Search - Karl Bartos :: Communications

Karl has still got it!

Mr Robert Charter | Sydney, Australia | 01/19/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Karl has, over the last 10 years, been able to express his individual musical talent through solo and coproduced albums, rather than have his skillful, clever and slightly cynical musica creations placed over the tall-standing umbrella of Kraftwerk.Following up from his albums released under the band name of Elektric Music/Electric Music, Karl has graced us with an album full of groaning, throaty bassy synthesizer tracks, combined with funky pop songs and effects laden musical journeys. His (somewhat overused) vocoder thrusts out lyrics related to the premises of communication, with tracks such as Im The Message, Im The Camera and Ultraviolet sending a slightly disguised and quite funny message about modern society and its use of communication such as means as advertisments, photographs, ect.I wont compare Karl's music to Kraftwerk as much as many people do, but you can certainly feel the underlying precision and simple but catchy tunes that tends to be very valuable to the structure of Kraftwerk's music. If you enjoy electronica, or simply would like to hear what a great master of electronic music can produce, dont give Communication a miss!And if you enjoy this album, make sure you take a look at Karl's earlier effort, Esperanto (under the title of Elektric Music) as these two albums are quite similar in style, although i feel that Communication has a better level of refinment and focus.Dont deprive yourself and order a copy of Communication now!"

Bartos keeps the vision alive!

S. Han | Center of the Universe, LA, CA USA | 04/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I wish Bartos could have stuck out longer with the Kling Klang Guys... but then again, Bartos alone has his distinct flavor and approach to the compositions and sound treatments. This album is so delicious! Bartos really kept the phat tones alive from his past days with Kraftwerk and incorporates some new textures too on this great collection of songs. After seeing the transformation of KW after Bartos' exit, I'm realizing that Bartos may have been the "HEART BEAT" of KW. The vocoder really works well and his old school drum machine still pounds out the measures. The innocense of the lyrics/subjects are still there and he infuses catchy melodies with out-of-this-world synth voices, although resorting to bland transition chords like in "Electronic Apeman", just slightly killing the flow of wonderful group of measures.

I wished he had access to Marnie and Aroyo of Ladytron or a female voice to some of the tracks... So what's the deal with these technopop gurus? Why not pump out records like mad ?!?!"

The Best Synthpop Release of 2003? Perhaps!!

Aulis Vierhovssen | 09/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow, this is what the last Kraftwerk cd should have been. You can really see who had the talent in Kraftwerk. Nice upbeat songs, cool use of vocoders, great bass and synth lines. Think "Man Machine" meets "Computer World" and you are almost there. Yeah, it is that good. Totally impressed with this release. Karl had a good release with "Esperanto" a few years back, but this blows that away with ease. Buy it!!"