The Mix is the tenth studio album by legendary band Kraftwerk. It was released on 10 June 1991, today 31 ago!
Reluctant of releasing a “Best Of” or “Greatest hits” the band opted to strip-down, rebuild and re-record brand new and updated versions of some of their classics which had originally appeared on the albums Autobahn (1974) through Electric Café (1986). Some tracks received additional treatment such as new melodies (eg. The Robots) and updated lyrics (eg. Radioactivity).
Despite its somewhat confusing title The Mix is not a ‘remix album’, therefor the band itself never called it a remix album but considered it their 7th (electronic) studio album. Hence the number the album received on all 'Catalogue' releases.
Ralf Hütter stated in interviews that he regarded The Mix as a type of 'live' album, as it captured the results of the band's continual digital improvisations in their Kling Klang studio.
With this release the band had made a return to the stage in 1990, after a nine-year hiatus from touring, and since then the band's live setlist has used arrangements drawn from The Mix rather than the original recordings.
Although the production is credited to Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider and Fritz Hilpert, Karl Bartos, who left the band in 1991, claimed in later interviews that much of his programming work was still featured on The Mix, but remained uncredited.
