Craig Leon

While Leon’s work as a producer on landmark albums for Suicide, The Ramones and Blondie has somewhat overshadowed his own output as a musician, last year’s archival reissue of his fabulous primitive/minimalist opus Nommos has gone some way to redress the balance, even finding its way to the number one spot of FACT’s best reissues of 2013. It’s with his producer’s hat on though that Leon spills the beans on his attempt to sign Kraftwerk to Sire in the 70’s.

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Kraftwerk

Ralf & Florian

(Philips, 1973)

Listen / Buy

In the 70s at Sire Records, we were checking out Kraftwerk. My boss, Seymour Stein, and I both thought that electronic music was destined to be a major musical force. The first two Kraftwerk albums were interesting, but Ralf and Florian showed more developed direction. We wanted to sign them, but it never happened. As Seymour was negotiating a deal, their American label affiliate picked them up. Electronic music will continue to be a major force in the future.

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