On October 6, electronic pioneers Kraftwerk will release a special collector’s CD box set of 8 of their greatest albums, remastered for the occasion. 12345678 The Catalog, as the collection is called, will be released as a CD box set with 8 CDs in “mini-vinyl” card wallet packaging as well as individual large format booklets. Due to licensing restrictions in the US, only five of the eight albums will be released as unique CD editions: Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans Europe Express, The Man Machine and Tour De France (2003). The 5 albums will also be released individually on vinyl and digitally, and therefore the only way for true fans to own the entire catalog on CD is to purchase the box set. (Shrewd move, Kraftwerk!) The CD slipcases will feature enhanced and expanded artwork, including previously unreleased images.

The CDs included in the box set are as follows:
Autobahn (1974)
Radio-Activity (1975)
Trans Europe Express (1977)
The Man Machine (1978)
Computer World (1981)
Techno Pop (1986)
The Mix (1991)
Tour de France (2003)

Us Radiohead fans are a rabid bunch; any mention of “Radiohead” and “new” together, and we think the second coming of Christ is here. Hell, Thom Yorke could crook his pinky at us and we’d break out into hives trying to interpret it.

It turns out there is a valid reason to freak out: Radiohead are back in the studio, and again with longtime producer Nigel Godrich. There’s no word if it will be released a la In Rainbows, via your local record retailer, or from the moon, but the Oxford five piece is indeed recording. Bassist Colin Greenwood spilled the beans over the weekend to BBC’s 6 Music, saying that the sessions “[S]o far [are] very noisy and chaotic and really fun.”

“It’s at the stage where we’ve got the big Lego box out and we’ve tipped it out on the floor and we’re just looking at all the bits and thinking what’s next?” he said.

Greenwoood, who was a speaker at the Great Escape Music Festival over the weekend in Brighton to assist the debut of a new music journal named Loops, also spoke about touring with Kraftwerk for the two bands’ jaunts through Central and South America. You can read the full article here and proceed to your regularly scheduled Radiohead drooling.

And then there was one. The announcement today that Kraftwerk founding member Florian Schneider has left the legendary German electronica group leaves just co-founder Ralf Hütter as the only remaining original face in the lineup, two months shy of the band’s South American dates with Radiohead.

The announcement came via the band’s web site this morning.

Florian Schneider leaves Kraftwerk after a 40 years partnership with Ralf Hütter. This partnership has generated an incredible music and huge advances in music technology.

Our thanks for the state of art that led to Kraftwerk’s music all these years. And our wishes for success Florian’s new projects as well as to this new Kraftwerk.

Schneider did not appear as part of Kraftwerk for the band’s 2008 tour, but as Hütter told The New Zealand Herald in September, Schneider “never likes touring” so has spent the last few years “working on other projects, technical things.”

Schneider and Hütter co-founded Kraftwerk in 1970, later expanding the group to a four-piece with a rotating cast of players. Schneider is largely credited with taking electronic music to the mainstream, and even inspired David Bowie to record an instrumental song called “V2 Schneider” on his Heroes album.

Hütter and fellow Kraftwerk members Stefan Pfaffe, Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz, will take the stage with Radiohead on its spring tour in Latin America, beginning March 15-16 in Mexico City.

Kraftwerk supporting Radiohead
03.15.09 – Mexico City (Foro Sol)
03.16.09 – Mexico City (Foro Sol)
03.20.09 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Praca da Apoteose)
03.22.09 – Sao Paulo, Brazil (Chacara Do Jockey)
03.24.09 – Buenos Aires, Argentina (Club Ciduad)
03.26.09 – Santiago, Chile (San Carlos De Apoquindo)
03.27.09 – Santiago, Chile (San Carlos De Apoquindo)

Kraftwerk (headlining)
04.25.09 – Wolfsburg, Germany (Altes Heizkraftwerk)
04.26.09 – Wolfsburg, Germany (Altes Heizkraftwerk)