Kraftwerk and The Electronic Revolution

As innovative as they are influential, Kraftwerk's contribution to the development of electronic music since their formation in 1970 remains unsurpassed. Having inspired everyone from Bowie to Coldplay, Siouxsie to Radiohead, this bizarre collective have also proven partly responsible for entire genres to develop - 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 (as pre-Kraftwerk ensemble Organization), through their most celebrated period in the mid 1970s, and culminating with their resurgence during the 1980s with the popularity of synth-pop and techno. The film further explores how Kraftwerk both fitted in and pulled away from the electronic wing of what is often lazily referred to as 'Krautrock'. Sparing time also for many of the groups' contemporaries from the same field, and tracing the unfolding of electronics in German contemporary music generally, this program presents a fascinating story previously untold on film. It features rarely seen live and performance footage of Kraftwerk and of other Electronic and 'Krautrock' bands - much from private collections, rare photographs of Kraftwerk and others, exclusive and extensive Interviews with ex-Kraftwerk members and other German ambient and electronic musicians, contributions and enlightenment from German academics, writers and journalists, live and studio recordings of many of Kraftwerk's pivotal tracks, plus live and studio recordings of many other bands form the 'Krautrock' movement.