Marking a slight shift for Florian and Ralf, Kraftwerk 2 took some time to get assembled. After their first album they took a small break to think about what they wanted, what they wanted to actually do and what they wanted to explore next on their quest to find themselves. The results came in very early 1972, where they released their direct sequel to their debut album, which is something they would never do again. This time around, both of them wore a lot more hats during production, with a way wider array of instruments, getting more involved into mixing and producing together with Conny and... by basically shedding all logical sense of musical progression.
Kraftwerk 2 is a very peculiar case by our standards nowadays, in that it just takes a loooooot of time for everything. Starting with Kling Klang, this album throws a massive multi-part track at you with very gentle and sweet and slow progression that can throw in a lot of melodic embellishments here and there. It goes through a lot of different changes and fadeouts, and it is just so nice and inviting, it stands as probably the best track they have made until that point. Afterwards, however, things get doubly experimental. They structure a whole song around a modulated and filtered breathing sound, try out some electric guitar, do some tape-experiments, play with the harmonica and just improvise a song together on bass and guitar. What sounds like it should be a formless mess, though, is surprisingly serene and calming. It has this feeling to it of musicians with all the time in the world and no outside pressure, just trying out what fits them, and in result they craft some really, really nice and pleasant music along the way. Every song has either/and/or great textures, enjoyable atmospheres and nice melodies, and just hearing them take their sweet time is charming.
Kraftwerk 2 is a special case, because the pure fact that a label like Phillips released an album full of a duo freely improvising in the studio is kind of unthinkable nowadays. In the time of high expectations and demand to make endless amounts of money, this is the type of record that would be relegated to the most obscure of independent labels nowadays, if not be self-released, and it is just such a happy album, even though the textures can get darker. It just puts a smile on my face listening to these two figure themselves out, and it is a damn fine sequel to the way darker tones of their debut.
