Kraftwerk

Düsseldorf duo Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben were originally in the very short-lived kraturock group Organisation, before forming possibly one of the most influential electronic groups of all time in 1970: Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk's first three albums - their self-titled, Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf & Florian - were highly experimental and were actually quite different to the sound that Kraftwerk is known for, with a lot more brass and wind instrumentation used. With the addition of Wolfgang Flür in 1973 and Klaus Röder in 1974, the newly-formed quartet took their first foray into "pop" music, with the fourth album, 1974's Autobahn, having its mammoth 22-minute concept title track become a hit, with a single edit hitting #11 on the UK charts. After Röder left, the most recognisable Kraftwerk line-up was complete with the addition of Karl Bartos in 1975, who first worked with the group on their Radioactivity album. This was followed by two of the group's most recognisable albums: Trans-Europe Expres in 1977, and The Man-Machine in 1978, both of which became highly influential in themselves. The Eighties saw the group change their sound to more of a pure electronic sound, with the group's 1981 album Computer World demonstrating this, with the 1982 issue of The Model becoming the group's first UK #1. The penultimate album of original material the group, 1986's Electric Café, was not as successful as their previous albums, but this may have been down to the lost Techno Pop album, which should have been released instead of Electric Café (with the 1983 single Tour De France being the only material released from the album) but due to Hütter being involved in a cycling accident which ruled him out of any band activity for a while. 1991's rework album The Mix was, somewhat strangely appropriately, received with mixed reception, with the 1999 single Expo 2000 receiving better press, hitting #27 on the UK Singles Charts. The group's most recent work and newest material, 2003's Tour De France Soundtracks, was received with very positive press. The Robots' video is below, as are the downloads.