The album was produced by Konrad "Conny" Plank. Of the album's recording, Hütter would later say:
The studio was in the middle of an oil refinery. When we came out of the door we could hear the sound of those big flames burning off the fumes – all kinds of industrial noises.[2][3]
Sales were poor and RCA opted to drop the band, which then dissolved following the departure of Hütter and Schneider-Esleben to Kraftwerk.
The album has never been officially reissued, although bootleg CDs, LPs and cassettes appeared since the 1990s. These often included a bonus audio-track, erroneously titled Vor dem blauen Bock, which in fact is an instrumental track named Rückstoß Gondoliere, from a 22 May 1971 performance by Kraftwerk on the Bremen Beat-Club TV show. This song features the short-lived line-up of Florian Schneider, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger (Ralf Hütter had left the group during this period to study architecture). Rother and Dinger left Kraftwerk shortly afterwards to form Neu!.
In 2021, the album was unofficially rereleased on digital services under the name Tone Float Beat-Club 1971, along with a new album cover by record label Media Champ. This release additionally includes, and correctly names, Rückstoß Gondoliere.
Track listing
Detail from the back cover of the 1970 RCA Victor official release – note the traffic cone symbol, also a feature on early Kraftwerk albums.
All tracks are written by Schneider-Esleben, Hauf and Monicks[4]
