Kraftwerk: Ready Player Two (DVD)

 Formed in 1970, Kraftwerk's contribution to the development of electronic music remains unsurpassed. Having inspired everyone from Bowie to Joy Division to Radiohead, this mysterious collective has also proven responsible for entire genres to emerge - electronica, techno and synth-pop to name but three.

This DVD reviews the career and music of Kraftwerk, from their inception in the late 1960s through their most celebrated period in the mid-1970s, culminating with their resurgence during the 1980s. The film further explores how Kraftwerk both fitted into and pulled away from the electronic wing of what is often lazily referred to as 'Krautrock'.

Showing respect too for many of the groups' German contemporaries from a similar impulse, and tracing the unfolding of electronics in German contemporary music generally, this programme presents a fascinating story previously untold on film.

Featuring exclusive and extensive interviews with ex-Kraftwerk members - Karl Bartos and Klaus Röder, German ambient and electronic musicians - Dieter Moebius [Kluster/Harmonia], Hans Joachim Rodelius [Kluster/Harmonia], Klaus Schulze [Tangerine Dream/ Ash Ra Tempel and Solo], Wolfgang Siedel [Eruption], Conrad Schnitzler [Kluster/ Solo], Klaus Löhmer [engineer, Kraftwerk album] and many others.

Also boasting further contributions from Electronic music experts and writers, and rare studio and live footage of the band, these all together make for perhaps the best film on the subject ever to emerge.