting shows, container formats, cookery programs etc. A period in which anyone could be famous for anything: singing, dancing, cooking, losing weight or holing up in a jungle to 'survive'.